The two stations share studios on Foremaster Lane in Las Vegas; KSNV's transmitter is located on Black Mountain, near Henderson.
In 1971, the Las Vegas Valley Broadcasting Company, headed by attorney James E. Rogers, filed a competing application for channel 3.
On October 1, 1979, KORK-TV was replaced by KVBC, which continued with the same staff but built new studio and transmitter facilities at their present sites.
While fending off a second and unsuccessful license challenge, under Rogers's ownership, KVBC rapidly improved in the late 1980s and 1990s from a distant second-place in local news ratings to a contender and market leader.
When the freeze lifted, more applicants sought channel 8, including Las Vegas Television, a sister company to local radio station KLAS.
Southwestern Publishing and Las Vegas Television entered into discussions to merge their bids, which fell apart when the talks were reported on the radio.
Simultaneously, Donrey inaugurated a microwave transmission link between Reno and Las Vegas, enabling Southern Nevadans to see news events in Northern Nevada.
[23] Two months later, KORK-TV responded with a full-page newspaper advertisement that compared Valley Broadcasting to the claim jumpers of the Old West, touted the station's advancements in technology, and declared, "We have too many years of painfully-gained experience, too much thought, planning and money invested, and too much consideration for the best interests of the viewing public to give up without a fight which we are confident we will win.
[25] In the face of the license challenge, the two firms initially reached a deal to merge their television interests, pending FCC approval.
[28][29] This was not the only complaint about Donrey's operation of KORK-TV; William Hernstadt, the president of competitor KVVU-TV, charged that the Review-Journal gave preferential treatment in news articles, magazine covers, and TV listings to channel 3.
Reynolds admitted to "overloading", crowding local advertisements into network continuity and "clutter";[32][33] Ed Tabor, the general manager, downplayed clipping by calling it "a common practice in the industry".
A full day of testimony, consisting of a key witness whose complaints to the FCC kickstarted the clipping case, was struck from the record;[35] administrative law judge Chester Naumowicz rejected additional documentation provided by the challengers to support their bid.
He found against Donrey's operation of KORK-TV, finding its correspondence "rife with inaccurate and misleading statements", but he also refused to grant a permit to Valley Broadcasting over a series of financial complications, opting not to "gamble the public interest".
Among the issues he cited in Valley's application was the conditioning of financing on a network affiliation and vice versa, as well as difficulties in obtaining the proposed transmitter site.
Circuit reversed and remanded to the FCC the part of the order denying the Las Vegas Valley Broadcasting Company application.
[40] One last attempt by Donrey to appeal this order to the Supreme Court was rebuffed on April 30, 1979, marking the end of a legal fight that had stretched nearly eight years.
[41] KORK-TV continued to operate for five more months; the FCC did not grant a construction permit to the Las Vegas Valley Broadcasting Company until August.
KVVU-TV, the market's independent station, had recently been bought by a group led by Johnny Carson and Herb Kaufmann, the latter of whom reportedly went to New York and negotiated with network executives.
[44] On October 1, 1979, in compliance with a condition of its permit,[43] its Las Vegas Valley Broadcasting Company assumed control of channel 3.
The station debuted new KVBC call letters on that date, but the new licensee retained almost all of KORK-TV's staff—save the general manager[45]—and programming.
It also continued to operate from the Boulder Highway studios while Valley Broadcasting constructed new facilities and from the existing transmitter site until it could relocate to a new tower atop Black Mountain.
[47] When Valley Broadcasting assumed channel 3, it suffered from deteriorating equipment and staff morale,[47] as well as low ratings for its newscasts.
[48] Shortly after going on air, Valley Broadcasting experienced a cash crunch and asked its shareholders to contribute an additional $1.4 million.
The dissidents sought to control costs, whereas Rogers and his allies favored increased spending in order to raise the station's ratings.
[53] The case plodded on through 1987, having become entangled with a Rogers-led license challenge to KCRL-TV in Reno[54] and expanded to cover reporting of a stake Valley Broadcasting had acquired in a radio station in San Diego.
[55] FCC administrative law judge Joseph Stirmer ruled in favor of renewing KVBC in 1988, citing its "enviable record of service" to Las Vegas.
[58] It did so with a format that was lighter than its competitors; Review-Journal media critic Ken White called KVBC's rise "beyond reason" given the "infotainment" content of its newscasts.
The change was touted by the station as an update for the digital era, swapping the VBC (Valley Broadcasting Company) for a reference to Southern Nevada Communications, the Sunbelt division that operated KVBC.
In the final years of Rogers ownership of channel 3, the station heavily invested in increasing its news and public affairs output in lieu of acquiring more expensive syndicated programming.
The KSNV technical facility then became KVMY, retaining virtual channel 21 but not the MyNetworkTV programming, and was sold to Howard Stirk Holdings, a company owned by conservative commentator Armstrong Williams.