KLSR-TV

On June 12, 1987,^[3] a low-power^[4] television station began broadcasting in Eugene.^[3] Bearing the call sign K25AS^[5] but known as KLSR, the station was owned by Metrocom of Oregon and initially featured music videos on weekdays.^[6] Three Eugene-area radio personalities as well as the general manager and others held down on-air shifts during the week, and the station also presented on-the-hour newscasts and more traditional syndicated programming on the weekends.^[3] During midday, it aired a bingo program that gave out prizes to participants.^[6] It also had a morning show; Christopher Judge, a former University of Oregon football player, won the contest to host it, launching his acting career.^[7] Despite lacking coverage on cable, KLSR was successful enough to garner a one-percent share of the audience later in 1987, a feat that earned it an affiliation with the Fox network in January 1988. KLSR was the first low-power station to affiliate with Fox.^[5][8] In 1989, the station added a translator to serve Corvallis.^[9] KLSR struggled to secure a slot on the Tele-Communications Inc. cable system in Eugene and did not do so until 1989,^[10] first on a shared-time basis with KTVU from Oakland, California,^[11] and then on a full-time basis beginning in 1990.^[12] That year, KLSR signed a three-year deal with the Portland Trail Blazers basketball team to carry games that in other parts of the state were distributed on cable systems.^[13]

Originally operating from studios on 18th Avenue,^[3] it had relocated to Goodpasture Island Road by October 1992, when Metrocom agreed to sell it to California Oregon Broadcasting, Inc. (COBI) for $3.15 million. Metrocom sold because its primary stakeholder, the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, wished to exit broadcasting; COBI owned KOBI-TV in Medford^[14] and expanded into Eugene in response to Eugene-based Chambers Communications expanding into the Medford market.^[15] After closing on KLSR, COBI acquired a Eugene full-power station in 1994. KEVU (channel 34) was built by Raul Palazuelos and began broadcasting on September 30, 1991, as a low-budget independent station.^[16][15] COBI initially promised that the Fox affiliation would move to KEVU upon approval of the transaction,^[10] but KEVU continued on channel 34 and affiliated with UPN when it launched in January 1995.^[17]

On April 1, 1997, COBI moved KLSR to channel 34—which became KLSR-TV—and KEVU to the low-power channel 25 as KEVU-LP; the stations retained their existing cable numbers, only exchanging transmission facilities.^[18] That year, the station began construction on a new studio facility on Chad Drive, designed to house a news department.^[19] COBI was fined $13,000 by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in November 2012. The company had failed to file paperwork for children's E/I programming for KLSR-TV's Eugene translator, K19GH-D, in the previous four years, even though it was filed for the main station.^[20]

In 2022, California Oregon Broadcasting, Inc. sold KLSR-TV and KEVU-CD to Atlanta-based Cox Media Group for $7,222,000.^[21][22] Under a local marketing agreement first signed in 2021, KLSR–KEVU's sales force markets the advertising time on Eugene radio station KORE (1050 AM).^[23]

As early as 1989, KLSR produced its own 10 p.m. newscast,^[24] known as Prime Time News. In October 1991, KLSR entered into a deal with Eugene CBS affiliate KVAL-TV (channel 13) to produce the 10 p.m. newscast on its behalf for at least six months;^[25] it lasted two years before KVAL opted to exit the partnership, citing low ratings.^[26] In the mid-1990s, KLSR aired a half-hour of Northwest Cable News at 10 p.m.^[19]

Under a news share arrangement, KVAL-TV currently produces 7 and 10 p.m. newscasts for KLSR-TV on weeknights, as well as rebroadcasts of KVAL's weekend evening newscasts and a weekday half-hour at 7 a.m. The 10 p.m. news was a half-hour except between 2016 and 2017, when it was broadcast as a full hour.^[27]