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Yakima, Washington United States |
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Branding | KIMA (general) KIMA Action News (newscasts) CW 9 Yakima/Tri-Cities (on DT2) |
Slogan | Taking Action for You |
Channels |
Digital: 33 (UHF) Virtual: 29 (PSIP) |
Subchannels | (see article) |
Affiliations | CBS |
Owner |
Sinclair Broadcast Group (Sinclair Yakima Licensee, LLC) |
First air date | July 19, 1953 |
Call letters' meaning | YaKIMA |
Sister station(s) | KEPR-TV, KUNW-LD |
Former channel number(s) | 29 (UHF analog, 1953–2009) |
Former affiliations |
DuMont (1953–1955) NBC (1953–1965) ABC (1953–1959, 1965–1970) all secondary |
Transmitter power | 100 kW |
Height | 292 m |
Facility ID | 56033 |
Transmitter coordinates | 46°31′57.8″N 120°30′36.8″W / 46.532722°N 120.510222°W |
Website | kimatv.com |
KIMA-TV is the CBS affiliated television station serving the Yakima, Washington region. The station is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group. Its studios are located on Terrace Heights Boulevard (east of I-82) in Yakima.
The station operates two semi-satellites--KEPR-TV in the Tri-Cities and KLEW-TV in Lewiston, Idaho. However, programming for all three stations is now run from KOMO Plaza (formerly Fisher Plaza) in Seattle along with sister Univision station KUNW-CA.
KIMA offers the only local Yakima-focused newscast with a fully operational newsroom in Yakima weekdays on KIMA Action News at 5, 6 & 11 pm. KIMA's morning and weekend newscasts are shared with KEPR. Branded as KIMA/KEPR Action News, they cover both the Yakima Valley and the Columbia Basin.
On satellite, Dish Network and DirecTV carry both KIMA-TV and KEPR-TV.
KIMA signed on July 19, 1953 as the 200th television station in the United States and the first in central Washington. The station was originally owned by Cascade Broadcasting Company along with KIMA radio (AM 1460, now KUTI). It carried programming from all three networks until KNDO signed on in 1959 as an ABC affiliate, but KNDO switched affiliations to NBC in 1965. KIMA then shared ABC programming with KNDO until 1970, when KAPP signed on and took over ABC.
Just before KIMA signed on, the Federal Communications Commission collapsed all of central Washington--including the Tri-Cities--into one giant television market. It soon became apparent that channel 29 was not nearly strong enough to cover this vast and mountainous area by itself. With this in mind, in 1954 Cascade signed on KEPR-TV as the first satellite station in the United States. It was originally intended to be a full repeater of KIMA-TV, but due to popular demand it became more of a local station.