KSCI


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, operating from studios in West Los Angeles, although still licensed in San Bernardino. It became a non-profit owned by the Transcendental Meditation movement. The station broadcast news stories, prerecorded lectures and variety shows with TM celebrities. KSCI's goal was to report "only good news"; sister stations were planned for San Francisco and Washington, D.C. The station manager was Mark Fleischer, son of Hollywood director Richard Fleischer.
In 1980, KSCI switched to a for-profit operation and earned $1 million on revenues of $8 million in 1985. In November 1985, the station loaned $350,000 to Maharishi International University in Iowa. By June 1986, the station's content began to consist of "a hodgepodge of programming" in 14 languages. In October 1986, the station was purchased by its general manager and an investor for $40.5 million.
In 1990, the station was sold to Intercontinental Television Group Inc., with programming being produced by Wahid Boctor of Arab American Television. 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, which operated KSCI. IMG was re-launched as the AsianMedia Group, Inc., who purchased the station.
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. In early 2005, KSCI changed its on-air branding to "LA-18."
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.
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. 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.
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.
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, for $650,000 once the purchase receives FCC approval.

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 and one Class A station from NRJ. The sale was approved by the FCC on January 23, and was completed on February 4, 2020.
From February 1 until February 4, 2020, WRNN-TV Associates operated KSCI under a short-term local marketing agreement 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.

Digital television

Digital channels

KSCI has subleased several of its digital subchannels to other foreign language broadcasters many of which 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. The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP Short NameProgramming
18.1480iKSCI-DTMain KSCI programming / RNN
18.2480iSBSSeoul Broadcasting System
18.3480iMBCDMBC-D
18.4480iCGNTVChristian Global Network TV
18.5480iMBCMBC Home Shopping
18.6480iCRTVInfomercials

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. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 61, which was among the high band UHF channels that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to its former analog-era UHF channel 18.