KTBY,

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 ...

4 ( UHF digital channel 20), is a Fox- affiliated

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 ...

licensed A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

to Anchorage, Alaska, United States. The station is owned by

Cumming, Georgia Cumming is a city in Forsyth County, Georgia, United States, and the sole incorporated area in the county. It is a suburban city, and part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. In the 2020 census, the population is 7,318, up from 5,430 in 2010. Su ...

-based Coastal Television Broadcasting Company LLC, which also operates ABC/ CW+ affiliate

KYUR KYUR, virtual channel 13 ( VHF digital channel 12), is a dual ABC/The CW Plus- affiliated television station licensed to Anchorage, Alaska, United States. The station is owned by Vision Alaska LLC; Coastal Television Broadcasting Company LLC, whi ...

(channel 13) under joint salesJoint Sales Agreement - Federal Communications Commission
/ref> and shared servicesTime Brokerage Fees - Federal Communications Commission
/ref> agreements (JSA/SSA) with owner Vision Alaska LLC. The two stations share studios on East Tudor Road in Anchorage; KTBY's transmitter is located in historic downtown Anchorage atop the Hilton Anchorage East Tower hotel. Some of KTBY's programming is broadcast to rural communities via low-power

translators Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...

through the Alaska Rural Communications Service (ARCS).

History

KTBY signed on the air on December 2, 1983 as a locally owned

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

with Mike Parker as President, Mike Buck as General Manager and Dave Peters II as Program Director before joining the then-fledgling Fox network on its launch of October 9, 1986 (being part of a small number of TV stations on the VHF dial not owned by the network to be affiliated with Fox), and today is still one of the charter affiliates. It was the only Fox station in Alaska until 1992, when KFXF in Fairbanks went on the air; in the late 1980s, it also became the first station in Alaska to broadcast 24 hours a day. During the 1980s, KTBY was the first Anchorage station to air

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

with any regularity, largely in response to the increase in mainstream interest. Televised wrestling programs were largely absent from Anchorage television, as the programs were traditionally used to promote live events, which have been held only occasionally in Alaska dating back to the 1950s. The station originally aired ''

AWA All-Star Wrestling ''AWA All-Star Wrestling'' was a Broadcast syndication, syndicated television series featuring wrestling matches as promoted by the American Wrestling Association (AWA). ''All-Star Wrestling'' footage (and AWA footage as a whole) is now owned by Wo ...

'' (in conjunction with a short-lived attempt on their part to promote events in the market), and later ''

World Class Championship Wrestling World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW), later known as the World Class Wrestling Association (WCWA) (1986–1991) was an American professional wrestling promotion headquartered in Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas. Originally owned by promoter Ed ...

'' and ''

WWF Superstars of Wrestling ''WWF Superstars of Wrestling'' (later shortened to ''WWF Superstars'' and to ''Sunday Morning Superstars ''), also referred to as ''Maple Leaf Wrestling'' in Canada was an American professional wrestling television program that was produced by ...

''. In June 2010, Coastal Television hired Scott Centers as General Manager to manage KTBY and under a shared services agreement, manage Vision Alaska I and Vision Alaska II. In September 2010, KTBY relocated its master control operations to colocate with Vision Alaska I.

News operation

Until October 1, 2008, KTBY aired a 9:00 p.m. weeknight newscast produced by local

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

KTVA KTVA (channel 11) is a television station in Anchorage, Alaska, United States, affiliated with the digital multicast network Rewind TV. The station is owned by Denali Media Holdings, a subsidiary of local cable provider GCI. KTVA's transmitt ...

(channel 11). This production ceased when KTBY began its own news operation. In April 2020, as a result of impending economic concerns caused by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, KTBY and KYUR announced plans to outsource its news production to the national

NewsNet NewsNet (stylized as NEWSnet) is an American news-oriented free-to-air television network and newscast production company owned by Bridge News, LLC, which itself is owned by Bridge Media Networks. The network is structured to broadcast a tigh ...

service, which began operations one year earlier. All of the stations' newscasts outside of prime time, including ''Good Day Alaska'', were canceled, and the majority of the local staff were

laid off A layoff or downsizing is the temporary suspension or permanent termination of employment of an employee or, more commonly, a group of employees (collective layoff) for business reasons, such as personnel management or downsizing (reducing the ...

. By the end of the month, KYUR's news output had been reduced to a 30-minute newscast at 10 p.m. and KTBY was reduced to an hour-long newscast at 9 p.m. Both of these newscasts are branded as ''NewsNet Alaska'', featuring a brief local news segment produced in Anchorage, with the rest of the broadcast utilizing the NewsNet national feed produced out of

Cadillac, Michigan Cadillac ( ) is a city in and county seat of Wexford County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 10,371 at the 2020 census, which ranks it the third most-populated city in the Northern Michigan region after Traverse City and Al ...

. Despite the reduction in local news, KTBY and KYUR have opted to use the ''NewsNet'' national branding ''"More News. More Often."'' in their broadcasts.

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 ...

Analog-to-digital conversion

KTBY shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 4, 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 UHF channel 20. 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

as its former VHF analog channel 4.

References

External links

* {{Fox Alaska 1983 establishments in Alaska Fox network affiliates Dabl affiliates Cozi TV affiliates Defy TV affiliates TrueReal affiliates Television channels and stations established in 1983 TBY