KAXT-CD (channel 1) is a low-power, Class A

Decades A decade () is a period of ten years. Decades may describe any ten-year period, such as those of a person's life, or refer to specific groupings of calendar years. Usage Any period of ten years is a "decade". For example, the statement that "du ...

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...

licensed A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

to both

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

and

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

, United States, and serving the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. Owned by

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

-based

Weigel Broadcasting Weigel Broadcasting Co. is an American television broadcasting company based in Chicago, Illinois, alongside its flagship station WCIU-TV (Channel 26), at 26 North Halsted Street in the Greektown neighborhood. It currently owns 25 television sta ...

, it is

sister A sister is a woman or a girl who shares one or more parents with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to ...

Palo Alto Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was estab ...

–licensed

Heroes & Icons Heroes & Icons (H&I) is an American Digital terrestrial television, digital broadcast television network owned by Weigel Broadcasting. Usually carried on the digital subchannels of its affiliated television station in most markets, the network ai ...

owned-and-operated station

KTLN-TV KTLN-TV (channel 68) is a television station licensed to Palo Alto, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area as an owned-and-operated station of the classic television network Heroes & Icons. It is owned by Weigel Broadcastin ...

(channel 68). Both stations share studios on Pelican Way in San Rafael, and transmitter facilities on

Mount Allison Mount Allison is a peak of the Diablo Range, located in the East Bay southeast of Fremont, California. Geography Mount Allison is part of a ridge that also includes Mission Peak and Monument Peak. Unlike those other two peaks, Mount Allison ...

. Due to its low-power status, KAXT-CD's broadcasting radius does not reach all of the San Francisco Bay Area. Because of that, its market affiliation is shared with

KICU-TV KICU-TV (channel 36), branded on-air as KTVU Plus, is an independent television station licensed to San Jose, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. It is owned by Fox Television Stations alongside Oakland-licensed Fox ...

(channel 36) which broadcasts Decades on its fourth digital subchannel.

History

Early years

Founded May 31, 1989, the station previously broadcast in

analog Analog or analogue may refer to: Computing and electronics * Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable ** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals *** Analog electronics, circuits which use analog ...

UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...

channel 22 as KAXT-CA, an affiliate of

Spanish-language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...

religious network Tiempos Finales TV, formerly being an affiliate of TBN from 1990 to 2003, and of

Almavision Almavision is an American television network broadcasting Christian programming in Spanish with affiliates across North and Central America. The network is carried via satellite on Echostar and SatMex 5, their slogan is "''Television Cristiana.. ...

from 2003 to 2006.

Changes

On July 31, 2009, KAXT began

ATSC Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) standards are an American set of standards for digital television transmission over terrestrial, cable and satellite networks. It is largely a replacement for the analog NTSC standard and, like that ...

digital TV transmissions on UHF channel 42, which had been vacated by

KTNC-TV KTNC-TV (channel 42) is a religious television station licensed to Concord, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area as an owned-and-operated station of Tri-State Christian Television (TCT). The station's transmitter, shared ...

. (The previous month, former owner of

KTVU KTVU (channel 2) is a television station licensed to Oakland, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's Fox network outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside San Jose� ...

Cox Media Group CMG Media Corporation (doing business as Cox Media Group) is an American media conglomerate principally owned by Apollo Global Management in conjunction with Cox Enterprises, which maintains a 29% minority stake in the company. The company pri ...

unsuccessfully applied for a license to use the same frequency for a KTVU digital

translator Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...

.) KAXT's digital transmissions used the call sign KAXT-LD, later KAXT-CD. The station was the first digital television station to broadcast 12 video streams on a standard 6 MHz 19.39 Mbit/s ATSC stream. Using

statistical multiplexing Statistical multiplexing is a type of communication link sharing, very similar to dynamic bandwidth allocation (DBA). In statistical multiplexing, a communication channel is divided into an arbitrary number of variable bitrate digital channels or ...

technology in the encoders and multiplexer, the system provides variable bit rate compression needed to provide full quality

standard definition Standard-definition television (SDTV, SD, often shortened to standard definition) is a television system which uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. "Standard" refers to it being the prevailing sp ...

video across all of the channels with enough bandwidth for radio (audio only) services. ''Broadcast Engineering'' nominated KAXT as Station of the Year for 2009, the first low power television station to receive such a distinction.

Since 2017

The DTV virtual channels between KAXT-LD's channel 22 (RF 42, formerly 22) and KRCB's channel 22 (RF 23) in Cotati had significant overlap that caused a

PSIP The Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) is the MPEG (a video and audio industry group) and privately defined program-specific information originally defined by General Instrument for the DigiCipher 2 system and later extended for the A ...

conflict, allowing KAXT-CD to move to a new virtual channel, Channel 1. KAXT had been operating with a PSIP of Channel 1, at one point with 12 different video program streams and one audio-only channel for a total of 13 virtual channels for a few years until the late 2010s.

agreed to acquire KAXT-CD and

, along with

KVOS-TV KVOS-TV, virtual channel 12 ( UHF digital channel 14), is a Heroes & Icons owned-and-operated television station licensed to Bellingham, Washington, United States. Owned by Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting, it is part of a duopoly with Seatt ...

and

KFFV KFFV (channel 44) is a television station in Seattle, Seattle, Washington, United States, airing programming from MeTV. It is owned-and-operated station, owned and operated by Weigel Broadcasting alongside Bellingham, Washington, Bellingham-lice ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, from

OTA Broadcasting OTA Broadcasting, LLC was a broadcasting company founded in 2011 by Michael Dell. The company is based in Fairfax, Virginia. History OTA Broadcasting was founded in 2011 by Michael Dell's MSD Capital. It had been rumored that Dell formed OTA Br ...

in a $23.2 million deal on October 18, 2017. The sale was completed on April 15, 2019."Consummation Notice"
''CDBS Public Access'',

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

, Retrieved 18 April 2019. By 2018, most of KAXT's Vietnamese-language subchannels had moved to KSCZ-LD.

Programming

Until 2019, KAXT broadcast an

electronic program guide Electronic programming guides (EPGs) and interactive programming guides (IPGs) are menu-based systems that provide users of television, radio and other media applications with continuously updated menus that display scheduling information for ...

, shopping channels, and several channels of ethnic news, entertainment, and religious programming. Several subchannels were produced locally, while the remainder were simulcasts. KAXT is the only television station in the United States that broadcasts on virtual channel 1.

Former affiliations

Since its transition to digital broadcasting, KAXT has broadcast a wide variety of programming, both local and syndicated: * TV – family-oriented Spanish-language programming (channel 1.4) * Cool Music Radio – audio simulcast (channel 1.14) *

Coastal Television Network Coastal Television Network is a Monterey, California-based television network, broadcast on several Cocola Broadcasting low power television stations. Its programming is oriented to the Monterey peninsula and central coast of California. KAXT- ...

– tourism-focused channel based in

Monterey, California Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under bo ...

(channel 1.5) *

Colours TV Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associa ...

– multicultural programming (channel 1.6) * Corner Store – informercials (channel 1.9) * Creation TV

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding are ...

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

Diya TV Diya TV is an American broadcast television network that was founded in 2009 by Ravi Kapur, an award-winning journalist, and is based in San Francisco, California. It is the widest distributed Asian American owned and themed television network in ...

– South Asian programming (variously channels 1.2 and 1.5, now on

KTSF KTSF (channel 26) is a multicultural independent television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. The station is owned by the Lincoln Broadcasting Company, and maintains studios on Vall ...

26.2) * FAN – Filipino programming (channel 1.8) * Vietnamese-language programming (channel 1.11, now on KSCZ 16.1) * i2TV –

public-access television Public-access television is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is narrowcast through cable television specialty channels. Public-access television was creat ...

(channel 1.8) * KCTV/TVHS – Taiwanese programming (channel 1.9) * – audio simulcast of Christian programming (channel 1.15) *

My Family TV The Family Channel is an American general entertainment television network owned by Get After It Media (formerly Luken Communications and Reach High Media Group), and based in Chattanooga, Tennessee. History In September 2008, ValCom announced ...

– family-oriented programming (variously channels 1.2, 1.6, and 1.7) * NetV Vietnamese- and English-language programming (channel 1.12, now on KSCZ 16.16) * Vietnamese-language programming (channel 1.6, now on KSCZ 16.6) * –

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

(channel 1.10) * PeanutTV – real estate listings (channel 1.12) * Vietnamese-language programming (channel 1.5, now on KSCZ 16.5) * Radio – audio simulcast of

KZSJ KZSJ (1120 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to San Martin, California. It has a radio format of music and talk in Vietnamese and Korean, serving San Jose and the Santa Clara Valley. The station is currently owned by Bustos Media ...

1120 (channel 1.13) *

Retro TV Retro TV (stylized as retrotv), formerly known as Retro Television Network, is an American broadcast television network owned by Get After It Media. The network mainly airs classic television sitcoms and drama series from the 1950s through th ...

– classic sitcoms (channel 1.2) * SKDTV – South Korean programming (channel 1.7) *

TheCoolTV TheCoolTV was a digital broadcast television network and online music video "jukebox" streaming service owned by Cool Music Network, LLC of Lawrence, Kansas. History As a digital broadcast television network Launched in March 2009, the networ ...

– music videos (variously channels 1.1 and 1.12, now on KTLN 68.2) * U Channel

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

ese programming (channel 1.9, now on KSCZ 16.9) * Vietnamese-language programming (channel 1.3, now on KSCZ 16.8) * Vietface TV – Vietnamese-language programming (channel 1.8, now on KSCZ 16.4) * Vietoday – Vietnamese-language programming (channel 1.6, now on

26.5) * VieTop Vietnamese-language programming (channel 1.7, now on KSCZ 16.7) * What's On

(channel 1.1)

Subchannel

References

External links

* {{Weigel Broadcasting AXT-CD Decades (TV network) affiliates Low-power television stations in the United States 1990 establishments in California Television channels and stations established in 1990 AXT Television in San Jose, California Weigel Broadcasting Companies based in San Rafael, California