KTNC-TV (channel 42) is a
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 ...
television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's s ...
licensed to
Concord, California
Concord ( ) is the most populous city in Contra Costa County, California, Contra Costa County, California, United States. According to an estimate completed by the United States Census Bureau, the city had a population of 124,016 in 2024, maki ...
, United States, serving the
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...
as an
owned-and-operated station
In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an network af ...
of
Tri-State Christian Television
Tri-State Christian Television, Inc., trade name, doing business as TCT Network and TCT Ministries (formerly Total Christian Television), is a religious broadcasting, religious television network in the United States. The network was founded in M ...
(TCT). The station's transmitter, shared with
KMTP-TV,
KCNS
KCNS (channel 38) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. Owned by WRNN-TV Associates, the station airs programming from Shop LC. KCNS shares its digital channel with ...
, and
KEMO-TV
KEMO-TV (channel 50) is a television station licensed to Fremont, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area with programming from Fubo Sports Network. The station is owned by Innovate Corp. KEMO-TV's transmitter is locate ...
, is located atop
Sutro Tower
Sutro Tower is a unique three-legged tall TV and radio lattice tower located on the West Side (San Francisco), West Side of San Francisco, California. Rising from a hill between Twin Peaks (San Francisco), Twin Peaks and Mount Sutro near Claren ...
in
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
.
History
As an independent station
The station first signed on the air on June 19, 1983, as KFCB, which was originally owned by First Century Broadcasting (later known as Family Christian Broadcasting)—from which the station's original call letters were taken. At that time, its president was Reverend Ronn Haus. A majority of the station's broadcast day was devoted to Christian programming, including its own in-house productions. The station's flagship program was called ''California Tonight'' (later retitled ''Coast to Coast''), a Christian
talk show
A talk show is a television programming, radio programming or podcast genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Show', pp.3-4Erler, Robert (201 ...
with sermons, conversations with religious topics and musical guests. The program utilized an applause cart (audio tape cartridge) to give the viewers the impression that a studio audience was present during the tapings. Other programs seen on the station included ''
The 700 Club
''The 700 Club'' is the flagship television program of the Christian Broadcasting Network, airing each weekday in syndication in the United States and available worldwide on CBN.com. The news magazine program features live guests, daily news, p ...
'', Dr.
Robert Schuller
Robert Harold Schuller (September 16, 1926 – April 2, 2015) was an American Christian televangelist, pastor, motivational speaker, and author. Over five decades, Schuller pastored his church in Garden Grove, California starting in 1955. The ...
's ''
Hour of Power
''Hour of Power'' is a weekly American Evangelist television program broadcast from Shepherd's Grove Presbyterian Church in Irvine, California, near Los Angeles. It was formerly one of the most watched religious broadcasts in the world, seen ...
'' and various other local and national religious programs, usually of an evangelical nature.
In its earliest years, KFCB supplemented the religious programs with
secular
Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin , or or ), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. The origins of secularity can be traced to the Bible itself. The concept was fleshed out through Christian hi ...
shows such as ''
Speed Racer
''Speed Racer'', also known as , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tatsuo Yoshida. It was originally serialized in print in Shueisha's 1966 ''Shōnen Book''. It was released in form by Sun Wide Comics and later re-re ...
'', ''
Dennis the Menace'', ''
The Donna Reed Show
''The Donna Reed Show'' is an American sitcom starring Donna Reed as the middle-class housewife Donna Stone. Carl Betz co-stars as her Pediatrics, pediatrician husband Dr. Alex Stone, and Shelley Fabares and Paul Petersen as their teenage childr ...
'', ''
Father Knows Best
''Father Knows Best'' is an American sitcom starring Robert Young (actor), Robert Young, Jane Wyatt, Elinor Donahue, Billy Gray (actor), Billy Gray and Lauren Chapin. The series, which began on radio in 1949, aired as a television show for six ...
'', ''
The Mighty Hercules
''The Mighty Hercules'' is an animated television series based loosely on the Greek mythology character of Heracles, under his Roman name Hercules. It debuted on television in 1963. The show ran until 1966, coinciding with the sword-and-sandal ge ...
'', ''
Candid Camera
''Candid Camera'' is an American hidden camera and practical joke reality television series. The show was created, developed, and presented by Allen Funt. Various versions of the show have appeared on television from 1948 to 2014. The program ...
'', ''
New Zoo Revue'' and other programs as well as
CNN Headline News
HLN is an American basic cable network. Owned by CNN Worldwide, the network primarily carries true-crime programming, recently drifting away from limited live news programming.
The channel was originally launched on January 1, 1982, by Tur ...
, for about six hours a day. Although the station aired secular programming and some commercials, KFCB's primary revenue source continued to come from viewer donations; commercial revenue was not significant. The few commercials that aired were primarily "
direct response
Direct marketing is a form of communicating an offer, where organizations communicate directly to a pre-selected customer and supply a method for a direct response. Among practitioners, it is also known as ''direct response marketing''. I ...
" spots and
public service announcement
A public service announcement (PSA) is a message in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge to raise public awareness and change behavior. Oftentimes these messages feature unsettling imagery, ideas or behaviors that are des ...
s. The station broadcast semi-annual
telethon
A telethon (a portmanteau of "television" and "marathon") is a televised fundraising event that lasts many hours or days, the purpose of which is to raise money for a charitable, political or other cause.
Most telethons feature heavy solicitatio ...
s, in the manner of
public television and radio stations. Christian children's programs included ''
The Gospel Bill Show
''The Gospel Bill Show'' is a Christian-values based television show that was produced by Willie George Ministries from June 4, 1981 to May 12, 1993. (Later episodes were titled as ''Adventures in Dry Gulch'' but featured the same characters and ...
'', ''
Superbook Superbook may refer to:
* Superbook (1981 TV series), a Japanese Christian anime television series initially produced at Tatsunoko Production and TV Tokyo in Japan.
* Superbook (2011 TV series), an American Christian animated television serie ...
'' and ''
Davey and Goliath
''Davey and Goliath'' is an American Christian clay-animated children's television series, whose central characters were created by Art Clokey, Ruth Clokey, and Dick Sutcliffe, and which was produced first by the United Lutheran Church in Am ...
''. From 1985 to 1986, the station phased out most of its secular shows, although a lineup of such programs remained on Saturday mornings until at least 1989. The secular shows were occasionally modified to meet the station's programming standards—for example, master control operators were instructed to cover up the "Hollywood Minute" feature during CNN Headline News broadcasts, and beer commercials were deleted from airings of the syndicated discussion program ''It's Your Business''. During the fall of 1989, KFCB aired a schedule of
Western Athletic Conference
The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the Western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, Texas, Utah and Washington (state), Washington.
Due to ...
college football
College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...
games.
KFCB's studios were originally located at 5101 Port Chicago Highway, in the industrial section of north Concord, just north of the interchange with
State Route 4. Later, space was leased in a neighboring office building for additional offices and a larger studio. Only the cameras (three
RCA
RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...
TK-761's) were moved to the new studio, with the control room remaining in the original building. The new studio boasted an unusual feature—a restroom in the middle of the studio floor, the result of the studio being located in a roughed-in, but unfinished, office structure. The restroom was placed off-limits during tapings as a result of not being soundproof. The RCA transmitter was located on the north peak of Mount Diablo, in a very difficult to access building which was barely large enough to house the transmitter itself—the result of challenges from environmentalists against the station's original application for a construction permit. An engineer working on the front panel of the transmitter was actually standing ''outside'' the building itself (the North Peak transmitter site was decommissioned in June 2009, while the digital transmitter was located on Mt. Diablo's main peak).
KFCB maintained a full-time production staff and generated much of its own programming, primarily short ministry programs with local ministers. A Sunday afternoon
public-affairs program, ''Open Forum'', covered secular community issues and was the result of an agreement between First Century Broadcasting and a competing applicant for the channel 42 license. The program was later replaced by a similar show, ''The Informed Viewer''.
Around 1988, a translator station, K34AV, was built in
Fresno
Fresno (; ) is a city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County, California, Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley (California), Central Valley region. It covers a ...
to rebroadcast KFCB's signal. The translator became low-power station
KSDI-LP in 1997 (now on channel 33) and is no longer associated with KFCB/KTNC. Efforts around the same time to construct another translator in
Modesto
Modesto ( ; ) is the county seat and largest city of Stanislaus County, California, United States. With a population of 218,069 according to 2022 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, it is the 19th-most populous city in California.
Modesto is locate ...
, and purchase a full-power station in the
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
market failed.
In 1990, the license renewal application of KFCB came under fire from minority groups for alleged failures to comply with the equal employment opportunity regulations of the
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). After an investigation by the FCC, the license was ultimately renewed. A few years later, Haus and other partners decided to form United Christian Broadcasting, with KFCB as the
flagship station
In broadcasting, a flagship (also known as a flagship station or key station) is the broadcast station which originates a television network, or a particular radio or television program that plays a key role in the branding of and consumer loyal ...
. The network was intended to bring KFCB's programming to a national audience. The venture would prove to be a financial disaster, and by 1996, Haus was forced to sell the station to
Pappas Telecasting
Pappas Telecasting Companies was a diversely organized broadcasting company headquartered in Visalia, California, United States. Founded in 1971, it was one of the largest privately held broadcasting companies in the country, with its station ...
, who adopted the KTNC-TV callsign on September 20.
In 1997, Pappas acquired KFWU-TV in
Fort Bragg
Fort Bragg (formerly Fort Liberty from 2023–2025) is a United States Army, U.S. Army Military base, military installation located in North Carolina. It ranks among the largest military bases in the world by population, with more than 52,000 m ...
in 1997 from
Sainte Limited,
at which point KFWU became a satellite of KTNC (though at first, KFWU was considered the main station and KTNC the satellite).
That station became KUNO-TV in 2003.
KUNO was sold to Jeff Chang in July 2010.
Chang would later drop the KTNC simulcast in favor of
Retro Television Network
Retro TV (stylized as retrotv), formerly known as Retro Television Network, is an American broadcast television network owned by Get After It Media. The network mainly airs classic television sitcoms and drama series from the 1950s through t ...
programming, under new call letters (originally KBQR; now
KQSL
KQSL (channel 8) is a religious television station licensed to Fort Bragg, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area which is a broadcast partner of the Total Living Network. The station is owned by One Ministries, Inc., ...
), upon taking over.
As a Spanish-language station
KTNC was among the earliest affiliates of
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 ...
upon its formation in 2001.
However, Pappas Telecasting terminated KTNC's affiliation agreement with the network on June 30, 2007.
The next day, KTNC officially became a part of Pappas' independent Spanish language network,
TuVision.
The Azteca América affiliation for the San Francisco market moved to a newly created digital subchannel of KBWB (channel 20, now
KOFY-TV
KOFY-TV (channel 20) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area as an affiliate of Merit TV. It is owned by CNZ Communications, LLC, alongside Class A station KCNZ-CD (virt ...
), while the network's Sacramento affiliation moved to low-power station KSTV-LP.
DirecTV
DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...
replaced KTNC with the KBWB subchannel in some locations on July 1, 2007.
On January 16, 2009, it was announced that several Pappas stations, including KTNC and KUNO, would be sold to New World TV Group, after the sale received
United States bankruptcy court
United States bankruptcy courts are courts created under Article I of the United States Constitution. The current system of bankruptcy courts was created by the United States Congress in 1978, effective April 1, 1984. United States bankruptcy ...
approval.
KTNC affiliated with
Estrella TV
Estrella TV () is an American Spanish-language broadcast television network owned by the Estrella Media subsidiary of HPS Investment Partners, LLC. The network primarily features programs, the vast majority of which are produced by the networ ...
upon its launch in 2009.
On January 18, 2013, NRJ TV announced that it would acquire KTNC-TV from Titan TV Broadcast Group for $13.5 million, as part of a two-station deal that also included
Houston
Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...
sister station
KUBE-TV; Titan TV Broadcast Group would continue to operate the stations upon the sale's consummation. The acquisition of KTNC created a legal
duopoly
A duopoly (from Greek , ; and , ) is a type of oligopoly where two firms have dominant or exclusive control over a market, and most (if not all) of the competition within that market occurs directly between them.
Duopoly is the most commonly ...
with
MundoMax
MundoMax (; originally known as MundoFox from August 13, 2012, to July 28, 2015) was an American Spanish-language Terrestrial television, terrestrial television network that was owned by RCN Televisión. The network broadcast programs aimed at Hi ...
affiliate
KCNS
KCNS (channel 38) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. Owned by WRNN-TV Associates, the station airs programming from Shop LC. KCNS shares its digital channel with ...
(channel 38, which was bought by NRJ for $15 million in 2011); Titan Broadcast Management maintains a one-third equity stake in NRJ TV. The sale was consummated on July 1.
KTNC was the
Central Valley's
Estrella TV
Estrella TV () is an American Spanish-language broadcast television network owned by the Estrella Media subsidiary of HPS Investment Partners, LLC. The network primarily features programs, the vast majority of which are produced by the networ ...
affiliate until June 1, 2015, when
Sacramento
Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...
's
KQCA
KQCA (channel 58) is a television station licensed to Stockton, California, United States, serving the Sacramento area as a dual affiliate of The CW and MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Hearst Television alongside NBC affiliate KCRA-TV (channel 3). ...
added the network to one of their subchannels. The Central Valley feed on 42.2 was replaced with
The Works. The Works on 42.3 was initially replaced with
color bars
SMPTE color bars are a television test pattern used where the NTSC video standard is utilized, including countries in North America. The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) refers to the pattern as Engineering Guideline ...
before the channel was deleted.
Return to English-language programming

On
December 31
It is known by a collection of names including: Saint Sylvester's Day, New Year's Eve or Old Year's Day/Night, as the following day is New Year's Day. It is the last day of the year; the following day is January 1, the first day of the followi ...
, 2016, KTNC ended its Estrella TV affiliation, and commenced airing of
paid programming
Paid or PAID may refer to:
* ''Paid'' (1930 film), an American film starring Joan Crawford
* ''Paid'' (2006 film), a Dutch film
*''Personality and Individual Differences'', a journal
*"Paid", a song by ¥$ from the album ''Vultures 1''
See als ...
. The station also began airing programming from
NTDTV
New Tang Dynasty Television (NTD Television) is a multilingual American television broadcaster founded by adherents of the Falun Gong new religious movement and based in New York City. The station was founded in 2001 as a Chinese-language broa ...
during the prime time hours.
On February 5, 2018, the station dropped NTDTV programming and became affiliated with the ''SF Primetime TV'' network, also referred to as ''LA Primetime TV'', or just ''Primetime TV''. The network emanated from
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 station
KSCI
KSCI (channel 18) is a television station licensed to Long Beach, California, United States, serving the Los Angeles area. Owned by WRNN-TV Associates, the station airs programming from home shopping network Shop LC. KSCI's studios are locate ...
. Primetime TV aired weekdays from 11 a.m. to 12 noon and 7 to 9 p.m. KTNC also aired programming from GoodTV USA weekdays from 10 to 10:30 a.m.
On December 9, 2019, it was announced that WRNN-TV Associates, owner of
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
-based
WRNN-TV
WRNN-TV (channel 48) is a television station licensed to New Rochelle, New York, United States, serving the New York City area as an affiliate of Shop LC. It serves as the flagship station and namesake of Rye Brook–based WRNN-TV Associates; ...
, secured a deal to purchase seven full-power TV stations including KCNS, and one
Class A station from NRJ.
The sale was approved by the FCC on January 23,
and was completed on February 4, 2020, breaking up NRJ's duopoly in the Bay Area, although KCNS and KTNC continue channel sharing. Upon completion of the sale,
SonLife Broadcasting Network
Jimmy Lee Swaggart (; born March 15, 1935) is an American Pentecostal televangelist and gospel artist.
Swaggart is one of the most well-known televangelists in America. During the 1980s, Swaggart's crusades were a major part of his ministry� ...
, which KCNS had been airing since September 2016, was dropped from KCNS, and transferred to KTNC which carries the religious network 24 hours a day. KTNC also added Spanish religious channel Canal de la Fe,
[https://www.facebook.com/CanalDeLaFe/ ] from
Garden Grove station
KBEH
KWHY (channel 63) is a television station licensed to Garden Grove, California, United States, serving the Los Angeles area as an affiliate of Canal de la Fe ("Faith Channel"), a Spanish-language religious network. Owned by Meruelo Broadcast ...
, on its .2 frequency.
On October 6, 2020, it was announced that Radiant Life Ministries (a sister company to Tri-State Christian Television) would purchase KTNC-TV for $7.75 million;
the sale was completed on November 30.
Technical information
Subchannels
Analog-to-digital conversion
On June 3, 2009, the FCC announced that KTNC would be one of 35 stations to go dark at the end of the
transition from analog to digital broadcasts for full-power television stations in the United States on June 12, 2009.
However, the station was transmitting a digital signal as of June 13, 2009. KTNC-TV 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 42, on June 12.
[List of Digital Full-Power Stations](_blank)
The station moved its digital signal from its pre-transition UHF channel 63, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to UHF channel 14, 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 ...
42.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ktnc-Tv
1983 establishments in California
Television channels and stations established in 1983
TNC-TV
Tri-State Christian Television stations