KCVU

Contract dispute with Northland Cable

On May 6, 2007, KCVU replaced Medford Fox affiliate KMVU on Northland Cable Television channel 13 in both Mt. Shasta and Yreka when KMVU and Northland could not come to an agreement to remain on the cable system. (Northland also carried sister station MyTV Northern California on cable channel 2, but it was replaced with KFBI-LP of Medford.) Northland had been blocked from airing Fox Network programming as a result. However, in a report from the Siskiyou Daily News on February 8, 2008, it appears that the dispute is settling down and Northland is working with KMVU and KCVU to return either channel to both cable systems. KNVN replaced KMVU on channel 13 in Mt. Shasta and channel 11 in Yreka. KHSL-TV started to air on channel 6 in Yreka and KDRV is also on channel 6 in Mt. Shasta. KMVU finally won the contract dispute and KCVU will no longer air on both cable systems because all Fox affiliates are under syndex. KMVU and all the other local stations are fed to Yreka via OTA translator and has a fiber-optic link to Mt. Shasta except for KNVN which uses a Dish Network feed.

Death of Chester Smith

The Sacramento Bee and Chico Enterprise Record reported that Chester Smith, founder of Sainte Partners, died on August 8, 2008, at Stanford Medical Center in Palo Alto, California at age 78. He was survived by his wife Ann and his children. Despite Smith's death, Sainte continued to own and operate KCVU and its sister stations in the Sainte family.^[1][2] The family continued to operate the station group despite poor financial practices.

KBVU and KVIQ went digital on November 28, 2008, and were rebranded from Fox 29 and CBS 6 to Fox 28 and CBS 17, respectively.

In August 2012, it was announced that Sainte would sell KCVU & KBVU to Esteem Broadcasting of California, and would fully merge its operations with ABC affiliates KRCR & KAEF.^[3]

Sale to Cunningham

On April 21, 2017, Sinclair Broadcast Group announced its intent to purchase the Bonten stations (including KRCR) for $240 million.^[4] As part of the deal, Sinclair's sidecar Cunningham Broadcasting will acquire the Esteem stations (including KCVU).^[5] The sale was completed September 1.^[6]

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

On August 21, 2009, KCVU and KBVU replaced the digital simulcast of MyNetworkTV with This TV on their DT2 subcarriers. This was later replaced with Cozi TV.

Analog-to-digital conversion

KCVU shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 30, on December 22, 2008, due to lack of funding and used its existing digital facilities, as did its other debt-ridden rivals KHSL and KNVN.^[9] The virtual channel was changed from 30 to 20 and the station was rebranded as "Fox 20 Digital."

High definition

Fox programs broadcast from 8-10 p.m. are broadcast in high definition, as are sporting events on such as Major League Baseball, NASCAR and NFL Football. Unlike co-owned market competitors KHSL and KNVN, however, none of KCVU's syndicated programming (most of which is distributed in high definition) is broadcast in HD. It is unknown when this will change.

Regionally distributed, locally produced programs

Fox 20 provides facilities and services to tape local programs from its studios in Chico. There are currently no local programs scheduled. (Two of the station's longtime regional programs, Issues & Answers and Pray Northstate, were cancelled in 2010 by management.)