KCAU
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Sioux City, Iowa United States |
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| Branding | KCAU 9 (general) KCAU 9 News (newscasts) |
| Slogan | Siouxland Proud |
| Channels |
Digital: 9 (VHF) Virtual: 9 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels | 9.1 ABC 9.2 Escape 9.3 Bounce TV 9.4 Laff |
| Translators | 30 (UHF) Sioux City |
| Affiliations | ABC (secondary until 1967) |
| Owner |
Nexstar Media Group (Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc.) |
| First air date | March 9, 1953 |
| Call letters' meaning | Cares About U |
| Sister station(s) |
Des Moines: WOI-DT Sioux Falls: KELO-TV |
| Former callsigns | KVTV (1953–1967) |
| Former channel number(s) |
Analog: 9 (VHF, 1953–2009) Digital: 30 (UHF, until 2009) |
| Former affiliations |
Primary: CBS (1953–1967) Secondary: NBC (1953–1954) DuMont (1953–1955) DT2: AccuWX (2009–2012) LWN (2012–2015) |
| Transmitter power | 29.5 kW |
| Height | 616 m |
| Facility ID | 11265 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 42°35′12.2″N 96°13′57.1″W / 42.586722°N 96.232528°W |
| Licensing authority | FCC |
| Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
| Website | www.siouxlandproud.com |
KCAU-TV is the ABC-affiliated television station in Sioux City, Iowa, broadcasting digitally on VHF channel 9. The KCAU TV Tower is a guyed mast for TV transmission in Sioux City at 42°35′12.2″N 96°13′57.1″W / 42.586722°N 96.232528°W. The tower was built from 1965-1967 and is 609.9 meters (2000 feet) high. It is tied for the tallest structure of the state and is one of the tallest structures in America.
KCAU signed on air as KVTV on March 9, 1953. KCAU is western Iowa's oldest television station, placed on the air by Peoples Broadcasting Corporation, a subsidiary of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., which in turn was an affiliate of the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation. It carried programming from all four networks of the day--CBS, ABC, NBC and DuMont. However, it was a primary CBS affiliate owing to WNAX' long affiliation with CBS Radio. It lost NBC in 1954 when KTIV signed on, and DuMont when that network virtually ceased functioning in 1955.
KVTV, like most Sioux City stations, could actually put a grade-B signal into Sioux Falls. This bothered Midcontinent Media, owner of that city's KELO-TV, which switched to CBS in 1960. Pressure from Midcontinent president Joe Floyd eventually led Peoples Broadcasting to put KVTV up for sale. Forward Communications purchased KVTV in October 1965, with the intention of making Channel 9 the ABC affiliate for both Sioux City and Sioux Falls, and Peoples purchased WATE-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee.. At that time, no full ABC affiliate put even a grade B signal into the area. Forward built a new tower northeast of Sioux City that would reach more viewers than ever before. After 22 months of preparation, during which the amount of ABC programming on KVTV increased noticeably, channel 9 officially joined ABC on September 2, 1967, at 12:30 PM. Along with the new affiliation came new call letters, KCAU-TV. In almost no time, KCAU became one of ABC's highest-rated affiliates. Three days after the switch, on September 5, 1967, KMEG-TV signed on and took the CBS affiliation. KCAU branded as Siouxland ABC for most of the 1970s, even though Sioux Falls got an ABC affiliate of its own in KORN-TV (channel 5, now KDLT-TV on channel 46). The KVTV calls are now assigned to the CBS affiliate in Laredo, Texas.
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