The first occupant of channel 10 in Elko was KEKO-TV, a satellite station of Reno CBS affiliateKTVN. KEKO signed on April 18, 1973; it was off-the-air from January 24, 1974 to June 27, 1975. On December 23, 1975, owner Washoe Empire informed the Federal Communications Commission that KEKO's transmitter and equipment had been destroyed in a fire; on April 14, 1976, the FCC granted special temporary authority to Washoe Empire to operate a KTVN translator on channel 10. On April 8, 1977, at the station's request, the FCC canceled the KEKO license effective March 18.
NBC affiliation
The FCC granted an original construction permit on June 26, 1995 to Las Vegas-based Sunbelt Broadcasting Company to build a television station licensed in Elko. Originally, the station was approved for 0.790 kW to broadcast on VHF channel 10 with transmitter located in coordinates. In July 1996, Sunbelt requested a modification to change the construction permit: moving the transmitter to Grindstone Mountain and increasing the power to 3.09 kW. It was approved on January 29, 1997. The station signed-on March 27, 1997 as KENV, a semi-satellite of KRNV. The creation of KENV extended the coverage of the NBC affiliate in Reno into Northeastern Nevada. It is the only full-powered television station in Elko. On November 22, 2013, Sinclair Broadcast Group announced the acquisition of KRNV's non-license assets, for $26 million. On December 19, it was announced that Cunningham Broadcasting will acquire the license assets of KRNV and KENV for $6.5 million. Sinclair could not buy KENV-DT outright because it is located in the Salt Lake City DMA, in which Sinclair already owns a duopoly. The sale was approved on September 22, 2017, and was completed on January 9, 2018.
Loss of NBC affiliation, switch to Comet
On December 14, 2017, KENV announced that it was unable to renew its affiliation agreement with NBC, which was set to expire on December 31, and that it would become an affiliate of the Sinclair-owned science-fiction network Comet on January 1, 2018. KENV also announced that it would shut down its news department; its last newscast aired on December 22. The move left KSL-TV as the sole NBC affiliate for the entire Salt Lake City market; similar moves have been made by the network since 2014 with WMGM-TV in Wildwood, New Jersey and WHAG-TV in Hagerstown, Maryland, in both cases to protect network owned stations in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., respectively. KENV general manager Amie Chapman stated that the loss of the affiliation "makes our local news operation financially infeasible." The Elko Television District said that it would rebroadcast KRNV-DT on a translator "until we know for sure what the plans of KSL are." NBC then informed the district on December 21 that as of January 1, KSL "will be the only NBC affiliate in Elko County authorized to carry the NBC programming and brand," which district chairman Paul Gardner interpreted as a cease and desist order. By January 12, KSL was being broadcast on one of the Elko Television District's transmitters, and has since been expanded to three other transmitters in the area.
When the FCC released its initial DTV allocations on April 21, 1997, it assigned VHF channel 8 to KENV-DT as its digital companion channel. Although many allocations were adjusted when the FCC issued its revised final DTV allocations table on February 17, 1998, KENV's remained unchanged. On February 22, 2001, the Federal Communications Commission granted a permit to construct the station's digital facilities. The CP was extended 2 times, but the third was dismissed in 2007 because the FCC Media Bureau approved a request by KENV to "flash cut" from analog to digital by the end of the DTV transition and the permit was extended to February 17, 2009, the original target date for full-power television stations in the United States to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. On January 18, 2009, KENV suffered a problem with the analog transmitter, forcing the station reduce its power by 60-70%. On March 27, the analog antenna suffered a complete failure, forcing the station to go to digital three months ahead of schedule. The station officially flash-cut to digital on March 31.
News operation
As an NBC affiliate, KENV-DT broadcast 5 hours of locally produced newscasts each week ; KENV-DT did not carry local newscasts on Saturdays and Sundays, but did produce a weekend public affairs program, Elko Newsmakers. The station only produced a morning newscast, as well as cut-ins during Today; all other newscasts on KENV were simulcast from KRNV-DT in Reno.
