KJLA

KJLA
Greater Los Angeles
City of license Ventura, California
Branding LATV
Channels Digital: 49 (UHF)
Subchannels (see below)
Translators (see below)
Owner LATV Holdings, LLC
(Walter Ulloa)
(KJLA, LLC)
First air date October 1, 1990
Call letters' meaning KJ Los Angeles
Former callsigns KSTV-TV (1990-1998)
Former channel number(s) Analog:
57 (UHF, 1990-2008)
Former affiliations Galavision (1990-1995)
The WB (1995-1998)
Transmitter power 1000 kW
Height 937 m
Facility ID 14000
Website www.latv.com

KJLA channel 49 is a digital-only multiplexed full power television station, licensed to Ventura, California, with studios based in West Los Angeles, California. It is a multilingual television station with programming in Spanish, English, Korean, Vietnamese, and Mandarin, and is the home of LATV. After August 27, 2008, KJLA discontinued broadcasting analog channel 57 and now operates as a digital only station as KJLA-DT on UHF channel 49.

Contents

Overview

KJLA is the home of LATV with shows like Mex 2 the Max, En La Zona, Almohadazo, and Mis Doctores. KJLA also airs a full line up of Latin contemporary entertainment shows .

KJLA operates several low-power repeater stations in the Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-San Luis Obispo market as well as one in Palm Springs.

The station is owned by Walter Ulloa, who is CEO of Entravision Communications, and whose brother Ronald Ulloa owns KXLA and KVMD.

KJLA's digital signal is transmitted from atop Mount Wilson at a premier facility.

History

Channel 57 signed on October 1, 1990 as KSTV-TV. KSTV-TV was the second attempt to operate a television station in Ventura; the first, KKOG-TV on channel 16, operated from December 14, 1968 to September 13, 1969, with a schedule of entirely live, local programming.

KSTV-TV, originally owned by Costa de Oro Television, Inc., originally aired Spanish language programming from the Galavisión network for the Ventura area. A low-power translator in Santa Maria went on the air in 1992.

In 1994, Walter Ulloa purchased Costa de Oro Television and KSTV-TV, intending to increase its power and broadcast Spanish programming to the Los Angeles area. However, although Ventura is considered part of the Los Angeles market, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules at the time placed KSTV-TV in the Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-San Luis Obispo market, similar to the situation of KADY-TV in Oxnard, which became Santa Barbara's UPN affiliate when the network launched. Unable to get cable coverage in the Los Angeles area, on November 1, 1995, KSTV-TV changed to an English language format and became the affiliate of The WB for the Santa Barbara market.

However, KSTV-TV continued in its attempts to enter the Los Angeles market. In July 1997, the station increased its power to 5000 kilowatts, and in early 1998, a low-power translator in Simi Valley, California went on the air. In February 1998, the improved signal helped the station to obtain must-carry status on most of western Los Angeles county's cable systems. But because Los Angeles already had a WB affiliate, KTLA, KSTV-TV was forced to drop WB programming from its schedule. The station changed its call letters to KJLA on July 20, 1998, to further reflect its intentions to serve the Los Angeles market. Shortly before the call letter change, the station relocated its studios and offices from Ventura to West Los Angeles.

Translators in Santa Barbara and San Bernardino went on the air in 1999 and San Luis Obispo and Palm Springs translators went on the air in 2000.

In November 1999, KJLA began carrying Business 2000, the financial news programming which was previously carried on KWHY-TV as Business News 22. Business news returned to KWHY-TV, this time only on its digital signal, in 2000, and was later dropped by KJLA.

In November 2001, the Simi Valley translator was moved to Mount Wilson and started broadcasting to Los Angeles as KSMV-LP on channel 33. Ironically, the original low power translator in Simi Valley operated on channel 44, which caused interference with full power "cousin" station KRPA (now KXLA) which prompted the change to channel 33. Soon after, Trinity Broadcasting Network sought to move KTBN-TV's digital operation from channel 23 to channel 33, to avoid co-channel interference from the digital signals of KVMD (another "cousin" of KJLA) in the Inland Empire and San Diego CW affiliate XETV-TV. KTBN's move to channel 33 was authorized on February 5, 2009, ultimately displacing KSMV-LP to KTBN's former digital channel, 23. KSMV-LP soon flash-cut to digital and started rebroadcasting KVMD to the Los Angeles area.

Digital television transition

KJLA had applied to convert to digital-only operation, citing low over-the-air analog viewership rates and high operating costs to maintain the simulcast; this request was refused by the US Federal Communication Commission on February 9, 2005. The higher operating costs were in part due to KJLA having two different transmitter sites. The KJLA-TV analog transmitter for channel 57 was located on South Mountain near Santa Paula in Ventura County. The digital facilities for KJLA-DT channel 49 are located on Mount Wilson in Los Angeles County.[1]

The station's request to review its 2004 application to cease analog broadcasting to the FCC, the original was denied in 2005, was approved upon review in 2008. KJLA discontinued broadcasting on analog UHF channel 57 on August 27, 2008. KJLA now broadcasts as a digital only station as KJLA-DT on UHF channel 49. The move comes less than six months from the final analog to digital transition scheduled for 2/17/09.

KJLA is the second television station in the Los Angeles television market to end analog broadcasting. KVMD ceased analog transmission in 2003.

Digital channels

Virtual
Channel
Programming
57.1 KJLA programming / LATV
57.2 VietFace TV (24/7) (Vietnamese)
57.3 VNA TV
57.4 Saigon Entertainment Television [1] (Vietnamese)
57.5 Saigon TV [2] (Vietnamese)
57.6 Vietnamese Broadcasting Service [3] (Vietnamese)
57.7 REDE ITV (Portuguese)
57.8 Global TV [4]
57.9 Zhong Want TV [5] (Mandarin)
23.4 VNBC [6] (Vietnamese)

Although KJLA broadcasts its digital signal on channel 49, digital receivers still receive the station on its virtual channel 57 through the use of PSIP.

National rollout

Beginning in April 2007, LATV began to broadcast on digital subchannels of several TV stations owned by Post-Newsweek. These stations are KPRC-TV in Houston, WPLG in Miami, WKMG-TV in Orlando, and KSAT-TV in San Antonio. [7]

Rebroadcasters

KJLA is rebroadcast on the following translators:

References

  1. ^ "Request to Discontinue Analog Operations of Station KJLA(TV)", Federal Communications Commission, Mar 10, 2005.