Affiliations MyNetworkTV | First air date January 3, 2000 | |
Branding KPSE My TV (general)
KMIR News (newscasts) Slogan King of Palm Springs Entertainment (general)
Where The News Comes First (news) Channels Digital: 29 (UHF)
Virtual: 50 (PSIP) Owner OTA Broadcasting, LLC
(OTA Broadcasting (PSP), LLC) | ||
KPSE-LD is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for Southern California's Coachella Valley. Licensed to Palm Springs, it broadcasts a low-powered analog signal on UHF channel 29 from a transmitter on Edom Hill in Cathedral City. Owned by OTA Broadcasting, LLC (a company controlled by Michael Dell's MSD Capital), KPSE-LD is sister to NBC affiliate KMIR-TV and the two outlets share studios on Park View Drive in Palm Desert. Syndicated programming on this station includes The Big Bang Theory, Friends, 30 Rock, and The Office among others. The station can also be seen on Time Warner Cable channel 20.
Contents
History
The station signed-on January 3, 2000 as KPSE-LP on channel 50, the market's first locally based UPN affiliate. Owned by Mirage Media, it immediately replaced Los Angeles's KCOP-TV on Coachella Valley's Time Warner Cable system; until KPSE's launch, KCOP had served as UPN's de facto affiliate for Palm Springs. After UPN and The WB shut down and merged in 2006 to form The CW (which affiliated with KCWQ-LP and a subchannel of KESQ-TV), KPSE joined MyNetworkTV.
On September 26, 2007, Journal Communications (owner of KMIR) announced its purchase of KPSE from Mirage Media for $4.7 million with the transaction receiving approval January 28, 2008. In October 2013, Journal reached a deal to sell KMIR and KPSE to OTA Broadcasting, LLC (a company controlled by Michael Dell's MSD Capital). The sale was completed January 1, 2014
Along with other major Coachella Valley stations, KPSE-LP formerly identified itself on-air using its cable designation (at that time, channel 13) rather than its over-the-air analog channel position. This unusual practice (also common in the Fort Myers/Naples, Florida market) stems in part from Palm Springs's exceptionally high cable penetration rate of 80.5% which is one of the highest in the United States. The station now brands simply as "KPSE My TV."
Until recently, the station offered programming from TheCoolTV in a secondary arrangement. That network could be seen weekday mornings from 6 until 9, Saturday mornings from 5 to noon, and Sunday afternoons from noon until 2:30.
On September 22, 2011, Journal was granted a construction permit for a new low-power digital station on channel 29, which was immediately issued the call sign K29KF-D. On September 3, 2014, OTA Broadcasting changed K29KF-D's call letters to KPSG-LD and applied for a license to cover the permit; a week later, channel 29 became KPSE-LD, while KPSE-LP on channel 50 took the KPSG-LP call sign. On May 26, 2015, the KPSG-LP license was canceled.
2013 Time Warner Cable compensation dispute
Due to its low-power status, the station was pulled from Time Warner Cable systems at midnight on July 11, 2013 in a retransmission consent dispute with Time Warner; KMIR continued to air on the system due to rules disallowing full-power stations from being pulled during a sweeps period. KMIR, along with all Journal stations, was pulled at midnight on July 25, 2013 off Time Warner systems at the end of the sweeps period. On September 20, 2013, a deal was reached to return Journal's stations, including KMIR and KPSE, to Time Warner Cable; as part of the deal, KPSE moved to channel 20, ceding its former channel 13 slot to KMIR (which lost its longtime channel 6 position to Game Show Network).
Newscasts
Sister station KMIR produces three local news broadcasts for KPSE-LD. This includes a two-hour extension of the NBC affiliate's weekday morning show. Known as KMIR News Today on KPSE My TV, the program can be seen from 7:00-9:00 a.m. offering a local alternative to Today. There is a nightly prime time newscast called KMIR News at 10:00 on KPSE My TV that runs for thirty minutes. All KPSE-LD broadcasts compete with local news seen on Class A Fox affiliate KDFX-CD that is produced by rival KESQ and KPSP.