KGMC (channel 43) is a

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 to Merced, California, United States, serving the Fresno area as an affiliate of the Spanish-language network

Estrella TV Estrella TV () is an American Spanish-language broadcast television network owned by the Estrella Media subsidiary of HPS Investment Partners, LLC. The network primarily features programs, the vast majority of which are produced by the network ...

. It is the

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the ...

television property of owner Cocola Broadcasting, and is sister to eight low-power stations. KGMC's studios are located on West Herndon Avenue in the Pinedale area of Fresno, and its transmitter is located on Bald Mountain, south of Meadow Lakes in

Fresno County Fresno County (), officially the County of Fresno, is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 1,008,654. The county seat is Fresno, the fifth-most populous city in Cali ...

. A live simulcast of some of KGMC's non-network programming can be seen on the Cocola Broadcasting homepage.

History

Early years

The UHF channel 43 allocation in the Fresno market was originally licensed to

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 o ...

. Operating as an

independent station An independent station is an independent radio or terrestrial television station which is independent in some way from broadcast networks. The definition of "independence" varies from country to country, reflecting governmental regulations, market ...

, the station signed on the air on December 23, 1961, five days after Fresno's first independent station,

KAIL Kail () is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Kaisersesch. G ...

(channel 53, now a MyNetworkTV affiliate on channel 7) took to the air. KICU carried a mix of

movies A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmospher ...

and other independent fare. Toward the end of its run, KICU also picked up some

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are ...

programs that were not cleared to air by that network's Fresno affiliate, KMJ-TV (channel 24, now

KSEE-TV KSEE (channel 24) is a television station in Fresno, California, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside CBS affiliate KGPE (channel 47). Both stations share studios on McKinley Avenue in eastern Fresno, ...

). The station ceased operations in 1968; the

call letters are now used by an independent station in San Jose.

1990s–present

KGMC first signed on the air on September 11, 1992, as KSDI; the station was originally an affiliate of the viewer-request music video network The Box. That December, the station changed its call letters to KGMC (the calls were previously used by KOCB in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma from 1979 to 1989). In January 1995, the station entered into a local marketing agreement with

Pappas Telecasting Companies Pappas Telecasting Companies was a diversely organized broadcasting company headquartered in Visalia, California, United States. Founded in 1971, it was one of the largest privately held broadcasting companies in the country, with its stations r ...

, owner of Fox affiliate

KMPH-TV KMPH-TV (channel 26) is a television station licensed to Visalia, California, United States, serving the Fresno area as an affiliate of the Fox network. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Sanger-licensed CW affiliate KFRE-TV ( ...

(channel 26). Pappas programmed the station from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. and again from 3:00 to 11:00 p.m. daily, airing a blend of

cartoons A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of image ...

, classic sitcoms and older movies. On January 11 of that year, the station became a charter affiliate of

The WB The WB Television Network (for Warner Bros., or the "Frog Network", for its former mascot, Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network launched on broadcast television on January 11, 1995, as a joint venture between the Warner Bros. ...

. KGMC continued to run religious programs,

paid programming Paid or PAID may refer to: * ''Paid'' (1930 film), an American film starring Joan Crawford * ''Paid'' (2006 film), a Dutch film *''Personality and Individual Differences ''Personality and Individual Differences'' is a peer-reviewed academic jo ...

, and home shopping programs during time periods that were not programmed by Pappas. In 1997, KGMC terminated the LMA with Pappas, switching full-time to a format of infomercials and religious programs. Pappas then moved the WB affiliation first to KMPH on a secondary basis, and later to

KNSO KNSO (channel 51) is a television station licensed to Clovis, California, United States, broadcasting the Spanish-language Telemundo network to the Fresno area. Owned and operated by NBCUniversal's Telemundo Station Group, KNSO maintains a transm ...

(channel 51) in 1998 and finally to KFRE-TV (channel 59) in 2001, where the network remained until The WB ceased operations in September 2006 and was replaced by The CW. In the meantime, KGMC would join home shopping network

America's Store America's Store was a US shopping television network. It was the spin-off channel to the Home Shopping Network (HSN). On April 3, 2007, America's Store ceased broadcasting permanently. America's Store (AS) began in 1988 as the Home Shopping ...

in 1998; after America's Store was shut down by

HSN HSN, an initialism of its former name Home Shopping Network, is an American free-to-air television network owned by the Qurate Retail Group, which also owns catalog company Cornerstone Brands. Based in the Gateway area of St. Petersburg, Flor ...

in 2007, KGMC switched its programming to

Jewelry Television Jewelry Television is an American television network specializing in the sale of jewelry for both men and women. On-air and online, the network is mainly branded by its jtv initials in lower-case letters. It has an estimated reach of more than ...

. KGMC had been the only full-power independent television station in the Fresno market, until August 1, 2012, when it became an affiliate of the Spanish-language network

MundoFox MundoMax (; originally known as MundoFox from August 13, 2012 to July 28, 2015) was an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network that was owned by RCN Televisión. The network broadcast programs aimed at Hispanic and Latino America ...

. On December 1, 2016, with the demise of MundoMax, KGMC switched to Liberman Broadcasting's

network. On February 27, 2020, Cocola agreed to transfer the license assets of KGMC to NBCUniversal's Telemundo Station Group in exchange for acquiring the KNSO license. The sale was completed on September 1. Upon completion of the transfer in which the callsigns were also swapped, KGMC now operates on VHF channel 11, while KNSO operates on UHF channel 27.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is

multiplexed In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...

Analog-to-digital conversion

KGMC shut down its analog signal, over

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 43, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal was relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 44 to channel 43.

Spectrum auction repack

KGMC was one of nearly 1,000 television stations that were required to change their digital channel allocation in the upcoming spectrum auction repack in early 2018. KGMC reallocated its digital signal to UHF channel 27 in phase one of the auction.

References

External links

Website of parent company Cocola Broadcasting
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kgmc (Tv) GMC (TV) Television channels and stations established in 1992 1992 establishments in California Merced, California Estrella TV affiliates Antenna TV affiliates MeTV affiliates Cozi TV affiliates Laff (TV network) affiliates GMC (TV)