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
* Independe ...
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 ear ...
in
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of count ...
, United States. It is owned by
Nexstar Media Group
Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarter offices in Irving, Texas; Midtown Manhattan; and Chicago, Illinois. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 tele ...
alongside
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelv ...
owned-and-operated station
In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an network af ...
WBRL-CD (channel 21); Nexstar also provides certain services to
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters ...
shared services
Shared services is the provision of a service by one part of an organization or group, where that service had previously been found, in more than one part of the organization or group. Thus the funding and resourcing of the service is shared and th ...
agreements (JSA/SSA) with owner White Knight Broadcasting. The stations share studios on Perkins Road in Baton Rouge, while KZUP-CD's transmitter is located near Addis, Louisiana.
While "KZUP-CD" is the station's official
call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assig ...
, it uses "KZUP-TV" for promotional purposes.
History
The station signed on the air in 1999 as a WZUP, a UPN affiliate available only on cable (TCI and later Cox channel 13). It was the second UPN affiliate (of three) in the Baton Rouge area. When the station went over the air on November 26, 2002, it changed its call sign to KZUP-CA; originally it was going to air on channel 21 and WB affiliate WBRL-CA was on channel 19, but this assignment was short-lived. Channel 19 was once used as a translator station for local station and original UPN affiliate WBTR, and when KZUP went on the air, WBTR moved to previously-unused channel 41. It became an independent station after losing UPN to
Raycom Media
Raycom Media, Inc. was an American television broadcasting company based in Montgomery, Alabama. Raycom owned and/or provided services for 65 television stations and two radio stations across 44 markets in 20 states. Raycom, through its Commun ...
's WBXH-CA in 2003. As an independent, it called itself "Z-19," and it primarily aired
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
-oriented programming like ''
Good Times
''Good Times'' is an American television sitcom that aired for six seasons on CBS, from February 8, 1974, to August 1, 1979. Created by Eric Monte and Mike Evans and developed by executive producer Norman Lear, it was television's first Afric ...
'', ''
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
''The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air'' is an American television sitcom created by Andy and Susan Borowitz for NBC. It aired from September 10, 1990, to May 20, 1996. The series stars Will Smith as a fictionalized version of himself, a street-smart ...
'', and ''
The Jeffersons
''The Jeffersons'' is an American sitcom television series that was broadcast on CBS from January 18, 1975, to July 2, 1985, lasting 11 seasons and a total of 253 episodes. ''The Jeffersons'' is one of the longest-running sitcoms in history, ...
''. For brief periods in 2005, KZUP was used to simulcast WVLA and WGMB over analog as their individual transmitter towers were turned off to allow upgrades for their
digital television
Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an innovative advanc ...
channels. KZUP became an affiliate of the
Retro Television Network
Retro TV (stylized as retrotv), formerly known as Retro Television Network, is an American broadcast television network owned by Get After It Media. The network mainly airs classic television sitcoms and drama series from the 1950s through t ...
Mission Broadcasting
Mission Broadcasting, Inc. is a television station group that owns 20 television stations in 17 markets in the United States. The group's Chair is Nancie Smith, the widow of David S. Smith, who founded the company in 1996 and died in 2011. All but ...
, but on August 13, 2014, Mission withdrew its application. The sale was completed on January 1, 2015. Nexstar would continue to operate WVLA and KZUP under a
shared services
Shared services is the provision of a service by one part of an organization or group, where that service had previously been found, in more than one part of the organization or group. Thus the funding and resourcing of the service is shared and th ...
agreement, with sister stations WGMB and WBRL.
KZUP was the official station of the
Southern University
Southern University and A&M College (Southern University, Southern, SUBR or SU) is a public historically black land-grant university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It is the largest historically black college or university (HBCU) in Louisiana, a ...
athletic department.
On January 4, 2016, Nexstar agreed to exercise its option to purchase KZUP-CD. Nexstar also decided to enter KZUP-CD into the FCC's broadcast incentive auction, but the station's spectrum was never sold. The sale was approved by the FCC on February 19 and completed on March 17.
On December 3, 2018, Nexstar announced it would acquire the assets of
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, coordinates =
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, subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
-based
Tribune Media
Tribune Media Company, also known as Tribune Company, was an American multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
Through Tribune Broadcasting, Tribune Media was one of the largest television broadcasting companies, owning 39 t ...
for $6.4 billion in cash and debt. The deal—which would make Nexstar the largest television station operator by total number of stations upon its expected closure late in the third quarter of 2019—would give the KZUP/WBRL/WGMB/WVLA virtual quadropoly
sister station
In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement.
Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...
WGNO
WGNO (channel 26) is a television station in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside CW owned-and-operated station WNOL-TV (channel 38). Both stations share studios at The Gal ...
and CW affiliate
WNOL-TV
WNOL-TV (channel 38) is a television station in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, airing programming from The CW. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside ABC affiliate WGNO (channel 26). Both statio ...
Family Guy
''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show centers around the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their ...
'', ''
Seinfeld
''Seinfeld'' ( ) is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. It aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, over nine seasons and List of Seinfeld episodes, 180 episodes. It stars Seinfeld as Jerry Seinfeld ( ...
Supreme Justice with Judge Karen
Entertainment Studios, Inc., also known as Allen Media Group, 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 in the production and d ...
'', ''
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer Simpson, Homer, Marge ...
'' and '' Cheaters'', among others. The station is known for its afternoon court block, which airs from 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. each weekday. KZUP also reairs WVLA's 10 p.m. newscast at 11 p.m., and the 5–7 a.m. newscast from 8–10 a.m.