KIVA (TV)
| Yuma, Arizona | |
|---|---|
| Channels | Analog: 11 (VHF) |
| Affiliations | Defunct |
| Owner | Valley Telecasting Company Merrill Telecasting Company |
| Founded | February 26, 1953 |
| First air date | October 8, 1953 |
| Last air date | January 31, 1970 |
| Former affiliations |
NBC (1953–1970) CBS (1953–1963) ABC (1953–1968) DuMont (1953–1956) |
KIVA was a full-service television station in Yuma, Arizona, broadcasting locally on VHF channel 11. It was a primary NBC affiliate for its entire existence, though it also carried other networks' programming for much of its history. It was the first local television station in Yuma, and for more than half of its existence, the only local station. It signed on October 8, 1953 and signed off January 31, 1970. For most of its existence, KIVA was licensed to Valley Telecasting under control of several owners until 1967, and was licensed to Merrill Telecasting from 1967 until sign-off.
The Imperial Valley gained its first television station on March 25, 1953, when the FCC awarded a permit to Valley Telecasting to construct a television station on VHF channel 11. The original studios and transmitter would be located at Pilot Knob in California about ten miles west of Yuma.
On October 6, 1953, the station, which had by that time acquired the call letters KIVA, sent out a very faint test pattern by accident, but it was received by several people. Two days later, the station was broadcasting a full-strength test signal, and began regularly scheduled service on October 18. It was the first television station in Arizona outside of Phoenix or Tucson. As the only local television station in the market, it carried select programming from NBC, ABC, CBS, and DuMont. It operated on Pacific Time, so the program start times in Yuma were an hour later than typical, as Yuma was on Mountain Time. At first, KIVA broadcast eight hours a day, from test pattern sign-on at 3 PM until sign-off at 11 PM, then slowly expanded the broadcast day until reaching a full daily schedule in August 1956.
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