KNIN-TV

Station logo used from 2003 until 2006. An alternate version with The CW logo below the "9" was featured until 2009.

The station signed on March 8, 1991, as KTMW and aired an analog signal on VHF channel 9. It was originally locally owned by William Schuyler and affiliated with the Home Shopping Network (HSN). The call sign would change to KHDT-TV on April 13, 1992. Schuyler later sold the station to a subsidiary of Lambert Broadcasting, LLC. On January 16, 1995, it became a charter UPN affiliate, also carrying WB network programming on a secondary basis.

The call letters became KNIN-TV on August 30, 1996 and, during the first five years with those calls, the station was known as Boise's "no news" channel and had a mascot news anchor named 'Rot Weiller'. The call letters are pronounced "canine", the Latin term for a dog.[1] It phased out the news anchor mascot in 2002.[2]

In late 1998, the station dropped WB programming, as the network decided to only air on cable outside the top 100 markets. Through national service The WB 100+, "KWOB" replaced KNIN as Boise's affiliate, and cleared the entire WB schedule. KNIN was eventually sold to Banks Broadcasting (50% of the company was owned by the LIN TV Corporation of Providence, Rhode Island).

On September 18, 2006, KNIN became an affiliate of The CW (the merger of UPN and The WB), carrying it on the main channel in place of UPN. A new second digital subchannel signed on offering The CW Plus (a similar operation to The WB 100+) as the replacement for "KWOB". The former cable-exclusive station then dropped the faux calls in favor of KNIN-DT2, creating a situation where CW primetime programming aired on both DT1 and DT2. Though, the children's programming block, Kids' WB (later The CW4Kids) was not picked up on the main channel, which was instead carried on The CW Plus subchannel while the main channel instead carried syndicated E/I programming. On July 1, 2008, Banks Broadcasting announced that it had agreed to sell KNIN to Journal Communications (owner of KIVI), creating Boise's first television duopoly.[3][4]

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) initially rejected the application on November 10;[5] shortly afterward, Banks Broadcasting filed an appeal, and on January 16, 2009 the FCC reversed its decision, allowing the deal to go through.[6] The purchase closed on April 24, at which point KNIN remained on the air with a master control crew at the West Bannock Street studios in downtown Boise until KIVI's new facilities in Nampa were finished. On September 25 of that same year, KNIN went dark at midnight for eight hours while the station was reconfigured to broadcast from the new studios in Nampa at 8 a.m. that Saturday.[7] On September 1, 2011, KNIN assumed the Fox affiliation from KTRV-TV (channel 12), upon expiration of their CW affiliation agreements.[8][9][10][11]

On September 12, CW Plus programming moved to KYUU-LP and a subchannel of KBOI-TV.[12] The last CW program to air on KNIN was America's Next Top Model. KNIN's first Fox program was a repeat of Bones. Besides this television station sharing the same call sign with KNIN-FM 92.9 in Wichita Falls, Texas, there is no relation between the two. KNIN-DT2 previously carried the Live Well Network, it added Heroes & Icons on May 20, 2015.

On July 30, 2014, it was announced that the E. W. Scripps Company would acquire Journal Communications in an all-stock transaction. The combined firm will retain their broadcast properties and spin off their print assets as Journal Media Group.[13] Originally, KNIN-TV, KIVI-TV and 5 radio stations, were not included in the merger; in September, Journal filed to transfer these stations to Journal/Scripps Divestiture Trust (with Kiel Media Group as trustee).[14][15] The merge was completed on April 1, 2015[16][17] and Kiel Media Group assumed the operations of the license, Scripps retained KIVI and the other 5 radio stations.[18] On May 7, 2015, Raycom Media agreed to purchase KNIN-TV for $14.5 million; Scripps then entered into a shared services agreement that will allow KIVI to continue to provide services to KNIN. This arrangement is similar to one that the two companies have in West Palm Beach, Florida, where Raycom's Fox affiliate WFLX is operated through SSA by Scripps' NBC affiliate WPTV.[19] The sale was completed on October 1, 2015.[20] The SSA continued unchanged after Raycom merged with Gray Television in January 2019.

Syndicated programming on KNIN includes Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory among others.

Following Journal's acquisition of KNIN, it began airing a weeknight prime time newscast produced by KIVI. Then known as Today's 6 News on K9, the show could be seen for thirty minutes. In January 2011, KIVI upgraded its local newscasts to 16:9 enhanced definition widescreen and the KNIN weeknight broadcast was included. Although not true high definition, broadcasts match the aspect ratio of HD television screens.

Corresponding with the station's affiliation switch to Fox from The CW on September 1, 2011, the weeknight prime time show became known as Fox 9 News at 9. The newscast was expanded to an hour and originally featured separate news anchors on weeknights. Eventually, the show was renamed Fox 9 On Your Side and began to resemble local news seen on KIVI. The newscast competes with a weeknight half-hour show on KYUU that is produced by KBOI. In addition, KIVI made the prime time news on this station a seven night operation.

On August 25, 2014, KNIN launched an hour-long extension to Good Morning Idaho from 7:00–8:00 a.m. with KIVI's current morning team.[23]

• Official website
• KIVITV.com - Official KIVI-TV Website
• KNIN-TV in the FCC's TV station database
• Query TV Fool's coverage map for KNIN
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KNIN-TV