Channel 19 in Modesto was founded by
country and western performer
Chester Smith and began broadcasting as KLOC-TV on August 26, 1966. It was an English-language
independent station but struggled to obtain programming once distributors raised their rate. As a result, the station simulcast co-owned
KLOC radio during the day and began airing Spanish-language shows at night. By the 1970s, it was specializing in daytime Christian programming and evening Spanish-language programming. Its coverage area expanded to include Sacramento in 1975; the call sign changed to KCSO-TV in 1981 when Smith sold KLOC radio. Over the course of the 1980s, Smith built several additional television stations in central California and Nevada broadcasting Spanish-language programming.
Chester Smith sold KCSO to Univision in 1997; Smith retained the call sign, so the station was renamed KUVS-TV. The station moved most of its operations from Modesto to Sacramento after the sale. It produces local Spanish-language newscasts for the market as well as a weekly public affairs program seen on other Univision stations in California.
All of KUVS-DT's subchannels are rebroadcast in the immediate Sacramento area on
KEZT-CD (channel 23), and KTFK-DT also rebroadcasts the Univision subchannel of KUVS-DT to provide improved coverage.
History
Chester Smith ownership
On March 3, 1964, Corbett Pierce and
country and western performer
Chester Smith, owner of
KLOC (920 AM) in
Ceres, applied to the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for permission to build a new television station on channel 17 in Modesto, one of two channels allocated to the city.[2][3] The FCC approved the application on November 12, 1964;[2] after a national overhaul of
ultra high frequency (UHF) channel allocations finalized in early 1966 shifted Modesto's channel allocation to channel 19,[4] the station began broadcasting as
independent station KLOC-TV on August 26, 1966.[5]
Initially, KLOC maintained a general-entertainment format and was one of the stations that carried programming from the
United Network during its one month of operation in May 1967.[6][7] About a year after its sign-on, the syndicators providing KLOC's programming raised their prices to the levels closer to a Sacramento-licensed station (the station's owners had been acquired programming at lower rates closer to that of an unrated television market); KLOC-TV alleged that Stockton's
KOVR had pressured syndicators not to do business with the Modesto station.[8] Smith resorted to
simulcasting KLOC radio's programming during the daytime hours, including a camera in the radio station's studios showing the disc jockeys live,[9] and ran Spanish-language
telenovelas in the evening, when the radio station
signed off. Advertising revenue from the radio station helped keep channel 19 afloat.[7] In 1972, the station joined the Spanish International Network (SIN), predecessor to Univision;[10] soon after came an affiliation with the
Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) to air religious programs.[11] SIN and CBN provided steady income and turned the struggling station's fortunes around.[7]
In 1975, the station increased its power and finally began broadcasting in
color; the technical improvements also resulted in Sacramento being able to receive the station for the first time.[12] Smith sought to expand the reach of his station's programming. In 1976, he proposed to build a satellite station on channel 42 in
Concord, which had lay fallow for a decade following the short-lived existence of
KCFT-TV a decade prior, with a transmitter to be built atop
Mount Diablo.[13] The move was roundly opposed by citizens' groups that felt that Concord's channel 42 would be better used by a station that proposed more local programming. Two television stations that broadcast Spanish-language programming,
KEMO-TV (channel 20) in San Francisco and
KMUV-TV (channel 31) in Sacramento, also objected.[14][15] As a result, KLOC abandoned the Concord proposal in December 1976.[16] In 1979, KLOC won the rights to build channel 35 in
Salinas, to repeat much of its Modesto programming to the
Monterey Bay area; as a result, the KLOC radio station was sold off as a condition of obtaining the construction permit, and the television station changed its call sign to KCSO ("Chester Smith Organization"[17]) in 1981.[18][19]KCBA started broadcasting on November 1, 1981, becoming an English-language independent station several years later.[20] In 1986,
KREN-TV went on the air as an SIN-affiliated sister station in
Reno, Nevada.[21] Later in the decade, K07TA and K09UF, predecessors to today's
KTAS (channel 33), went on air in the
Santa Barbara and
San Luis Obispo area, and in 1991, plans were revealed for further stations in
Merced and
Eureka.[22]
KCSO's primary local program was its 6 p.m. local newscast, which was produced on a "dental floss budget", in the words of Xóchitl Arellano, who worked at the station when it was still located in Modesto.[23] However, the number of news personnel slowly increased throughout the 1990s.[23]
Univision ownership
In late 1996, Smith announced the sale of KCSO to Univision for $40 million (equivalent to $71.8 million in 2023 dollars); once the sale closed, the station's morning Christian programs would be discontinued to make way for broadcasting all of Univision's Spanish-language output.[24] (The KCSO call letters were retained by Smith, who started
KCSO-LP, a
Telemundo affiliate, in 1999.[17]) Smith was paid in Univision stock, which quadrupled in value between 1997 and 1999.[25]
Univision changed the call letters to KUVS, relocated operations from Modesto to Sacramento, and added an 11 p.m. local newscast to the station's longstanding 6 p.m. local news,[26] which also began to cover news in Sacramento. It was the first time a network had placed an owned-and-operated TV station in Sacramento.[27][28] Univision purchased a former bank building across from the
Arden Fair Mall to house its Sacramento operation, leaving only sales and news personnel in Modesto.[29][30]
Newscasts and other local programming
The KUVS newsroom in Sacramento airs half-hour local early and late evening newscasts seven days a week and A Primera Hora ("First Thing in the Morning"), a one-hour-long morning newscast at 6 a.m. In 2017, Univision debuted a statewide Edición Digital (Digital Edition) newscast, aired at 12:30 p.m.[31] The station began producing local newscasts in the early 1970s, though the station's resources were limited. The news set consisted of a table and chairs until anchor Xóchitl Arellano persuaded San Francisco's
KGO-TV to sell its previous news set to KCSO for $2,000.[32]
KUVS also produces Voz y Voto, a weekly political roundtable program distributed to Univision's California stations. When it debuted in 1999, the program was co-produced with
KMEX-TV in Los Angeles and was originally hosted by Rosa Maria Villalpando; Armando Botello, state political columnist for Los Angeles newspaper La Opinión; and Arellano, among others.[33][34][35] In 2005, the program featured an exclusive interview with governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger.[36] Arellano continued to serve as one of the program's anchors until she left the station in 2007.[37]
^"KLOC-TV Asks Site on Mt. Diablo". Contra Costa Times. Walnut Creek, California. October 3, 1976. p. 1,
2.
Archived from the original on August 26, 2022. Retrieved August 26, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
^"KCBA"(PDF). Television Factbook. 1984. p. 114.
Archived(PDF) from the original on January 30, 2022. Retrieved March 9, 2022 – via World Radio History.
^"Hispanic TV in Reno broadcasts Sept. 15". Reno Gazette-Journal. Reno, Nevada. September 3, 1986. p. 1D.
Archived from the original on August 26, 2022. Retrieved August 26, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
^Hoskins, Roger W. (December 19, 1999).
"Chester Reborn". The Modesto Bee. Modesto, California. p. D-1,
D-3.
Archived from the original on August 26, 2022. Retrieved August 26, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
^"Mañana comienza programa político 'Voz y Voto' en el Canal 34: Proyecto de 'La Opinión' y KMEX presentará a relevantes figuras publicas discutiendo sobre temas de actualidad" [Tomorrow, political program 'Voz y Voto' starts on Channel 34: Project from La Opinión and KMEX will present relevant public figures discussing current affairs]. La Opinión. March 26, 1999. p. 1B.
ProQuest368337444 – via ProQuest.
1These stations are owned by
Mission Broadcasting but operated by Nexstar under an
LMA. 2These stations are owned by Londen Media Group but operated by Nexstar under a
TBA. 3These stations are owned by
Vaughan Media but operated by Nexstar under an LMA. 4TelevisaUnivision USA owns the licenses to these stations but the stations themselves are operated by
Entravision Communications under an LMA.