KPNZ launched on Dec 6, 1998 is an Azteca America station serving Salt Lake City, Utah and is licensed to Ogden. The channel is owned by HC2 Holdings with KBTU-LD as its sister. Studios of KPNZ are located on North Wright Brothers Drive in the northwestern section of Salt Lake City. Its transmitter is located on Farnsworth Peak in the Oquirrh Mountains, southwest of Salt Lake City.
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History
KPNZ first signed on air on Dec 6, 1998 as an independent service under the calls: KAZG. In Jan 2001, it became Salt Lake City UPN affiliate after it separated with KJZZ. The switch resulted because of various reasons and one main reason was a disagreement over affiliate compensation, financial viability and preemption terms. Furthermore, the things aggravated when KJZZ announced that it will not hesitate to end the agreement if, UPN increased the urban-themed and ethnic content to more than two hours per week. United Paramount Network then shifted to KAZG which changed its calls to KPNZ. The operations of the channel were relocated from its original facility in Ogden to the International Salt Lake City in Aug 2001.
Following the merger of The WB and UPN, KPNZ dropped UPN’s programming and didn’t affiliate with the resulting product of The CW. Utah Communications, LLC, released the channel to Liberman Broadcasting on May 30, 2007; the sale consummated on Nov 30, 2007. It continued to broadcast in English under the new owner until Feb 2008, when it formally switched to Spanish. KPNZ and other Liberman assets became Estrella TV O&O on Sep 14, 2009. Liberman on June 20, 2018, inserted that it would sell KPNZ to HC2 Holdings and the deal completed on Oct 26, 2018. Under the new ownership it changed its affiliation to Azteca America also in the ownership of HC2 Holdings. KPNZ switched to digital signal on UHF channel 24 on June 12, 2009 as it flash-cut its digital signal to UHF operation.
