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KLAS-TV (channel 8) 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 ...
in
Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...
, Nevada, United States, affiliated with
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 ...
and 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 ...
. The station's studios are located on Channel 8 Drive near the northern portion of the
Las Vegas Strip The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about long, and is immediately south of the Las Vegas city limits ...
in the unincorporated community of
Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...
(though with a Las Vegas
mailing The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal syst ...
address), and its transmitter is located on Mount Arden in Henderson.


History


Early years

KLAS-TV initially broadcast a test pattern for two weeks, beginning on July 8, 1953. The station went on-air on the evening of July 22, 1953, becoming Nevada's first television station. The station was originally owned by Las Vegas Television Inc., run by
Hank Greenspun Herman Milton "Hank" Greenspun (August 27, 1909 – July 23, 1989) was the publisher of the ''Las Vegas Sun'' newspaper. He purchased the ''Sun'' in 1949, and served as its editor and publisher until his death. Greenspun was also a prominent real ...
, owner of the ''
Las Vegas Sun The ''Las Vegas Sun'' is one of the Las Vegas Valley's two daily subscription newspapers. It is owned by the Greenspun family and is affiliated with Greenspun Media Group. The paper published afternoons on weekdays from 1990 to 2005 and is now ...
''. KLAS has always been a
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, but maintained a secondary affiliation 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 ...
, which it would share with KLRJ/KORK-TV (channel 3, now
KSNV-DT KSNV (channel 3) is a television station in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside dual CW/MyNetworkTV affiliate KVCW (channel 33). The two stations share studios on Foremas ...
) from that station's sign on in January 1955, until KSHO-TV (channel 13, now
KTNV-TV KTNV-TV (channel 13) is a television station in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Laughlin-licensed independent station KMCC (channel 34). The two stations share studi ...
) affiliated with the network in December 1957. Billionaire and aviation magnate
Howard Hughes Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American Aerospace engineering, aerospace engineer, business magnate, film producer, and investor. He was The World's Billionaires, one of the richest and most influential peo ...
enjoyed staying up late and watching television, and he wanted KLAS to broadcast a full 24-hour/7-day-a-week schedule. Hughes also requested the station to show more
Westerns The Western is a genre of fiction typically set in the American frontier (commonly referred to as the "Old West" or the "Wild West") between the California Gold Rush of 1849 and the closing of the frontier in 1890, and commonly associated wit ...
and films about aviation. He eventually decided to purchase the station so he could have it operate as he wanted (though under his ownership, continuing to run CBS programming as scheduled and expected if preempted, most of the time). Greenspun sold the station to
Hughes Tool Company Hughes Tool Company was an American manufacturer of drill bits. Founded in 1908, it was merged into Baker Hughes Incorporated in 1987. History The company was established in December 1908 as Sharp-Hughes Tool Company when Howard R. Hughes ...
on March 30, 1968. After Hughes' death in 1976, the station was held in an outside trust for another two years until 1978, when it was sold to Landmark Communications (Landmark Communications renamed itself to
Landmark Media Enterprises Landmark Media Enterprises, LLC (a spinoff of Landmark Communications, Inc.) is a privately held technology company headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia. History The ''Norfolk Landmark'' was established in 1873. It had various editors. K. C. Murray ...
in September 2008).


Since 1996

On April 16, 1996, KLAS-TV became the first commercial television station in Nevada (and one of the first in the United States) to carry a digital broadcast signal. This signal was first launched during the
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 ...
annual convention that year. On April 6, 2000, the first scheduled high definition network broadcasts in Las Vegas began on KLAS-TV's digital signal. On January 30, 2008, Landmark announced its intention to sell KLAS, along with its other television station
WTVF WTVF (channel 5) is a television station in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Ion Television owned-and-operated station WNPX-TV (channel 28). WTVF's studios are loca ...
in
Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...
. No suitable buyer for KLAS was found until Landmark took most of its properties off the market in October 2008 due to the
2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...
. KLAS and WTVF remained under Landmark ownership for more than four years. On September 4, 2012,
Journal Broadcast Group Journal Media Group (formerly Journal Communications) was a Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based newspaper publishing company. The company's roots were first established in 1882 as the owner of its namesake, the ''Milwaukee Journal'', and expanded into br ...
(owners of one of KLAS-TV's local rivals, ABC affiliate KTNV-TV) announced that it would purchase WTVF for $215 million. The sale was finalized on December 6. This left KLAS-TV as the only television station in Landmark's portfolio. On November 21, 2014,
Nexstar Broadcasting 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 stations ...
announced that it would purchase KLAS for $145 million. The sale was completed on February 13, 2015. On January 29, 2016, shortly prior to
Super Bowl 50 Super Bowl 50 was an American football game to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2015 season. The American Football Conference (AFC) champion Denver Broncos defeated the National Football Conference (NFC) ...
, KLAS was dropped from
Cox Communications Cox Communications, Inc. (also known as Cox Cable and formerly Cox Broadcasting Corporation, Dimension Cable Services and Times-Mirror Cable), is an American digital cable television provider, telecommunications and home automation services comp ...
due to a
retransmission consent Retransmission consent is a provision of the 1992 United States Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act that requires cable operators and other multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) to obtain permission from commerc ...
dispute with Nexstar across nine markets. As a contingency plan, Cox announced on February 3, 2016, that it would offer a free preview of
ESPN Deportes ESPN Deportes (, ) is an American multinational Spanish-language pay television sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the ...
(which was broadcasting the game in
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...
) over the Super Bowl weekend, and encouraged viewers to listen to the English radio broadcast along with it. The next day, KLAS was restored after Cox reached a new deal with Nexstar.


Programming


Sports programming

In 2020, Nexstar and KLAS were named the official television partners of the
NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...
's
Las Vegas Raiders The Las Vegas Raiders are a professional American football team based in the Las Vegas Valley, Las Vegas metropolitan area. The Raiders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC West ...
. Along with carrying the bulk of the team's games as part of the ''
NFL on CBS ''NFL on CBS'' is an American television sports presentation show broadcast by CBS. It aired from September 30, 1956 to January 23, 1994. The show returned since September 6, 1998. The branding is used for the presentation of the National Foot ...
'', KLAS carries preseason games and team-produced ancillary programming (such as ''The Silver & Black Show''). By virtue of CBS holding the rights to the game, KLAS was the local broadcaster of
Super Bowl LVIII Super Bowl LVIII was an American football game played to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2023 NFL season, 2023 season. A rematch of Super Bowl LIV four years prior, the American Football Conference (AFC) 20 ...
at
Allegiant Stadium Allegiant Stadium is a domed multi-purpose stadium located in Paradise, Nevada, southwest of adjacent Las Vegas. Opened in 2020, it is the home field of the Las Vegas Raiders of the National Football League (NFL) and the University of Nevada ...
.


News operation

KLAS-TV presently broadcasts 38 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with hours each weekday, two hours on Saturdays and hours on Sundays); in addition, the station formerly produced an additional five hours of local newscasts for its second subchannel (with one hour each weekday). Although channel 8 does not produce a Saturday edition of its morning newscast, ''8 News Now: Good Day'', the station does produce a newscast which airs for 3 hours weekday mornings from 4 to 7 a.m. and on Sunday mornings for an hour at 5:30 a.m. and a half-hour at 8 a.m., since channel 8 airs ''
CBS Saturday Morning ''CBS Saturday Morning'' is a Saturday morning television program that broadcasts on the American television network, CBS. It is currently anchored by Michelle Miller and Dana Jacobson. Although the program's name has changed several times ...
''. The evening news runs at 4 p.m., 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. KLAS previously branded its newscasts as ''
Eyewitness News ''Eyewitness News'' is a style of television presentation that emphasizes visual elements and action videos, instead of the older ,"man-on-camera" style of newscast, and is most prominently featured in the New York City metropolitan area. Hi ...
'', taking over the name from 1982 after KVBC discontinued using the branding, and used it until late 2009, when its newscasts adopted the ''8 News Now'' title from
KOLO-TV KOLO-TV (channel 8) is a television station in Reno, Nevada, United States, affiliated with ABC and The CW Plus. It is owned by Gray Media alongside Incline Village–licensed low-power Telemundo affiliate KXNV-LD (channel 26). The two st ...
in
Reno Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada–California border. It is the county seat and most populous city of Washoe County, Nevada, Washoe County. Sitting in the High Eastern Sierra foothills, ...
. In the early 1980s, the station's newscasts were branded as ''Newscenter 8'', and used the opening Phenix Horns music of
Earth, Wind & Fire Earth, Wind & Fire (abbreviated as EW&F or EWF) is an American band formed in Chicago, Illinois in 1969. Their music spans multiple genres, including jazz, R&B, soul, funk, disco, pop, Latin and Afro-pop. They are among the best-selling ba ...
's 1979 single "In the Stone" for two years. On September 21, 1981, KLAS-TV became the first station in the state of Nevada to provide hour-long newscasts. For years, KLAS produced a daily interview show, which aired on sister channel Las Vegas One; the program moved to NBC affiliate KVBC (channel 3, now KSNV) in January 2010. Beginning in the fall of 2002, KLAS produced a 10 p.m. newscast for KTUD-CA called ''Eyewitness News at 10 on UPN''. In the fall of 2006, when KTUD became an
independent station An independent station is a broadcast station, usually a television station, not affiliated with a larger broadcast television network, network. As such, it only broadcasts broadcast syndication, syndicated programs it has purchased; brokered pr ...
, that station was rebranded on-air as "Vegas TV" and the newscasts was renamed to suit the new identity. Shortly after the merger, however, the station dropped the 10 p.m. newscast. KTUD later revived its 10 p.m. newscast, this time produced by KSNV, from October 2009 to August 2010. In March 2006, KLAS revamped the station's morning newscast, which was branded as ''Eyewitness News This Morning'' at the time. On September 17, 2006, KLAS became the first station in the Las Vegas market and the state of Nevada, and the eleventh station in the United States, to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. Just after Nexstar purchased the station, it was announced that Nexstar might discontinue the 4 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. half-hours of the station's weekday morning newscast. Starting on February 25, 2015, Nexstar would lay off at least 18 of the station's employees, mainly in the news department's business and traffic divisions; some jobs related to the station's Internet operations were also removed as the station's web operations moved onto Nexstar's Lakana platform. The station's news helicopter was also discontinued. On October 10, 2018, channel 8 began producing an hour-long weeknight 9 p.m. newscast for its second digital subchannel, making it the only television station in Las Vegas to air a local newscast in that timeslot. The newscast was later canceled.


Reception

KLAS has won more than 100 awards for its news coverage, including investigative documentaries about the
American Mafia The American Mafia, commonly referred to in North America as the Italian-American Mafia, the Mafia, or the Mob, is a highly organized Italian-American criminal society and organized crime group. The terms Italian Mafia and Italian Mob apply to ...
and UFOs. In 1986,
United Press International United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th ce ...
awarded it "Best Newscast in America". As of 1992, it frequently dominated ratings in local newscasts. In 2011, KLAS received 19 nominations from the
National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), also known as the National Television Academy until 2007, is an American professional service organization founded in 1955 for "the advancement of the arts and sciences of televisio ...
, eclipsing its rival news stations. Channel 8 has been the ratings leader in the Las Vegas market for many years. However, rivals KTNV, KVVU and KSNV have eroded ratings for KLAS' newscasts over the years.


Notable news staff

Bob Stoldal joined KLAS as a reporter and anchor in 1967, before becoming the network's news director in 1970.
Sue Lowden Suzanne "Sue" Pluskoski Lowden (; born February 8, 1952) Payment required to read article. is the former Chairwoman of the Nevada Republican Party and a former Nevada state senator. Lowden is a former businesswoman, television news anchor and kin ...
joined KLAS as a reporter in 1978, and later became an anchor. Gary Waddell became an anchor in 1980. Lowden departed the station in 1987, and Paula Francis joined as an anchor the following year. George Knapp has also been a longtime anchor for the station. Polly Gonzalez joined KLAS in 1994, becoming the first prime-time Hispanic anchor in Las Vegas. In 2002, Stoldal was named as vice president of news, overseeing operations for KLAS while retaining his position as news director. Dave Courvoisier, a former anchor for KVBC, was hired as a KLAS anchor in 2003. Gonzalez worked as a KLAS anchor until her death from an auto accident in 2005. She was widely remembered, and a memorial park was later opened. Gonzalez was replaced by Denise Valdez as anchor. Stoldal retired in 2008, as he felt the timing was right considering Landmark Communications' intentions to sell KLAS. Dayna Roselli became a fulltime morning anchor in 2008, after joining KLAS four years earlier as a helicopter reporter and also working as a fill-in and traffic anchor. Roselli was considered one of Las Vegas' prominent media figures. She left KLAS in 2012, when the station added two new anchors in an effort to increase morning ratings. The effort ultimately failed to produce a notable change in the ratings, and one of the new anchors, Shauna Khorrami, was fired after eight months. Waddell retired in 2012, after spending 32 years with KLAS. Waddell had become the longest-serving news anchor in Las Vegas. Francis left KLAS in 2016 to retire as well, and was replaced by Valdez. Courvoisier retired in 2017. He had anchored news in the Las Vegas market for 27 years. But he came out of retirement to return as a morning anchor at KTNV-TV starting in August 2020. Tedd Florendo and Sherry Swensk are the channel's
weather presenter A weather presenter (also known as a weather girl, weatherman or weather broadcaster) is a person who presents the Weather forecasting, weather forecast daily on radio, television or internet news broadcasts. Using tools such as projected weathe ...
s.


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— ...
: In 2010, KLAS launched a second subchannel affiliated with
MeTV MeTV, an acronym for Memorable Entertainment Television, is an American broadcast television network owned by Weigel Broadcasting. Marketed as "The Definitive Destination for Classic TV", the network airs a variety of classic television progra ...
. As of June 2013, the station launched another subchannel, this time with
Movies! Movies! (also known as simply M!) is an American free-to-air television network, owned by Popcorn Entertainment, LLC, a joint venture between Weigel Broadcasting and the Fox Television Stations subsidiary of Fox Corporation. The network's pr ...
.
Ion Television Ion Television (referred to on-air as simply Ion) is an American broadcast television network and FAST television channel owned by the Scripps Networks subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. The network first began broadcasting on August ...
began airing on 8.4 in 2017 and was replaced by
Circle A circle is a shape consisting of all point (geometry), points in a plane (mathematics), plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the Centre (geometry), centre. The distance between any point of the circle and the centre is cal ...
in April 2021 and Rewind TV on November 1, 2021. In January 2022, Movies! was replaced by SportsGrid. On June 1 of that year, MeTV moved to
KHSV KHSV (channel 21) is a television station in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, affiliated with the digital multicast network MeTV. KHSV is owned by Howard Stirk Holdings and broadcasts from Black Mountain, near Henderson (southwest of I- ...
resulting in Rewind TV moving to 8.2, and Shop LC took its place on 8.4. In October 2022, SportsGrid was replaced by Get. On May 1, 2024, Antenna TV was added to 8.2, being moved from KHSV, displacing Rewind TV to subchannel 8.3, which replaced Get as a result.


Analog-to-digital conversion

KLAS-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 8, on June 12, 2009, the official date on 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 VHF channel 7, 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 ...
8.


Translators

* Caliente * Ely * Ely & McGill * Kingman, AZ * Laughlin *
Lund Lund (, ;"Lund"
(US) and
) is a city in the provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, southern Swed ...
& Preston * Overton * Pahrump * Pahrump * Panaca * Pioche * Ruth * Ursine


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Klas-Tv 1953 establishments in Nevada Antenna TV affiliates CBS affiliates Get (TV network) affiliates Hughes Television Network Nexstar Media Group Rewind TV affiliates Television channels and stations established in 1953 LAS-TV