KKEY-LD (channel 13) is a low-power television station in

Bakersfield, California Bakersfield is a city in and the county seat of Kern County, California, United States. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, which is located in the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's population as of th ...

, United States, affiliated with the Spanish-language network

Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast. It provides content ...

. It is owned by

Nexstar Media Group Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarters in Irving, Texas, Midtown Manhattan, and Chicago. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 television station ...

alongside NBC affiliate/ CW+

owned-and-operated station 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 network af ...

KGET-TV (channel 17). The two stations share studios on L Street in downtown Bakersfield; KKEY-LP's transmitter is located atop Mount Adelaide. In addition to its own digital signal, KKEY-LD is simulcast in standard definition on KGET-TV's third digital subchannel (17.3) from the same transmitter site.

History

The station was formerly known as K14IK and carried a low-power signal on UHF channel 14. In 2003, it moved to VHF channel 11 and was renamed KKEY-LP and became a Telemundo affiliate that same year. Previously, Telemundo programming was piped through

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

' KVEA on cable providers. On April 20, 2007, Clear Channel Communications (now

iHeartMedia iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc., formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc., a company founded by ...

) entered into an agreement to sell its entire television stations group to Newport Television, a broadcasting holding company established by the private equity firm Providence Equity Partners. This deal closed on March 14, 2008. However, due to Providence Equity Partners' partial ownership stake in rival

Spanish-language Spanish () or Castilian () is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. Today, it is a world language, gl ...

network

Univision Univision () is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television, 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 L ...

, the owner of

MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV (stylized as mynetworkTV; unofficially abbreviated MNT or MNTV) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its Fox Television Stations ...

affiliate KUVI-TV (channel 45), KKEY-LP was sold along with KGET-TV and five other stations ( CBS affiliate KGPE in Fresno, KTVX and KUCW in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

, WOAI-TV in

San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...

, and WTEV-TV in

Jacksonville Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...

) to High Plains Broadcasting. However, due to KKEY-LP's low-power status, it was excluded along with KTVX from the deal, which was finalized on September 15, 2008. Newport Television continued to operate KGET through a shared services agreement. Newport agreed to sell KKEY-LP and KGET-TV, as well as KGPE in Fresno, to Nexstar Broadcasting Group on November 5, 2012. The sale was completed on February 19, 2013.

Technical information

Subchannel

Analog-to-digital conversion

The analog signal went off the air on July 31, 2009, and for a year KKEY only existed as a subchannel of KGET and was even rebranded "Telemundo 17.3". On July 23, 2010, the analog signal on channel 11 came back on the air—just nine days before the station's analog license was to be canceled by the

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

(FCC). In April 2014, the analog signal on channel 11 went off the air and a high-definition digital signal went on the air on channel 13.

References

External links

Telemundo 17.3
{{NXST TV 1997 establishments in California KEY Nexstar Media Group KEY-LD Telemundo affiliates Television channels and stations established in 1997 KEY-LD