KITY

**KITY** (digital channel 21, virtual channel 53) is an independent station serving Salt Lake City, Utah. KITY is owned and operated by Atlantic South Communications.

## History

The station first began broadcasting on February 7, 1968 as an independent station. For many years, the station would be verbally referred to on-air as "Kitty 53" (with the exception of legal IDs) and used a cat as their mascot. For the majority of the station's first tenure as an independent, the station carried a general entertainment format consisting of old and recent movies, westerns, dramas, various other off-network reruns, religious programming, and cartoons. With the rise of MTV in the early-to-mid 80's, KITY added some music video blocks to their lineup. The station also maintained a secondary affiliation with the Financial News Network (FNN) from 1981 until 1985, when FNN went cable-only (they would later cease operations altogether in 1991.)

The station became a charter affiliate of The WB Television Network upon its launch on January 11, 1995. The station would continue to identify as just "KITY 53" (keeping the pronunciation of "kitty") until 1997 when they would finally rebrand as "The WB 53." The cat mascot was also phased out, but was briefly revived as part of the digital transition in 2009.

In 1996, KITY began carrying programming from all-request music video network The Box on a secondary basis. Programming from The Box began at 9 p.m. (immediately following WB programming) until 7 a.m. the next morning. During commercial breaks outside of The Box's time slot, KITY would air the typical music video request menus as well as a special telephone number. Viewers would then be asked to call that number at any time to put in the three-digit code for the music videos they wanted to be played (viewers were allowed to pick up to 3 videos at a time), which would then be queued up to be played when The Box's programming began. The Box ceased operations in 2001, and syndicated programming and routine sign-offs returned to that network's former time slot.

After failing to secure an affiliation with The CW, as well as turning down an offer to affiliate with MyNetworkTV, KITY returned to independent status when The WB ceased operations in September 2006.

For 2021, KITY introduced a refreshed version of its original cat mascot.

## Digital Television

On August 15, 2017, KITY moved Antenna TV programming to its third digital subchannel and Light TV (which has since ceased operations; subchannel now occupied by Stadium) programming to a new fourth subchannel. KITY-DT2 became Salt Lake City's home of the XTV network upon its launch a month later. A high definition feed of KITY-DT2 is available exclusively on local cable providers.

KITY's broadcasts are digital-only as of June 11, 2009.

## News Operation

In 2008, KITY launched a 9 p.m. newscast known as "KITY NewsWatch at 9," seen for a half-hour all seven nights a week. For a brief period in 2011, it was expanded to a full 3 hours from 7 to 10 p.m. and would be redubbed as "KITY NewsWatch Prime." It would later be shortened back to a half-hour at 9 due to undesired ratings.

In 2010, the station launched an hour-long weekday morning newscast, airing from 7-8 a.m., known as "KITY NewsWatch Mornings." All newscasts on the station air in full high-definition.

On May 19, 2020, KITY launched a half-hour 5:30pm newscast.