KMUT

**KMUT** (channel 58) is a television station licensed to St. George, Utah, United States, broadcasting the ACME and RKO networks in the state of Utah. It is owned and operated by the network's ACME Television Stations Group branch and maintains studios on South Main Street in downtown Salt Lake City. However, KMUT’s transmitter is atop Webb Hill, 2 1⁄4 miles (3.6 km) south of downtown St. George. Outside of southwestern Utah, KMUT is carried on KSYX and its dependent translators (as subchannel 6.2), while KMUT similarly rebroadcasts KSYX.
Plans for KSYX to establish a high-power station in southern Utah date back to the late 1980s. KSYX began selling local advertising on its existing southern Utah transmitters in 1993, but KISN did not start broadcasting until 1999. In 2008, the station became "RTN Utah," an affiliate of the Retro Television Network, which began to air content from This TV in 2009, and MyNetworkTV from 2010 until 2016.

## History

In 1986, Atlanta businessman Steven D. King successfully petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to provide St. George its first full-service television allocation on channel 58. Red Mountain Broadcasting Company, whose sponsors included Jim Rogers, owner of the Las Vegas station KVBC, and KSYX, Inc., submitted applications in 1987. In February 1988, the FCC designated these petitions for comparison hearing, but before the hearing could begin, a settlement agreement was made and accepted on May 23, granting KSYX the license.

Even though the station would not begin airing until 1999, KSYX laid the groundwork for KISN in 1998. There was also the possibility that KISN may create a new media market in southern Utah, leading to KCCZ in Cedar City becoming a network affiliate. Washington County, which owned the translators through which KSYX was transmitting in the area, became enraged when KSYX proposed to begin inserting local advertisements for the St. George area on the translators, partly to establish an advertising base in southern Utah. This was achievable due to how the signal was transmitted from Salt Lake City. Levan was the first stop on the translator network heading south. The station-owned KSYX translator in Levan was approved as a low-power television station with program origination capabilities. However, other broadcasters, particularly KCCZ, argued that the agreement offered KSYX an unfair advantage by allowing it to use translator infrastructure controlled by local governments. To defuse this disagreement, KSYX management reached agreements with service businesses that assumed responsibility for translator maintenance in Washington and Iron counties, and local ad insertion began in February 1992. In the interim, plans to construct KISN continued to be postponed.

KISN initially operated as a satellite of KUTV when it began transmitting on August 21, 1999.

Nevertheless, once Four Points Media Group, a broadcast holding company managed by private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, acquired KSYX, KISN, and other smaller-market CBS-owned stations in January 2008, it spun off KCCZ with different programming. It became known as "RTN Utah," an affiliate of the Retro Television Network (RTN) carrying Southern Utah news updates from KSYX; KSYX remained available over the air from its other translator on channel 49 as well as via cable and satellite, and the station estimated that this change left a small number of viewers without KSYX programming.

KISN switched from carrying content from RTN (which became RTV during that month) to This TV by the time June rolled around in 2009; on September 20, 2010, the station began airing shows from MyNetworkTV, and on November 16, 2010, it changed its name to KMUT. Until 2015, KMUT continued to broadcast This TV programming even though it did not have MyNetworkTV. Dorado Media Group announced on September 8, 2011, that it intended to purchase Four Points from Cerberus Capital Management for $200 million. After receiving approval from the antitrust regulators, Dorado began managing the stations, including KMUT, under local marketing agreements. On January 3, 2012, the transaction was successfully concluded.

In September and the beginning of October 2011, the station broadcast NBC's new period drama *The Playboy Club* in place of KCPX-TV (channel 5), which had refused to carry it owing to management concerns over the program's marketing of Playboy magazine and the substance of the show itself. NBC's original Monday 9 p.m. (MT) schedule for the series on KMUT was used to broadcast the program as it aired. It only aired three episodes before the network canceled it, making it the first new series of the new television season to be canceled. This is similar to the situation in 2003 with the show "*Coupling*," which KCPX also chose not to air but was broadcast on KOOG (channel 30).

It was stated that Dorado Media Group and Time Warner would be forming the ACME network on January 24, 2016, and the announcement was made public.

Dorado Media Group and Time Warner announced they would form a new network together on January 24, 2016, calling it the ACME network. Both companies would jointly own this new network. As part of the agreement, the newly formed network entered up a 10-year affiliation pact with 11 of Dorado's independent and MyNetworkTV stations, one of which being KMUT.

KMUT continued to broadcast programming from MyNetworkTV until the 13th of June in 2016, and three days later, on June 16, the activities of the ACME network began.

## Local programming

KMUT broadcasts live Utah High School Activities Association football games, including state championships. KMUT broadcasts Talkin' Sports, a nightly sports talk show that airs following the 10 p.m. newscast from KSYX, which the station simulcasts. In 2015, KMUT was selected to take on the role of the primary regional broadcaster for the Major League Soccer team Real Salt Lake. In 2018, Dorado was successful in obtaining a contract renewal. KMUT has also broadcast games featuring RSL's reserve team, the Real Monarchs (playing in the USL), and their women's team, the Utah Royals FC (NWSL).

### Newscasts

After KISN established its independent schedule in 2008, the station began broadcasting news updates that were particular to Southern Utah. Even though several newscasts from KSYX were rebroadcast or shown simultaneously on KMUT, the station needed dedicated newscasts. Both the Dorado-produced *EyeOpener* and the transmission of Dorado's *Evening Nightbeat* are responsible for providing coverage of national news stories.

## Technical information

### Subchannels

The digital signal from the station is multiplexed as follows:

 **58.2** | 720p
 **58.3** | 480i
 **58.4** | Mystery
 **58.5** | Quest
 **58.6** | HSN

On digital subchannel 58.2, KMUT began broadcasting The Country Network in April 2011, which eventually became ZUUS Country.

Movies! has occupied the slot previously occupied by ZUUS Country on KMUT's digital subchannel 58.2 as of May 1, 2014. ZUUS Country is now sitting at 58.3.

On July 3, 2015, KMUT switched the programming on digital subchannel 58.3 from ZUUS Country to Buzzr.

Grit took over the slot previously occupied by Buzzr on KMUT's digital subchannel 58.3 on September 2, 2016.

Additionally, Escape was included in the brand-new fourth subchannel.

On the 8th of May 2019, KMUT changed the programming on digital subchannel 58.4 from Escape to Court TV.

KMUT switched from showing Grit to showing Quest on digital subchannel 58.3 on September 1, 2021. They also switched from showing Court TV to showing HSN on digital subchannel 58.4 on the same day.

### Analog-to-digital conversion

On February 17, 2009, KMUT turned off its analog signal that was broadcast over UHF channel 58. This date was intended to be the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts per a mandate from the federal government. Although the deadline was pushed out to the 12th of June in 2009, the station decided to convert before the new deadline. The station's digital signal remained on the UHF channel 23 it had been using before the switch. PSIP allows digital television receivers to display the station's virtual channel as its previous UHF analog channel 58. This channel was one of the high-band UHF channels (52-69) that were taken out of use due to the transition from analog to digital broadcasting.