KLVX’s digital transition on track

Terry Webster

Friday, June 8, 2001 | 11:30 a.m.

Upgrades to KLVX Channel 10 are on track for completion under a federal deadline requiring television stations to convert from analog to digital transmission.

Under a mandate by the Federal Communications Commission, Channel 10 must complete all of the work by May 2003. Eventually the public TV station, which is affiliated with the Clark County School District, will become Channel 11.

School Board members and district officials today were planning a trip to the top of Black Mountain to view phase one of the conversion.

Phase one involves the construction of a concrete pad for transmitter cooling equipment, renovations to the existing transmitter building and upgrades to the tower. Over the next several months a new transmitter and other equipment will be installed.

The $1.1 million price tag for phase one was paid completely with federal funds, corporate grants and donations, said Tom Axtell, general manager of KLVX Communications Group. The school district contributed no money to the project, he added.

Fund-raising for phase two of the project, expected to cost around $600,000 in additional equipment, is now under way.

Axtell said phase two is contingent upon receiving a federal grant.

The final stage of the project involves $6 million for a new television studio fully stocked with digital equipment.

Axtell said the district is proposing that it split the cost of building the studio with UNLV and the Community College of Southern Nevada, which would all share the facility.

That plan is not yet approved, Axtell said.