Churchill Media acquires Salem area TV station.

Byline: Joe Mosley The Register-Guard

Eugene-based Churchill Media, which already operates a string of Spanish-language radio stations in Oregon and Washington, has added a television station to its broadcast stable.

Churchill has acquired the license of KWVT, which operates as a local community television station serving the Salem area. Churchill's station will switch to the call letters KXPD-LP and will carry Spanish-language programming from Azteca America, as well as local material generated by the broadcast chain's radio personalities.

The new station will broadcast over the air on channel 52.

An agreement also has been reached with Comcast to make the station available in Portland area cable packages on a channel that has not yet been determined, Churchill General Manager Paul Danitz said Thursday.

Churchill is expected to add its seventh Spanish-language radio station within a few weeks and is seeking to purchase more television stations to serve the Northwest's fast-growing Hispanic population.

"We're working on two or three other ones right now," Danitz said.

He said the Salem area station was purchased by Churchill for "a few million" dollars from Northwest Television LLC, which will shift its KWVT call letters to another channel. "They're still going to be in existence, but on a different channel," Danitz said.

And while the new KXPD-LP station will continue broadcasting out of Salem, its focus will be on the Portland market.

Portland is considered one of four "hypergrowth" Hispanic markets - along with Atlanta, Denver and Raleigh, N.C. - because the growth of its Hispanic population is more than double the national average. A third of all new residents in the Portland area are of Hispanic descent, according to U.S. Census data.

Azteca America has broadcast affiliates in 57 U.S. markets.

"We're thrilled to bring Portland's Hispanic community an additional news and entertainment option," Churchill Media President Suzanne Arlie said in a written statement. "Azteca America offers top live Mexican soccer matches, as well as the quality telenovelas and news and entertainment programming that have been missing until now."

Arlie and her husband, John Musumeci, operate the Eugene real estate development firm Arlie & Co. Churchill operates the flagship station of its Hispanic radio network, KXOR-AM (660), in Eugene, and also owns local station KOPT-AM (1600) - an English-language station with a progressive talk format.