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| City | Rio Grande City, Texas |
| Channels | |
| Branding | Telemundo 40 |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
| Founded | June 10, 1994 |
First air date | August 1, 1999 (26 years ago) (1999-08-01) |
Former call signs | KAIO (CP, 1994–1998) |
Former channel numbers |
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Call sign meaning | Telemundo |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 62354 |
| ERP | 350kW |
| HAAT | 576.4 m (1,891 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 26°31′2″N98°39′8″W / 26.51722°N 98.65222°W /26.51722; -98.65222 |
| Translator(s) |
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| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
KTLM (channel 40) is atelevision station licensed toRio Grande City, Texas, United States, broadcasting the Spanish-languageTelemundo network to theLower Rio Grande Valley.Owned and operated byNBCUniversal'sTelemundo Station Group, the station maintains studios in theChase Bank building inMcAllen, and its transmitter is located near Rio Grande City.
The station's originalconstruction permit was issued to theStarr County Historical Foundation on June 10, 1994,[2] with the call sign KAIO issued on September 1.[3] The foundation intended to run KAIO as a non-commercial station promoting tourism in the Rio Grande Valley; that idea, however, was later abandoned. On October 5, 1998, KAIO changed its call letters to KTLM[3] and picked up the Telemundo affiliation fromXHRIO-TV (channel 2), which had struggled with signal strength in the western parts of the Lower Rio Grande Valley.[4] The station went on the air August 1, 1999.[5]
In 2000, the Starr County Historical Foundation sold KTLM to Sunbelt Multimedia,[5] a division of the Starr Camargo Bridge Company, unrelated toSunbelt Communications Company. Sunbelt Multimedia had been managing the station since its launch.[4] On September 10, 2012, Sunbelt Multimedia put KTLM up for sale, with Patrick Communications managing partner Larry Patrick named to run the station while in receivership. Documents were forwarded to the FCC to officially put the station under Patrick's control. His media worked to try to earn enough money to repay creditors of Sunbelt Multimedia.[6] A year later, a deal was reached to sell KTLM to Telemundo Rio Grande ValleyLLC, a subsidiary ofNBCUniversal; this made the station a Telemundoowned-and-operated station.[7][8] The sale was finalized on December 31.[9]
KTLM launched a news department in 2003, with weeknight newscasts at 5 and 10 p.m. originally anchored by Yolanda de la Cruz. In 2010, Dalia Garza was promoted from health reporter to the main anchor.
After NBC's purchase, local news was expanded to include the latest weekend news, a 9 a.m. morning show namedBuenos Días Frontera, an in-house weather forecast with two new weather presenters, and a new public affairs program namedEnfoque McAllen. On September 2, 2014, KTLM debuted a new anchor team. This team included a co-anchor for Dalia Garza and a new weather anchor to replace Marlen Sosa, who had left two months earlier with Elizabeth Robaina. An updated set namedNoticias Telemundo 40 was inaugurated at the same time.[10] On November 3, 2014, along with 14 other stations owned by NBC Universal and Telemundo, KTLM launched a new 4:30 p.m. newscast, movingAl Rojo Vivo to 3 p.m. andLo Mejor de Caso Cerrado to a half-hour slot at 4 p.m. This allowed room for an extended newscast running from 4:30 to 5 p.m. On May 26, 2016, the station launched a consumer investigative unit called "Telemundo Responde". This was led by anchor and reporter Ana Cecilia Méndez, who took this new role in place of her previous weekend anchor position.[11]
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | KTLM-HD | Telemundo |
| 40.2 | 480i | 4:3 | TeleXIT | TeleXitos |
| 40.3 | 16:9 | Cozi | Cozi TV | |
| 40.4 | KTLM-LX | NBC American Crimes | ||
| 40.5 | Oxygen | Oxygen | ||
| 40.6 | Nosey |
On August 8, 2018, KTLM added a third subchannel carrying Cozi TV programming, which moved fromKFXV.
KTLM ended regular programming on its analog signal, overUHF channel 40, 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.[13]
As part of theSAFER Act, KTLM kept its analog signal on the air until July 12 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop ofpublic service announcements from theNational Association of Broadcasters.[14]
Includes Spanish-language stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Texas | ||
| Telemundo | ||
| Estrella TV | ||
| UniMás | ||
| Univision | ||
| Latino-related | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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