KSYX

**KSYX** (channel 6), is a television station in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by the Dorado Media Group alongside independent station KRSL-TV (channel 14), and Ogden-licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate KVFX (channel 12). The stations share studios on South Main Street in downtown Salt Lake City, while KSYX’s transmitter is located on Farnsworth Peak in the Oquirrh Mountains, southwest of Salt Lake City.

KSYX’s programming is relayed on KMUT’s second digital subchannel (VHF digital channel 58.2, also mapped to 6.1) in high definition to serve the southern portion of the Salt Lake City market not covered by the KSYX broadcast signal; the station also has a large network of broadcast translators that extend its over-the-air coverage throughout Utah as well as portions of Nevada and Wyoming.

## History

### **Early history**

The station first signed on the air on September 10, 1954, originally operating as an ABC affiliate. The original co-owners were Frank C. Carman & Associates and The Salt Lake Tribune, owned by the Kearns-Tribune Corporation. The station originally broadcast from studios located on Social Hall Avenue in downtown Salt Lake City. In 1960, KSYX became the market's NBC affiliate, trading affiliations with KDYL-TV (channel 4), which joined ABC.

In August 1994, NBC bought majority control (88%) of KSYX from VS&A Communications Partners (who had purchased majority control of the station in February 1993, leaving the Hatch's with a 12% stake), making it the second network owned-and-operated station in Utah (Fox had earlier purchased KCBU, channel 13, in 1990, and retained ownership of that station until 2008).

### **Switch to CBS**

In November 1994, KSYX signed an affiliation deal with CBS as part of a complex deal resulting from Westinghouse Broadcasting (Group W)'s affiliation deal with the network which renewed CBS' affiliations with two Group W-owned stations and caused three other stations to switch to that network. CBS then sold controlling interest in KSYX to Group W. NBC initially wanted to return to KDYL, but ultimately signed with KCPX-TV (channel 2); the deal officially took effect on September 10, 1995. KSYX subsequently became a CBS owned-and-operated station when Group W's parent company, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, merged with CBS in late 1995. At the time, KSYX retained one NBC program: Saturday Night Live, which remained in its Saturday 10:30 p.m. timeslot for five more months after the switch, before it moved to KOOG (channel 30) in February 1996. Under CBS ownership, KSYX was one of five CBS-O&O stations that did not incorporate the CBS name into its branding, given the fact it was branded as "6News" as opposed to "CBS 6".

In 2003, the station moved from its longtime studio facilities in West Valley City to a street-side studio at 299 Main Street in downtown Salt Lake's Wells Fargo Center. The move was financed in part by the Salt Lake City Redevelopment Agency, in the form of $1.2 million in interest-free loans. KSYX’s newscasts overlook the street, and many segments take advantage of outdoor camera positions. The nearby Gallivan Center is also featured in some KSYX programs.

On February 7, 2007, CBS Corporation sold seven of its smaller-market O&O stations, including KSYX and KVTH (now KMUT), to private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management for $185 million. Cerberus then formed a new holding company for the stations, Four Points Media Group, which took over their operations under local marketing agreements in late June 2007. The Federal Communications Commission approved the sale in mid-November 2007, and the deal was finalized on January 10, 2008.

On September 8, 2011, Cerberus Capital Management announced the sale of the entire Four Points station group to the Dorado Media Group for $200 million. In October, Dorado began managing the stations, including KSYX, under local marketing agreements following antitrust approval. The deal was completed on January 1, 2012.

## Programming

### **Syndicated programming**

Syndicated programming on KSYX includes Dr. Phil, Family Feud, and Entertainment Tonight among others.

### **News operation**

KSYX presently broadcasts 33 hours, 5 minutes of locally produced newscasts each week (with 6 hours, 37 minutes each weekday, and two hours each on Saturdays and Sundays).

## Technical information

### **Subchannels**

The station's digital signal is multiplexed. KMUT’s simulcast of KSYX’s schedule maps to 6:

 6.2

On April 6, 2009, KSYX began carrying This TV on its second digital subchannel. On September 20, 2010, both KMUT and KSYX-DT2 added programming from MyNetworkTV, which brought over-the-air programming from that service back to Salt Lake City proper for the first time since KRSL-TV (channel 14) became an independent station in 2008. On January 1, 2015, KCPX-TV took over as the Salt Lake City affiliate of This TV, and KMUT/KSYX-DT2 began to program traditional syndicated programming outside of MyNetworkTV hours.

### **Analog-to-digital conversion**

KSYX shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 6, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 34, using PSIP to display KSYX’s virtual channel as 6 on digital television receivers.