KLAS-TV (channel 8) 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 ...
in
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
, 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 owned by
Nexstar Media Group
Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarter offices in Irving, Texas; Midtown Manhattan; and Chicago, Illinois. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 te ...
. The station's studios are located on Channel 8 Drive near the northern portion of the
Las Vegas Strip
The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas Boulevard South in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about long, and is immediately south of ...
in the
unincorporated Unincorporated may refer to:
* Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality
* Unincorporated entity, a type of organization
* Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...
community of
Winchester
Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...
(though with a Las Vegas
mailing address), and its transmitter is located on Mount Arden in
Henderson Henderson may refer to:
People
*Henderson (surname), description of the surname, and a list of people with the surname
*Clan Henderson, a Scottish clan
Places Argentina
*Henderson, Buenos Aires
Australia
*Henderson, Western Australia
Canada
* H ...
.
History
Early years
KLAS-TV initially broadcast a test pattern for two weeks, beginning on July 8, 1953. The station went on-air on the evening of July 22, 1953, becoming Nevada's first television station.
The station was originally owned by Las Vegas Television Inc., run by
Hank Greenspun
Herman Milton "Hank" Greenspun (August 27, 1909 – July 23, 1989) was the publisher of the ''Las Vegas Sun'' newspaper. He purchased the ''Sun'' in 1949, and served as its editor and publisher until his death. Greenspun was also a promine ...
, owner of the ''
Las Vegas Sun
The ''Las Vegas Sun'' is one of the Las Vegas Valley's two daily Subscription business model, subscription newspapers. It is owned by the Greenspun family and is affiliated with Greenspun Media Group. The paper published afternoons on weekdays ...
''. KLAS has always been a
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 ...
affiliate, but maintained a secondary affiliation with
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 ...
, which it would share with KLRJ/KORK-TV (channel 3, now
KSNV-DT
KSNV (channel 3) is a television station in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside dual CW/MyNetworkTV affiliate KVCW (channel 33). Both stations share studios on Foremaster La ...
) from that station's sign on in January 1955, until KSHO-TV (channel 13, now
KTNV-TV
KTNV-TV (channel 13) is a television station in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Laughlin-licensed Ion Television owned-and-operated station KMCC (channel 34). KTNV-TV's ...
) debuted in May 1956. Billionaire and aviation magnate
Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American business magnate, record-setting pilot, engineer, film producer, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most influential and richest people in th ...
enjoyed staying up late and watching television, and he wanted KLAS to broadcast all night for him to watch. Hughes also requested the station to play more films about airplanes and cowboys. He eventually decided to purchase the station so he could have it operate as he wanted. Greenspun sold the station to
Hughes Tool Company
Hughes Tool Company was an American manufacturer of drill bits. Founded in 1908, it was merged into Baker Hughes Incorporated in 1987.
History
The company was established in December 1908 as Sharp-Hughes Tool Company when Howard R. Hughes Sr. ...
on March 30, 1968. After Hughes' death in 1976, the station was held in an outside trust for another two years until 1978, when it was sold to Landmark Communications (Landmark Communications renamed itself to
Landmark Media Enterprises in September 2008).
Since 1996
On April 16, 1996, KLAS-TV became the first commercial television station in Nevada (and one of the first in the United States) to carry a digital broadcast signal. This signal was first launched during the
National Association of Broadcasters annual convention that year. On April 6, 2000, the first scheduled
high definition network broadcasts in Las Vegas began on KLAS-TV's digital signal.
On January 30, 2008, Landmark announced its intention to sell KLAS, along with its other television station
WTVF
WTVF (channel 5) is a television station in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Ion Television owned-and-operated station WNPX-TV (channel 28). WTVF's studios are locate ...
in
Nashville
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...
. No suitable buyer for KLAS was found until Landmark took most of its properties off the market in October 2008 due to the
economic recession
In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by various ...
. KLAS and WTVF remained under Landmark ownership for more than four years.
On September 4, 2012,
Journal Broadcast Group
Journal Media Group (formerly Journal Communications) was a Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based newspaper publishing company. The company's roots were first established in 1882 as the owner of its namesake, the ''Milwaukee Journal'', and expanded into br ...
(owners of one of KLAS-TV's local rivals, ABC affiliate KTNV-TV) announced that it would purchase WTVF for $215 million. The sale was finalized on December 6. This left KLAS-TV as the only television station in Landmark's portfolio.
On November 21, 2014,
Nexstar Broadcasting Group
Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarter offices in Irving, Texas; Midtown Manhattan; and Chicago, Illinois. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 te ...
announced that it would purchase KLAS for $145 million.
The sale was completed on February 13, 2015.
On January 29, 2016, shortly prior to
Super Bowl 50
Super Bowl 50 was an American football game to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2015 season. The American Football Conference (AFC) champion Denver Broncos defeated the National Football Conference (NFC) cha ...
, KLAS was dropped from
Cox Communications
Cox Communications, Inc. (also known as Cox Cable and formerly Cox Broadcasting Corporation, Dimension Cable Services and Times-Mirror Cable) is an American digital cable television provider, telecommunications and home automation services. It i ...
due to a
retransmission consent
Retransmission consent is a provision of the 1992 United States Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act that requires cable operators and other multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) to obtain permission from commercia ...
dispute with Nexstar across nine markets. As a contingency plan, Cox announced on February 3, 2016, that it would offer a free preview of
ESPN Deportes
ESPN Deportes (, ''ESPN Sports'') is an American multinational Spanish-language pay television sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (whi ...
(which was broadcasting the game in
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
) over the Super Bowl weekend, and encouraged viewers to listen to the English radio broadcast along with it. The next day, KLAS was restored after Cox reached a new deal with Nexstar.
On December 3, 2018, Nexstar announced it would acquire the assets of
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
-based
Tribune Media
Tribune Media Company, also known as Tribune Company, was an American multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
Through Tribune Broadcasting, Tribune Media was one of the largest television broadcasting companies, owning 39 ...
for $6.4 billion in cash and debt. The deal—which would make Nexstar the largest television station operator by total number of stations upon its expected closure late in the third quarter of 2019—would give KLAS additional
sister station
In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement.
Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...
s in nearby markets including
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
(
CW affiliate
KTLA
KTLA (channel 5) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of The CW. It is the largest directly owned property of the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is the seco ...
) and
San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...
(
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
affiliate
KSWB-TV
KSWB-TV (channel 69) is a television station in San Diego, California, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, the station maintains studios on Engineer Road in the city's Kearny Mesa section, and its tran ...
). (An ownership conflict exists in
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...
between Nexstar's duopoly of ABC affiliate
KTVX
KTVX (channel 4) is a television station in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Ogden-licensed CW owned-and-operated station KUCW (channel 30). Both stations share studios on ...
and CW affiliate
KUCW
KUCW (channel 30) is a television station licensed to Ogden, Utah, United States, broadcasting the CW network to Salt Lake City and the state of Utah. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside ABC affi ...
and Tribune's Fox affiliate
KSTU
KSTU (channel 13) is a television station in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Provo-licensed Ion Television owned-and-operated station KUPX-TV (channel ...
.)
Programming
Syndicated programming seen on KLAS-TV includes ''
Live with Kelly and Ryan
''Live with Kelly and Ryan'' (or simply ''Live'') is an American syndicated morning talk show hosted by Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest. Executive produced by Michael Gelman, the ''Live with...'' show formula has aired under various hosts since ...
'', ''
Jeopardy!
''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given genera ...
'', ''
Wheel of Fortune The Wheel of Fortune or ''Rota Fortunae'' has been a concept and metaphor since ancient times referring to the capricious nature of Fate. Wheel of Fortune may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Art
* ''The Wheel of Fortune'' (Burne-Jo ...
'', and ''
Dr. Phil''; the latter three shows are distributed by
CBS Media Ventures
CBS Media Ventures, Inc. (formerly CBS Television Distribution, Inc. and CBS Paramount Domestic Television, Inc.) is an American television distribution company owned by CBS Studios, part of CBS Entertainment Group, a division of Paramount Glo ...
. The station clears the entire CBS network schedule, though ''
Let's Make a Deal
''Let's Make a Deal'' (also known as ''LMAD'') is an American television musical comedy variety-game show that originated in the United States in 1963 and has since been produced in many countries throughout the world. The program was created an ...
'' leads out of ''
The Bold and the Beautiful
''The Bold and the Beautiful'' (often referred to as ''B&B'') is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. It premiered on March 23, 1987, as a sister show to the Bells' other soap opera ''The Yo ...
'' after the noon news and into ''
The Talk'', which is unusual scheduling for CBS' daytime programming, allowing ''Dr. Phil'' to be led into by ''The Talk''.
In 2020, KLAS was named an official broadcast partner of the
NFL's
Las Vegas Raiders
The Las Vegas Raiders are a professional American football team based in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. The Raiders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West divis ...
along with carrying the bulk of the team's games by virtue of
CBS' carriage of the AFC contract, the station also carries the weekly highlight program ''The Silver & Black Show'', the Raiders pre-game show on Sunday mornings, the Season Preview Show, and provides exclusive traffic and weather reports leading up to and including game days.
News operation
KLAS-TV presently broadcasts 38 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 6½ hours each weekday, two hours on Saturdays and 3½ hours on Sundays); in addition, the station formerly produced an additional five hours of local newscasts for its second subchannel (with one hour each weekday). Although channel 8 does not produce a Saturday edition of its morning newscast, ''8 News Now: Good Day'', the station does produce a newscast which airs for 3 hours weekday mornings from 4 to 7 a.m. and on Sunday mornings for an hour at 5:30 a.m. and a half-hour at 8 a.m., since channel 8 airs ''
CBS Saturday Morning
''CBS Saturday Morning'' is a Saturday morning television program that broadcasts on the American television network, CBS. It is currently anchored by Michelle Miller, Dana Jacobson and Jeff Glor.
Although the program's name has changed seve ...
''. The evening news runs at 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. and is anchored by Denise Valdez, Paul Joncich and
Christianne Klein
Christianne Klein is an American television news anchor, journalist, lifestyle author, television personality, and former anchor and correspondent for ABC News. While at ABC, she operated in both New York, NY and Washington DC. In New York, she ...
.
KLAS previously branded its newscasts as ''
Eyewitness News'', taking over the name from 1982 after KVBC discontinued using the branding, and used it until late 2009, when its newscasts adopted the ''8 News Now'' title. In the early 1980s, the station's newscasts were branded as ''Newscenter 8'', and used the opening
Phenix Horns
, originally known as the EWF Horns, were the main horn section for the band Earth, Wind & Fire. The horn section were composed of Don Myrick on saxophone, Louis "Lui Lui" Satterfield on trombone, Rahmlee Michael Davis on trumpet, and Michael ...
music of
Earth, Wind & Fire
Earth, Wind & Fire (EW&F or EWF) is an American band whose music spans the genres of jazz, R&B, soul, funk, disco, pop, big band, Latin, and Afro pop. They are among the best-selling bands of all time, with sales of over 90 million re ...
's 1979 single "In the Stone" for two years. On September 21, 1981, KLAS-TV became the first station in the state of Nevada to provide hour-long newscasts. For years, KLAS produced a daily interview show, which aired on sister channel
Las Vegas One
Las Vegas One (sometimes abbreviated as LV1) was a 24-hour news channel in the Las Vegas Valley that operated from April 6, 1998, to January 9, 2010. It began as a joint venture between the '' Las Vegas Sun'', KLAS-TV, and Prime Cable, and was a ...
; the program moved to NBC affiliate KVBC (channel 3, now KSNV) in January 2010.
Beginning in the fall of 2002, KLAS produced a 10 p.m. newscast for
KTUD-CA called ''Eyewitness News at 10 on UPN''. In the fall of 2006, when KTUD became an
independent station
An independent station is an independent radio or terrestrial television station which is independent in some way from broadcast networks. The definition of "independence" varies from country to country, reflecting governmental regulations, market ...
, that station was rebranded on-air as "Vegas TV" and the newscasts was renamed to suit the new identity. Shortly after the merger, however, the station dropped the 10 p.m. newscast. KTUD later revived its 10 p.m. newscast, this time produced by KSNV, from October 2009 to August 2010.
In March 2006, KLAS revamped the station's morning newscast, which was branded as ''Eyewitness News This Morning'' at the time.
On September 17, 2006, KLAS became the first station in the Las Vegas market and the state of Nevada, and the eleventh station in the United States, to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition.
Just after Nexstar purchased the station, it was announced that Nexstar might discontinue the 4 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. half-hours of the station's weekday morning newscast. Starting on February 25, 2015, Nexstar would lay off at least 18 of the station's employees, mainly in the news department's business and traffic divisions; some jobs related to the station's Internet operations were also removed as the station's web operations moved onto Nexstar's
Lakana
''Lakana'', also known as ''la'kana'' or ''laka'', are traditional outrigger canoes of the Malagasy people of Madagascar. It is a single-outrigger canoe with a dugout main hull. It was traditionally rigged with the Austronesian crab claw sail, ...
platform. The station's news helicopter was also discontinued.
On October 10, 2018, channel 8 began producing an hour-long weeknight 9 p.m. newscast for its second digital subchannel, making it the only television station in Las Vegas to air a local newscast in that timeslot.
Reception
KLAS has won more than 100 awards for its news coverage,
[ including investigative documentaries about the ]American Mafia
The American Mafia, commonly referred to in North America as the Italian American Mafia, the Mafia, or the Mob, is a highly organized Italian American criminal society and organized crime group. The organization is often referred to by its membe ...
and UFOs.[ In 1986, ]United Press International
United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th ...
awarded it "Best Newscast in America". As of 1992, it frequently dominated ratings in local newscasts. In 2011, KLAS received 19 nominations from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) is an American professional service organization founded in 1955 for "the advancement of the arts and sciences of television and the promotion of creative leadership for artistic, edu ...
, eclipsing its rival news stations. Channel 8 has been the ratings leader in the Las Vegas market for many years. However, the station did not finish in first place in any timeslot as of the May 2015 sweeps period and dropped to last place in some timeslots. Rivals KTNV, KVVU
KVVU-TV (channel 5) is a television station licensed to Henderson, Nevada, United States, serving the Las Vegas area as an affiliate of the Fox network. Owned by Gray Television, the station maintains studios at the Broadcast Center on West Suns ...
and KSNV had eroded ratings for KLAS' newscasts.
Notable news staff
Bob Stoldal joined KLAS as a reporter and anchor in 1967, before becoming the network's news director in 1970. Sue Lowden joined KLAS as a reporter in 1978, and later became an anchor. Gary Waddell became an anchor in 1980. Lowden departed the station in 1987,[ and Paula Francis joined as an anchor the following year. George Knapp has also been a longtime anchor for the station.] Polly Gonzalez joined KLAS in 1994, becoming the first prime-time Hispanic anchor in Las Vegas.
In 2002, Stoldal was named as vice president of news, overseeing operations for KLAS while retaining his position as news director.[ Dave Courvoisier, a former anchor for KVBC, was hired as a KLAS anchor in 2003. Gonzalez worked as a KLAS anchor until her death from an auto accident in 2005. She was widely remembered, and a memorial park was later opened. Gonzalez was replaced by Denise Valdez as anchor.
Stoldal retired in 2008, as he felt the timing was right considering Landmark Communications' intentions to sell KLAS. Dayna Roselli became a fulltime morning anchor in 2008, after joining KLAS four years earlier as a helicopter reporter and also working as a fill-in and traffic anchor.] Roselli was considered one of Las Vegas' prominent media figures.[ She left KLAS in 2012,] when the station added two new anchors in an effort to increase morning ratings. The effort ultimately failed to produce a notable change in the ratings, and one of the new anchors, Shauna Khorrami, was fired after eight months.
Waddell retired in 2012, after spending 32 years with KLAS. Waddell had become the longest-serving news anchor in Las Vegas.[ Francis left KLAS in 2016 to retire as well,][ and was replaced by Valdez. Courvoisier retired in 2017. He had anchored news in the Las Vegas market for 27 years. But he came out of retirement to return as a morning anchor at KTNV-TV starting in August 2020. Tedd Florendo and Sherry Swensk are the channel's ]weather presenter
A weather presenter (also known colloquially in North America as a weatherman or weather broadcaster) is a person who presents the weather forecast daily on radio, television or internet news broadcasts. Using diverse tools, such as projected weath ...
s.
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 ...
:
In 2010, KLAS launched a second subchannel affiliated with MeTV
MeTV, an acronym for Memorable Entertainment Television, is an American broadcast television network owned by Weigel Broadcasting. Marketed as "The Definitive Destination for Classic TV", the network airs a variety of classic television program ...
. As of June 2013, the station launched another subchannel, this time with Movies!
Movies! (also known as simply M!) is an American free-to-air television network, owned by Popcorn Entertainment, LLC, a joint venture between Weigel Broadcasting and the Fox Television Stations subsidiary of Fox Corporation. The network's prog ...
. Ion Television
Ion Television is an American broadcast television network owned by the Katz Broadcasting subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. The network first began broadcasting on August 31, 1998, as Pax TV, focusing primarily on family-oriented enter ...
began airing on 8.4 in 2017 and was replaced by Circle
A circle is a shape consisting of all points in a plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the centre. Equivalently, it is the curve traced out by a point that moves in a plane so that its distance from a given point is const ...
in April 2021 and Rewind TV on November 1, 2021. In January 2022, Movies! was replaced by SportsGrid. On June 1 of that year, MeTV moved to KHSV
KHSV (channel 21) is a television station in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, which carries various multicast specialty television networks on digital subchannels. Owned by Howard Stirk Holdings, the station maintains a transmitter on Black ...
resulting in Rewind TV moved to DT2, and Shop LC took it's place on DT4. In October 2022, SportsGrid was replaced by getTV
getTV is an American digital multicast television network owned by the Sony Pictures Television Networks subsidiary of Sony Pictures Television. Originally formatted as a movie-oriented service, the network has since transitioned into a genera ...
.
Analog-to-digital conversion
KLAS-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 8, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 7. Through the use of PSIP
The Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) is the MPEG (a video and audio industry group) and privately defined program-specific information originally defined by General Instrument for the DigiCipher 2 system and later extended for the AT ...
, digital television receivers display the station's 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 its former VHF analog channel 8.
Translators
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Klas-Tv
CBS network affiliates
Rewind TV affiliates
GetTV affiliates
LAS-TV
Television channels and stations established in 1953
1953 establishments in Nevada
Hughes Television Network
Nexstar Media Group