KPNZ
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| KPNZ-TV | |
|---|---|
| Salt Lake City, Utah | |
| Branding | Noticias 24 |
| Analog channel | 24 (VHF) |
| Digital channel | 49 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | La Familia Network Mega TV on DT2 |
| Owner | Taylor Media Stations Group |
| Founded | December 19, 1997 |
| Call letters meaning | K United Paramount Network Z (former affiliation) |
| Former affiliations | Independent (until 10/2000), UPN (10/2000-6/5/2006), Anime National (6/5/2006-1/1/2008) |
KPNZ is a La Familia Network affiliate serving the Salt Lake City, Utah television market. The station was founded in 1997 as KAZG, and broadcast a variety of Spanish family-oriented programming.
KAZG became the Salt Lake City market's UPN affiliate, replacing previous affiliate KJZZ in January 2001. This change came about due to several factors, most notably a disagreement over affiliate compensation, pre-emption terms, and what KJZZ ownership saw as the lack of financial viability of urban-themed programming in the Salt Lake City market. In October 2000, KJZZ made national headlines when it demanded the right to back out of its UPN contract if UPN increased its "urban/ethnic programming" to more than two hours per week. UPN responded by moving their programming to KAZG, which then changed its call letters to KPNZ.
In August 2001, the station was moved from the broadcast tower in Ogden to their Salt Lake City studio in the International Center.
In January 2006, CBS Broadcasting Inc. and Warner Brothers announced that the UPN and WB networks would merge into one giant network called "The CW." Later that year, KPNZ removed the UPN branding from its website, referring to the station as Anime 24. On June 5, 2006, KPNZ replaced UPN programming from its schedule with anime programming. Taylor Media announced that it's Anime National programming has moved it's programming to KJZZ making KPNZ an affiliate of the Spanish family-oriented La Familia Network. It is possible that KPNZ may affiliate Telefutura, if Equity's station KUTF decides to affiliate it's new spanish network LAT TV.
Digital Transition
In an unorthodox move, this station has applied to move their analog broadcast to another channel, 49, and to change the transmission on their current channel, 24, to Digital television. This is different from most stations who have been granted a license on the higher UHF band for digital broadcast, and will keep their analog transmission on their current channel until the digital conversion is complete.
Legal Battles
In May 2005, H.R. Director and Accounting Manager Brad Brewer was fired from KPNZ for embezzlement. Shortly after, in July 2005, Brewer. General Manager Kurt Gentry and Traffic Manager Bonnie Dunn were originally arrested by Salt Lake City Police on charges of theft, fraud and forgery. The charges against Gentry were dropped quickly upon investigation by Salt Lake District Attorney, Hall. Charges against Dunn were dismissed in court as well. Brewer was charged with 31 separate count and has since settled. All charges have been dropped or dismissed. The circumstances behind the arrests and dismantling of KPNZ are still unclear, though many rumors have been made public by partners, former employees and clients.
