KEMO-TV
 | |
| Santa Rosa/San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose, California United States | |
|---|---|
| City of license | Santa Rosa, California |
| Branding | Azteca América 50 SF |
| Slogan | Cada Vez Somos Más |
| Channels |
Digital: 32 (UHF) Virtual: 50 (PSIP) |
| Translators |
K17CG-D 17 (UHF, Ukiah/Mendocino County, California) |
| Affiliations | Azteca América |
| Owner |
Una Vez Más Holdings, LLC (Una Vez Más San Francisco License, LLC) |
| First air date | April 1981 |
| Call letters' meaning | Previous calls of KOFY-TV; named after one of the children of that station's founder, Daniel H. Overmyer |
| Former callsigns | KFTY (1981–2011) |
| Former channel number(s) |
Analog: 50 (UHF, 1981–2009) |
| Former affiliations |
Independent (1981–2011) Me-TV (2011) |
| Transmitter power | 19.9 kW |
| Height | 928 m |
| Facility ID | 34440 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 38°40′8.5″N 122°37′53.5″W / 38.669028°N 122.631528°WCoordinates: 38°40′8.5″N 122°37′53.5″W / 38.669028°N 122.631528°W |
| Licensing authority | FCC |
| Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
| Website | Azteca America San Francisco |
KEMO-TV, virtual channel 50 (UHF digital channel 32), is an Azteca América-affiliated television station serving the San Francisco Bay Area that is licensed to Santa Rosa, California, United States. The station is owned by Una Vez Más Holdings, LLC. KEMO maintains studios and offices located on Mendecino Drive in San Jose, and its transmitter is located atop Mount St. Helena. The station is available on cable via Comcast channel 31.
History
The station first signed on the air in April 1981 as KFTY, operating as a general entertainment independent station. In the mid-1990s, KFTY was sold to the television arm of Clear Channel Communications; that company, after being bought out by private equity firms, announced the sale of KFTY and its other television stations on November 16, 2006.[1] On April 20, 2007, Clear Channel entered into an agreement to sell its entire television station group to Providence Equity Partners's Newport Television.[2] Providence initially announced that it would not keep KFTY or its Bellingham, Washington sister station KVOS-TV; instead, those stations were to be turned over to LK Station Group. Because LK could not obtain financing for the purchase, KFTY was instead sold to High Plains Broadcasting (Providence could not keep KFTY as it holds a 19 percent ownership stake in Univision Communications, which already owns two stations in the Bay Area market, KDTV-DT channel 14 and KFSF-DT channel 66). Newport Television began managing KFTY through a joint sales agreement (JSA), though High Plains controlled KFTY's programming.[3]
On April 25, 2011, KFTY affiliated with the classic television network Me-TV, as part of an affiliation agreement between the network and Newport. Branded as "Me-TV Bay Area," KFTY predominately aired Me-TV programming from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on weekdays. In addition to Me-TV programming, KFTY also carried syndicated and locally-produced programming, including the weekday morning talk show Armstrong & Getty (a radio simulcast from KNEW, which aired from 6-10 a.m.), news and weather segments known as "Headlines and Weather on the Hour" that aired throughout the day (in addition to news segments anchored by Elisha Rivers that ran every half-hour during Armstrong & Getty), the Sunday evening discussion program Sports Show, the community affairs program Your Turn, and the "pay-to-play" program TV 50 Marketplace hosted by Nazy Javid.
On July 28, 2011, High Plains Broadcasting announced plans to sell KFTY to Una Vez Más Holdings, LLC, with plans to affiliate KFTY with Azteca América;[4] The new owners changed the station's callsign to KEMO-TV, which was previously used as the callsign of KOFY-TV (channel 20) prior to 1986.[5] On September 29, 2011, KFTY switched its affiliation to Azteca América, becoming one of two affiliates of the Spanish-language network in the Bay Area – alongside KOFY, which carried Azteca América on its 20.4 subchannel; KOFY dropped Azteca América programming shortly afterward. The Me-TV affiliation moved to KOFY digital subchannel 20.2 on October 17, 2011.[6]
Digital television
Digital channels
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
| Channel | Video | Aspect | PSIP Short Name | Programming[7] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | KFTYDT | Main KEMO-TV programming / Azteca América |
| 50.2 | 480i | 4:3 | Standard definition simulcast of channel 50.1 |
Analog-to-digital conversion
KEMO-TV (as KFTY) shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 50, 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 remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 54, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to UHF channel 32 for post-transition operations,[8] using PSIP to display KEMO-TV's virtual channel as 50 on digital television receivers.
News operation
KFTY formed a news department in the late 1980s, and began producing two half-hour local newscasts, airing at 7:00 and 10:00 p.m. each weeknight (these were promoted under the slogan, "We do it twice, every night.")[9] KFTY cancelled these newscasts on January 26, 2007, citing insufficient revenue to support their continuation. Management denied the move was related to Clear Channel's intent to divest the station,[10] despite a similar incident at another Clear Channel station (WUTR in Utica, New York) in which all local newscasts on that station were cancelled in August 2003, followed by the sale of WUTR in early 2004. After its news department was shut down, KFTY only produced hourly local news updates between regular programs.
References
- ↑ "Clear Channel agrees to sale". The Cincinnati Enquirer (Gannett Company). 2006-11-16. Retrieved 2006-11-17.
- ↑ "Clear Channel Agrees to Sell Television Station Group to Providence Equity Partners" (Press release). Clear Channel Communications. 2007-04-20. Retrieved 2007-04-20.
- ↑ Hart, Steve (January 9, 2009). "KFTY sold to Oklahoma group". Santa Rosa Press Democrat. Retrieved January 10, 2009.
- ↑ Una Vez Mas Buys KFTY San Francisco, TVNewsCheck, July 28, 2011.
- ↑ FCC Public Notice Report #534: "Media Bureau Call Sign Actions", August 31, 2011.
- ↑ TV News Check: "Me-TV signs with KOFY San Francisco", October 17, 2011.
- ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for KEMO
- ↑ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-03-24.
- ↑ TV Guide (San Francisco Metropolitan Edition), September 12, 1987
- ↑ "TV50 axes most of news operations". Santa Rosa Press-Democrat. 2007-01-27. Retrieved 2007-01-29.
External links
- Azteca America San Francisco
- Una Vez Más Holdings website
- Query the FCC's TV station database for KEMO-TV
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