KRCA

History

The station first signed on the air on December 17, 1988 as KSLD-TV, displacing a low-power translator of San Bernardino-based PBS member station KVCR-TV (channel 24). The station ran a mix of Asian language programs (in Mandarin Chinese and Korean). Channel 62 was founded and owned by Frank L. Fouce's company, Fouce Amusement Enterprises, who broadcast Asian language programming.

In 1990, the station changed its call letters to KRCA (the station is not related to NBC owned-and-operated station KNBC channel 4, or RCA, the former parent of that station's associated network, although NBC used the KRCA call letters on its Los Angeles station in the 1950s), and became an affiliate of the Home Shopping Network. In 1998, KRCA was sold to Liberman Broadcasting, and converted 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.

Digital channels

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

KRCA-TV formerly rebroadcast its San Diego sister station KSDX-LP on digital subchannel 62.2. In September 2009, 62.2 began to transmit Mandarin-language programming for the first time since KRCA last presented Chinese-language television in 2000. It is presented by City of Industry-based Hantian TV (HTTV). In June 2010, KRCA added a third subchannel on 62.3 (since moved to 62.4), carrying programming from Inmigrante TV, a Spanish-language special interest channel featuring political news and commentary aimed at immigrant viewers.

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.

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. 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 was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.

News operation

KRCA presently broadcasts 7½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 1½ hours each weekday; the station does not broadcast any newscasts on weekends).