KMYS

KMYS, virtual channel 35 (UHF digital channel 32), is a CW-affiliated television station serving San Antonio, Texas, United States that is licensed to Kerrville. The station is owned by Deerfield Media; Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns NBC affiliate WOAI-TV (channel 4) and Fox affiliate KABB (channel 29), operates KMYS under a joint sales and shared services agreements. All three stations share studio facilities located off Loop 410 in northwest San Antonio, and its transmitter is located in rural southeastern Bandera County (east-northeast of Lakehills).

History

Early history

The station first signed on the air on November 6, 1985 as KRRT; it was the first English language general entertainment independent station in the San Antonio market, as well as the first English-language commercial television station in San Antonio since KONO-TV (channel 12, now KSAT-TV) signed on in January 1957. The station was founded by the TVX Broadcast Group. Prior to the station's launch, San Antonio was the largest television market in the United States that did not have an independent station. Despite the large population of San Antonio proper (it had around 900,000 residents at the time the station signed on), San Antonio has always been a medium-sized market because the surrounding suburban and rural areas, then as now, were not much larger than San Antonio itself. San Antonio had been large enough to support an independent since at least the early 1970s. However, the market is a fairly large one geographically, and UHF stations do not carry very well across large areas. By the early 1980s, cable had gained enough penetration for a locally-based independent to be viable.