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KSCI

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KSCI, virtual and UHF digital channel 18, is an independent television station serving Los Angeles, California, United States that is licensed to Long Beach. The station is owned by WRNN-TV Associates. KSCI's studios are located on South Bundy Drive in West Los Angeles, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Harvard. KSCI served as a multicultural television station until July 2017, when it changed to a schedule primarily featuring infomercials.

History

The channel 18 allocation in Los Angeles was previously occupied by KCHU-TV, which was licensed to San Bernardino and signed on the air on August 1, 1962. The station was owned by the San Bernardino Sun-Telegram. KSCI signed on the air on June 30, 1977,[1] operating from studios in West Los Angeles, although still licensed in San Bernardino.[2] It became a non-profit owned by the Transcendental Meditation movement (the call letters stood for Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's theoretical "Science of Creative Intelligence"). The station broadcast news stories, prerecorded lectures and variety shows with TM celebrities.[1] KSCI's goal was to report "only good news"; sister stations were planned for San Francisco and Washington, D.C.[3][4] The station manager was Mark Fleischer, son of Hollywood director Richard Fleischer.[3]

In 1980, KSCI switched to a for-profit operation and earned $1 million on revenues of $8 million in 1985.[5] In November 1985, the station loaned $350,000 to Maharishi International University in Iowa.[6] By June 1986, the station's content began to consist of "a hodgepodge of programming" in 14 languages.[2][7] In October 1986, the station was purchased by its general manager and an investor for $40.5 million.[8]

In 1990, the station was sold to Intercontinental Television Group Inc., with programming being produced by Wahid Boctor of Arab American Television.[9][10] In 1998, KSCI transferred its city of license from San Bernardino to Long Beach. In 2000, a Korean newspaper, The Hankook Ilbo, took over the International Media Group (IMG), which operated KSCI. IMG was re-launched as the AsianMedia Group, Inc., who purchased the station.[11]

By 2005, the station was broadcasting seven English-language and three Spanish-language newscasts plus "local news programs in Vietnamese, Mandarin Chinese and Korean" to 2.5 million Asian-American viewers in Southern California.[12] In early 2005, KSCI changed its on-air branding to "LA-18." [citation needed]

In October 2008, KSCI broadcast the Presidential debate along with translation in Mandarin and offered political analysis by their news staff. The broadcast was one of several that covered election events in Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese and Tagalog languages.[13]

On January 9, 2012, KSCI, Inc. filed a voluntary petition for reorganization under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.[14] On August 11, 2012, KSCI was purchased by NRJ TV LLC, a company which has acquired smaller television stations in various U.S. cities for the possibility of placing their spectrum for auction once the Federal Communications Commission rolls out a voluntary spectrum auction for use for non-broadcast purposes in 2014.[15]

On June 22, 2017, KSCI announced that they have canceled all of its programming in Chinese, Filipino, Spanish and Armenian and replaced with English-language infomercials beginning July 1, the subchannels of the station continued to air its programs in Chinese and Armenian as a result of the station's programming cutbacks, the station also announced they reduced its Korean programming from 8 to 11 p.m. and they will cut its subchannels list from 12 to 5 next year.[16]

On September 12, 2017, KSCI's parent company NRJ TV LLC announced that they would sell its Poway translator station, KUAN-LD, to the NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations group (owners of KNBC/KVEA and KNSD), for $650,000 once the purchase receives FCC approval.[17]

Sale to RNN

On December 9, 2019, it was announced that WRNN-TV Associates, owner of New York City-based WRNN-TV, secured a deal to purchase seven full-power TV stations (including KSCI) and one Class A station from NRJ.[18] The sale was approved by the FCC on January 23,[19] and was completed on February 4, 2020.[20]

From February 1 until February 4, 2020, WRNN-TV Associates operated KSCI under a short-term local marketing agreement (LMA) while it awaited full consummation of its purchase. KSCI began airing WRNN-TV's independent network RNN on its primary channel. RNN's schedule consists primarily of infomercials, with occasional religious, E/I, and news/talk programs.[21]

Digital television

Digital channels

KSCI has subleased several of its digital subchannels to other foreign language broadcasters have since appeared and disappeared from their subchannel lineup. Of these. LA's Japanese TV channel, UTB discontinued its 24-hour broadcast on 18.2 during the summer of 2016 due to low viewership after seven years. In the July 2017 programming change, station management believes that six digital subchannels can fit into the spectrum, using statistical multiplexing.[22] The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[23]
18.1 480i 4:3 KSCI-DT Main KSCI programming / RNN
18.2 SBS Seoul Broadcasting System (Korean)
18.3 MBCD MBCD (Korean)
18.4 CGNTV Christian Global Network TV (Korean religious)
18.5 MBC MBC Home Shopping (Korean)

Analog-to-digital conversion

KSCI shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 18, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[24] The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 61, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to its former analog-era UHF channel 18.

References

  1. ^ a b iPad iPhone Android TIME TV Populist The Page (1975-10-13). "Behavior: THE TM CRAZE: 40 Minutes to Bliss". TIME. Retrieved 2012-10-27.
  2. ^ a b HOLLEY, DAVID (June 15, 1986). "Eclectic TV KSCI's Programming in 14 Languages Offers News, Entertainment, Comfort to Ethnic Communities". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, California. p. 1.
  3. ^ a b William, Jefferson (1976) Pocket Books, The Story Of The Maharishi, page 118
  4. ^ "Time Magazine, The TM Craze, 1975". Time.com. 1975-10-13. Retrieved 2010-12-05.
  5. ^ Stevens, Gus (July 11, 1986). "Few languages are foreign at San Bernardino's KSCI". The Tribune. San Diego, Calif. p. C.21.
  6. ^ "Maharishi U. Nets $6.3 Million In Gifts in '84". Omaha World - Herald. Omaha, Neb. Nov 4, 1985. p. 1."Private support also came in the form of a $350,000 loan from independent UHF station KSCI in San Bernardino, Calif., which is owned by a TM organization."
  7. ^ "Eclectic TV : KSCI's Programming in 14 Languages Offers News, Entertainment, Comfort to Ethnic Communities - Los Angeles Times". Articles.latimes.com. 1986-06-15. Retrieved 2012-10-27.
  8. ^ VALLE, VICTOR (Oct 29, 1986). "KSCI TO CANCEL ITS SPANISH PROGRAMMING;". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, Calif. p. 1.
  9. ^ Haugsted, Linda (April 23, 1990) New basic set to launch. (Intercontinental Television Group Inc. to offer news and entertainment programming from Los Angeles cable station), Multichannel News
  10. ^ Haugsted, Linda (July 9, 1990) International Channel officially launches with 300,000 subs, Multichannel News
  11. ^ (Oct 12, 2000) Hankook Ilbo Buys KSCI-TV in US, Korea Times (Seoul, Korea)
  12. ^ Romano, Allison (Oct 10, 2005) Asian-American market is ready.(KSCI Holding Inc.) Broadcasting & Cable
  13. ^ (Oct 16, 2008) Los Angeles TV Station to Broadcast October 7 Presidential Debate Live in Chinese, Politics & Government Week
  14. ^ "KSCI, Inc.: Private Company Information - Businessweek". Investing.businessweek.com. Retrieved 2012-10-27.
  15. ^ "NRJ TV To Acquire Asian-Language KSCI". TVNewsCheck.com. 2012-03-27. Retrieved 2012-10-27.
  16. ^ "LA18 To Replace Local Asian TV Programs With English Infomercials". CBS Los Angeles. June 22, 2017. Retrieved June 24, 2017.
  17. ^ "Station Trading Roundup: 2 Deals, $660,000". TVNewsCheck. September 26, 2017. Retrieved September 27, 2017.
  18. ^ "RNN Reaches Agreement to Increase Permanent Distribution Platform to 28 Percent of the US With NRJ Purchase". Globe Newswire. December 9, 2019. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
  19. ^ http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/app_det.pl?Application_id=1813384
  20. ^ Consummation Notice
  21. ^ http://www.rnntv.com/wrnn-tv/
  22. ^ Jeff John Roberts (2008-07-15). "DTV May Be Key to LA's Asian Community | TVNewsCheck.com". Tvnewsday.com. Retrieved 2012-10-27.
  23. ^ RabbitEars TV Query for KSCI
  24. ^ List of Digital Full-Power Stations Archived 2013-08-29 at the Wayback Machine
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