KECY-TV

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = KECY-TV
city =
station_
station_slogan =
station_branding = Fox 9
ABC 5 (on DT2)
analog = 9 (VHF)
digital = 48 (UHF)
other_chs =
affiliations = Fox (primary)
MyNetworkTV (secondary)
ABC (on DT2)
Telemundo (on DT3)
network =
founded =
airdate = 1965
location = El Centro, California /
Yuma, Arizona
callsign_meaning = El Centro / Yuma"
former_callsigns = KECC-TV (1968-1981)
former_channel_numbers =
owner = News-Press & Gazette Company
licensee = Pacific Media Corporation
sister_stations =
former_affiliations = CBS (1968-1995)
effective_radiated_power = 316 kW (analog)
67 kW (digital)
HAAT = 484 m (analog)
414 m (digital)
class =
facility_id = 51208
coordinates = coord|33|3|19.1|N|114|49|46.8|W|type:landmark_scale:2000
homepage = [http://www.myfoxyumaelcentro.com/ myfoxyumaelcentro.com]

KECY-TV, channel 9, is the primary Fox and secondary MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for El Centro, California and Yuma, Arizona. Its transmitter is located between the two cities in the Chocolate Mountains in Imperial County, California. It can be picked up over-the-air in Mexicali, Mexico. Owned by the News-Press & Gazette Company, the station has studios on South 4th Avenue in Yuma. Syndicated programming on KECY includes: "Two and a Half Men", "According to Jim", "Friends", and "Judge Judy".

Overview

Programming from MyNetworkTV airs on the weeknights from 9 to 11 and Saturday nights from 11:30 P.M. to 1:30 A.M. Fox's prime time schedule runs from 7 to 9 P.M. PT nightly, 6 to 9 P.M. on Sundays (all Pacific Time). This is mainly for the benefit of Mountain Time Zone viewers in Arizona. KECY operates the area's ABC affiliate on its second digital subchannel. It is also offered on Time Warner Cable channel 5 with a high definition signal on channel 705. KECY-DT2 airs the entire ABC lineup as well as various syndicated programming. Like the main channel, there are no local newscasts on KECY-DT2. Telemundo affiliate KESE-LP can be seen on KECY's third digital subchannel. Due to its low powered status, that station does not have a digital signal of its own.

History

Founded in 1965 as a satellite of KBLU-TV (now KSWT-TV), it later separated in 1968 and remained a CBS affiliate until 1995. The station, along with a low powered translator licensed to Palm Desert known as KDBA-LP, was sold to Pacific Media Corporation and became the first CBS affiliate in the country to switch to the Fox network. KDBA-LP, now KDFX-CA, broacasted in the late-1980s / early-1990s and in Indio from 1992 until 1999. KECY's first studios were located on Main Street in in a former Bank of America building in El Centro. The station moved to Yuma when that area's growth began to accelerate rapidly. In 1997, Pacific Media Corporation, which was principally controlled by Judge Robinson O. Everett of Wilmington, North Carolina, entered into an local management agreement (LMA) with a subsidiary of Lambert Broadcasting. Lambert split the KDBA translator off and relaunched it as Palm Desert's Fox affiliate, KDFX-CA. The LMA and options to purchase the two stations were sold a year later to News-Press Gazette Company of St. Joseph, Missouri.

They were already the owners of KESQ-TV in the Palm Springs market. On January 1, 2007, KECY launched a full-time ABC affiliate in the El Centro / Yuma market on its second digital subchannel and Time Warner cable channel 5. In Yuma, it replaced KNXV from Phoenix which was seen on cable channel 5. In the California portion of the market, it replaced San Diego's KGTV which was seen on cable channel 10. That channel slot now only airs KGTV's local news and syndicated programming. ABC programming is blacked out and replaced with other programming. As a CBS affiliate, KECY had a local newscast titled "News 9" which ended sometime in the early-1990s. Currently, some over-the-air viewers in the Coachella Valley facing south to the Imperial Valley can receive KECY over-the-air but interference may occur from KVCR-TV rebroadcaster K09XW. KECY began broadcasting in high definition during early-2006, becoming the first station in the Yuma-El Centro market to broadcast in HD. KECY broadcasts Fox prime time and Fox Sports in high-definition.

External links

* [http://www.myfoxyumaelcentro.com/ KECY "Fox 9"]
*TVQ|KECY