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| City | Brownsville, Texas |
| Channels | |
| Branding | NBC 23; CBS 4 |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| KGBT-TV | |
| History | |
First air date | December 19, 1981 (43 years ago) (1981-12-19) |
Former call signs | KVEO (1981–2009) |
Former channel numbers | Analog: 23 (UHF, 1981–2009) |
| UPN (secondary, 1997–1999) | |
Call sign meaning | KVEO =que veo, Spanish for "what I watch" |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 12523 |
| ERP | 1,000kW |
| HAAT | 445 m (1,460 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 26°6′2.8″N97°50′19.5″W / 26.100778°N 97.838750°W /26.100778; -97.838750 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
KVEO-TV (channel 23) is atelevision station licensed toBrownsville, Texas, United States, serving theLower Rio Grande Valley as an affiliate ofNBC andCBS. It is owned byNexstar Media Group alongsideHarlingen-licensedKGBT-TV (channel 4), which airsAntenna TV andMyNetworkTV. The two stations share studios on West Expressway (I-2/US 83) in Harlingen; KVEO-TV's transmitter is located inSanta Maria, Texas.
KVEO-TV was the third major commercial station to start in the Rio Grande Valley, beginning broadcasting on December 19, 1981. It immediately became the full-time NBC affiliate in the market. Its original ownership was rocked by financial problems and connections to a failed bank; it emerged from bankruptcy in 1984. Two attempts at local newscasts (1981–1982 and 1985–1986) lasted less than two years each. The station was sold to what becameCommunications Corporation of America (ComCorp) in 1990. ComCorp began airing local news programming on the station again in 2007, though beginning in 2010 this was produced out-of-market at another station in the company.
Nexstar acquired KVEO-TV in 2013. In 2020, it acquired fromSinclair Broadcast Group all of the non-license assets of KGBT-TV, which had been the CBS affiliate, and its facilities. KGBT-TV's programming became the CBSsubchannel of KVEO-TV, and news programming was realigned on both channels.
The first construction permit for channel 23 at Brownsville was awarded to Pan American Broadcasting Corporation in 1974; officials intended to build the station as the missing network affiliate for the market, thenABC.[2] The station got as far as receiving call letters,[3] but no building activity occurred. In 1978, the FCC review board granted an extension of time, noting that Pan American had attempted to merge with another proposed UHF station atMcAllen; that merger fell through, and the group was allowed to try and transfer the permit.[4]
The Pan American permit never materialized, and the channel was empty when Tierra del Sol Broadcasting Corporation applied on October 21, 1979, for channel 23.[5] It immediately sought NBC affiliation; at the time, the city had a dual NBC–CBS affiliate, KGBT-TV, that had to try and provide the best programs from both networks and manage conflicts in such areas as sports.[6]
During construction, Tierra del Sol Broadcasting sought to change electricity providers for its studio facility. The KVEO-TV studio building, the former The Godfather nightclub in Brownsville,[7] was originally to be served by the city-owned Public Utility Board (PUB). However, it had a poor reputation for reliability, andbrownouts were frequent on the system. The station desired to be served byCorpus Christi-based Central Power & Light (CP&L). It cited a 1975 Texas court decision that allowed it to become a CP&L customer because of its proximity to a CP&L line; when the PUB refused to disconnect its service to the building to permit the change in provider, KVEO did so itself with CP&L's permission, an action that the PUB then appealed to Texas utility regulators in addition to charging the station with criminal mischief.[8][7][a] KGBT-TV ceased airing NBC programming on July 1, 1981, at which time KVEO ran newspaper advertising promising it would be on the air in less than 60 days with the NBC programs that would temporarily go unseen in the Valley.[10] However, tower construction delays kept the station off the air.[11]
KVEO began broadcasting on December 19, 1981. It struggled to find an audience, particularly for itsTotal 23 News programming, with viewers already tuned to KGBT-TV andKRGV-TV. The station's early evening newscasts were canceled in July 1982,[12] followed by the late news that September.[13] Additionally,the Mexican peso slumped beginning in February 1982, two months after the station signed on. That provoked a sharp decline in business activity on the American side of the Rio Grande and created further issues for a station that was already burdened with debt.[14]
In order to raise cash for operating expenses, Peter Dean—one of the partners in Tierra del Sol and its chairman of the board[15]—sold the station's uncollected advertising accounts to a company known as Central Texas Factors. Dean had helped to organize the company with Lawrence Ludka, his law partner; involved in the firm were several principals of theRanchlander National Bank, a financial institution in the small town ofMelvin. Tierra del Sol sued Dean and Ludka in October 1982 for splitting the revenues derived from this business without its knowledge or consent.[15] In response, Dean moved to force KVEO into bankruptcy, claiming it owed him more than $600,000. Another owner of Tierra del Sol, Darrell Davis—who had anchored the station's newscasts prior to their cancellation—called Dean's actions malicious. Davis toldThe Brownsville Herald, "Mr. Dean has done us and the Valley wrong, and he is in for the most interesting time of his life."[13] Dean's issues were magnified when the Ranchlander National Bank failed on November 19, itsde facto owner having been revealed to be a former felon convicted for bank embezzlement.[16][17] The probe into bank fraud and related broadcasting activity broadened shortly before Christmas as investigators looked into Central Texas Factors.[15] On December 21, 1982, Peter Dean was found dead on a ranch owned by his father-in-law inComal County.[18] The medical examiner determined that he had died from drinking cola laced withcyanide, though there was also a hose attached to the vehicle's exhaust, and traces ofcarbon monoxide were found in his body.[19]
Legal proceedings involving KVEO-TV continued into 1983. In April, a deal was reached with Guadalupe South Texas Communications, a commercial subsidiary of theDe Rance Foundation ofMilwaukee, to purchase KVEO.[20] However, the buyer and seller could not agree on the value of some KVEO-TV assets, delaying closing of the purchase.[14] While this matter was pending, Hundred East Credit Corporation—which held rights to the station's transmitting equipment—accused station officials of fraud, believing they were diverting money to a production company they co-owned even though KVEO's assets had been frozen. Guadalupe South Texas concurred, believing the station would be unable to pay any of its $9.5 million in debts unless a trustee were appointed.[21] In November, Tierra del Sol agreed on an amended purchase arrangement with Guadalupe South Texas, with some of the proceeds being used to pay creditors.[22]
However, that sale failed to materialize. Instead, Valley Broadcasting purchased the station for $7.6 million in late 1984.[23] The new ownership restored local news to KVEO in the form ofNewsWatch 23 newscasts that began in April 1985. The anchor was Ron Oliveira, who had been working in theAustin market atKVUE; he left to become KVEO's assistant general manager because he wanted management experience en route to someday owning his own station.[24][25] Facing poor ratings and a depressed economy, and having been promised by the network that discontinuing local news programming would not place its NBC affiliation in jeopardy, the last newscast aired in September 1986.[26]
In 1986, Billy Goldberg—the majority owner of Valley Broadcasting, by then renamed SouthWest MultiMedia—and Oliveira were given an initial grant for a new television station onchannel 54 in Austin; Goldberg had pledged to divest himself of KVEO prior to that station going on air.[27] That station was eventually significantly delayed by appeals to thecomparative hearing process, but Oliveira had already sold his house in Brownsville and returned to KVUE in Austin.[28]
In 1990, SouthWest MultiMedia sold its three television stations—KVEO,KWKT-TV inWaco, andKPEJ-TV inOdessa—for $30.4 million to Associated Broadcasters, Inc., a company owned by Thomas R. Galloway ofLafayette, Louisiana. While Galloway had previously owned interests in other stations, the transaction represented Associated's first television holdings alongside three Louisiana radio stations.[29] Galloway's broadcast holdings were known asCommunications Corporation of America (ComCorp) by the mid-1990s.[30]
Under ComCorp, the station eschewed local news and called itself "The Valley's Entertainment Leader".[7] AfterUPN first established a secondary affiliation with KRGV-TV, which only carriedStar Trek: Voyager,[31] the network's programming had moved to KVEO by 1997.[32] In 1999, the station lost UPN toXHRIO-TV inMatamoros, Tamaulipas, when that station lostTelemundo.[33] KVEO-TV also began broadcasting in digital in June 2005, adding high-definition programming in February 2006.[34]
KVEO's lack of local news did not change until October 1, 2007, when KVEO began producing evening newscasts again under the nameNewsCenter 23.[35] As a cost-cutting measure, ComCorp opted to discontinue the production of newscasts from Brownsville in January 2010. Instead, the news programs would be presented by on-air personalities ofKTSM-TV, ComCorp's station inEl Paso, with local reporters filing stories that were edited and prepared in El Paso.[36]
On April 24, 2013, ComCorp announced the sale of its television stations, including KVEO-TV, toNexstar Broadcasting Group. The ComCorp sale was completed on January 1, 2015.[37]
Nexstar andSinclair Broadcast Group settled a breach of contract lawsuit stemming fromSinclair's failed acquisition of Tribune Media, which was ultimately acquired by Nexstar, in January 2020. Sinclair paid Nexstar $60 million and transferred to itWDKY-TV servingLexington, Kentucky, and all of the non-license assets related toKGBT-TV, the CBS affiliate in the market, including the affiliation, programming, and physical plant.[38] At midnight on January 28, 2020, the CBS subchannel of KGBT-TV became the CBS subchannel of KVEO-TV and moved from channel 4.1 to channel 23.2.[39] In addition, Nexstar announced that it would merge KVEO and KGBT's operations at the latter's facility in Harlingen.[40] KGBT-TV itself was acquired byMission Broadcasting, an affiliated company; Nexstar then exercised its option to purchase it outright in July 2021.[41]
KVEO-TV's transmitter is located inSanta Maria, Texas.[1] The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | KVEONBC | NBC |
| 23.2 | KVEOCBS | CBS |
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** Owned by third parties but operated by Nexstar through various agreements. | ||
