KYMA-DT (1988–2020)

In March 1980, Manning Telecasting, Inc., a company related to Daniel H. Overmyer and owned by his daughter Elizabeth, filed an application for a new television station on channel 11 in Yuma. The channel had been vacant since January 1970, when KIVA went out of business. The Federal Communications Commission granted the construction permit on September 29, 1982, but Manning's ability to build the television station had just been hobbled days earlier by a federal bankruptcy court in Ohio that ruled that it had deliberately attempted to defraud First National Bank of Boston. The firm was forced into trusteeship, and Manning Telecasting's stock was reissued to Cadmus, Inc., an affiliate of the bank. Cadmus then sold the permit in 1986 to Yuma Television Associates, a partnership of two attorneys from Tucson and a third from Stuttgart, Arkansas, for $30,000.[3] Yuma Television Associates then sold a stake to Sunbelt Communications Company of Las Vegas, which would buy the remainder within two years of startup; construction activities began, while the call letters KYMA were selected over the original KCAA, which the wife of Sunbelt owner James E. Rogers felt sounded better.[4]

The station began broadcasting in January 1988 as an ABC affiliate from studio facilities located on South Pacific Avenue in Yuma. Yuma Broadcasting sold the station to Sunbelt Communications Company in June 1989. On February 1, 1991, it became an NBC affiliate[5] in a swap with then-KYEL, which would become KSWT that September.

In May 2013, Intermountain West Communications Company (formerly Sunbelt Communications) reached a deal to sell the station to Blackhawk Broadcasting, a company that shares ownership with the Northwest Broadcasting group.[6] In July, Blackhawk announced that they also in the process of acquiring competing station, KSWT from Pappas Telecasting, which would require a failing station waiver.[7] The FCC approved the KYMA transaction on August 12,[8] while the KSWT transaction was approved on December 23.[9][10] The sale of both stations was completed on February 18, 2014.[11][12]

On July 2, 2014, News-Press & Gazette Company, owners of KECY-TV and KESE-LP, announced that it had agreed to form a resource sharing agreement with Blackhawk Broadcasting, giving NPG control of the big four television network affiliates in the Yuma–El Centro market. All employees of KYMA and KSWT, except for sales personnel, became employees of NPG.[13][14] Blackhawk continues to operate the sales departments of its stations.[15] As a result of the agreement, KYMA and KSWT relocated to KECY's building on 4th Avenue.[16]

On January 13, 2020, KYMA-DT's programming and intellectual unit were moved to the channel 13 facility, which changed call letters from KSWT to KYMA-DT. Its license was surrendered eight days later as a condition of the acquisition of Northwest Broadcasting by Apollo Global Management in 2019.[17]

Being an NBC affiliate, KYMA's schedule was dominated by network and syndicated programming, including NBC's The More You Know educational programming block on Saturday mornings.