KRCA

KRCA (channel 62) is a television station licensed to Riverside, California, United States, broadcasting the Spanish-language Estrella TV network to the Los Angeles area. It is the flagship television property of Burbank-based Estrella Media. The station's studios are located on North Victory Drive (near Interstate 5) in Burbank. Through a channel sharing agreement with KABC-TV (channel 7), KRCA transmits using KABC-TV's spectrum from an antenna atop Mount Wilson. Despite Riverside being KRCA's city of license, the station maintains no physical presence there.

This article is about the West Coast flagship station of Estrella TV in Los Angeles, California. For the station that formerly used this call sign, see KNBC. For the air force base near Rapid City, South Dakota assigned the ICAO code KRCA, see Ellsworth Air Force Base.
KRCA
CityRiverside, California
Channels
BrandingEstrella TV KRCA 62
Programming
Affiliations62.1: Estrella TV[2]
62.2: Estrella News
62.3: Estrella Games
Ownership
Owner
History
First air date
March 20, 1989 (1989-03-20)
Former call signs
KSLD (1988–1990)
Former channel number(s)
Analog:
62 (UHF, 1988–2009)
Digital:
68 (UHF, until 2009)
35 (UHF, 2009–2018)
Asian Independent (1988–1990)
HSN (1990–1998)
Spanish Independent (1998–2009)
Call sign meaning
Riverside, California
(no relation to the Radio Corporation of America)
Technical information[3]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID22161
ERP28.7 kW
50 kW (CP)
HAAT978 m (3,209 ft)
Transmitter coordinates34°13′37″N 118°4′1″W
Translator(s)K30QC-D Ridgecrest
Links
Public license information
Websitewww.estrellatv.com

History

The station signed on March 20, 1989, as KSLD on UHF channel 62, displacing a low-power translator of San Bernardino-based PBS member station KVCR-TV (channel 24). The station was owned by Sunland Broadcasting; it was the first new Southern California TV station since channel 46 had returned in 1984.[4] Channel 62 was intended to be the third Spanish-language TV outlet in the Southland,[4] but an inability to secure enough programming prompted the station to emerge instead with home shopping programming from Home Shopping Network.[5] The reason that KSLD-TV could not secure the programming was the collapse of Transvision, a proposed network of which channel 62 would have been the Los Angeles affiliate; the network opted to delay its launch.[6]

In 1990, Sunland sold KSLD to Fouce Amusement Enterprises, for $3.575 million.[7] Fouce changed the call letters to KRCA and began broadcasting Asian-language programming,[8] as well as fare in Armenian and Persian.[9] In 1997, KRCA was sold for $60 million[10] to Liberman Broadcasting (which was renamed Estrella Media in February 2020, following a corporate reorganization of the company under private equity firm HPS Investment Partners, LLC). Liberman, which owned several Spanish-language radio stations in southern California, converted KRCA into a Spanish-language independent station.

In May 2005, KRCA was the subject of controversy due to billboards advertising its local newscasts, in which the place name "Los Angeles, CA" had the "CA" postal abbreviation crossed out, replaced with the word "MEXICO" in bold red and a picture of the El Ángel victory column on the Paseo de la Reforma superimposed onto a picture of the Los Angeles skyline. The billboard was deemed provocative by some, and protests erupted outside Liberman Broadcasting studios. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke on the popular John and Ken radio talk show on KFI requesting that the Libermans remove the signs. After negotiations between the station and Clear Channel Outdoor (a company that shared common ownership with KFI at the time), the owner of the billboards, the messages were replaced with a more generic advertisement.

News operation

KRCA presently broadcasts 7½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 1½ hours each weekday) and no newscasts on weekends. On March 1, 2022, Estrella TV laid of most of its staff for KRCA's news operation outside a few remaining multimedia journalists, and all of its newscasts are produced and anchored by Canal 6 and Milenio TV personnel from Monterrey, Mexico; Canal 6/Milenio have also produced KWHY-TV's newscasts since 2017.[11]

Technical information

Subchannels
For other channels on this multiplex, see KABC-TV § Subchannels.

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of KRCA on the KABC-TV multiplex[12]
Channel Video Aspect Short name Programming
62.1 720p16:9KRCA DTMain KRCA programming / Estrella TV
62.2 480iKRCA-2Estrella News
62.3 KRCA-3Estrella Games

Analog-to-digital conversion

Both the analog and pre-transition allocations for KRCA were outside the core spectrum (channels 2-51) permitted for broadcasting use after the transition; as a result, the station was required to find an in-core channel from which to operate its digital signal post-transition. It originally elected to operate on UHF channel 45 after 2009, but, anticipating difficulty getting coordination from Mexico to use that channel, it instead requested and was granted the use of UHF channel 35.[13][14]

KRCA shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 62, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[15] The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 68 to channel 35 (formerly the pre-transition digital signal of KMEX-DT), using PSIP to display KRCA's virtual channel as 62 on digital television receivers, which (as with its original digital channel allocation) was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.

References
  1. "Modification of a Licensed Facility for DTV Application". FCC Licensing and Management System. August 15, 2017. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  2. "Coming, a new force in Hispanic TV". Media Life Magazine. March 20, 2009. Archived from the original on March 23, 2009. Retrieved April 11, 2009.
  3. "Facility Technical Data for KRCA". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  4. Valle, Víctor; Sánchez, Jesús (November 30, 1988). "3rd Latino TV Station on Tap for Southland". Los Angeles Times. p. 10. Retrieved March 18, 2020.
  5. "TV & Video". Los Angeles Times. March 21, 1989. p. 2. Retrieved March 18, 2020.
  6. "Fourth network?" (PDF). Broadcasting. April 3, 1989. p. 50. Retrieved March 18, 2020.
  7. "Changing Hands" (PDF). Broadcasting. February 26, 1990. p. 52. Retrieved March 18, 2020.
  8. Rathbun, Elizabeth (September 18, 1995). "Tribune buys Houston U for WB" (PDF). Broadcasting & Cable. p. 16. Retrieved March 18, 2020.
  9. "King Videocable to add international channel". The Signal. July 10, 1994. p. C6. Retrieved March 18, 2020.
  10. "Changing Hands" (PDF). Broadcasting & Cable. August 25, 1997. p. 30. Retrieved March 18, 2020.
  11. Villafañe, Veronica (March 1, 2022). "Estrella TV lays off staff, outsources local newscasts to Mexico". Media Moves. Retrieved April 14, 2022.
  12. RabbitEars TV Query for KRCA
  13. "DTV Transition Status Report". FCC CDBS database. February 15, 2008. Retrieved June 3, 2008.
  14. "Report and Order (Doc. DA 08-1185)" (PDF). FCC CDBS database. May 21, 2008. Retrieved June 20, 2008.
  15. List of Digital Full-Power Stations Archived August 29, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
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