KEPR-TV (channel 19) is a

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...

licensed to Pasco, Washington, United States, serving the

Tri-Cities Tri-Cities most often refers to: *Tri-Cities, Tennessee, United States *Tri-Cities, Washington, United States Tri-City, Tricity or Tri-Cities may also refer to: Populated places Americas Canada *Tri-Cities (British Columbia), consisting of Co ...

area as an affiliate of CBS and

The CW Plus The CW Plus is a secondary national programming service feed of The CW that is fully controlled and 75% owned by Nexstar Media Group, with Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery each owning a 12.5% stake in the network. It is intended primar ...

. Owned by

Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, t ...

, the station maintains studios on West Lewis Street (

US 395 U.S. Route 395 (US 395) is a U.S. Route in the western United States. The southern terminus of the route is in the Mojave Desert at Interstate 15 near Hesperia. The northern terminus is at the Canada–US border near Laurier, where the road ...

) in Pasco and a transmitter on Johnson Butte near Kennewick. Although identifying as a station in its own right, KEPR is considered a

semi-satellite A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tran ...

of KIMA-TV (channel 29) in Yakima, which operates another semi-satellite, KLEW-TV (channel 3) in

Lewiston, Idaho Lewiston is a city and the county seat of Nez Perce County, Idaho, United States, in the state's north central region. It is the second-largest city in the northern Idaho region, behind Coeur d'Alene, and ninth-largest in the state. Lewiston is ...

. KEPR and KLEW

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultane ...

all network and syndicated programming as provided through KIMA, but air separate commercial inserts, legal identifications and early evening newscasts, and have their own websites. KEPR is also sister to low-powered Class A

Univision Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and includes ...

affiliate KVVK-CD (channel 15).

Master control Master control is the technical hub of a broadcast operation common among most over-the-air television stations and television networks. It is distinct from a production control room (PCR) in television studios where the activities such as switc ...

and some internal operations for the four stations are based at KOMO Plaza (formerly Fisher Plaza) in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

. On

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

Dish Network DISH Network Corporation (DISH, an acronym for DIgital Sky Highway) is an American television provider and the owner of the direct-broadcast satellite provider Dish, commonly known as Dish Network, and the over-the-top IPTV service, Sling TV. A ...

and

DirecTV DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. It ...

carry both KEPR-TV and KIMA-TV.

History

KEPR-TV went on the air for the first time December 28, 1954, as a satellite of KIMA-TV. It was owned by Cascade Broadcasting Company, which also owned 40 percent of KWIE (610 AM) in Kennewick. Cascade bought the remaining 60 percent of KWIE in 1956 and changed its call letters to KEPR, matching the television station, the following year. A few years earlier, the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

(FCC) collapsed all of central Washington into one giant television market. However, this market was designated a "UHF island" due to being sandwiched between Seattle to the west, Spokane to the east and

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

to the south. It soon became apparent that one full-power UHF station would not nearly be enough for adequate coverage of this vast and mountainous area. KEPR-TV thus signed on as the first station in the United States to be a satellite of another. Original plans called for it to be a straight repeater of KIMA-TV, apart from station identifications. However, it soon became apparent that Tri-Cities residents wanted a more local station. Monte Strohl, who until then had been a radio salesman at KIMA, was installed as the first manager-salesman of KEPR-TV. The station also added a separate news department. Like its parent station, KEPR-TV carried programming from all three networks, but was a primary CBS affiliate. It lost NBC in 1965 when

KNDU KNDU (channel 25) is a television station licensed to Richland, Washington, United States, serving the Tri-Cities area as an affiliate of NBC. It is owned by the Spokane-based Cowles Company as part of the KHQ Television Group. KNDU's studios ...

(channel 25) followed the lead of parent station

KNDO KNDO (channel 23) is a television station in Yakima, Washington, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by the Spokane-based Cowles Company as part of the KHQ Television Group. KNDO's studios are located on West Yakima Avenue in downtow ...

(channel 23) and became a full-time NBC affiliate, and lost

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

when KVEW (channel 42) signed on along with parent KAPP (channel 35) in 1970. During the 1970s, the two stations co-branded as "Cascade TV." KEPR produces ''Community Health Journal'' with Jim Hall, a former anchorman for the station who is now with Kadlec Medical Center in Richland. The program has aired for 15 years, making it one of the longest-running magazine programs in the market.

Filmways Filmways, Inc. (also known as Filmways Pictures and Filmways Television) was a television and film production company founded by American film executive Martin Ransohoff and Edwin Kasper in 1952. It is probably best remembered as the production c ...

agreed to purchase Cascade Broadcasting for $3 million in 1968; the sale was approved the following year. Cascade's previous owners retained the company's radio stations, which by this point also included KEPR-FM (105.3 FM), under the name Yakima Valley Communications; the KEPR radio stations then changed their call letters to

KONA Kona or KONA may refer to: People *Kona (surname) * Dilshad Nahar Kona, Bangladeshi singer also known as Kona Television * ''Kona'' (TV series), a Kenyan telenovela that premiered in 2013 Locations * Kona, Kentucky * Kona, North Carolina * Kon ...

and KONA-FM. Filmways sold KEPR-TV, KIMA-TV, and KLEW-TV to NWG Broadcasting for $1 million in 1972.

Retlaw Enterprises Retlaw Enterprises, originally Walt Disney Miniature Railroad, then Walt Disney, Inc. (WDI), and then WED Enterprises (WED), was a privately held company owned by the heirs of entertainment mogul Walt Disney. Disney formed the company to control ...

acquired the NWG stations for $17 million in 1986; the stations were operated as part of the Retlaw Broadcasting division. Fisher Communications purchased KEPR-TV along with the other Retlaw owned stations in 1999. In 2000, KEPR became the first station in the Tri-Cities to broadcast a digital signal with the activation of a low-power, standard-definition signal on channel 18; this was upgraded to a full-power, high-definition signal in 2007. The digital signal remained on channel 18 following the end of analog broadcasting in 2009, using PSIP to display its

virtual channel In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver's ...

as 19. On March 30, 2009, KEPR launched a

digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...

affiliated with

The CW ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

, filling the void left by

KCWK KCWK (channel 9) is a defunct television station licensed to Walla Walla, Washington, United States. Owned by Pappas Telecasting, it was most recently affiliated with The CW, and had a low-power repeater (KCWK-LP, channel 27) in Yakima. The stati ...

(channel 9) going dark at the end of May 2008 due to the

Pappas Telecasting Pappas Telecasting Companies was a diversely organized broadcasting company headquartered in Visalia, California, United States. Founded in 1971, it was one of the largest privately held broadcasting companies in the country, with its stations r ...

bankruptcy. The subchannel subsequently took KCWK's former channel 9 position on local cable systems. As had been the case with KCWK, programming is primarily sourced from the network's

CW Plus CW may stand for: Science and technology * centiwatt (cW), one hundredth of a watt * Cω, a programming language * CW complex, a type of topological space * Carrier wave, in radio communications * CodeWarrior, an integrated development environm ...

feed, along with a local 10 p.m. newscast. On April 11, 2013, Fisher announced that it would sell its properties, including KEPR-TV, to the

. The deal was completed on August 8, 2013.

Programming

Syndicated programming

Current syndicated programs on KEPR include ''

The Kelly Clarkson Show ''The Kelly Clarkson Show'' is an American daytime television variety talk show hosted by American singer Kelly Clarkson. It is produced and distributed by NBCUniversal Syndication Studios and features Clarkson interviewing celebrities and segm ...

'', ''

Dr. Phil Phillip Calvin McGraw (born September 1, 1950), better known as Dr. Phil, is an American television personality and author best known for hosting the talk show '' Dr. Phil''. He holds a doctorate in clinical psychology, though he ceased rene ...

'', '' Judge Judy'', ''

The Big Bang Theory ''The Big Bang Theory'' is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, both of whom served as executive producers on the series, along with Steven Molaro, all of whom also served as head writers. It premiered on CBS ...

'', and ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...

'', which has aired at 7:30 p.m. for a majority of the time since it went into syndication in the fall of 1994.

News operation

KEPR's morning, 10 p.m. (on CW), 11 p.m. and weekend newscasts are shared with KIMA-TV. Branded as ''KIMA/KEPR Action News'', they cover both the Columbia Basin and the Yakima Valley. KEPR continues to produce its own 5 and 6 p.m. weekday newscasts. There are no noon newscasts unlike most CBS affiliates.

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kepr-Tv CBS network affiliates TBD (TV network) affiliates Sinclair Broadcast Group Tri-Cities, Washington Television channels and stations established in 1954 1954 establishments in Washington (state) EPR-TV