KDCU-DT (channel 46) 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's s ...

licensed to Derby, Kansas, United States, serving the Wichita– Hutchinson

market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market *Marketing, the act of sat ...

as an affiliate of the Spanish-language 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 ...

. Owned by

Entravision Communications Entravision Communications Corporation is an American media company based in Santa Monica, California. Entravision primarily caters to the Spanish language in the United States, Spanish-speaking Hispanic and Latino Americans, Hispanic community ...

, the station maintains offices on East Douglas Avenue in downtown Wichita, while newscasts are actually produced at the KCEC studios on Mile High Stadium West Circle in

Denver, Colorado Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

. KDCU-DT's transmitter is located in rural northwestern Sedgwick County (north-northeast of Colwich).

History

The station first signed on the air on August 20, 2009, becoming the first (and so far only) full-power

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 ...

television station to sign on in the state of Kansas; because it signed on after the June 12

digital television transition The digital television transition, also called the digital switchover (DSO), the analogue switch/sign-off (ASO), the digital migration, or the analogue shutdown, is the process in which older analogue television broadcasting technology is con ...

that year, KDCU was also the first full-power television station in the Wichita–Hutchinson Plus market to sign-on without a companion

analog Analog or analogue may refer to: Computing and electronics * Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable ** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals *** Analog electronics, circuits which use analog ...

signal. Prior to the station's sign-on, on February 15, 2008, Entravision entered into a

joint sales agreement In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one corporation, company agrees to operate a radio station, radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it ...

with

Schurz Communications Schurz Communications, Inc. is an American broadband media group and cloud services provider based in South Bend, Indiana. It previously owned newspapers and television stations. History The company was founded in 1872 by Alfred B. Miller and ...

(then-owner of

KWCH-DT KWCH-DT (channel 12) is a television station licensed to Hutchinson, Kansas, United States, serving the Wichita area as an affiliate of CBS. It is owned by Gray Media alongside CW affiliate KSCW-DT (channel 33) and maintains studios on 3 ...

and

KSCW-DT KSCW-DT (channel 33) is a television station in Wichita, Kansas, United States, affiliated with The CW. It is owned by Gray Media alongside Hutchinson, Kansas, Hutchinson-licensed CBS affiliate KWCH-DT (channel 12). The two stations share stud ...

), in which Schurz would provide advertising, production and promotional responsibilities as well as back office and master control services for KDCU. Schurz also leased a transmission tower located near Colwich to house the station's transmitter facilities; KSCW, which previously used the tower, moved its transmitter facilities to a tower east of Hutchinson in Reno County, which is known as the

KWCH 12 Tower KWCH-DT (channel 12) is a television station licensed to Hutchinson, Kansas, United States, serving the Wichita area as an affiliate of CBS. It is owned by Gray Media alongside CW affiliate KSCW-DT (channel 33) and maintains studios on 3 ...

. Since KDCU is licensed as a full-power station, it is able to mandate carriage on cable and

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

providers in the Wichita–Hutchinson Plus market. KDCU31-012013

Schurz announced on September 14, 2015, that it would exit broadcasting and sell its television and radio stations, including KWCH-DT, KSCW-DT, and the JSA/SSA with KDCU-DT, to

Gray Television Gray Media, Inc., doing business as Gray Television, is an American publicly traded television broadcasting company based in Atlanta. Founded in 1946 by James Harrison Gray as Gray Communications Systems, the company owns or operates 180 statio ...

for $442.5 million. The FCC approved the sale on February 12, 2016. As of 2021, Entravision now both owns and operates KDCU-DT, as Gray sold its operation stake in the station.

News operation

KDCU-DT presently broadcasts hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with a half-hour each weekday); the station does not air newscasts on Saturdays or Sundays. In April 2011, KWCH produced a half-hour nightly Spanish-language newscast for KDCU, , airing at 10 p.m. each weeknight (which competed against KWCH's own local newscast in that timeslot). Since Entravision acquired full shares of KDCU, the newscasts are now self-produced.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's 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— ...

References

External links

* {{Entravision Communications 2009 establishments in Kansas Court TV affiliates Entravision Communications stations Grit (TV network) affiliates Ion Mystery affiliates Laff (TV network) affiliates Spanish-language television stations in Kansas Television channels and stations established in 2009 DCU-DT Univision affiliates