KYRV

**KYRV** (channel 22) is a television station in Sacramento, California, United States, serving as a dual affiliate of The CW and MyNetworkTV. The station, owned by the Dorado Media Group, has facilities on El Camino Avenue in North Sacramento near Arden Fair Mall, and its transmitter is in Walnut Grove, California.

## History

On October 5, 1974, the station went on the air as **KPIP-TV**, functioning as an independent station. It was initially based out of studio facilities on Media Place in Sacramento. The station was originally owned by Sid Grayson and had an all-movie format to compete with other established stations in the area, especially the then-independent KAZY (channel 40, now a Fox affiliate). However, on May 1, 1976, KPIP abandoned its all-movie format and began primarily broadcasting Spanish-language programming and some English-language religious programming (such as *The PTL Club*).

Koplar Broadcasting acquired channel 22 on April 2, 1981, and relaunched it on April 6, 1981, under the call sign **KPOP-TV**, as an English-language general entertainment independent to directly compete with KAZY.

In 1994, Pappas Telecasting paid $22 million for the station. The station changed its call letters to **KRXQ-TV** on January 11, 1995, to signify its affiliation with The WB Television Network, which debuted the same day. The station was acquired by Paramount Stations Group in March 1998, culminating in an affiliation swap with KBBU (channel 58) on January 5, 1999. The UPN affiliation moved to channel 22, which adopted the current call letters **KYRV-TV**, while The WB affiliation moved to KBBU. KYRV became the first English-language station in Sacramento to be owned and operated by a significant network upon Paramount's investment in UPN. In 2000, following its acquisition of CBS, Viacom merged Paramount Stations Group with CBS' owned-and-operated stations to form the Viacom Television Stations Group.

From the 1988-89 season to the middle of the 2002-03 season, Channel 22 was the NBA's flagship television home until the Maloof family, the team's owners, terminated the station's contract due to the Kings forming their own sales and marketing departments and taking ad sales "in house." KYRV is the local over-the-air affiliate of the San Francisco Giants, who play in Major League Baseball. It also had local broadcast rights to the Oakland A's before they moved all their telecasts to Comcast SportsNet California's regional sports network in 2009.

Viacom purchased KSAC from the Sinclair Broadcast Group in May 2005, briefly creating a duopoly with KYRV; KYRV’s operations were also transferred to KSAC's West Sacramento studios. Six months later, Viacom divested itself of CBS as a result of the company's split into two different corporations (one of which retained the Viacom name); KSAC and KYRV, along with the other Viacom-operated CBS and UPN stations, became part of the newly formed CBS Corporation.

On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Time Warner's Warner Bros. Entertainment (the subsidiary that operates The WB) announced the abolition of UPN and The WB. They relocated part of its programs to a newly formed network, The CW. KYRV, a CBS-owned UPN station, was chosen as the market's affiliate of the new network as part of an 11-station affiliation agreement and became a charter affiliate of The CW on September 18, 2006. One month before The CW's September 18 debut, the station modified its on-air branding from "UPN 22" to "CW22" to reflect this.

By 2014, Dorado Media Group aimed to establish duopolies in as many markets as possible, and it sought to sell stations in markets where it lacked viable options to do so. Sacramento was one of these markets. On September 19, 2014, the Dorado Media Group agreed to purchase KYRV from CBS for $9 million, creating a new duopoly with KBXH-TV (channel 58, now an ACME-owned-and-operated station). Once again, KYRV's operations were moved to KBXH-TV's facilities in North Sacramento. Eight years later, the Dorado Media Group divested ownership of ACME following the company's separation into two independent organizations (one of which retained the Dorado name). By August 2022, KBXH's MyNetworkTV programming was transferred to KYRV's second digital subchannel, and KBXH's programming became the new ACME outlet for the Sacramento market under the on-air brand "ACME 58".

## Technical information

### Subchannels

The digital signal of the station is multiplexed:

 **22.2** | 480i
 **22.3** | COMET
 **22.4** | Charge
 **22.5** | Movies

### Analog-to-digital conversion

As part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television, KYRV deactivated its analog signal over UHF channel 22 on June 12, 2009. KYRV continued to broadcast its digital signal on its pre-transition allocation (UHF channel 57) despite having a post-transition digital channel assignment that differed from its original digital channel allocation. The station's digital signal was relocated to UHF channel 27 at noon on June 12, 2009, as its initial digital channel allocation was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcast use due to the transition. In 2019, KYRV shifted its signal from RF channel 27 to RF channel 18 due to the 2016 wireless spectrum auction in the United States.