KIMA-TV (channel 29) 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 eart ...

Yakima, Washington Yakima ( or ) is a city in and the county seat of Yakima County, Washington, and the state's 11th-largest city by population. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 96,968 and a metropolitan population of 256,728. The uninc ...

, United States, affiliated with

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

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 prima ...

. It is 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, ...

alongside low-power, 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

KUNW-CD KUNW-CD (channel 2) is a low-power, Class A television station in Yakima, Washington, United States, affiliated with the Spanish-language Univision network. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside CBS/ CW+ affiliate KIMA-TV (channel ...

(channel 2). Both stations share studios on Terrace Heights Boulevard (east of I-82) in Yakima, while KIMA-TV's transmitter is located on

Ahtanum Ridge Ahtanum Ridge is a long anticline mountain ridge in Yakima County in the U.S. state of Washington. It is located just south of the city of Yakima, and much of its length is at the northern edge of the Yakama Indian Reservation. Ahtanum Ridge i ...

. KIMA operates two semi-satellites–

KEPR-TV KEPR-TV (channel 19) is a television station licensed to Pasco, Washington, United States, serving the Tri-Cities area as an affiliate of CBS and The CW Plus. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station maintains studios on West Lewis Street ( ...

(channel 19) in Pasco (serving the Tri-Cities) and

KLEW-TV KLEW-TV (channel 3) is a television station licensed to Lewiston, Idaho, United States, affiliated with CBS. The station serves the Lewis–Clark Valley and Palouse regions of north-central Idaho and southeastern Washington, as well as Wallowa C ...

(channel 3) in Lewiston, Idaho. They

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, simulta ...

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.

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 sw ...

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 radioi ...

, Dish Network 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. I ...

carry both KIMA-TV and KEPR-TV.

History

KIMA signed on July 19, 1953 as the 200th television station in the United States and the first in central Washington. The station was originally owned by Cascade Broadcasting Company along with KIMA radio (AM 1460, now KUTI). It carried programming from all four networks–CBS,

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

, ABC and DuMont–but has always been a primary CBS affiliate. It lost DuMont when that network shut down in 1955, then lost ABC when

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 ...

signed on in 1959 as a primary ABC affiliate. When KNDO switched affiliations to NBC in 1965, the two stations shared ABC until 1970, when KAPP signed on and took over ABC, leaving KIMA to become a full-time CBS affiliate. Just before KIMA signed on, 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 jurisdicti ...

(FCC) collapsed all of central Washington–including the Tri-Cities–into one giant television market. It soon became apparent that channel 29 was not nearly strong enough to cover this vast and mountainous area by itself. With this in mind, in 1954 Cascade signed on KEPR-TV as the first satellite station in the United States. It was originally intended to be a full repeater of KIMA-TV, but due to popular demand it became more of a local station. At one point, KIMA also had a satellite station in

Ephrata, Washington Ephrata ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Grant County, Washington, United States. Its population was 8,477 at the 2020 census. History Ephrata was officially incorporated on June 21, 1909 and was given the county seat for the newly creat ...

. KBAS-TV signed on the air February 15, 1957 on channel 43; it moved to channel 16 in 1958. KBAS was owned by Basin TV Company, a subsidiary of Cascade Broadcasting, and this was reflected in its call letters. KBAS shut down on November 30, 1961.

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 the construction permit for KIMA-FM (107.3 FM, now KFFM), under the name Yakima Valley Communications. Filmways sold KIMA-TV, KEPR-TV, and KLEW-TV to NWG Broadcasting for $1 million in 1972. Retlaw Enterprises acquired the NWG stations for $17 million in 1986; the stations were operated as part of the Retlaw Broadcasting division.

Fisher Communications Fisher Communications was a media company in the United States. Based in Seattle, Washington, the company primarily owned a number of radio and television stations in the Western United States. It was the last company in the Seattle area to own ...

purchased the Retlaw owned stations in 1999. On March 29, 2009, KIMA launched a digital subchannel affiliated with

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

to fill the void left by KCWK (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 ...

bankruptcy. The new channel took KCWK's former Channel 9 position on local cable systems and carries the CW Plus schedule. On April 11, 2013, Fisher announced that it would sell its properties, including KIMA-TV, to the

. The deal was completed on August 8, 2013.

Programming

Current syndicated programs on KIMA include '' Dr. Phil'', ''

Judge Judy ''Judge Judy'' is an American arbitration-based reality court show presided over by former Manhattan Family Court Judge Judith Sheindlin. The show featured Sheindlin as she adjudicated real-life small-claims disputes within a simulated courtr ...

'', ''

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 C ...

'', 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 Simpson, Homer, Marge ...

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

News operation

KIMA offers the only local Yakima-focused newscast with a fully operational newsroom in Yakima weekdays on ''KIMA Action News'' at 5 and 6 p.m. KIMA's morning, 10 p.m. (on CW), 11 p.m. and weekend newscasts are shared with KEPR. There are no noon newscasts unlike most CBS affiliates. Branded as ''KIMA/KEPR Action News'', they cover both the Yakima Valley and the Columbia Basin. Weather segments for KIMA's evening newscasts are pre-taped at KEPR.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is

multiplexed In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...

Translator

References

External links

*
Yakima/Tri-Cities CW 9
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kima-Tv CBS network affiliates TBD (TV network) affiliates Television channels and stations established in 1953 1953 establishments in Washington (state) IMA-TV Mass media in Yakima, Washington Sinclair Broadcast Group