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KUNP

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KUNP
CityLa Grande, Oregon
Channels
BrandingUnivision Portland
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
KATU
History
FoundedAugust 6, 1999 (1999-08-06)
First air date
December 3, 2001 (23 years ago) (2001-12-03)
Former call signs
  • KBPD (2001–2002)
  • KPOU (2002–2006)
Former channel number(s)
Analog: 16 (UHF, 2001–2009)
MundoFox/MundoMax (2012–2016)
Call sign meaning
"Univision Portland"
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID81447
ERP18.95 kW
HAAT760 m (2,493 ft)
Transmitter coordinates45°18′32.4″N 117°43′57.7″W / 45.309000°N 117.732694°W / 45.309000; -117.732694
Translator(s)KUNP-LD 47 Portland
Links
Public license information
Websitekunptv.com

KUNP (channel 16) is a television station licensed to La Grande, Oregon, United States, affiliated with the Spanish-language network Univision. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Portland-based ABC affiliate KATU (channel 2). The two stations share studios on Northeast Sandy Boulevard in Portland; KUNP's transmitter is located east of Cove atop Mount Fanny, within eastern Oregon's Wallowa–Whitman National Forest.

Because of the location of its transmitter facilities 240 miles (390 km) from downtown Portland, KUNP's over-the-air signal is unable to reach Portland proper. To overcome this, its signal is relayed on a low-power translator station, KUNP-LD (channel 47), which serves the immediate Portland area from a transmitter on Willamette Stone Park Road (near Skyline Boulevard) in the Sylvan-Highlands section of Portland, along with cable and satellite coverage folded into KATU's retransmission consent agreements to cover the market, along with some outlying areas. It also previously relayed its signal via analog translator KABH-LP (channel 15) in Bend. KABH was owned by WatchTV, Inc., alongside its crosstown Portland HSN affiliate KORK-CA, but was operated by Sinclair under a local marketing agreement (LMA). KABH's license was canceled by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on March 19, 2015, for failure to file a license renewal application.

History

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KUNP's online logo as of 2007
KUNP's logo prior to January 1, 2013

The station was founded on August 6, 1999, and formally signed on the air on December 3, 2001, as KBPD; it changed its call letters to KPOU on May 14, 2002. The call letters changed again to the current KUNP on December 5, 2006. KABH-LP was founded on June 1, 1992, as K15DO, but did not take to the air until November 3, 1993.

KUNP was originally owned by Equity Broadcasting Corporation; it was acquired by Fisher Communications on November 3, 2006, along with KUNS-TV in Seattle. Fisher would associate the two stations with the ABC affiliates it already owned in those markets, KATU and KOMO-TV. At one point, KUNP also had KKEI-CA as another translator prior to the Fisher acquisition. That station is now a Telemundo affiliate owned by WatchTV, Inc., which owned the now-defunct KABH-LP.

On August 21, 2012, Fisher Communications signed an affiliation agreement with MundoFox, a Spanish-language competitor to Univision that was owned as a joint venture between Fox International Channels and Colombian broadcaster RCN TV, for KUNP and Seattle sister station KUNS to be carried on both stations as digital subchannels starting in late September.[2] MundoFox would eventually rebrand as MundoMax in 2015 before ending all operations on December 1, 2016.

On April 10, 2013, KUNP, KATU, and Fisher Communications's other holdings were acquired by the Sinclair Broadcast Group.[3][4] The Federal Communications Commission granted its approval of the deal on August 7,[5] and the sale was completed the following day.[6]

On May 8, 2017, Sinclair Broadcast Group entered into an agreement to acquire Tribune Media—owner of CW affiliate KRCW-TV (channel 32)—for $3.9 billion, plus the assumption of $2.7 billion in debt held by Tribune. Sinclair would have been required to sell one of KUNP or KRCW-TV if the deal were to be approved.[7] However, in 2018, the FCC designated the deal for hearing by an administrative law judge;[8] the deal was then terminated by Tribune.[9]

On September 23, 2024, the Portland Trail Blazers announced a new television deal with Sinclair to create the Rip City Television Network. Under the deal, KUNP would begin airing Blazers games in January 2025.[10] On September 26, Sinclair announced that KUNP would drop its Univision affiliation in 2025 to pivot the station to English-language programming.[11]

Technical information

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Subchannels

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The station's signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of KUNP[12] and KUNP-LD[13]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
KUNP KUNP-LD
16.1 47.1 1080i 16:9 KUNP Univision → Independent (eff. 2025)
16.2 47.2 480i TheNest The Nest
16.3 47.3 Charge Charge!
16.4 47.4 TBD TBD

Analog-to-digital conversion

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Since KUNP did not sign on-the-air before the April 21, 1997, deadline for the FCC's digital television allotment plan, the station was not granted a companion digital signal. Therefore, on or before June 12, 2009, the station was required to turn off its analog signal and turn on a new digital signal (a method known as a "flash cut") on UHF channel 16. KUNP-LP, as a low-power station, continued to broadcast in analog until April 13, 2012, when it made its flash-cut to digital transmission on UHF channel 47 and changing its callsign suffix from "-LP" to "-LD".

Translator

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City of license Callsign Channel ERP HAAT Facility ID Transmitter coordinates
Portland KUNP-LD 34 15 kW 455 m (1,493 ft) 34882 45°31′13″N 122°44′41″W / 45.52028°N 122.74472°W / 45.52028; -122.74472 (KUNP-LD)

References

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  1. ^ "Facility Technical Data for KUNP". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^ Fisher Adds MundoFox In Seattle, Portland, TVNewsCheck, August 21, 2012.
  3. ^ "Sinclair acquiring Fisher Communications". katu.com. April 11, 2013. Archived from the original on October 4, 2013. Retrieved April 11, 2013.
  4. ^ Colman, Price (April 10, 2013). "Sinclair poised to buy Fisher stations". TVNewsCheck. Archived from the original on October 14, 2022. Retrieved April 11, 2013.
  5. ^ "Consent to Transfer" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on December 27, 2016. Retrieved August 7, 2013.
  6. ^ "Sinclair Broadcast Group Closes On Fisher Communications Acquisition". All Access. August 8, 2013. Retrieved August 8, 2013.
  7. ^ Jessell, Harry A.; Miller, Mark K. (May 8, 2017). "The New Sinclair: 72% Coverage + WGNA". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheck Media. Archived from the original on August 2, 2017. Retrieved August 19, 2018.
  8. ^
  9. ^
  10. ^ "Portland Trail Blazers Announce Future of Trail Blazers Broadcasting". Portland Trail Blazers. Retrieved September 24, 2024.
  11. ^ "Portland's KUNP-TV will drop Univision affiliation, Spanish-language programming". The Oregonian. September 26, 2024. Archived from the original on September 26, 2024. Retrieved September 26, 2024.
  12. ^ "RabbitEars TV Query for KUNP". RabbitEars.info. Retrieved September 24, 2024.
  13. ^ "RabbitEars TV Query for KUNP-LD". RabbitEars.info. Retrieved September 24, 2024.
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