1. History
    Early years  Since 1996 

2. Digital television
    Digital channels  Analog-to-digital conversion 

3. Programming

4. News operation

5. Translators

6. Heliport

7. References

8. External links

KLAS-TV, virtual channel 8 (VHF digital channel 7), is a CBS-affiliated television station licensed to Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group. KLAS-TV's studios are located at 3228 Channel 8 Drive near the northern portion of the Las Vegas Strip in the unincorporated community of Winchester (though with a Las Vegas mailing address), and its transmitter is located on Mount Arden in Henderson.

History

Early years

KLAS first signed on the air on July 8, 1953; the station was originally owned by Las Vegas Television Inc., run by Hank Greenspun, owner of the Las Vegas Sun. Channel 8 was the first television station to sign on in Nevada (beating KOLO-TV in Reno to the air by two months and five days). It has always been a CBS affiliate, but maintained a secondary affiliation with ABC, which it would share with KLRJ/KORK-TV (channel 3, now KSNV-DT) from that station's sign on in January 1955, until KSHO-TV (channel 13, now KTNV-TV) debuted in May 1956. Greenspun sold the station to aviation magnate Howard Hughes's Summa Corporation in 1968, reportedly because the tycoon was dismayed that the station never played his favorite late night movies. 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 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 annual convention that year. A little more than four years later on April 6, 2000, the first scheduled high definition network broadcasts in Las Vegas began on KLAS' digital signal.

On January 30, 2008, Landmark announced its intention to sell KLAS, along with its other television station WTVF in Nashville.^[1] No suitable buyer for KLAS was found until Landmark took most of its properties off the market in October 2008 due to the economic recession. KLAS and WTVF remained under Landmark ownership for more than four years.

On September 4, 2012, Journal Broadcast Group (owners of one of KLAS' local rivals, ABC affiliate KTNV-TV) announced that it would purchase WTVF for $215 million. The sale was finalized on December 6.^[2] This left KLAS-TV as the only television station in Landmark's portfolio.

On November 21, 2014, Nexstar Broadcasting Group announced that it would purchase KLAS for $145 million.^[3] The sale was completed on February 13, 2015.^[4]

On January 29, 2016, shortly prior to Super Bowl 50, KLAS was dropped from Cox Cable due to a retransmission consent 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 (which was broadcasting the game in Spanish) over the Super Bowl weekend, and encouraged viewers to listen to the English-language radio broadcast while watching it. The next day, KLAS was restored after Cox reached a new deal with Nexstar.^[5][6]

On December 3, 2018, Nexstar announced it would acquire the assets of Chicago-based Tribune Media 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 KLAS additional sister stations in nearby markets including Los Angeles (CW affiliate KTLA) and San Diego (Fox affiliate KSWB-TV). (An ownership conflict exists in Salt Lake City between Nexstar's duopoly of ABC affiliate KTVX and CW affiliate KUCW and Tribune's Fox affiliate KSTU.)^{[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]}

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Analog-to-digital conversion

KLAS-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 8, on June 12, 2009, the official date in 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.^[19][20] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 8.

Programming

Syndicated programming seen on KLAS-TV includes Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune, Live with Kelly and Ryan, and Dr. Phil. The station clears the entire CBS network schedule, though Let's Make a Deal leads out of The Bold and the Beautiful after the noon news and into The Talk, which is unusual scheduling for CBS' daytime programming, allowing Dr. Phil to be led into by The Talk.

News operation

KLAS-TV presently broadcasts 35½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with six hours each weekday, two hours on Saturdays and 3½ hours on Sundays); in addition, the station also produces an additional five hours of local newscasts for its MeTV 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 af 8 a.m., since channel 8 airs the Saturday edition of CBS This Morning. The evening news runs at 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. and is anchored by Dave Courvoisier, Denise Valdez, Paul Joncich and Christianne Klein.

Channel 8 has been the ratings leader in the Las Vegas market for most of its history. However, in recent years, KLAS' local newscasts have been losing ground in the ratings, with rivals KTNV, KVVU and KSNV having successfully eroded ratings for KLAS' newscasts; the station did not finish in first place in any timeslot as of the May 2015 sweeps period and dropped to last place in some timeslots.^[21]

KLAS previously branded its newscasts as Eyewitness News, 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. In the early 1980s, the station's newscasts were branded as Newscenter 8, and used the opening Phenix Horns music of Earth, Wind & Fire'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, 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.^{[22][23][24][25]}

Dave Courvoisier retired from KLAS-TV on December 16, 2017. He had anchored news in the Las Vegas market for 27 years (KSNV from 1985 to 1998, and at KLAS-TV from 2003 to 2017).^[26]

On October 10, 2018, channel 8 began producing an hour-long weeknight 9 p.m. newscast for its MeTV-affiliated digital subchannel, making it the only television station in Las Vegas to air a local newscast in that timeslot.

Translators

KLAS' signal is relayed throughout Nevada and parts of Arizona on the following translator stations:

Heliport

KLAS Channel 8 Heliport – {{Airport codes|||NV38}} (currently not in use by station)

References

External links

• {{Official website|https://www.lasvegasnow.com/}}
• {{TVQ|KLAS-TV}}
• {{BIA|KLAS|TV|TV}}

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