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KAYU-TV
KAYU-TV (channel 28) is a television station in Spokane, Washington, United States, affiliated with Fox and MyNetworkTV. Owned by Rincon Broadcasting Group, the station has studios on South Regal Street in Spokane, and its transmitter is on Krell Hill southeast of the city.
After beating out Springfield Television for the construction permit in 1981, Spokane native Robert Hamacher, a former employee of KREM-TV and later an executive at KSTW in Tacoma, put KAYU on the air on October 31, 1982. The first program to air was an episode of Rawhide. It was Spokane's first independent station and the first new commercial station to sign on in the area since KREM-TV began broadcasting 28 years earlier. It is also the oldest non-Big Three station in the eastern part of the state. It joined Fox as a charter affiliate on October 9, 1986.
On October 1, 1989, KAYU-TV launched two low-power semi-satellites: K53CY in Yakima (known on-air as "KCY") and K66BW in the Tri-Cities (branded as "KBW"). Both stations aired most of KAYU's programming (with the exception of select programs that KAYU did not have the rights to show in those markets), though with local commercials. K53CY was replaced in 1993 by K68EB, though it continued to go by "KCY" outside of station identifications.
Hamacher's company, Salmon River Communications sold KAYU-TV, along with K68EB (which was soon renamed KCYU-LP), KBWU-LP (the former K66BW), and KMVU in Medford, Oregon, to Northwest Broadcasting, a company controlled by Brian Brady, in 1995. Hamacher became chief operating officer of Northwest Broadcasting, netting a handsome return on his investment of 15 years earlier. KCYU and KBWU remained semi-satellites of KAYU until 1999, when full-power sister station KFFX-TV signed on from Pendleton, Oregon, and became their program source.
KAYU also carried UPN as a secondary affiliation from the network's launch on January 16, 1995, to 1997 when KSKN (channel 22) became the network's new affiliate.
On December 17, 2019, Apollo Global Management acquired the entirety of Brian Brady's television portfolio, as part of a larger transaction that saw it also acquire Cox Media Group. While the company was initially to be known as Terrier Media, it had been announced in June 2019 that Apollo would also acquire Cox's radio and advertising businesses, and maintain the existing Cox Media Group name for the combined company. Brady holds an unspecified minority interest in the company, which gave KAYU an in-state sister station in Seattle's CBS affiliate KIRO-TV.
On March 29, 2022, Cox Media Group announced it would sell KAYU-TV and 17 other stations to Imagicomm Communications, an affiliate of the parent company of the INSP cable channel, for $488 million; the sale was completed on August 1.
On April 3, 2025, Imagicomm announced that it would sell seven stations, including KAYU-TV, to Todd Parkin's Rincon Broadcasting Group; the deal was consummated on July 18.
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KAYU-TV
KAYU-TV (channel 28) is a television station in Spokane, Washington, United States, affiliated with Fox and MyNetworkTV. Owned by Rincon Broadcasting Group, the station has studios on South Regal Street in Spokane, and its transmitter is on Krell Hill southeast of the city.
After beating out Springfield Television for the construction permit in 1981, Spokane native Robert Hamacher, a former employee of KREM-TV and later an executive at KSTW in Tacoma, put KAYU on the air on October 31, 1982. The first program to air was an episode of Rawhide. It was Spokane's first independent station and the first new commercial station to sign on in the area since KREM-TV began broadcasting 28 years earlier. It is also the oldest non-Big Three station in the eastern part of the state. It joined Fox as a charter affiliate on October 9, 1986.
On October 1, 1989, KAYU-TV launched two low-power semi-satellites: K53CY in Yakima (known on-air as "KCY") and K66BW in the Tri-Cities (branded as "KBW"). Both stations aired most of KAYU's programming (with the exception of select programs that KAYU did not have the rights to show in those markets), though with local commercials. K53CY was replaced in 1993 by K68EB, though it continued to go by "KCY" outside of station identifications.
Hamacher's company, Salmon River Communications sold KAYU-TV, along with K68EB (which was soon renamed KCYU-LP), KBWU-LP (the former K66BW), and KMVU in Medford, Oregon, to Northwest Broadcasting, a company controlled by Brian Brady, in 1995. Hamacher became chief operating officer of Northwest Broadcasting, netting a handsome return on his investment of 15 years earlier. KCYU and KBWU remained semi-satellites of KAYU until 1999, when full-power sister station KFFX-TV signed on from Pendleton, Oregon, and became their program source.
KAYU also carried UPN as a secondary affiliation from the network's launch on January 16, 1995, to 1997 when KSKN (channel 22) became the network's new affiliate.
On December 17, 2019, Apollo Global Management acquired the entirety of Brian Brady's television portfolio, as part of a larger transaction that saw it also acquire Cox Media Group. While the company was initially to be known as Terrier Media, it had been announced in June 2019 that Apollo would also acquire Cox's radio and advertising businesses, and maintain the existing Cox Media Group name for the combined company. Brady holds an unspecified minority interest in the company, which gave KAYU an in-state sister station in Seattle's CBS affiliate KIRO-TV.
On March 29, 2022, Cox Media Group announced it would sell KAYU-TV and 17 other stations to Imagicomm Communications, an affiliate of the parent company of the INSP cable channel, for $488 million; the sale was completed on August 1.
On April 3, 2025, Imagicomm announced that it would sell seven stations, including KAYU-TV, to Todd Parkin's Rincon Broadcasting Group; the deal was consummated on July 18.