KNIC-DT

KNIC-DT

Blanco–San Antonio, Texas United States
City	Blanco, Texas
Channels	Digital: 18 (UHF) Virtual: 17
Branding	UniMás 17
Programming
Affiliations	17.1: UniMás 17.2: Univision for others, see § Subchannels
Ownership
Owner	TelevisaUnivision (UniMas Partnership San Antonio)
Sister stations	TV: KWEX-DT Radio: KBBT, KMYO, KROM, KVBH
History
Founded	July 13, 2005
First air date	September 28, 2006 (2006-09-28)
Former call signs	KNIC-TV (2006–2009)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 17 (UHF, 2006–2009)
Call sign meaning	Nicolas Communications (former owner of former station on channel 17, KNIC-CD)
Technical information
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	125710
ERP	1,000 kW
HAAT	200 m (656 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	29°41′48″N 98°30′45″W
Translator(s)	KCOR-CD 34 (27 UHF) San Antonio
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	UniMás

KNIC-DT (channel 17) is a television station licensed to Blanco, Texas, United States, broadcasting the Spanish-language UniMás network to the San Antonio area. It is owned and operated by TelevisaUnivision alongside Univision outlet KWEX-DT (channel 41). The two stations share studios on Network Boulevard in Northwest San Antonio; KNIC's transmitter is located on Hogan Drive in Timberwood Park. Although Blanco is geographically within the Austin market, that city has its own UniMás station, KTFO-CD.

History

KNIC-DT's history traces back to the March 1991 sign-on of K17BY, a low-power television station that San Antonio-based Clear Channel Communications (now iHeartMedia) was issued a construction permit to build on March 23, 1988; operating on UHF channel 17, Clear Channel sold the station in March 1991 to Nicolas Communications. In November 1997, the station changed its calls to KNIC-LP (in reference to its owners); Nicolas Communications sold KNIC-CA in November 2001 (the station received approval to upgrade its license to Class A status that same month) to Univision Communications, a sale that was completed in January 2002; that month, it became a charter affiliate of Univision's secondary network, TeleFutura (which relaunched as UniMás on January 7, 2013).

Univision had applied for a license to build a full-power television station in 2000 on UHF channel 52 in Blanco; after the Federal Communications Commission awarded Univision the license at auction, Univision requested that the FCC move the allocation to UHF channel 17; the request was granted in February 2003. KNIC-TV was founded on July 13, 2005. The formal application for KNIC-TV called for Univision to either move KNIC-CA to another channel, or to shut it down outright, KNIC-CA moved to channel 34 under special temporary authorization, before it ceased operations on September 28, 2006; its license survives as KCOR-CD, a translator of KNIC-DT. KNIC-DT was one of the few television stations to have been built and signed on by Univision Communications.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of KNIC-DT

Channel	Res.	Aspect	Short name	Programming
17.1	1080i	16:9	KNIC-DT	UniMás
17.2			KWEX-DT	Univision (KWEX-DT)
17.4	480i		NVSN	Nuestra Visión
17.5			SHOP LC	Shop LC
12.5	480i	16:9	StartTV	Start TV (KSAT-TV)

  Simulcast of subchannels of another station

  Broadcast on behalf of another station

Analog-to-digital conversion

Because it was granted an original construction permit after the FCC finalized the DTV allotment plan on April 21, 1997 [1], the station did not receive a companion channel for a digital television station. KNIC-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 17, on June 12, 2009. The station "flash-cut" its digital signal into operation UHF channel 18, using virtual channel 17.