KVVU-TV
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KVVU-TV (channel 5) 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
Henderson, Nevada Henderson is a city in Clark County, Nevada, United States, about southeast of downtown Las Vegas. It is the List of cities in Nevada, 2nd most populous city in Nevada, after Las Vegas, with 317,610 residents. The city is part of the Las Vegas V ...
, United States, serving the
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 ...
area as an affiliate of the Fox network. Owned by Gray Media, the station maintains studios at the Broadcast Center on West Sunset Road in Henderson (using the 25 TV 5 Drive street address), while its transmitter is located on Black Mountain, just southeast of the city.


History

KVVU signed on the air on September 10, 1967, ( Guide to reading History Cards) as Nevada's first
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 ...
, under the call sign KHBV-TV. The station originally operated from a converted Flying A gas station along Boulder Highway near Sunset Road, while its offices were housed in a modern office building on Flamingo Road. The station was on the air originally from 11 a.m. to midnight and ran a schedule of movies from the '30s through the '50s, some cartoons, westerns, and a few
sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...
s. Owned first by Charles Vanda, Levin-Townsend Enterprises acquired the station in 1969. In 1971, the station assumed its KVVU-TV call letters after being purchased by the Nevada Independent Broadcasting Corporation. By 1975, the station was on the air by 7 a.m. and ran a large number of movies, cartoons, more off-network sitcoms, drama shows, and some westerns. Las Vegas was still considered a small market then; in 1975, it was the 140th-largest out of 207 areas of dominant influence. Las Vegas was the smallest market to have four commercial television stations; there were still larger markets that only had two commercial stations and lacked programming from either ABC, NBC, or CBS as a result. In 1978, the station was sold to Carson Broadcasting, a company owned by talk show host and entertainer
Johnny Carson John William Carson (October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005) was an American television host, comedian, and writer best known as the host of NBC's ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' (1962–1992). Carson is a cultural phenomenon and w ...
, who visited the station fairly often. Under Carson's ownership, the station often ran R-rated theatrical films uncut during the late-night and early morning hours. While the afternoon (1 p.m.) and evening (9 p.m.) movies would always be different, the same film would be run uncut in the evening and aired in its censored form in the afternoon, but not on the same day. The evening movie generally reran at 1 a.m. almost every day. Films with questionable content were sometimes prefaced by a pre-recorded warning from Carson. The station's announcer from 1973 to 2001, Ralph Menard, would stretch the hourly station identification out to emphasize the market's larger city, intoning "Henderson..." neutrally, then leading into an elongated and smooth segue to "...and Laaassss Vegas!"; Menard died in 2003. Meredith Corporation bought the station from Carson Broadcasting in 1985. Upon Meredith taking control of the station, KVVU adopted a stylized "TV 5" logo borrowed from its new sister stations, KPHO-TV in Phoenix; WNEM-TV in
Bay City, Michigan Bay City is a city in Bay County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The population was 32,661 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The city is located just upriver from the Saginaw Bay on the Saginaw River. It is the princip ...
; KCTV in
Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...
; and WTVH in
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. Channel 5 remained an independent station until October 9, 1986, when it became one of the charter affiliates of the newly launched Fox network (it was one of a very few handful of stations located on the VHF dial to align with the new network upon its startup). However, by the time Fox expanded its programming from late nights into evenings in April 1987, network prime time programming initially ran only two days a week (it was not until 1993 that Fox began providing programming on all seven days of the week), so KVVU continued to be essentially programmed as an independent station. In the 1980s, more
talk show A talk show is a television programming, radio programming or podcast genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Show', pp.3-4Erler, Robert (201 ...
s were added to the schedule and movies were cut back slightly. In 1990, the station introduced an on-air mascot named "Rusty the Fox", apparently named after both the network and the station's then-general manager Rusty Durante. The mascot, an anthropomorphic fox (in actuality, a person in a fox costume), is used for community events and at one time was used for announcements for family-oriented information, as well as the block of children's programming called '' Fox 5 Kids Club''. The station moved into its present studio facilities on Sunset Way in the Green Valley subdivision of Henderson in 1991. The station remained a Fox affiliate during an affiliation deal that was struck between Meredith and CBS in 1994 because that network had a long-term affiliation contract with its existing affiliate KLAS-TV (KPHO and WNEM would both change their network affiliations to CBS through the deal while KCTV was already affiliated with that network); as a result, the Las Vegas market became one of the few television markets to not be affected by the 1994 United States broadcast television realignment. It was one of only five stations (not counting
satellites 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, scientif ...
or
semi-satellites A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or trans ...
) under Meredith ownership (the company having recently sold off WTVH) at the time of the deal, and was one of only three Meredith stations to not switch their affiliation from a different network to CBS between 1994 and 1996 (
WSMV-TV WSMV-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Gray Media alongside low-power Telemundo affiliate WTNX-LD (channel 29). The two stations share studios on Knob Road i ...
in
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and WOFL-TV in Orlando being the others). In June 2006, the station's website was redesigned (along with those of four of Meredith's other stations). The old website was operated by the Local Media Network division of WorldNow. Internet Broadcasting operated the site until 2011, when WorldNow began a group deal with all of Meredith's stations. On May 3, 2021, Gray Television announced its intent to purchase the Meredith Local Media division, including KVVU, for $2.7 billion. The sale was completed on December 1.


Programming

In addition to KVVU's local newscasts, the station also produces a locally produced entertainment and lifestyle magazine program called ''MORE'', which took its name from the defunct similarly-named
magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...
for women 40+ published by former owner Meredith (the ''MORE'' program format originated at sister station KPTV in
Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...
). The program debuted on September 12, 2006, and features stories about Las Vegas fashion, local cuisine and events aimed at women between the ages of 25 and 49, ''MORE'' is broadcast as an hour-long extension of the station's weekday morning newscast at 10 a.m. and uses the same staff as the newscast's 7–10 a.m. block.


Sports programming

In 2017, the then
Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team based in Oakland, California, from its founding in 1960 to 1981, and again from 1995 to 2019 before Oakland Raiders relocation to Las Vegas, relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan ...
announced in preparation for their relocation to Las Vegas that KVVU would be the official home for the team's preseason games and other pre-game programming such as the ''Silver and Black Show'' in Las Vegas, which began in the 2017 NFL season. After the Raiders completed their relocation ahead of the 2020 season, KVVU was named the team's official broadcast partner. However, KLAS serves as the Raiders' ''de facto'' "home" station, by virtue of CBS owning the rights to most games from the American Football Conference, where the Raiders play. In addition to preseason and
Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The name originates from Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States, which in turn derives its name from Fox Fi ...
Sunday afternoon games, KVVU also airs the Raiders' ''
ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
Monday Night Football'',
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'' Thursday Night Football'' and NFL Network appearances. In 2023, it was announced that KVVU would become the official broadcast partner of the Las Vegas Aces of the WNBA. All Aces games not nationally televised on
ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
,
CBS Sports Network CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American digital cable and satellite television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports ...
, Ion Television, KLAS or KTNV as part of the league's national TV deal are broadcast on KVVU's second digital subchannel branded as the Silver State Sports and Entertainment Network. In addition, a 30-minute show on the Aces is broadcast weekly on KVVU. In the 2022–23 television season, Gray began to produce a syndicated sports betting show, ''Beat the Odds'', from KVVU's studio. In 2025, KVVU and Silver State Sports & Entertainment Network aired a two-game
spring training Spring training, also called spring camp, is the preseason of the Summer Professional Baseball Leagues, such as Major League Baseball (MLB), and it is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spri ...
series between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Athletics from Las Vegas Ballpark. KVVU would later announce that they would broadcast 15 regular season Athletics games, simulcast from NBC Sports California, in preparation for the team's move to Las Vegas.


Silver State Sports & Entertainment Network

In June 2022, KVVU launched the Silver State Sports & Entertainment Network on its second subchannel. The network airs local Las Vegas–based sports and entertainment programs. Current live sports rights include select sporting events from the
University of Nevada, Las Vegas The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada, United States. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the ...
, Las Vegas Aviators baseball games, Vegas Knight Hawks indoor football games, and Las Vegas Lights FC soccer matches. The network previously held the local broadcasting rights to the Las Vegas Aces and G League Ignite basketball games.


News operation

KVVU-TV presently broadcasts hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with hours each weekday and three hours each on Saturdays and Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the highest local newscast output among Las Vegas' broadcast television stations and highest of any Fox affiliate in the nation; in addition, the station's sports department produces ''Fox 5 Sports Plus'', a 15-minute sports highlight program that airs on Saturday evenings after the 10 p.m. newscast. Prior to affiliating with Fox, KVVU's news programming consisted solely of daily news updates featured during the station's syndicated programming between the late 1970s and 1986. Meredith Corporation eventually started a news department for KVVU-TV; it began producing a 10 p.m. newscast in June 1998, the Las Vegas market's first local newscast in prime time, the program originated as a weeknight-only half-hour newscast; the broadcast expanded to Saturday and Sunday evenings in June 2002, followed by the expansion of the newscast to an hour-long program in 2003. For the first couple of years, the newscast was solo-anchored by Angelica Urquijo; the station originally did not have a weather anchor or full-time sports anchor; the sports segments were pre-recorded with voice-over work done by boxing analyst Al Bernstein. In July 1999, the station added a morning newscast that originally aired from 7 to 9 a.m. The following year, the program was expanded by 90 minutes with the addition of a news block from 5:30 to 7 a.m. News programming on channel 5 would not expand again until September 10, 2007, with the debut of an hour-long block of newscasts during the 5 p.m. hour; with the expansion, KVVU-TV became the only local station in Las Vegas carrying a newscast in the 5:30 p.m. timeslot. One year later on August 4, 2008, KVVU debuted a half–hour weeknight–only newscast at 11 p.m. On March 7, 2011, the weekday morning newscast (which consisted of the pre–7 a.m. ''Fox 5 News This Morning'' and the 7–9 a.m. ''Fox 5 News: Live in Las Vegas'' until 2013, when the program uniformly rebranded under the former title) expanded to 4½ hours, with its start time moved to 4:30 a.m. On July 9, 2012, KVVU debuted a half-hour 6 p.m. newscast. On April 6, 2020, KVVU added a half-hour 1 p.m. newscast on weekdays, making it one of a few stations airing a 1 p.m. newscast alongside Los Angeles' CW affiliate KTLA and San Diego's Fox affiliate KSWB-TV. On that same day, KVVU expanded its weeknight 11 p.m. newscast to an hour; this made KVVU among the very few stations to extend its late newscast to midnight, and one of six Fox affiliates (Kansas City's WDAF-TV, Washington, D.C.'s WTTG,
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's
WAGA-TV WAGA-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, serving as the market's Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network outlet. Owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division, the station maintains st ...
,
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's WTVT and Phoenix's
KSAZ-TV KSAZ-TV (channel 10) is a television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. It is owned and operated by the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network through its Fox Television Stations division alongside KUTP (channel 45), which airs MyNetw ...
being the others) to air a two-hour late local news block. On September 5, 2022, KVVU added an hour-long 2 p.m. newscast on weekdays, becoming the first Fox station to air newscasts in that timeslot. Afternoon and evening newscasts now run from 1 to 7:30 p.m.


Syndicated programming

Because of KVVU's large-scale news schedule, most of the station's syndicated programming airs late at night to appeal to the market's unique "night owl" audience, with little to no paid programming scheduled outside weekends, and the station's Saturday infomercials exclusively from Fox's '' Weekend Marketplace'', itself exclusive to summer and rarely-aired due to Fox Sports preemptions as a side effect of Las Vegas being in the
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. The station's only daytime syndicated programming consists of ''TMZ Live'' at noontime (itself lead into by Gray's national newsmagazine, ''Investigate TV+'') and '' TMZ'' before Fox prime time. Appropriately, repeats of the locally produced
History Channel History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television television broadcaster, network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney General Entertainme ...
series '' Pawn Stars'' air in various time periods throughout the week.


Notable former on-air staff

* Al Bernstein – sports anchor (1998–2002) * Cher Calvin – weekday morning anchor


Technical information


Subchannels

The station's signal is multiplexed:


Analog-to-digital conversion

KVVU-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 5, 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 9, using virtual channel 5.


Translators

* Caliente * Duckwater * Ely (Squaw Peak) * Ely (Cave Mountain) * Eureka * Eureka * Laughlin, etc. *
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


Official website
{{Gray TV 1967 establishments in Nevada Dabl affiliates Former Meredith Corporation subsidiaries Fox Broadcasting Company affiliates Gray Media Ion Mystery affiliates Television channels and stations established in 1967 VVU-TV