KEYE-TV (channel 42) is a television station in Austin, Texas, United States, affiliated with CBS and Telemundo. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station maintains studios on Metric Boulevard in North Austin and a transmitter on Waymaker Way on the city's west side. History Early years The UHF channel 42 allocation in Austin had originally been used by NBC affiliate KHFI-TV when that station signed on in February 1965. That station moved to channel 36 and became KTVV in 1973; it is now KXAN-TV. On December 4, 1983, what is known today as KEYE-TV began broadcasting originally as KBVO-TV, an independent television station. Its call sign referenced Bevo, the mascot of the hometown University of Texas Longhorns. The station's original owner was the Austin Television Company, a group of local investors including former congressman Joe Kilgore but dominated by Darrold Cannan, Jr., owner of NBC affiliate KAMR-TV in Amarillo, and Michael McKinnon, who owned two ABC affiliates in Texas (KBMT in Beaumont and KIII-TV in Corpus Christi) and independent station KUSI-TV in San Diego; local advertising executive Steve Beard was the general manager. On October 9, 1986, the station became a charter affiliate of the upstart Fox network and began branding itself as "Fox 42" on air in the early 1990s. By 1994, it was one of the top 10 highest-rated Fox affiliates in the country; Cannan and Beard were now the sole owners. From Fox to CBS In 1994, New World Communications purchased KTBC, which was included in a groupwide affiliation deal to switch most of New World's stations to Fox (which later purchased the New World holdings). With KTBC set to drop its longtime CBS affiliation and land the new Fox affiliation as a result, Austin Television Company initially reached out to CBS for KBVO to land the new affiliation, but was turned down by the network at first, mainly due to concerns with affiliating with an independently owned UHF outlet. In addition, CBS outlets KENS in San Antonio and KWTX in Waco provided Grade B signals into the Austin market, should there be a concern with the region lacking a CBS affiliate. (Both stations were listed in TV listings in the Austin American-Statesman for decades.) In October 1994, Austin Television reached a deal to sell KBVO-TV for $54 million to Granite Broadcasting Corporation, which would affiliate KBVO-TV with CBS, once the network is bumped from KTBC. On