KDKF (channel 31) in Klamath Falls operates as a full-time satellite of KDRV; this station's transmitter is located atop Stukel Mountain. KDKF covers areas of southwest/south-central Oregon that receive a marginal to a non-existent over-the-air signal from KDRV, although there is significant overlap between the two stations' contours otherwise. KDKF is a straight simulcast of KDRV; on-air references to KDKF are limited to Federal Communications Commission (FCC)-mandated hourly station identifications during newscasts and other programming. Aside from the transmitter, KDKF does not maintain any physical presence locally in Klamath Falls.[citation needed]
History
KDRV NewsWatch 12 logo, used from 2004 to 2011.
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 from Portland on cable. By this time, the Medford–Klamath Falls–Yreka 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".[4]
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.[5] 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 bought the station in 1994.
Until 2007, KDRV was one of the few television stations still using the U-Maticvideotape 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 executive Bob Prather.[6] The sale was completed on July 15.[7] Heartland recently added Chico, CaliforniaCBS affiliate KHSL-TV to its family of stations, making KDRV and KEZI their new sister stations.
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 stations KOBI and KTVL, 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. (as does KTVL). 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, Associated Press and Emmy Awards. 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 16:9widescreen to coincide with its new look, which is similar to sister station KEZI in Eugene. The station is 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 Monday through Friday at 11:00 a.m.
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:[10]
KDRV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 12; the station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 38 to VHF channel 12 for post-transition operations.[11]
KDKF shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 31; the station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 29,[12] using virtual channel 31.
Translators
KDRV is rebroadcast on the following digital translator stations:
On December 10, 2010, KDRV announced on its newscast that its owner Chambers Communications and Dish Network 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.[13]
KDRV replaces KRCR on Mt. Shasta cable
In January 2012, KDRV replaced Redding, California ABC affiliate KRCR-TV on Northland Communications cable channel 7 in Mt. Shasta, California 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.[14][15]
Despite being in California, Siskiyou County is technically (yet officially) part of the Medford DMA according to the FCC. Both KRCR and Northland made several attempts to get the DMA changed, but were unsuccessful each time. KHSL-TV, KNVN-TV and KIXE-TV are the onlyChico–Redding market stations airing on the Northland system in Mt. Shasta; however, certain programs on KHSL and KNVN are subject to blackout due to the FCC's network non-duplication and syndication exclusivity 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.
