KJLA (channel 57) is a

Spanish-language Spanish () or Castilian () is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. Today, it is a world language, gl ...

religious Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural ...

independent television station An independent station is a broadcast station, usually a television station, not affiliated with a larger broadcast network. As such, it only broadcasts syndicated programs it has purchased; brokered programming, for which a third party pays t ...

licensed to

Ventura, California Ventura, officially named San Buenaventura (Spanish for "Saint Bonaventure"), is a city in and the county seat of Ventura County, California, United States. It is a coastal city located northwest of Los Angeles. The population was 110,763 at the ...

, United States, serving the

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

area. The station is owned by Costa de Oro Media,

LLC A limited liability company (LLC) is the United States-specific form of a private limited company. It is a business structure that can combine the pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited liability of a ...

, a company run by

Entravision Communications Entravision Communications Corporation is an American media company based in Santa Monica, California. Entravision primarily caters to the Spanish language in the United States, Spanish-speaking Hispanic and Latino Americans, Hispanic community ...

founder, CEO and chairman Walter Ulloa (whose brother, Ronald Ulloa, owns ethnic independent KXLA (channel 44) and KVMD (channel 31)). KJLA's studios are located on Corinth Avenue (near Interstate 405) in

West Los Angeles West Los Angeles is an area within the city of Los Angeles, California, United States. The residential and commercial neighborhood is divided by the Interstate 405 freeway, and each side is sometimes treated as a distinct neighborhood, mapped ...

, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson. KJLA operates two low-power repeater stations: KLFA-LD (channel 25) in Santa Maria and KFUL-LD (channel 23) in

San Luis Obispo ; ; ; Chumashan languages, Chumash: ''tiłhini'') is a city and county seat of San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. Located on the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California, San Luis Obispo is roughly halfway betwee ...

(both are part of the Santa Barbara

market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market *Marketing, the act of sat ...

). In addition to carrying

programming on its main channel, the station also carries various networks broadcasting in

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...

and

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

on separate

digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...

History

The station first signed on the air on October 1, 1990, as KSTV-TV. It was the second attempt to operate a television station in Ventura; the first, KKOG-TV (channel 16), operated from December 14, 1968, to September 13, 1969, with a schedule of entirely live, local programming. KSTV-TV was originally owned by Costa de Oro Television, Inc., and originally aired Spanish-language programming as an affiliate of

Galavisión Galavisión is an American Spanish-language pay television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. The network is unrelated to the earlier Mexican channel of the same name, though both broadcast Televisa-produced programming. As of February 20 ...

. The station signed on a low-power translator in Santa Maria in 1992. In 1994, Walter Ulloa purchased Costa de Oro Television and KSTV-TV, intending to increase its transmitting power and extend its signal to better reach to the Los Angeles area. However, although Ventura is considered part of the Los Angeles market,

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

(FCC) rules at the time placed KSTV-TV within the Santa Barbara–Santa Maria–San Luis Obispo market, similar to the situation of KADY-TV channel 63 (now KBEH-TV) in

Oxnard, California Oxnard () is a city in Ventura County in the U.S. state of California, United States. On California's Central Coast (California), Central Coast, it is the most populous city in Ventura County and the List of largest California cities by populati ...

which became Santa Barbara's

UPN The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that operated from 1995 to 2006. It was originally a joint venture between Chris-Craft Industries (later sold to News Corporation)'s subsidiary, United Television, ...

affiliate when the network launched in January 1995. Unable to get

cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

coverage in the Los Angeles area, on November 1, 1995, KSTV switched to an

English-language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

format and became the WB affiliate for the Santa Barbara market. However, the station continued in its attempts to enter the Los Angeles market. In July 1997, KSTV increased its

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would ha ...

to 5,000

kilowatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s. The improved signal helped the station to obtain

must-carry In cable television, many governments, including the ones of the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada, apply a must-carry regulation stating that forces a cable TV provider to carry the public interest programming, like locally licensed te ...

status on most cable providers in western

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 2023. Its population is greater than that of 40 individua ...

in February 1998. However, because Los Angeles already had a WB-affiliated station,

KTLA KTLA (channel 5) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship station of The CW. It is the largest directly owned property of the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is ...

(channel 5), KSTV-TV was forced to disaffiliate from the network. In the spring of 1998, the station relocated its studios and offices from Ventura to West Los Angeles. The station changed its call letters to KJLA on July 20, 1998, to further reflect its intentions to serve the Los Angeles market. On that date, KJLA became an

independent station An independent station is a broadcast station, usually a television station, not affiliated with a larger broadcast television network, network. As such, it only broadcasts broadcast syndication, syndicated programs it has purchased; brokered pr ...

and adopted a split-scheduled format. The station began carrying financial news programming under the brand ''Business News 22'' acquired from

KWHY-TV KSCN-TV (channel 22) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, airing programming from the Scientology Network. The station is owned by Sunset Boulevard Broadcasting, a company affiliated with the Church of Scientology ...

, later ''BizNews 1'' on weekday mornings and afternoons. Business news returned to KWHY-TV, this time only on its digital signal, in 2000, and was later dropped by KJLA. In November 2001, the Simi Valley translator was moved to Mount Wilson and started broadcasting to Los Angeles as KSMV-LP on channel 33. Ironically, the original low power translator in Simi Valley operated on channel 44, which caused interference with full power "cousin" station KRPA (now KXLA) which prompted the change to channel 33. Soon after,

Trinity Broadcasting Network The Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN; legally Trinity Broadcasting of Texas, Inc.) is an international Christian-based broadcast television network and the world's largest religious television network. TBN solicits donations on its Web site, a ...

sought to move

KTBN-TV KTBN-TV (channel 40) is a religious television station licensed to Santa Ana, California, United States, serving the Los Angeles area as the flagship station of the locally based Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). The station's offices are ...

's digital operation from channel 23 to channel 33, to avoid co-channel interference from the digital signals of KVMD (another "cousin" of KJLA) in the Inland Empire and San Diego CW affiliate

XETV XETV-TDT (channels 6 and 16) is a television station located in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, broadcasting programs from Canal 5 (Mexico), Canal 5 and NU9VE. Its terrestrial television, terrestrial signal also covers the San Diego area acros ...

, now a repeater of

XHGC-TDT XHGC-TDT (channel 5) is a television station in Mexico City. Owned and operated by TelevisaUnivision, it is the flagship of the Canal 5 network. History XHGC signed on May 10, 1952, broadcasting a Mother's Day event organized by the Excélsio ...

. KTBN's move to channel 33 was authorized on February 5, 2009, ultimately displacing KSMV-LP to KTBN's former digital channel, 23. KSMV-LP soon flash-cut to digital and started rebroadcasting KVMD to the Los Angeles area. The following year in 2001, the station began branding its Spanish language programming block under the name LATV. In April 2007, LATV transitioned from a programming block on KJLA into a national network; it became distributed to several television stations (mainly carried on

s and low-power stations, with the subchannels of four

stations Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle stat ...

owned by

Post-Newsweek Stations Graham Media Group (formerly Post-Newsweek Stations) is the television broadcasting subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company. It is now headquartered in Detroit, co-locating with its local NBC affiliate WDIV-TV, after spending 10 years in Chicago. ...

and those owned by

among the network's charter affiliates). In December 2017, it was announced that the station will become the Los Angeles market's

Azteca América Azteca América (, sometimes shortened to Azteca) was an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by INNOVATE Corp., which acquired the network from the Azteca International Corporation subsidiary of TV Azteca. Headquar ...

affiliate on January 3, 2018, replacing

KAZA-TV KAZA-TV (channel 54) is a television station licensed to Avalon, California, United States, serving the Los Angeles area as an owned-and-operated station of the classic television network MeTV. It is owned by Weigel Broadcasting alongside Bishop ...

, thus sister station KVMD became the new affiliate of

LATV LATV (; originally pronounced on-air as from 2007 to 2014 and, since 2014, serving as a backronym for its on-air slogan, "Latino Alternative Television") is an American bilingual broadcast television network, digital publisher and media company ...

in the Los Angeles market on January 1, 2018. Although the official switch to Azteca was not until January 3, the station started airing the majority of the network's programming on January 1 with an exception of shows that aired at the same time as KJLA's

religious programming Religious broadcasting, sometimes referred to as faith-based broadcasts, is the dissemination of television and/or radio content that intentionally has religious ideas, religious experience, or religious practice as its core focus. In some coun ...

, which continued to air on the network until March. Various Azteca programs were delayed or not shown at all in order to make place for KJLA's religious program ''Cambia Tu Vida'', which aired various times a day. The program was removed from KJLA's schedule on March 19, 2018, and the station begin airing Azteca's entire schedule "live" and in pattern. On January 1, 2022, the station dropped its affiliation with Azteca America and starting airing religious programming from Visión Latina and Universal Church; Azteca moved its affiliation to a subchannel of

until the network ceased operations on December 31, 2022.

Technical information

Subchannels

KJLA presents 10 subchannels on the

multiplex Multiplex may refer to: Science and technology * Multiplex communication, combining many signals into one transmission circuit or channel ** Multiplex (television), a group of digital television or radio channels that are combined for broadcast * ...

shared with KXLA:

Translators

Analog-to-digital conversion

KJLA had applied to convert to a digital-only signal, citing low over-the-air analog viewership rates and high operating costs to maintain the simulcast; this request was refused by the FCC on February 9, 2005. The higher operating costs were in part due to KJLA having two different transmitter sites. The station's analog transmitter was located on South Mountain near Santa Paula in

Ventura County Ventura County () is a county located in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 843,843. The largest city is Oxnard, and the county seat is the city of Ventura. Ventura County comprises ...

; the facilities for its digital signal are located on Mount Wilson in

."Request to Discontinue Analog Operations of Station KJLA(TV)"
Federal Communications Commission, March 10, 2005. KJLA shut down its analog signal, over

UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter ...

channel 57, on August 27, 2008.List of Digital Full-Power Stations
/ref> The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 49, using

virtual channel In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered as digits on a receiver's ...

57. KJLA is the second television station in the Los Angeles market to discontinue its analog signal before the digital transition in 2009, after KVMD, which shut down its analog signal in 2003.

Channel sharing trial

In February 2014, KJLA and

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

member station KLCS (channel 58) were granted

special temporary authority Special Temporary Authority (STA) in U.S. broadcast law is a type of broadcast license which temporarily allows a broadcast station to operate outside of its normal technical or legal parameters. In the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) st ...

by the FCC to conduct trials in partnership with CTIA and the Association of Public Television Stations, in which the two stations would conduct a test of the H.264 video codec for digital television transmission, and more importantly, the ability and viability of broadcasting two sets of television services within the same 6 MHz channel band. These tests came as the FCC prepared to perform a

spectrum auction A spectrum auction is a process whereby a government uses an auction system to sell the rights to transmit signals over specific bands of the electromagnetic spectrum and to assign scarce spectrum resources. Depending on the specific auction for ...

in 2015 (which was delayed to sometime in 2016 that November), in which television station operators would be able to voluntarily sell their broadcast spectrum to the government, and then receive profits from its sale to wireless providers. An FCC spokesperson stated that channel sharing would allow broadcasters to " akeadvantage of the incentive auction’s once-in-a-lifetime financial opportunity", while still maintaining its ability to run over-the-air television programming.

References

External links

* * showing KSTV affiliations in 1992 and 1997.
1995 FCC petition
requesting cable carriage under

rules.
1998 FCC petition
requesting modification of market under must-carry rules.
2000 FCC petition
requesting cable carriage.
USENET posting referring to KSTV-57 and WB affiliation

article announcing move of

business news {{DEFAULTSORT:Kjla 1990 establishments in California Independent television stations in the United States JLA JLA Television channels and stations established in 1990 JLA Thousand Palms, California JLA