KGW to launch Spanish subchannel, plans 24/7 news, weather

By Mitch Nolan — Tuesday, August 25, 2009; 5:10 pm

Spanish-language television network Estrella TV will premiere September 7 at 12am on KGW's 8.2 digital subchannel, according to broadcast operations manager Josy Ansley. This confirms information posted by Brad Taylor in our forums. Estrella airs news and original entertainment programming, but will not, according to industry publication Media Life, air the soap operas that are the primetime staples of Telemundo and Univision.

Estrella replaces the KGW Weather Channel that currently airs on 8.2. But don't despair, weather watchers, Ansley says it is their intention to add an additional subchannel on 8.3 featuring 24/7 weather, as well as news and information, "as soon as it's technically possible."

The station will not be picking up Universal Sports, a network airing on the digital subchannels of many NBC affiliates across the country.

UPDATE (8/25, 7:51pm): Universal Sports has been on KRCW's 32.2 since April.

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Comments

Wednesday, August 26, 2009; 8:57 am — RANZ (not verified)

Won't that channel be

Won't that channel be redundant with NWCN? Why do we need two 24/7 local/regional channels running the same 6 stories over and over and over and over and over....

Wednesday, August 26, 2009; 10:54 am — Typer (not verified)

Finally

An opportunity to use "Ocho" in a promo.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009; 4:07 pm — Mike (not verified)

So much for quality HD

So much for quality HD broadcasts. Adding an 8.3??

Wednesday, August 26, 2009; 4:41 pm — Mitch Nolan

8.3

It's not clear what the news component will be on 8.3, since it's still in the planning stages. But if the choice is between Seattle or Coeur d'Alene news on NWCN or Portland news on 8.3, I'll go with 8.3.

This comment is in reply to the first comment, which I've tried replying to three times. Maybe I can't post nested comments? Has anyone else had this problem?

Wednesday, August 26, 2009; 4:43 pm — Mitch Nolan

Nested comments

Hm, it does look like there's a problem with nested comments. I guess that could explain why there are fewer comments than usual around here. If anyone has had their comments not appear, could they say when it happened? I'm trying to figure out when it started so I can figure out a solution.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009; 4:56 pm — newsguy

i just tried posting a nested

i just tried posting a nested comment and it didn't show up.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009; 5:06 pm — Mitch Nolan

It's the rating system

But if I turn it off, then buried comments will reemerge. I'm looking through the troubleshooting now.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009; 5:25 pm — Mitch Nolan

And now I can't turn it off

And now I can't turn it off even if I want to, else it spits back a bunch of errors. Nice!

Wednesday, August 26, 2009; 6:43 pm — Mitch Nolan

Direct replies temporarily disabled

Fun times!

Saturday, August 29, 2009; 5:15 pm — Mitch Nolan

Reenabled!

The developer of the rating system fixed the problem and direct replies work again.

Sunday, September 6, 2009; 5:51 pm — Boise watcher (not verified)

KTVB 24/7

KTVB has 24/7 on 8.2 -- which is the highest rated "dot two" in the country. It's a pretty good station with a newscast wheel.

They also have NWCN on 8.3

Monday, September 14, 2009; 5:50 am — Anonymous Source (not verified)

KGW Weather Channel

Sad! Missing it already this morning. Where's Press "one" for English? ........ ;)

Wednesday, September 16, 2009; 12:57 pm — Anonymous Source (not verified)

format change for 8.2

Tuesday night I decided to check the weather for a moment on 8.2. Not only did I not get any weather, I got an Hispanic version of " American Bandstand", complete with middle-aged cowboys enthusiastically belting out Spanish lyrics, and a whole side show of bikini babes, not middle-aged. This was well before 8:00 PM. This noon I caught up on the news on KGW as is my custom, and was flipping past 8.2 when my daughter said "What's THAT?". "IT" was apparently a Mexican soap opera. No doubt about the sexual content there.
I'm not Hispanic, but I appreciate that there is a good and growing market for Spanish language television in this market. That's great. I also know that it's wrong to subject innocent viewers to such offence. I know that KGW knows it too. I feel less and less of a reason to watch KGW's offerings and more reason to not want to associate myself with their programming. Surely you can do better and in Spanish too.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009; 1:40 pm — Mitch Nolan

What exactly did you see?

Estrella had said that they would avoid the standard telenovelas, but soap operas are known for showing skin, both in English and Spanish. It wouldn't be unusual to catch women in bikinis or negligee, intimately posed with shirtless male leads.

Monday, November 2, 2009; 12:29 pm — glen johnson (not verified)

i thank kgw weather channel

i thank kgw weather channel is well be on 8.3 is coming soon
l bar is come back soon

Thursday, December 10, 2009; 12:02 am — Anonymous Source (not verified)

I'd like to see a 24-hour news channel

I get TV programming only over the air, so no Northwest Cable News for me. I would love to see Channel 8 do an 8.3 with 24 hour news and weather.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010; 10:02 am — glen johnson (not verified)

i get emil kgw.com

i just email kgw.com i tell make 8-3 call kgw weather channel is going be come back coming back well soon i tell kgw-tv make 8-3 comcast 318.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010; 12:14 pm — Anonymous Source (not verified)

How does someone get that

How does someone get that drunk at 10 in the morning?

Tuesday, January 19, 2010; 10:20 am — Anonymous Source (not verified)

name

i sorry get my name my glen johnson jr i just get email kgw.com i tell people about make 8.3 kgw weather channe and 8.4 call northwest cable news email this station

Tuesday, January 19, 2010; 10:21 am — glen johnson jr (not verified)

name

i sorry get my name my glen johnson jr i just get email kgw.com i tell people about make 8.3 kgw weather channe and 8.4 call northwest cable news email this station

Friday, January 22, 2010; 12:45 pm — glen johnson (not verified)

KGW weather channel l bar

kgw weather channel back 2008 nbc weather plus shut down 2 year ago replaces kgw weather channel the l bar screen show weather tep now 5 day forcast on screen note i thank kgw weather l bar completle off becuse they going change spanish station i bleave you got vist kgw.com watch on sky cam
7 day forcast weather Anonymous Source try email kgw.com tell
make kgw weather channel 8-3 and 8-4 nwcn okay.