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KDRV (channel 12) and KDKF (channel 31) are
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 ...
s licensed respectively to Medford and
Klamath Falls, Oregon Klamath Falls ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Klamath County, Oregon, United States. The city was originally called ''Linkville'' when George Nurse founded the town in 1867. It was named after the Link River, on whose falls the city ...
, United States, affiliated with
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...
. Owned by
Allen Media Group Allen Media Group, alternately known by its former name of Entertainment Studios, Inc. is an American media and entertainment company based in Los Angeles. Owned and founded in 1993 by businessman Byron Allen, the company was initially involved ...
, the stations maintain studios on Knutson Avenue (near
Rogue Valley International–Medford Airport Rogue Valley International–Medford AirportThe airport retains "international" status, though the U.S. Customs Office closed in 2003 . is an international, and public-use airport three miles north of downtown Medford, in Jackson County, Oreg ...
) in north Medford. KDRV's transmitter is located at the edge of Wolf Creek Park in rural northeastern
Josephine County Josephine County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 88,090. The county seat is Grants Pass. The county is named after Virginia Josephine Rollins (1834–1912), a settler who was t ...
(near Golden), while KDKF's tower sits atop Stukel Mountain southeast of Klamath Falls. KDKF operates as a full-time
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 ...
of KDRV; its existence is only acknowledged in
station identification Station identification (ident, network ID, channel ID or bumper (broadcasting), bumper) is the practice of radio and television stations and broadcast network, networks identifying themselves on-air, typically by means of a call sign or brand na ...
s. Aside from its transmitter, KDKF does not maintain any physical presence locally in Klamath Falls.


History

Prior to 1984, KOBI (channel 5) served as the primary ABC affiliate for southern Oregon and extreme northern California, but Medford was only partially covered. Viewers in some areas of southern Oregon could also receive
KATU KATU (channel 2) is a television station in Portland, Oregon, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside La Grande–licensed independent station KUNP, channel 16 (which KATU simulcasts on its sec ...
from
Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...
on
cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...
. By this time, the Medford–Klamath Falls–
Yreka Yreka ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Siskiyou County, California, United States, near the Shasta River; the city has an area of about , most of it land. As of the 2020 census, the population was 7,807, reflecting an increase from 7,7 ...
market was one of the few markets in the country without full network service. This was partly because the channel 8 construction permit, KSYS, was transferred to an educational permittee. When the FCC changed channel 8's status to reserved noncommercial in late 1977, it allocated channel 12 to Medford "to provide a third VHF network service". Four groups filed for the new channel 12 allocation: Christian Broadcasting Corporation, Highland Communications, Sunshine Television, and Medford Channel 12 Limited Partnership. The parties entered into a settlement agreement in September 1982 that granted Sunshine the construction permit. KDRV signed on for the first time on February 26, 1984, having missed a deadline to broadcast the
1984 Winter Olympics The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games (Serbo-Croatian language, Serbo-Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, Serbian Cyrillic: ; ) and commonly known as Sarajevo '84 (Serbian Cy ...
. The station's studio had not been finished yet, and live local programming was not possible from its temporary studio. The new studio was finished later in 1984, and the station was able to begin news and other local programming a year later. Sunshine sold the station to Love Broadcasting in 1987 and signed on KDKF on October 17, 1989.
Chambers Communications Chambers Communications Corporation was a broadcasting company based in Eugene, Oregon. With roots back to 1959, Chambers Communications was founded by Carolyn S. Chambers and owned a chain of ABC affiliates in Western, Central Oregon and Southern ...
bought the station in 1994. Until 2007, KDRV was one of the few television stations still using the
U-Matic U-matic, also known as -inch Type E Helical Scan or SMPTE E, is an analog recording videocassette format developed by Sony. First shown as a prototype in October 1969 and introduced commercially in September 1971, it was among the earliest vi ...
videotape Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually Sound recording and reproduction, sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog signal, analog or Digital signal (signal processing), digital signal. V ...
format for editing and on-air playback. On March 5, 2014, Chambers Communications announced that it would exit broadcasting and sell its stations to Heartland Media, a company owned by former
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 ...
executive Bob Prather. The sale was completed on July 15. Heartland recently added
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
affiliate
KHSL-TV KHSL-TV (channel 12) is a television station in Chico, California, United States, serving the Chico–Redding, California, Redding area as an affiliate of CBS and The CW Plus. It is owned by Allen Media Group in common operation with KNVN (chan ...
in
Chico, California Chico ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "little") is the most populous city in Butte County, California, United States. Located in the Sacramento Valley region of Northern California, the city had a population of 101,475 in the 2020 United Sta ...
, to its family of stations, making KDRV and
KEZI KEZI (channel 9) is a television station in Eugene, Oregon, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC and owned by Allen Media Group. The station's studios are located on Chad Drive in Eugene, and its transmitter is locat ...
their new sister stations. On June 1, 2025, amid financial woes and rising debt, Allen Media Group announced that it would explore "strategic options" for the company, such as a sale of its television stations (including KDRV/KDKF).


News operation

KDRV presently broadcasts 36 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with six hours each weekday and three hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). Launched on September 16, 1985, KDRV has a fully staffed news department known as ''NewsWatch 12''. By the mid-1990s, it had shot to first place in the Medford–Klamath Falls market, and has stayed at the top for most of the last two decades. Like fellow station KOBI, they air newscasts at 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. but beginning in 2013, weekend newscasts began airing at 8 a.m., 5, 6, 6:30 and 11 p.m. unlike its rivals. KDRV airs its morning news starting at 5 a.m. Anchor and reporter Ron Brown (Known as the "Dean of News Anchors" in Southern Oregon) and chief meteorologist Scott Lewis were the longest-tenured newscasters in the station's history, but Lewis retired in 2012 and Brown retired in May 2015. Anchor Brian Morton (who joined the station in 1995) succeeded Brown as KDRV's longest tenured anchor. Brown hosted the weekly "Oregon Trails" segment, which took a look back in Southern Oregon's history, while Morton reports on "Wednesday's Child", an adoption segment. The newscast has received numerous awards, including several
National Association of Broadcasters The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is a Industry trade group, trade association and lobbying, lobby group representing the interests of commercial and non-commercial over-the-air radio and television broadcasting, broadcasters in th ...
,
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...
and
Emmy Awards The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...
. For a short period of time, KDRV was the only station in the Medford market to continue airing local sportscasts while rival stations KTVL and KOBI dropped their sportscasts in 2009. This has since changed. On January 5, 2011, ''NewsWatch 12'' was the first station in the market to begin broadcasting its newscasts in 16:9
widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratio (image), aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ...
to coincide with its new look, which is similar to sister station
KEZI KEZI (channel 9) is a television station in Eugene, Oregon, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC and owned by Allen Media Group. The station's studios are located on Chad Drive in Eugene, and its transmitter is locat ...
in
Eugene Eugene may refer to: People and fictional characters * Eugene (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Gene Eugene, stage name of Canadian born actor, record producer, engineer, composer and musi ...
. The station was also the first in the market to broadcast commercials in high definition. On September 9, 2013, KDRV added yet another newscast to its daily schedule known as ''NewsWatch 12 Midday'', which airs weekdays at 11 a.m. In 2025, the midday newscasts on KDRV and sister station KEZI were consolidated into a new title ''Oregon News Now at Midday''. On January 17, 2025, Allen Media Group announced plans to cut local meteorologist/weather forecaster positions from its stations, including KDRV/KEZI, and replacing them with a "weather hub" produced by
The Weather Channel The Weather Channel (TWC) is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Allen Media Group. The channel's headquarters are located in Atlanta, Georgia. Launched on May 2, 1982, the channel ...
, which AMG also owns. The decision was reversed within a week by management in response to "viewer and advertiser reaction".


Notable former on-air staff

*
Walt Maciborski Walt Maciborski is a television news anchor. He currently anchors the weekday 5 p.m., 6 p.m., and 10 p.m. newscasts at KEYE-TV in Austin, Texas. Previously, Walt worked as an anchor at WXIN-TV, FOX 59 in Indianapolis. Before that, Walt worked as W ...
– news anchor


Technical information


Subchannels

The stations' signals are
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— ...
:


Analog-to-digital conversion

Both stations shut down their analog signals, respectively on February 17, 2009, the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital channel allocations post-transition are as follows: * KDRV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 12; the station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition
UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter ...
channel 38 to VHF channel 12 for post-transition operations.CDBS Print
/ref> * KDKF shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 31; the station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 29,CDBS Print
/ref> using
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 as digits on a receiver's ...
31.


Translators

KDRV is rebroadcast on the following digital
translator 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 ''trans ...
stations: * Cave Junction * Gold Hill *
Grants Pass Grants Pass is a city in and the county seat of Josephine County, Oregon, United States. The city is located on Interstate 5 in Oregon, Interstate 5, northwest of Medford, Oregon, Medford, along the Rogue River (Oregon), Rogue River. The populatio ...
*
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 ...
*
Fort Dick, CA ] Fort Dick (Tolowa: ''Mvn-des-chuu-dvn'') is a small Unincorporated area, unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in rural Del Norte County, California. Fort Dick is around five miles (eight kilometers) north of Crescent C ...
* Gazelle, CA * Yreka, CA


Carriage disputes


Dispute with Dish Network

On December 10, 2010, KDRV announced on its newscast that its owner Chambers Communications and
Dish Network DISH Network L.L.C., often referred to as DISH, an abbreviation for Digital Sky Highway, is an American provider of satellite television and IPTV services and wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation. The company was originally establ ...
could not come to a long-term agreement to keep the station on the air in the Medford market and were in danger of losing local ABC programming as a result. Viewers were encouraged to read a special Q&A page regarding this matter. Despite their best efforts, their previous agreement expired on December 15 and the stations were removed from the Dish Network local line-ups. Chambers and Dish finally came to an agreement to resume service and on December 30, 2010, the stations returned on Dish Network.


KDRV replaces KRCR on Mt. Shasta cable

In January 2012, KDRV replaced
Redding, California Redding is a city in and the county seat of Shasta County, California, and the economic and cultural capital of the Shasta Cascade region of Northern California. Redding lies along the Sacramento River, north of Sacramento, California, Sacrame ...
, ABC affiliate
KRCR-TV KRCR-TV (channel 7) is a television station licensed to Redding, California, United States, serving as the American Broadcasting Company, ABC affiliate for the Chico, California, Chico–Redding media market, market. It is owned by Sinclair Bro ...
on
Northland Communications Northland Communications (formerly known as Northland Cable Television) was an American cable television, telephone and internet service provider with systems in various portions of the United States. Northland Communications currently owns and ...
(now Vyve Broadband) cable channel 7 in
Mt. Shasta, California Mount Shasta (also known as Mount Shasta City) is a city in Siskiyou County, California, United States, at about above sea level on the flanks of Mount Shasta, a prominent northern California landmark. The city is less than southwest of the s ...
, as Northland and KRCR severed ties after failing to come to a mutual agreement to continue coverage on the Mt. Shasta cable system. Thus, Northland placed KDRV in the channel 7 slot.Northland pulls KRCR Channel 7 off air in Siskiyou; affiliate out of Oregon takes its spot
, David Benda, Redding.com(''Redding Record Searchlight''), January 12, 2012
Despite being in California,
Siskiyou County Siskiyou County ( ) is a county located in the northwestern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 44,076. Its county seat is Yreka and its highest point is Mount Shasta. It falls within the Casca ...
is technically (yet officially) part of the Medford
DMA DMA may refer to: Arts * ''DMA'' (magazine), a defunct dance music magazine * Dallas Museum of Art, in Texas, US * BT Digital Music Awards, an annual event in the UK * Danish Music Awards * Detroit Music Awards * Doctor of musical arts, a degree ...
according to the FCC. Both KRCR and Northland made several attempts to get the DMA changed, but were unsuccessful each time.
KHSL-TV KHSL-TV (channel 12) is a television station in Chico, California, United States, serving the Chico–Redding, California, Redding area as an affiliate of CBS and The CW Plus. It is owned by Allen Media Group in common operation with KNVN (chan ...
,
KNVN-TV KNVN (channel 24) is a television station licensed to Chico, California, United States, serving the Chico–Redding, California, Redding media market, market as an affiliate of NBC and Telemundo. It is owned by Maxair Media, which maintains a sh ...
and
KIXE-TV KIXE-TV (channel 9) is a PBS member television station in Redding, California, United States, serving the northern Sacramento Valley. The station is owned by the Northern California Educational Television Association. KIXE's studios are located ...
are the ''only'' Chico–Redding market stations airing on the Northland system in Mt. Shasta; however, certain programs on KHSL and KNVN are subject to
blackout Blackout(s), black out, or The Blackout may refer to: Loss of lighting or communication * Power outage, a loss of electric power * Blackout (broadcasting), a regulatory or contractual ban on the broadcasting of an event * Blackout (fabric), a t ...
due to the FCC's network non-duplication and
syndication exclusivity Syndication exclusivity (also known as syndex) is a federal law () implemented by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States that is designed to protect a local television station's rights to syndicated television programs b ...
rules. KDRV had been on Northland's Yreka cable system on channel 12 since the station launched in early 1984 and the advent of local cable television back in the early to mid 1980s.


References


External links

*
History of Television in Southern Oregon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kdrv 1984 establishments in Oregon American Broadcasting Company affiliates Antenna TV affiliates Allen Media Group Television channels and stations established in 1984 DRV True Crime Network affiliates