Early years
Five applicants filed with the Federal Communications Commission by 1982 for the rights to build a television station on channel 59, allocated to Sanger, California. Only one of the groups, Sanger Telecasters Inc., was local to the area, with the others being out-of-area firms. The group included Gary Cocola, owner of a fruit company in Pinedale, and his wife Diane.[1]
After settling with the other applicants, Sanger Telecasters received a construction permit in March 1984.[2] The station was intended to broadcast music videos with local video jockeys handling the programming. However, it missed its planned 1984 start-up date because the transmitter—being specially built to enable the station to telecast stereo sound—was not ready in time,[3] During this time, the Cocolas visited WLXI-TV in Greensboro, North Carolina, and KRLR in Las Vegas, which had adopted similar formats and had low cash flow. They came to the conclusion that audience acceptance would be high but the youth-targeted station would not attract major national advertisers, leading them by March 1985 to abandon the music video plan and propose a predominantly religious lineup.[4] When KMSG-TV began broadcasting on July 17, 1985, it also offered local programming for the Sanger area,[5] some shows in Spanish and Japanese, and children's programs.[6]
In March 1988, KMSG-TV joined Telemundo, a Spanish-language network, and began airing 2 1/2 hours of news and telenovelas on weekdays. The move came at a time when religious programs were experiencing a downturn due to recent scandals involving televangelists.[7] By early 1989, the evening programming had expanded to 5 1/2 hours, and some Telemundo shows also were airing on weekends.[8] Another expansion of Telemundo programming came in February 1990 and saw the cancellation of much of the station's existing English-language local programming.[9] Cocola had tried to go all-Telemundo as early as August 1989, but the switch was delayed until the Home Shopping Network, another major presence on channel 59, could be broadcast on a new low-power station.[10]
Gary Cocola sold his stake in KMSG-TV in 1991 as part of a divorce settlement.[11] Five years later, KMSG launched a weeknight news program, competing directly with Univision station KFTV (channel 21), followed by a morning news and talk show, Mañanas Alegres (Happy Mornings).[12] The weeknight program became a 6 p.m. newscast, Noticiero 59, in November 1997.[13] The newscast—never a competitor against KFTV—lasted until April 1999, when it was canceled and the 10 employees that produced it laid off.[14] The decision coincided with a move by Telemundo to begin programming 17 hours a week that previously belonged to local affiliates, in which KMSG programmed profitable infomercials.[15]
WB and CW affiliation
In August 2000, KNSO (channel 51, then an affiliate of The WB) signed a deal to become the Fresno market's new Telemundo affiliate. Its owner, Sainte Partners, already was associated with Telemundo in Sacramento.[16] Though KMSG looked into alternative sources of Spanish-language programming, Pappas Telecasting terminated a local marketing agreement (LMA) between KNSO and Fox affiliate KMPH (channel 26) under which Pappas had programmed The WB in prime time on channel 51. On January 1, 2001, Pappas began operating channel 59 on a full-time basis, including WB programs. Fourteen KMSG employees lost their jobs under the deal, which gave Pappas an option to buy channel 59 outright after two years.[17] With the switch, KMSG changed call signs to KFRE-TV.[18] Pappas exercised its option to buy KFRE-TV purchasing the station from Sanger Telecasters for $25 million in a deal announced in December 2003 and completed in March 2004.[19]
