KCNS

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = KCNS
city =
station_
station_slogan =
station_branding =
analog = 38 (UHF)
digital = 39 (UHF)
other_chs =
affiliations = Independent
Chinese
network =
founded =
airdate = January 3, 1986
location = San Francisco, California
callsign_meaning = California's
Network for
Shopping
former_callsigns = KWBB (1986-1991)
former_channel_numbers =
owner = Multicultural Television Broadcasting, LLC
licensee = MTB San Francisco Licensee, LLC
sister_stations =
former_affiliations = Independent (1986-1988)
Shop at Home/Jewelry Television (1998-2007)
infomercials (January-April 2007)
effective_radiated_power = 5000 kW (analog)
1000 kW (digital)
HAAT = 440 m (analog)
428 m (digital)
class =
facility_id = 71586
coordinates = coord|37|45|18.8|N|122|27|10.4|W|type:landmark_scale:2000
homepage =

KCNS is a television station in San Francisco, California, in the United States, owned by Multicultural Broadcasting. It carries educational and informative programming on Monday mornings, Chinese-language programming in the evenings, and infomercials the rest of the time. Currently, the channel broadcasts pre-recorded Cantonese and Mandarin news programs from Sino TV New York respectively from 6 PM to 7 PM and 10 PM to 11 PM, Monday through Friday. China and Taiwan news programs are broadcasted Saturday and Sunday from 6 PM to 7 PM. The station operates on Channel 38 analog and 39 digital, covering the entire San Francisco Bay Area.

History

Channel 38 originally signed on the air in December 1968 as KUDO-TV. The station initially broadcast financial programming in the mornings and early afternoons. The station also aired movies at night, most of them black and white from the 1930s and 1940s. The station went dark in 1971. In the early 1970s, the Faith Center (owned by Eugene Scott) acquired the station for a cheap price and returned it to the air as KVOF-TV. However, the station, along with sister stations KHOF-FM (now KKLA) in Los Angeles and KHOF-TV (now KPXN) in San Bernardino, California, lost its FCC license after Faith Center refused to give financial records to the FCC. KVOF-TV thus went off the air on or around December 30, 1985.

The current KCNS license began broadcasting in January 1986 as KWBB, and was located on San Bruno Mountain. The station shared a building on Radio Road with KTSF. The licensee, West Coast United Broadcasting, leased the old KVOF broadcasting facilities from Dr. Scott and the successors to Faith Center and sold airtime back to Dr. Scott, in effect allowing it to have a transmitter site for "free." It ran infomercials and other programming during the day, retaining Dr. Scott's programming from the old Channel 38 at night.

In the station was sold to Global Broadcasting Systems and changed its call sign to KCNS. The station switched to Chinese and Filipino programming, with studios at the Hamms Building in San Francisco. In addition, the power was increased to five megawatts, and the transmitter moved to Sutro Tower in August 1989, becoming the last analog television station to move there.

In 1998,KCNS to the Shop at Home Network, who the station to their home shopping programming. This lasted until June 21, 2006, when the Shop at Home's parent, The E. W. Scripps Company, suspended its operation. KCNS switched to Jewelry Television, and two days later, it started broadcasting a mixture of both networks, after Jewelry Television bought Shop at Home and resumed its operation.

On September 26, 2006, Multicultural Television announced it was buying KCNS from Scripps, as part of a deal to buy all of Scripps' Shop at Home channels for $170 million. [http://pressreleases.scripps.com/release/877] Multicultural closed on KCNS and the Cleveland and Raleigh stations on December 20, 2006. On January 14, 2007, KCNS ended its simulcast of Shop at Home and switched to educational and informational programming on early weekday mornings and infomercials the rest of the day. On KCNS began broadcasting Chinese language programming in Mandarin and Cantonese, under the "Sino TV" ( _zh. 華語電視) banner daily from 6PM to 12AM, including news programs in both Mandarin and Cantonese.

See also

*Eugene Scott

External links

* [http://www.kcnstv.com KCNS-TV 38 San Francisco]
* [http://www.mingpaosf.com/htm/News/20070406/sf1a.htm Ming Pao (San Francisco edition) article on Chinese programming on KCNS, dated April 6, 2007 (in Chinese)]
*TVQ|KCNS
*BIA|KCNS|TV|TV
* [http://www.plu.edu/~kcns/ KCNS — Pacific Lutheran University's Student Run Television Station]