KCNS
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| KCNS | |
|---|---|
| San Francisco, California | |
| Channels | |
| Affiliations | Independent Chinese |
| Owner | Multicultural Television Broadcasting, LLC (MTB San Francisco Licensee, LLC) |
| First air date | December 1, 1968 (First incarnation) October 4, 1971 (Second incarnation) January 6, 1986 (Current incarnation) |
| Last air date | October 3, 1971 December 30, 1985 |
| Call letters’ meaning | California's Network for Shopping |
| Former callsigns | KWBB (January 6, 1986 to January 6, 1991 |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 38 (December 1, 1968 to June 12, 2009) |
| Former affiliations | Independent (December 1, 1968 to January 3, 1988) Silent (October 4, 1971 to January 5, 1986) Shop at Home/Jewelry Television (January 5, 1998 to January 14, 2007) infomercials (January 15, 2007 to April 8, 2007) |
| Transmitter Power | 1000 kW |
| Height | 428 m |
| Facility ID | 71586 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | 37°45′19″N 122°27′6″W / 37.75528°N 122.45167°W |
KCNS is a digital television station in San Francisco, California, in the United States, owned by Multicultural Broadcasting. It carries educational and informative programming on Monday mornings, Chinese-language programming in the evenings, and infomercials the rest of the time. Currently, the channel broadcasts Cantonese and Mandarin news programs from Sino TV New York respectively from 6:00pm to 7:00pm and 10:00pm to 11:00pm, Monday to Sunday. China and Taiwan news programs are broadcast Monday to Friday from 7:00pm to 7:30pm and Saturday and Sunday from 6:00pm to 7:00pm. The station operates on 39 digital, covering the entire San Francisco Bay Area. The station will continue to use channel 38 as its virtual channel through the use of PSIP.
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[edit] History
Channel 38 originally signed on the air on December 1, 1968 as KUDO-TV. The station initially broadcast financial programming in the mornings and early afternoons. The station also aired movies at night. He station went dark in October 3, 1971. In the October 4, 1971, the Faith Center (owned by Eugene Scott) acquired the station for a cheap price and returned it to the air as KVOF-TV. However, the station, along with sister stations KHOF-FM (now KKLA) in Los Angeles and KHOF-TV (now KPXN) in San Bernardino, California, lost its FCC license after Faith Center refused to give financial records to the FCC. KVOF-TV thus went off the air on or around December 30, 1985.
The current KCNS license began broadcasting in January 6, 1986 as KWBB, and was located on San Bruno Mountain. The station shared a building on Radio Road with KTSF. The licensee, West Coast United Broadcasting, leased the old KVOF broadcasting facilities from Dr. Scott and the successors to Faith Center and sold airtime back to Dr. Scott, in effect allowing it to have a transmitter site for "free." It ran infomercials and other programming during the day, retaining Dr. Scott's programming from the old Channel 38 at night.
In the station was sold to Global Broadcasting Systems and changed its call sign to KCNS. The station switched to Chinese and Filipino programming, with studios at the Hamms Building in San Francisco. In addition, the power was increased to five megawatts, and the transmitter moved to Sutro Tower in August 7, 1989, becoming the last analog television station to move there.
In January 5, 1998, KCNS switched to the Shop at Home Network, which brought the station to their home shopping programming. This lasted until June 21, 2006, when the Shop at Home's parent, The E. W. Scripps Company, suspended its operation. KCNS switched to Jewelry Television, and two days later, it started broadcasting a mixture of both networks, after Jewelry Television bought Shop at Home and resumed its operation.
On September 26, 2006, Multicultural Television announced it was buying KCNS from Scripps, as part of a deal to buy all of Scripps' Shop at Home channels for $170 million. [1] Multicultural closed on KCNS and the Cleveland and Raleigh stations on December 20, 2006. On January 14, 2007, KCNS ended its simulcast of Shop at Home and switched to educational and informational programming on early weekday mornings and infomercials the rest of the day. On KCNS began broadcasting Chinese language programming in Mandarin and Cantonese, under the "Sino TV" (華語電視) banner daily from 6:00pm to 12:00am, including news programs in both Mandarin and Cantonese.
[edit] Conversion to all digital
KCNS turned off its analog signal on UHF channel 38 on February 17, 2009. The station now broadcasts only in digital on UHF channel 39, however, through the use of PSIP, digital tuners will still receive KCNS on channel 38 as a virtual channel.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- KCNS-TV 38 San Francisco
- Ming Pao (San Francisco edition) article on Chinese programming on KCNS, dated April 6, 2007 (in Chinese)
- Query the FCC's TV station database for KCNS
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KCNS-TV
- KCNS — Pacific Lutheran University's Student Run Television Station
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