First air date December 1, 1997 | Sister station(s) KXLA, KJLA | |
City Huntington Beach, California Channels Digital: 23 (UHF)
Virtual: 31 (UHF) Affiliations Armenian-Russian Television Network Owner KVMD TV, LLC. (Ronald Ulloa) | ||
KVMD is an Armenian Programming as an ARTN-Shant affiliate licensed to Huntington Beach, California, USA. The broadcast signal covers all the Greater Los Angeles Area on digital UHF channel 23. KVMD-DT is also available on DirecTV and Dish Network on channel 31, its former analog channel. The station is also seen throughout the Los Angeles media market on various cable TV systems.
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The station broadcasts digitally on nine subchannels. KVMD is dedicated to providing free over-the-air programming to minority groups in southern California. Currently programming is offered in Spanish. Mandarin Chinese, Vietnamese, English, and Armenian. KVMD's owner, Ronald Ulloa, is also president and majority owner of KXLA.
KVMD's transmitter is located atop Mt. Wilson
KVMD has subchannels in other languages serving the region's Asian American community.
History
On December 1, 1997 on analog channel 31, KVMD signed on. While its analog signal was rather weak and could not generally be received beyond Twentynine Palms and Yucca Valley, it sought and obtained carriage on many cable television systems throughout Southern California, as well as satellite TV, due to its fortuitous location in the outskirts of the Los Angeles DMA and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) must-carry rules. KVMD started out broadcasting America One programming. On July 29, 2002, its digital signal went on the air on channel 23. This signal is much stronger, potentially reaching 80 times as many viewers over the air as its analog signal, and reaching most of the Inland Empire. It also reaches a good portion of Los Angeles, Orange and part of San Diego counties.
On June 1, 2003, KVMD became the first station in the country to shut off its analog channel and go digital-only, in support of the government-mandated digital transition.
On June 1, 2008, KVMD started to air ARTN Armenian programming every night.
DirecTV Carriage
KVMD ceased programming on DirecTV's local standard-definition coverage on December 19, 2007 but returned on October 31, 2008.