KGMC (TV)


KGMC, virtual channel 43, is an Estrella TV-affiliated television station serving Fresno, California, United States that is licensed to Clovis. It serves as the flagship 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.
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. Operating as an independent station, the station signed on the air on December 23, 1961, five days after Fresno's first independent station, KAIL took to the air. KICU carried a mix of movies and other independent fare. Toward the end of its run, KICU also picked up some NBC programs that were not cleared to air by that network's Fresno affiliate, KMJ-TV. The station ceased operations in 1968; the KICU-TV call letters are now used by an independent station in San Jose.

Since 1990s

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.
In January 1995, the station entered into a local marketing agreement with Pappas Telecasting Companies, owner of Fox affiliate KMPH-TV. 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, classic sitcoms and older movies. On January 11 of that year, the station became a charter affiliate of The WB. KGMC continued to run religious programs, paid programming, 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 in 1998 and finally to KFRE-TV 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 in 1998; after America's Store was shut down by HSN in 2007, KGMC switched its programming to Jewelry Television. 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. On December 1, 2016, with the demise of MundoMax, KGMC switched to Liberman Broadcasting's Estrella TV 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.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP Short NameProgramming
43.1720pEstrellaMain KGMC programming / Estrella TV
43.4480iHSNHome Shopping Network
43.5480iANT-TVAntenna TV
43.6480iMe-TVMeTV
43.7480iQVC Over Air
43.8480iCozi TV

Analog-to-digital conversion

KGMC shut down its analog signal, over UHF 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.