KZUP-CD (channel 20) is a low-power, Class A

independent television station An independent station is a broadcast station, usually a television station, not affiliated with a larger broadcast network. As such, it only broadcasts syndicated programs it has purchased; brokered programming, for which a third party pays t ...

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; , ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 United States census, making it List of municipalities in Louisiana, Louisiana's second-m ...

, United States. It is 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 ...

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 ("brush"). Twelve species ...

affiliate WGMB-TV (channel 44) and CW

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 WBRL-CD (channel 21) is a low-power, Class A television station in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States, serving as the local outlet for The CW. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside Fox affiliate ...

(channel 21); Nexstar also provides certain services to

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

affiliate WVLA-TV (channel 33) under joint sales and

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 the ...

agreements (JSA/SSA) with owner White Knight Broadcasting. The four stations share studios on Perkins Road in Baton Rouge; KZUP-CD's transmitter is located near

Addis, Louisiana Addis is a town in West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 6,731 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Founded in 1881 or 1882, Addis was originally known Baton ...

. 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 as ...

, it uses "KZUP-TV" for promotional purposes.

History

The station signed on the air in 1999 as a WZUP, a

UPN The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that operated from 1995 to 2006. It was originally a joint venture between Chris-Craft Industries (later sold to News Corporation)'s subsidiary, United Television, ...

affiliate available only 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 ...

(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, Montgomery, Alabama. Raycom owned and/or provided services for 65 television stations and two radio stations across 44 markets in 20 states. Raycom ...

's WBXH-CA in 2003. As an independent, it called itself "Z-19," and it primarily aired

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

-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 (actor), Mike Evans and developed by executive producer Norman Lear, it was televis ...

'', ''

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air ''The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air'' is an American television sitcom created by Andy and Susan Borowitz that aired on NBC 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 signal, digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an ...

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 ...

on September 15, 2008. In 2012, White Knight Broadcasting dropped RTN and resumed carrying syndicated programming. On April 24, 2013,

Communications Corporation of America Communications Corporation of America (also known as ComCorp) was a broadcasting company in the United States that owned television stations in smaller markets. The company was headquartered in Lafayette, Louisiana. It owned and/or operated 20 st ...

announced the sale of its entire group to

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 ...

. WVLA and KZUP were to be sold to

Mission Broadcasting Mission Broadcasting, Inc. is a television station group that owns 29 full-power television stations in 26 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 2 ...

, 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

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 university, public historically black colleges and universities, historically black land-grant university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States. It i ...

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.Consummation Notice - Federal Communications Commission
/ref>

Subchannels

ATSC 3.0 lighthouse service

References

{{NXST TV 1999 establishments in Louisiana ATSC 3.0 television stations Independent television stations in the United States Low-power television stations in Louisiana Nexstar Media Group Television channels and stations established in 1999 Television stations in Baton Rouge, Louisiana