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| City | Fresno, California |
| Channels | |
| Branding | ABC 30;ABC 30 Action News |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
First air date | May 10, 1956 (69 years ago) (1956-05-10) |
Former call signs | KFRE-TV (1956–1971) |
Former channel numbers |
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| CBS (1956–1985) | |
Call sign meaning | Fresno |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 8620 |
| ERP | 400kW |
| HAAT | 625 m (2,051 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 37°4′36″N119°26′3″W / 37.07667°N 119.43417°W /37.07667; -119.43417 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | abc30 |
KFSN-TV (channel 30) is atelevision station inFresno, California, United States, serving as the market'sABC network outlet. It isowned and operated by the network'sABC Owned Television Stations division, and maintains studios on G Street in downtown Fresno; its transmitter is located on Bear Mountain, nearMeadow Lakes, California.
Fresno is the smallesttelevision market in California with a "Big Four" network O&O.[2]
After theFederal Communications Commission (FCC)'s four-year-longfreeze on awarding television station licenses was lifted in 1952, two radio stations—KARM (1430 AM, nowKFIG) and KFRE (940 AM, nowKYNO) competed for theconstruction permit to operate a station on channel 12, the soleVHF allocation given to Fresno. KFRE won the permit, and the station first signed on the air on May 10, 1956, as KFRE-TV (for Fresno). It is the third-oldest television station in the Fresno market in a three-year timeframe and upon signing on, KFRE-TV took theCBS affiliation from KJEO (channel 47, nowKGPE). This made Fresno one of the smallest markets where each network gained full-time affiliations at the time.
The KFRE stations were acquired byTriangle Publications in 1959. On February 17, 1961, KFRE-TV reluctantly moved to UHF channel 30 to make Fresno an all-UHF market under orders from the FCC. It was known by the termdeintermixture, the move was made for the purpose of leveling the playing field and eliminating the potential ofunfair competition between the VHF and UHF bands. A similar situation occurred in nearbyBakersfield where that city's lone VHF station,KERO-TV on channel 10, moved to UHF channel 23 in 1963. The move of KFRE-TV to channel 30 opened up channel 12 for use byKCOY-TV inSanta Maria, which went on the air in 1964.
Triangle began its exit from broadcasting in 1971, and sold the KFRE stations toCapital Cities Communications. The new owners sold off the AM andFM radio stations as a condition of the purchase and kept the television station, changing its call letters to KFSN-TV on May 1 of that year (theKFRE-TV calls are now used on Fresno'sCW affiliate on channel 59; that station is unrelated to the current KFSN-TV).
On March 18, 1985, Capital Cities announced it would purchase ABC. Nearly six months later, on September 9, 1985, KFSN-TV traded network affiliations with KJEO and became an ABC affiliate. The transaction was finalized on January 3, 1986, making channel 30 an ABCowned-and-operated station. It marked the first time aBig Three network owned aUHF television station sinceNBC sold WNBC (nowWVIT) inNew Britain, Connecticut, to Plains Television in 1960 (NBC would buy the station back fromthe original incarnation of Viacom in 1997).[3] In 1996,The Walt Disney Company acquired Capital Cities/ABC.
KFSN-TV shut down its analog signal, overUHF channel 30, at noon on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United Statestransitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transitionVHF channel 9 to UHF channel 30.[4][5]
ABC News Now was launched in 2004 on digital subchannels of ABC O&O stations[6] and lasting until January 31, 2005, as the channel ended its experimental phase.[7] The group changed its programming on secondary channels to ABC Plus, a local news and public affairs format. ABC teamed up withAccuWeather to launch amulticast service starting on ABC stations' third subchannel with the second station taking on the service was KFSN-TV in late 2005.[8] On April 27, 2009, KFSN began carrying the Live Well Network on a second digital subchanneldigital subchannel.[9][10]
The station carried a Live Well Networkstandard definition simulcast that was carried on digital subchannel 30.3 until it was replaced withLaff on April 15, 2015.[11] ABC Owned Television Stations took its Localish digital media venture promoted by KFSN and other stations[12] then rebranded its Live Well Network asLocalish on February 17, 2020.[13]
KFSN-TV serves as the production company for two programs seen on the Live Well Network, now called Localish,Motion andMy Family Recipe Rocks.[14]
KFSN-TV presently broadcasts 42 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with seven hours each weekday and3+1⁄2 hours each on Saturdays and Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the highest local newscast output among the broadcast television stations in the Fresno market. Unlike most ABC affiliates in thePacific Time Zone, the station does not broadcast a 5:30 p.m. newscast on weekdays, opting to fill the half-hour withABC World News Tonight (as a result of that program airing one hour earlier than other ABC stations in the time zone, KFSN airs an extension of its 6 p.m. newscast inWorld News' recommended 6:30 timeslot). In addition, the station produces thepublic affairs programValley Focus, which airs Sundays at 10 a.m.
KFSN has dominated the local news ratings in the San Joaquin Valley for decades, dating back to its pre-ABC-merger years as a CBS affiliate. Its 5 p.m. newscast,Live at Five frequently attracts more viewers than all other area stations combined. Due to Fresno's CBS affiliate using the branding, KFSN's newscasts are not brandedEyewitness News, nor does it use theGari Media Group-composed "Eyewitness News" music package, like most of ABC's other owned-and-operated stations. Instead, KFSN retains theAction News branding made famous atPhiladelphiasister stationWPVI-TV, when the format debuted on that station in 1970. KFSN also used the original version of615 Music's "News One" music package from 1994 to 2014, also used at the time bySan Francisco sister station,KGO-TV.
In 2003, the station beganpooling resources with sister stationsKABC-TV inLos Angeles and KGO-TV to hire a full-time reporter and photographer to staff aSacramento bureau followingArnold Schwarzenegger's election asGovernor during the2003 California recall election; the Sacramento bureau was shut down in September 2013.[15] On April 23, 2007, beginning with the 5 p.m. newscast, KFSN-TV became the seventh ABC owned-and-operated station to begin broadcasting their local newscasts inhigh definition (following its sister stations KABC-TV, WPVI-TV,WABC-TV inNew York City,WLS-TV inChicago, KGO-TV in San Francisco andKTRK-TV inHouston) and updated its news branding toABC 30 Action News HD.
On September 12, 2011, KFSN launched an hour-long 4 p.m. newscast, which replacedThe Oprah Winfrey Show.[16] This follows the trend of the four other sister stations (WABC-TV, WPVI-TV, KGO-TV andWTVD inDurham, North Carolina) that started their own 4 p.m. newscast afterOprah ended its syndication run. On January 7, 2013, KFSN began producing a half-hour 10 p.m. newscast for then-MyNetworkTV affiliateKAIL (channel 7); the program, titledABC 30 Action News Live at 10:00,[17] ended in July 2014.
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30.1 | 720p | 16:9 | KFSN-HD | ABC |
| 30.2 | LOCLish | Localish | ||
| 30.3 | 480i | Charge! | Charge! | |
| 30.4 | HSN | HSN |
Includes English-language stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of California | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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