KENS - History

History

Channel 5 signed on the air on February 15, 1950 as KEYL, a primary CBS affiliate with secondary affiliations with DuMont, Paramount Television Network, and ABC (shared with WOAI-TV). KEYL was one of Paramount's strongest affiliates, carrying nearly the entire network line-up. Among the Paramount programs that KEYL aired were Armchair Detective, Latin Cruise, Hollywood Reel, Hollywood Wrestling, Time For Beany, and Movietown, RSVP.

A year after its launch, Storer Broadcasting (which had good relations with CBS) bought the station. In 1954, Storer had to sell KEYL to the San Antonio Express-News, which also purchased what became the original KENS-AM (680 kHz, now KKYX), in order for Storer to complete its purchase of WXEL-TV (now WJW) in Cleveland, Ohio because the company would have been one VHF station over the Federal Communications Commission's new ownership limit of seven television stations, with no more than five of those on VHF, which went into effect that year. (At the time, newspapers could own television and/or radio stations in the same market provided that such ownership complied with the FCC-mandated ownership limits of each property in effect at the time.) The new owner changed KEYL's call letters to the present-day KENS-TV. KENS was the second station to begin broadcasting in San Antonio, three months behind WOAI-TV. DuMont ceased most network operations in 1955, but would honor network commitments until 1956; at that point, DuMont disappeared from the station's schedule. It lost ABC when KONO-TV (now KSAT-TV) signed on in 1957, leaving KENS as a full-time CBS affiliate. During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network.

In early 1962, the Express-News and KENS-AM-TV were purchased by Harte-Hanks Communications; the radio station was sold off a few months later since Harte-Hanks was not interested in radio station ownership at the time. When the FCC tightened its cross-ownership rules in the early 1970s, Harte-Hanks sought grandfathered protection for its San Antonio media combination. However, while the FCC granted such protection to several media combinations across the country, it would not do the same to the Harte-Hanks combination in San Antonio. Accordingly, in 1973, Harte-Hanks opted to keep KENS-TV and sell the Express-News to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

In the mid-1980s, KENS broadcast a short-lived second channel, exclusively on Rogers Cablevision channel 24, called KENS II. Programming seen on KENS II, cable station under the direction of station manager Larry Smith with Harte-Hanks Communications includes; replays of Eyewitness News newscast, broadcasts of Ron Taylor and Janie Groves classified real estate programming; and a few locally produced programs and specials such as Richard Courchesne and Michael Saul’s Auto TV, and Barney Regets’ computer generated musical video kaleidoscope created earlier at UA Columbia’s Consumer Cable 29.

In 1993, Harte-Hanks acquired what at the time became the second incarnation of KENS-AM (1160 kHz). In September 1997, Harte-Hanks sold its remaining media properties, including the KENS stations, to the E. W. Scripps Company in order to concentrate on direct marketing. At the same time, Belo announced that it would swap its controlling stake in the Food Network to Scripps in exchange for the KENS stations. The Harte-Hanks/Scripps deal and the transfer of Belo's stake in the Food Network to Scripps were both completed on October 15 of that year. At that time, Belo took over the operation of the KENS stations through a time brokerage agreement. Belo completed its purchase of the KENS stations on December 4, 1997. The second incarnation of KENS-AM was sold to Disney/ABC in 2003, becoming Radio Disney station KRDY.

KENS remained closely associated with the Express-News, even though the station and newspaper have been under separate ownership for many years. The station shared its main website with the newspaper until the end of 2008, when the news partnership agreement between KENS and the Express-News expired. The station launched Kens5.com on January 26, 2009 (initially using Belo's own in-house CMS operations, but now operated via the Broadcast Interactive Media CMS.) Kens5.com has been recognized with Lone Star Emmy Awards and the 2011 Regional Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Large-Market Website.

Prior to late April 2010, KENS also managed UPN, later The CW, affiliate station KCWX through a local marketing agreement (LMA). (That station has since switched to MyNetworkTV.)

Immediately following the digital transition on June 12, KENS and several other Belo stations officially dropped the -TV suffix from their legal call signs.