is a television station in
Albuquerque, New Mexico . It is a
UPN network affilliate, and broadcasts on channel 50. The station offers general entertainment such as sitcoms, talk shows, reality shows, court shows, paid programming and first run shows from UPN.
It is part of the only major
Television Duopoly in Albuquerque. Its owner,
ACME Communications , also owns
KWBQ , a
WB network affiliate.KASY is the only station owned by
ACME Communications that is not a
WB affiliate.
In January of 2006 UPN and WB announced a merger where both networks would shut down and come together to form
The CW Network in the Fall. UPN and WB will continue to operate separately until the early Fall. On
March 9 ,
2006 , it was announced that 19 KWBQ will take the CW Network and less than a week later, KASY 50 announced it will take
My Network TV programming. (This made ACME the third company, after Capitol Broadcasting and Weigel Broadcasting, to own both CW and My Network TV affiliates in the same market.)
KASY Channel 50 signed on on October 6, 1995 with a General entertainment format. They were owned by
Ramar Communications but were managed by LIN Broadcasting which owned 13
KRQE -TV which was and is the CBS affiliate.
Initially KASY 50 ran cartoons, old movies, talk shows, classic sitcoms, recent off network sitcoms as well as first run programming from both UPN and WB networks. This was easy to do at that time because niether network had more than a couple nights a week of programming. Then in December of 1998 WB 19
KWBQ signed on with a similar general entertainment format and took the WB affiliation while KASY would keep UPN. In June of 1999 Acme TV bought KASY from Ramar Communications and terminated the Local Marketing Agreement with KRQE CBS 13 owned by LIN. Most of the programming inventory airing on KASY was also bought while some of the shows stayed with LIN to air on KRQE CBS 13.
In the Fall of 1999 KASY dropped its UPN affiliation and broadcast movies and syndicated programming in place of UPN programs. By the end of the year though UPN affiliation was reinstated.
