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| History | |
First air date | November 8, 1959 (66 years ago) (1959-11-08) |
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Former channel numbers | Analog: 17 (UHF, 1959–2009) |
Call sign meaning | "KernGolden Empire Television" |
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 34459 |
| ERP | 135kW |
| HAAT | 405 m (1,329 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 35°26′17.1″N118°44′26.3″W / 35.438083°N 118.740639°W /35.438083; -118.740639 |
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Public license information | |
| Website | www |
KGET-TV (channel 17) is atelevision station inBakersfield, California, United States, affiliated withNBC and owned byNexstar Media Group. Its seconddigital subchannel serves as anowned-and-operated station ofThe CW (viaThe CW Plus), as Nexstar owns a majority stake in the network. KGET-TV issister tolow-powerTelemundo affiliateKKEY-LD (channel 13) and the two stations share studios on L Street inDowntown Bakersfield; KGET-TV's transmitter is located atop Mount Adelaide.
Founded by businessman Ed Urner, channel 17 first broadcast on November 8, 1959, as KLYD-TV, anABC affiliate.[3] The station originally operated from studios located on Eye Street in Bakersfield. It was co-owned with KLYD-AM 1350 (nowKLHC), and is one of very few TV stations to be started by a daytime-only radio station. Urner would sold the station to Dellar Broadcasting in 1962. The call letters changed to KJTV in 1969. Also that same year, the Dellars sold the station to Atlantic States Industries.[4] On August 5, 1974, KJTV swapped affiliations withKBAK-TV (channel 29), becoming aCBS affiliate.
George N. Gillett Jr.'s Gillett Broadcasting bought the station from ASI Communications in 1978. The station's call letters changed again to KPWR-TV on September 27, 1978, when it increased its power to 5,000,000watts. The KJTV calls were then used onFox affiliates inAmarillo andLubbock, Texas. TheAckerley Group purchased the station in 1983. On February 1, 1984, the station changed its calls to the present day KGET, which added the "-TV" suffix in 2002, coinciding with an affiliation swap withKERO-TV (channel 23) to become Bakersfield's NBC affiliate a month later, an affiliation which continues to the present day. It is one of a handful of stations in the United States to have held a primary affiliation with all of theBig Three television networks. In 1997, Channel 17 decided to relocate from their original location on Eye Street to their current studios on L Street (in a building formerly owned byPacific Bell). It was sold to Clear Channel Communications (nowiHeartMedia) in 2001.
KGET stands for "Kern Golden Empire Television," a moniker coined by the station's longtime vice president and general manager,Ray Watson, who was elected to theKern County Board of Supervisors in 2002. The current KGET manager is Derek Jeffery.
On April 20, 2007, Clear Channel entered into an agreement to sell its entire television stations group toNewport Television, a broadcasting holding company controlled byProvidence Equity Partners.[5] However, Providence Equity Partners owns a 19 percent share of theSpanish-language media companyUnivision, the owner ofMyNetworkTV affiliateKUVI-TV (channel 45). In addition, with only five full-power stations, Bakersfield does not have enough to legally support a co-owned duopoly operation. As a result, theFederal Communications Commission granted conditional approval of the sale, provided that Providence Equity Partners divest either KGET or its stake in Univision as soon as the deal was finalized. That happened on March 14, 2008.
In May 2008, Newport Television agreed to sell KGET and five other stations to High Plains Broadcasting, Inc. due to the aforementioned ownership conflict.[6] The sale closed on September 15, 2008;[7] Newport continued to operate KGET under ashared services agreement.[6] Newport agreed to sell KGET and sisterTelemundo affiliateKKEY-LP, as well asKGPE inFresno, California, toNexstar Broadcasting Group on November 5, 2012.[8] The FCC approved the sale on January 23, 2013; and the sale was completed on February 19.[9][10]
On December 3, 2018, Nexstar announced it would acquire the assets ofChicago-basedTribune 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 result in KGET and KKEY-LP gaining additionalsister stations in nearby markets includingLos Angeles (CW affiliateKTLA) andSan Diego (Fox affiliateKSWB-TV).[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] The station was removed fromAT&T U-verse andDirecTV on July 4, 2019, because of an ongoing dispute between AT&T and Nexstar.
KGET-TV airs preseason games and special programming from theLas Vegas Raiders via a deal signed between the team and KGET owner Nexstar Broadcasting.[21] Since 2022, KGET airs 11Los Angeles Clippers regular season games a year syndicated from Nexstar sister stationKTLA.[22]
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | KGET-DT | NBC |
| 17.2 | 720p | CW | The CW Plus | |
| 17.3 | 480i | 4:3 | TELM | Telemundo (KKEY-LD) |
| 17.4 | Laff | Laff |
KGET-TV ended regular programming on its analog signal, overUHF channel 17, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United Statestransitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 25, usingvirtual channel 17.[24]
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** Owned by third parties but operated by Nexstar through various agreements. | ||
