 | This article needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(November 2010) |
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| History | |
First air date | April 11, 2002 (2002-04-11) |
Last air date |
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Former call signs | KTVY-TV (2002–2005) |
Call sign meaning | Equity Goldfield Station |
| Technical information | |
| Facility ID | 86201 |
| ERP | 22.9kW |
| HAAT | 448 m (1,470 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 38°3′5″N117°13′33″W / 38.05139°N 117.22583°W /38.05139; -117.22583 (KEGS) |
| Translator(s) | |
KEGS (channel 7) was anindependent television station inGoldfield, Nevada, United States. It served both theReno andLas Vegasmarkets by way oftranslatorsKRRI-LP (channel 25) in Reno andKEGS-LP (channel 30) in Las Vegas. Like many stations that were owned byEquity Broadcasting, the stations were operated remotely by satellite; their programming could be seen free-to-air onGalaxy 18.[1]
The Las Vegas station was founded on January 12, 1993, as K63FD, and later gained the call sign KTVY-LP in 1997. In April 2002, the Goldfield station signed on as KTVY-TV, matching the station in Las Vegas. Finally, in late May 2005, both stations changed their call sign to KEGS.
Until May 30, 2007, KEGS was affiliated withImaginAsian. On that day, the station switched to theRetro Television Network (RTN).[2]
On January 4, 2009, a contract conflict between Equity Media Holdings Corporation and RTN interrupted the programming on many RTN affiliates.[3] As a result,Luken Communications, LLC (who had purchased RTN in June 2008), restored a national RTN feed from its headquarters inChattanooga, Tennessee, with individual customized feeds to non-Equity-owned affiliates to follow on a piecemeal basis. As a result, KEGS lost its RTN affiliation immediately, though Luken vowed to find a new affiliate for RTN in the Las Vegas market.[4] Viewers in the Reno area could still watch RTN on the digital subchannel of localFox affiliateKRXI-TV, whileKGNG-LP's DT4 subchannel took the affiliation in Las Vegas in June 2009.
At auction on April 16, 2009, KEGS-LP was sold toMako Communications, whileKRRI-LP andKELM-LP were sold toNgensolutions LLC.[5] In June 2013, Mako planned to sell what had become KEGS-LD to Landover 5 LLC as part of a larger deal involving 51 other low-power television stations;[6] the deal fell through in June 2016,[7] and in 2017 Mako's stations, including KEGS-LD, were acquired byHC2 Holdings.[8] The full-service KEGS signal never found a buyer,[9] and signed off permanently on June 12, 2009; its license was finally canceled on July 6, 2010.[10]
Because it was granted an originalconstruction permit after theFCC finalized theDTV allotment plan on April 21, 1997,[11] the station did not receive a companion channel for a digitaltelevision station. Instead, at the end of the digital TV conversion period for full-service stations, KEGS would have been required to turn off itsanalog signal and turn on its digital signal (called a "flash-cut").
The station's owner, Equity Media Holdings, declared bankruptcy in 2008 and was unable to construct digital facilities, leaving the station to godarkin 2009. According to the station's DTV status report, "On December 8, 2008, thelicensee's parent corporation filed a petition forbankruptcy relief underChapter 11 of thefederal bankruptcy code... This station must obtain post-petition financing and court approval beforedigital facilities may be constructed. The station must ceaseanalogue broadcasting on February 17, 2009, regardless of whether digital facilities are operational by that date. The station will file authority to remain silent if so required by the FCC."[12]
While theDTV Delay Act extended this deadline to June 12, 2009, Equity had applied for an extension of the digitalconstruction permit in order to retain thebroadcast license after the station became silent. Equity Broadcasting also held a construction permit to construct a digital companion station to KEGS-LP on channel 24 in Las Vegas; that station, as alow-power broadcasting operation, was not required to cease analog transmission due to DTV transition in 2009.
While the majority of Equity's assets were sold in a 2009 liquidation, neither the digital KEGS transmitter nor the new Las Vegas station were ever constructed.