KAIL is a VHF
television stationA television station is a type of broadcast station that broadcasts video and possibly audio to television receivers in a particular area. Traditionally, TV stations made their broadcasts by sending specially-encoded radio signals over the air, called terrestrial television...
affiliated with
MyNetworkTVMyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
, based in
Fresno, CaliforniaFresno is a city in California, USA, the county seat of Fresno County. As of February 27, 2009, the population was estimated at 500,017, making it the fifth largest city in California and the 36th largest in the nation...
, operating on digital channel 7. Its transmitter is on top of Auberry Mountain. They are locally owned by Trans-America Broadcasting Corporation. They are one of the few commercial stations that are independently owned and one of the few stations to have never been sold it its long life.
KSEE-TV produces a 1 hour newscast for KAIL at 10 p.m., airing on weeknights.
KAIL is a VHF
television stationA television station is a type of broadcast station that broadcasts video and possibly audio to television receivers in a particular area. Traditionally, TV stations made their broadcasts by sending specially-encoded radio signals over the air, called terrestrial television...
affiliated with
MyNetworkTVMyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
, based in
Fresno, CaliforniaFresno is a city in California, USA, the county seat of Fresno County. As of February 27, 2009, the population was estimated at 500,017, making it the fifth largest city in California and the 36th largest in the nation...
, operating on digital channel 7. Its transmitter is on top of Auberry Mountain. They are locally owned by Trans-America Broadcasting Corporation. They are one of the few commercial stations that are independently owned and one of the few stations to have never been sold it its long life.
KSEE-TV produces a 1 hour newscast for KAIL at 10 p.m., airing on weeknights. KSEE will discontinue the newscast on September 11, 2009.
History
KAIL-TV became Fresno's first independent TV station on December 18, 1961, beating out soon to be competitor, KICU-TV (now KGMC) by 5 days. In its early years, it produced a great deal of its own programming, including children's shows such as
Leebo the Clown and others. During the 1960s, KAIL ran religious shows, public affairs programs, a few older syndicated shows, some cartoons, older movies, and some sports. The station was on the air about 8 hours a day.
In 1971,
KMPH-TVKMPH-TV is a television station in Fresno, California broadcasting digitally on television channel 28, and is licensed to nearby Visalia. It is the Fresno-area affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Company...
signed on Channel 26 and owned by
Pappas BroadcastingPappas Telecasting Companies was a diversely organized broadcasting company headquartered in , United States. Founded in 1971, it is one of the largest privately held broadcasting companies in the country, with its stations reaching over 15% of all U.S. households and over 32% of Hispanic households...
. That station was very competitive and became the leading independent. KAIL was perceived as an also ran. They did expand into 12 hour a day operation but by then was running mostly religious programming and some second rate syndicated shows that KMPH and other stations passed on. Through the 1970s KAIL ran older cartoons, drama shows, several hours a day of religious shows, and specialty shows. As new syndicated cartoons became abundant in the mid 1980's, KAIL added more of those. They also continued to lean toward barter syndicated shows. Their ratings continued to be modest throughout the 1980s.
In the 1995, the station became a charter affiliate of UPN, when the network launched in January 1995. In the 1990s, KAIL added stronger programs such as recent off network sitcoms, talk shows, reality shows, and court shows. The station began gradually phasing out cartoons around 2000 and dropped the weekday cartoons in the fall of 2003, when UPN ended its DIsney kids' block. When UPN affiliation was dropped (several weeks before the network's already announced demise), the station became a charter affiliate of MyNetworkTV on September 5, 2006.
KAIL holds the record for the longest continuous usage of a station's original call letters in the Fresno market, having used the callsign since its sign-on in 1961; it has held the record since 2000, when KJEO-TV (which signed on under those call letters in 1953) changed its call letters to KGPE-TV. (Several other stations have had the same call letters since their original licensing, but are younger than KAIL.) Also the station was the only station to never change ownerships since its 1961 sign on.
Prior to the licencing of KAIL-TV, Channel 53 broadcast as KBID-TV for a few months in 1954. The station was owned by veteran broadcaster
John PooleJohn Silas Poole was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1936 to 1949. Initially as a Conservative, he became a Progressive Conservative in 1943 when the party changed its name.-Biography:Poole was educated at Kemptville and in Winnipeg,...
, original owner of channel 22 in
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
, originally KBIC-TV. KBID left the air when the station was unable to acquire a network affiliation. At the time, only CBS did not have an affiliate in Fresno. CBS would eventually affiliate with channel 12 (now channel 30) in 1956.
In 2008, KAIL became the flagship for
Fresno State BulldogsThe Fresno State Bulldogs represent California State University, Fresno in 16 NCAA Division I sports. The teams have been members of the Western Athletic Conference since 1992. Before that, it had been a member of the Big West Conference since 1969...
sports, which moved from
KFRE-TVKFRE-TV is the CW affiliate for the Fresno, California market. It broadcasts on digital UHF channel 36. The station is a sister station of KMPH-TV. KFRE-TV is owned by Pappas Telecasting Companies. The station is licensed to Sanger, with studios in Fresno and a transmitter in...
. On April 1, 2008, KAIL launched a
Retro Television NetworkThe Retro Television Network is a system of television stations primarily airing classic television programming from the 1950s through the 1980s, such as Leave it to Beaver, Kojak, McHale's Navy, Adam-12, Emergency!, and The Rockford Files, as well as the horror film showcase Midnight Monster Hop...
affiliate on its digital subchannel 7.2. and that channel is the new home to the
San Francisco GiantsThe San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California who currently play in the National League West Division. One of the oldest baseball teams, the Giants hold the honor of having won the most games of any team in the history of baseball...
which moved from conter rival station,
KFREKFRE-TV is the CW affiliate for the Fresno, California market. It broadcasts on digital UHF channel 36. The station is a sister station of KMPH-TV. KFRE-TV is owned by Pappas Telecasting Companies. The station is licensed to Sanger, with studios in Fresno and a transmitter in...
.
Digital Conversion
As of June 12, 2009, KAIL-TV ceased transmitting on UHF channel 53, using VHF channel 7 for both its branding and digital broadcasts.
External links