KUTH-DT (channel 32) 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
Provo, Utah
Provo ( ) is the fourth-largest city in Utah, United States. It is south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front. Provo is the largest city and county seat of Utah County and is home to Brigham Young University (BYU).
Provo lies between the ...
, United States, broadcasting the Spanish-language
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 ...
and
UniMás
UniMás (, stylized as ''UNIMÁS'', and originally known as TeleFutura from its launch on January 14, 2002, to January 6, 2013) is an American Spanish free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. The network's programming, which is ...
networks to
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 ...
and the state of Utah. The station is
owned and operated
In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an affiliate ...
by
TelevisaUnivision
TelevisaUnivision (formerly known as Univision Communications) is a Mexican-American mass media, media company headquartered in New York and Mexico City, which owns the American Spanish language broadcast network Univision. 45% of the company is ...
, and maintains studios on West
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Mary Earhart ( , born July 24, 1897; disappeared July 2, 1937; declared dead January 5, 1939) was an American aviation pioneer and writer. Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set many oth ...
Drive in the northwestern section of Salt Lake City; its transmitter is located west of
Orem
Orem is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States, in the northern part of the state. It is adjacent to Provo, Lindon, and Vineyard and is approximately south of Salt Lake City.
Orem is one of the principal cities of the Provo-Orem, Utah M ...
, in the
Lake Mountains
The Lake Mountains (also known as simply Lake Mountain) are a mountain range located on the western edge of the Utah Valley in northwestern Utah County, Utah, United States. The range forms the northwest border of Utah Lake, and its proximity t ...
.
History
The station first signed on the air on April 17, 2003 as KCBU, operating as 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 ...
; it was originally owned by
Cocola Broadcasting
Cocola Broadcasting is a broadcasting company based in Fresno, California. Founded in the early 1980s by Valley broadcasting veteran Gary Cocola, Cocola owns two full-power digital television stations KGMC in Fresno and KKJB in Boise, along with ...
. Univision Communications bought the station in October 2004 and entered into an
outsourcing
Outsourcing is an agreement in which one company hires another company to be responsible for a planned or existing activity which otherwise is or could be carried out internally, i.e. in-house, and sometimes involves transferring employees and ...
agreement with
Equity Broadcasting
Equity Media Holdings Corporation was a broadcasting company based in Little Rock, Arkansas that owned and operated television stations across the United States. Prior to March 30, 2007, the company was known as Equity Broadcasting, a name later ...
(which Univision's principals held a stake in at the time) to operate the station. At that time, channel 32 swapped affiliations and call signs with what was then KUTH (Utah's original full-power Univision affiliate on channel 12, licensed to
Logan, Utah
Logan is a city in Cache County, Utah, United States. The 2020 census recorded the population was 52,778. Logan is the county seat of Cache County and the principal city of the Logan metropolitan area, which includes Cache County and Franklin ...
, which became
KUTF
KUTF (channel 12) is a religious television station licensed to Logan, Utah, United States, serving the Salt Lake City area as an owned-and-operated station of the Daystar Television Network. The station's transmitter is located on Cal Mountain ...
in 2005) and became the new Univision affiliate.
When Univision sold the last of its shares in Equity Broadcasting in 2007, KUTH was supposed to go to Equity outright; however, the transfer of KUTH from Univision to Equity never materialized. Later, Univision planned to purchase KUTF to create a
duopoly
A duopoly (from Greek δύο, ''duo'' "two" and πωλεῖν, ''polein'' "to sell") is a type of oligopoly where two firms have dominant or exclusive control over a market. It is the most commonly studied form of oligopoly due to its simplicit ...
with KUTH but cancelled its plans shortly after
Newport Television
Newport Television, LLC was a television station holding company founded by Providence Equity Partners and Sandy DiPasquale in 2007 to acquire the television stations owned by Clear Channel Communications.
History
In September 2007, Newport ag ...
announced the sale of its Salt Lake City duopoly to High Plains Broadcasting; by that time, private-equity firm
Providence Equity Partners
Providence Equity Partners L.L.C. is a specialist private equity firm, private equity investment firm focused on media, communications, education, technology investments across North America and Europe. The firm specializes in growth-oriented pri ...
owned sizable stakes in both Univision and Newport Television. This cancellation resulted in Newport Television retaining ownership of
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 o ...
(channel 4) and selling only
KUCW
KUCW (channel 30) is a television station licensed to Ogden, Utah, United States, broadcasting the The CW, CW network to Salt Lake City and the state of Utah. It is owned-and-operated station, owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar ...
(channel 30) to High Plains Broadcasting (with Newport Television continuing to control both of those stations).
Under Equity's management of the station, all of KUTH's programming originated from Equity's master control hub at the company's headquarters in
Little Rock, Arkansas
(The Little Rock, The "Little Rock")
, government_type = council-manager government, Council-manager
, leader_title = List of mayors of Little Rock, Arkansas, Mayor
, leader_name = Frank Scott Jr.
, leader_ ...
. This arrangement ended on June 12, 2009 as part of the completion of the digital television transition, at which time Univision took over the operations of KUTH outright. KUTH has a
construction permit
Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...
to move its transmitter facilities to
Farnsworth Peak
Farnsworth Peak is a peak located on the northern end of the Oquirrh Mountain range, approximately south west of Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The mountain is named for Philo Farnsworth, the inventor of the first completely electronic te ...
in the
Oquirrh Mountains
The Oquirrh Mountains is a mountain range that runs north-south for approximately 30 miles (50 km) to form the west side of Utah's Salt Lake Valley, separating it from Tooele Valley. The range runs from northwestern Utah County–centr ...
west of Salt Lake City. The move would allow better coverage for the station in the Salt Lake City metro area and points along the Wasatch Front where Lake Mountain stations would be weak.
News operation
Under Equity's management of the station, KUTH began airing weeknight newscasts at 5 and 10 p.m. The newscasts were produced out of the company's headquarters in Little Rock, with reports filed by Salt Lake City-based reporters. The newscasts were canceled in June 2008, after Equity instituted a companywide suspension of news programs on its Univision-affiliated stations.
Local newscasts would not return to KUTH until September 30, 2013, when Univision launched weeknight 5 and 10 p.m. newscasts branded ''Noticias 32 Salt Lake City''.
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 ...
:
Translators
Analog-to-digital conversion
Because it was granted an original construction permit after the
FCC
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 ...
finalized the
DTV allotment plan on April 21, 199
the station did not receive a companion channel for a digital
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 ...
. Instead, KUTH shut down its analog signal, over
Ultra high frequency, UHF channel 32.
[List of Digital Full-Power Stations](_blank)
The station "
flash-cut
A flash cut, also called a flash cutover, is an immediate change in a complex system, with no phase-in period.
In the United States, some telephone area codes were split or overlaid immediately, rather than being phased in with a permissive dia ...
" its digital signal into operation UHF channel 32. On June 23, all Univision-owned full-service stations, including KUTH, added the ''-DT'' suffix to their legal call signs.
References
External links
*
{{Provo, Utah
Univision network affiliates
UniMás network affiliates
GetTV affiliates
Ion Mystery affiliates
True Crime Network affiliates
Twist (TV network) affiliates
UTH-DT
Mass media in Salt Lake City
Television channels and stations established in 2003
2003 establishments in Utah
Spanish-language television stations in Utah