KBMT-LD


KBMT-LD was a low-powered MyNetworkTV station, broadcasting on virtual channel 12.5/12.6, digital channel 43 and digital channel 36 for the Beaumont / Port Arthur, Texas area of the United States. This station also had a translator at K27JJ-D in Warren, Texas.
Owned by Tegna Inc., KBMT-LD was the sister station of KBMT, the local ABC/NBC affiliate. Formerly on Spectrum cable in the Beaumont-Port Arthur area, MYTX could also be found on channel 1230. On DirecTV, the station was on channel 43.

History

KUIL

KUIL-LP went on the air on analog channel 64 in 2003 as the market's first Fox affiliate. The station was originally owned by National Communications, owner of KVHP in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Prior to 2003, KVHP served Beaumont and Port Arthur as the local Fox affiliate, in addition to Lake Charles ; KUIL was established as a way to provide local programming just for that region, plus alternate coverage of sports that are more relevant to the Beaumont market. At the outset, KUIL also held a secondary affiliation with UPN; when UPN and The WB merged into The CW, KFDM added the CW to its digital subcarrier channel, leaving KUIL as solely a Fox affiliate.
In November 2007, KUIL signed on a digital signal on channel 36 near Orange, Texas, to help cover the Orange area where the analog 64 signal could not reach.
On October 24, 2008, it was announced that then-NBC affiliate KBTV-TV would become a Fox affiliate on January 1, 2009, indicating that KUIL lost the affiliation at that time. Despite early reports of KUIL pursuing the NBC affiliation, competing station KBMT would broadcast NBC programming on a digital subchannel. As a result, after the Fox affiliation ceased, KUIL became an independent station. To address the 10% of the schedule previously provided by Fox, the station began to add some local programming, some of which would be produced by Lamar University and additional sitcoms like Scrubs. The station adopted The U as its identity, using the same moniker and logo as unrelated station WCIU-TV in Chicago.
KUIL shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 64, on November 27, 2009. On August 3, 2010, the station launched Azteca América on a new 4th digital subchannel, becoming the first Spanish-language television station offered in the Golden Triangle.
In May 2010, London Broadcasting revealed that the company was developing a state network, MYTX, using subchannels like KUIL's.2 operated by KBMT. MYTX would share Texas news and sports and productions from 41 Entertainment, which was owned by London.
By April 2012, KBMT assumed operations of KUIL through a local service agreement with owner Blue Bonnet. The station at the time was a MyNetworkTV affiliate. Earlier in the year, KUIL had added MeTV. In May 2013, KBMT added another hour of 12News Daybreak to KUIL at 7 AM continuing the show from KBMT and KJAC. The call letters were changed to KBMT-LD on February 28, 2018; the KUIL-LD call sign was concurrently moved to K36ID-D. The license for KBMT-LD was cancelled on August 10, 2018.

Programming

Digital channels

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP Short NameProgramming
12.5720pMYTXMain KUIL-LD programming / MyNetworkTV
12.6480iIon Television

On January 9, 2012, KUIL replaced Azteca América with classic television programming from MeTV on 12.4. At some point, MeTV moved to KBMT-DT4.