California Music Channel

CMC was founded on August 31, 1981, by Rick Kurkjian, launching on March 1, 1982, as a half-hour show telecast twelve times per week on Teleprompter Cable Oakland Channel 12. The notion of a Bay Area Interconnect was developed early on as CMC expanded by doing local original cable channels on Concord TV Cable Ch. 11, Viacom Cable of San Francisco Ch 6, Viacom of Marin and Castro Valley Cable TV. After a little more than a year on the local cable channels CMC started running a Saturday night version of the program on KCSM-TV Ch 60 in San Mateo. The CMC broadcast was simulcast in stereo on KCSM-TV's sister station, KCSM-FM 91.1.

In 1983, KCSM-TV was one of a batch of educational-access television stations to experiment with running expanded underwriting announcements and full 30-second commercial TV spots from non-profit organizations. In addition to the U.S. Army, many of its other advertisers were coincidentally set up as non-profit organizations under dealer associations and franchise organizations such as the California Milk Advisory Board and the McDonald's "Golden Arches Advertising Fund". As such, CMC was able to include commercials for these organizations on the otherwise non-commercial, educational, KCSM. This revenue allowed the show to remain profitable, when other local music video shows were struggling to remain on the air or even on non commercial Public-access television.[3]

In 1984, the demand from CMC advertisers grew beyond the scope of underwriting announcements and non profit 30s. On October 1, 1984, the California Music Channel debuted its Monday to Friday broadcast on full power independent KTSF-TV where CMC remained through February 23, 2018.

In 2016 and 2018, Nielsen Media Research encodes, samples, and reports the San Francisco DMA transmissions of CMC as local broadcast TV station CMC-TV and CMC-USA as station CMCU-TV.[4]

In 2018, CMC Broadcasting purchased KTVJ-LD channel 6 licensed to Nampa/Boise, Idaho from OMI.[5]

In 2019, Gracenote and other television listing services classified CMC and CMC-USA as Digital Broadcast Networks.[6]

"Cruisin' with Chuy" launched on October 6. Hosted by Chuy Gomez, the program is CMC's take on the long-standing Bay Area tradition of "Sunday Night Oldies." The live broadcast features fan requests and shout outs via social media platforms, giveaways, and all the best classic hits from 6 pm to 10 pm on every Sunday night.

In 2021, construction began on KTVJ-LD RF 6 Virtual 3 serving Boise-Nampa-Meridian, Idaho. KTVJ signed on the air on November 5, 2021, with digital broadcast networks CMC on channel 3.1 and CMC-USA on channel 3.2.[7]

CMC partnered with Amagi for worldwide digital distribution, Dynamic Ad Insertion, and FAST channel applications and platforms.

Alex Caronfly – 1991
Susan Butler – 1991
Jay Peterson – 1992
Andy Kawanami – 1993
Lipoi Niualiku – 1994
Cynthia Roberts – 1998
Jessica Correos – 2004
Brian Moore ("B-Mo") – 2004
Heather Kant – 2007
Cheryl Zurbano – 2007
Lori Rosales – 2009
Mary Diaz – 2010
Miguel ("Thehomie") – 2010
Nessa – 2010
Mia Amor – 2013
Leslie Stoval – 2013
Arianne – 2014
Rachel Andrade – 2015
Miss Kimmie – 2015
Gabby Diaz – 2016
Angelina Narvaez – 2021