KSMS-TV (channel 67) is a television station licensed to Monterey, California, United States, serving the Monterey Bay area as an affiliate of the Spanish-language network Univision. It is owned by Entravision Communications alongside Class A UniMás affiliate KDJT-CD (channel 33, licensed to both Salinas and Monterey). KSMS-TV and KDJT-CD share studios on Garden Court south of Monterey Regional Airport in Monterey; through a channel sharing agreement, the two stations transmit using KDJT-CD's spectrum from an antenna atop Fremont Peak.
History
KSMS-TV was founded by Bill Schuyler on September 1, 1986.[1] In the same year, KCBA, the only television station broadcasting in Spanish in the area, was sold to the Ackerley Group. Ackerley decided to make KCBA an English-language station affiliated with the then-emerging Fox network, which would have left the Salinas–Monterey–Santa Cruz television market without a Spanish-language television station. Knowing that Schuyler had a permit to build a station in the market, a former manager of KCBA encouraged Schuyler to seize the opportunity to create a new station to serve the Hispanic community as an affiliate of the Spanish International Network (the predecessor of Univision).
Schuyler assembled a team of four television professionals and challenge them to develop the new station before KCBA's relaunch. The multiple tasks of creating a new station from the ground up were divided among the four individuals. The group found an old building on Garden Road, which coincidentally had been the first home of KMST-TV (now KION-TV), which Schuyler had started in 1969 and sold a decade later.[2] After negotiating the lease, the remodeling of the old building started immediately. A studio was built in the first floor, along with a small production area, a sound booth and the master control area. After much searching for a suitable transmitter, one was found and installed along with an antenna, atop of Fremont Peak, overlooking the Salinas Valley. Production and broadcasting equipment was purchased and installed, support personnel hired, a small news team was assembled and the station went on the air on time.
News operation
KSMS operates its 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts, each running about 30 minutes each, totaling 10 hours per week. KSMS does not broadcast any local news on weekends. KSMS competed with Telemundo affiliate KMUV-LP, after newscasts were added in September 2009 under the ownership of the Cowles Publishing Company, until the newscasts were axed in September 2025.[3] KSMS also covers national news and news from Latin America. KSMS started its newscasts in November 1987, a few days after Fidel M. Soto joined the station.[4] Soto is currently the longest tenured personality since KSMS's inception.
Technical information
Subchannels
In June 2010, KSMS began broadcasting in 16:9 HDTV ratio in time for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Analog-to-digital conversion
KSMS-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 67, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 31,[5] using virtual channel 67.
External links
References
- Fred Alvarez. KSMS-Channel 67 begins Spanish-language programming The Californian, September 3, 1986, retrieved October 19, 2020^
- Fred Alvarez. Spanish station has big plans The Californian, November 21, 1986, retrieved October 19, 2020^
- Felix Cortez. KION and Telemundo 23 shut down with 'no warning;' employees blindsided KSBW, September 24, 2025, retrieved October 3, 2025^
- Talentos - Fidel M. Soto (in Spanish)^
- DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds retrieved March 24, 2012^