KTVZ TV Bend OR

KTVZ (channel 21) is a television station in Bend, Oregon, United States, serving Central Oregon as an affiliate of NBC and The CW Plus. It is owned by the News-Press & Gazette Company (NPG) alongside two low-power stations: Class A Fox affiliate KFXO-CD (channel 39) and Telemundo affiliate KQRE-LD (channel 20). The stations share studios on Northwest O. B. Riley Road in Bend, while KTVZ's transmitter is located on Awbrey Butte west of US 97. KTVZ went on-the-air November 6, 1977. It was started by former owners Ray Johnson of KMED-AM-TV (now KTVL) in Medford and C. Howard Lane from KOIN-TV in Portland who formed Ponderosa Broadcasting, Inc. The station has always been an NBC affiliate but also began to carry CBS programming on a secondary basis. Efforts to carve out Deschutes County from the Portland television market began in 1980. By fall 1981, Nielsen formed the newly created Bend DMA. Sierra Cascade Communications sold the station to Stainless Broadcasting Company in 1986 which later became known as Northwest Broadcasting in 1997 based in Spokane, Washington.