KUCO-LD (channel 27) is a

low-power television station Low-power broadcasting is broadcasting by a Radio broadcasting#Station, broadcast station at a low transmitter power output to a smaller service area than "full power" stations within the same region. It is often distinguished from "micropower ...

licensed to

Chico, California Chico ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "little") is the most populous city in Butte County, California, United States. Located in the Sacramento Valley region of Northern California, the city had a population of 101,475 in the 2020 United Sta ...

, United States, affiliated with the Spanish-language networks

Univision Univision () is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television, free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the L ...

and

UniMás UniMás (, stylized as ''UNIMÁS'', and originally known as TeleFutura from its launch on January 14, 2002, to January 6, 2013) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television, free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. ...

. Owned by the

Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair, Inc., doing business as Sinclair Broadcast Group, is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb o ...

, it is

sister A sister is a woman or a girl who shares parents or a parent with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to ref ...

to Redding-licensed

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

affiliate

KRCR-TV KRCR-TV (channel 7) is a television station licensed to Redding, California, United States, serving as the American Broadcasting Company, ABC affiliate for the Chico, California, Chico–Redding media market, market. It is owned by Sinclair Bro ...

(channel 7) and four other low-power stations: Chico-licensed

Antenna TV Antenna TV is an American digital television network owned by Nexstar Media Group. The network's programming consists of classic television series, primarily sitcoms, from the 1950s to the 1990s. Antenna TV's programming and advertising operatio ...

affiliate

KXVU-LD KXVU-LD (channel 17) is a low-power television station in Chico, California, United States, as an affiliate of Antenna TV. Owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, it is a sister station to ABC affiliate KRCR-TV (channel 7) and four other low-po ...

(channel 17);

MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV (stylized as mynetworkTV; unofficially abbreviated MNT or MNTV) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its Fox Television Stations ...

affiliates Redding-licensed

KRVU-LD KRVU-LD (channel 21) is a low-power television station in Redding, California, United States, affiliated with MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside American Broadcasting Company, ABC affiliate KRCR-TV (channel 7, also l ...

(channel 21) and Chico-licensed KZVU-LD (channel 22), and Chico-licensed

affiliate

KKTF-LD KKTF-LD (channel 30) is a low-power television station licensed to Chico, California, United States, affiliated with the Spanish-language UniMás network. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Redding-licensed ABC affiliate KRCR-TV ...

(channel 30). Sinclair also operates

Paradise In religion and folklore, paradise is a place of everlasting happiness, delight, and bliss. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical, eschatological, or both, often contrasted with the miseries of human ...

-licensed

Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

affiliate

KCVU KCVU (channel 20) is a television station licensed to Paradise, California, United States, serving the Chico– Redding market as an affiliate of the Fox network. It is owned by Cunningham Broadcasting, which maintains a local marketing agree ...

(channel 20) through a

local marketing agreement In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one corporation, company agrees to operate a radio station, radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it ...

(LMA) with owner

Cunningham Broadcasting Cunningham Broadcasting Corporation is an owner of broadcast television stations in the United States. The company owns fifteen stations–eight affiliated with Fox, three affiliated with The CW, two affiliated with ABC, and two affiliated with ...

. However, Sinclair effectively owns KCVU as the majority of Cunningham's stock is owned by the family of deceased group founder Julian Smith. The stations share studios on Auditorium Drive east of downtown Redding and maintain a news bureau and sales office at the former

Sainte Television Group Sainte Partners II, L.P. (also known as Sainte Television Group) was a broadcast company based in Modesto, California. The company's founder was country-western performer Chester Smith and his wife Naomi. Stations previously owned by Sainte * KC ...

facilities on Main Street in downtown Chico. For

FCC 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 ju ...

and other legal purposes, the Chico/Paradise-licensed stations still use the Chico address and Redding-licensed stations use the Redding address. KUCO-LD's transmitter is located along Cohasset Road northeast of Chico.

KEUV-LD KEUV-LD (channel 35) is a low-power television station in Eureka, California, United States, affiliated with the Spanish-language network Univision. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside low-power dual CW+/MyNetworkTV affiliate KECA ...

(channel 35) in

Eureka Eureka often refers to: * Eureka (word), a famous exclamation attributed to Archimedes * Eureka effect, the sudden, unexpected realization of the solution to a problem Eureka or Ureka may also refer to: History * Eureka Rebellion, an 1854 g ...

operates as a

semi-satellite A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or trans ...

of KUCO-LD. As such, it

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...

s all Univision programming as provided through KUCO but airs separate local commercials and legal

station identification Station identification (ident, network ID, channel ID or bumper (broadcasting), bumper) is the practice of radio and television stations and broadcast network, networks identifying themselves on-air, typically by means of a call sign or brand na ...

s. Although KEUV-LD maintains its own studios (shared with

KAEF-TV KAEF-TV (channel 23) is a television station licensed to Arcata, California, United States, serving as the ABC affiliate for the Eureka area. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside two low-power stations: dual CW/MyNetworkTV affil ...

and LMA partner KBVU) on Sixth Street in downtown Eureka,

master control Master control is the technical hub of a broadcast operation common among most over-the-air television stations and television networks. It is distinct from a production control room (PCR) in television studios where the activities such as swit ...

and some internal operations are based at KUCO's facilities.

History

KUCO-LP was founded by country-western singer

Chester Smith Chester Smith (March 29, 1930 – August 8, 2008) was an American country-western musician and business entrepreneur. Early life and radio career Smith was born in Durant, Oklahoma, on March 29, 1930. He and his family relocated to Tranquility, ...

's broadcast company Sainte Partners II, L.P. and first hit the air in 2002 to help bring Spanish-language television to the growing Spanish-speaking population in Northern California. It was the first Spanish-language station to air in the Chico/Redding market. It would soon be joined by

Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast. It provides content ...

affiliate KXVU-LP and

affiliate

, both also founded by Smith's company. In 2014, six years after Smith's death, his company sold KUCO-LP and the remaining stations to

Bonten Media Group Bonten Media Group was a New York City-based owner of television broadcast stations in the United States. It was formed by Randall D. Bongarten and Diamond Castle Holdings in November 2006. Its first acquisition was 14 stations from Bluestone T ...

, owners of

affiliate

in Redding. On an unknown date in either 2016 or 2017, KUCO-LP conducted an unauthorized test of the

Emergency Alert System The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a Emergency population warning, national warning system in the United States designed to allow authorized officials to broadcast emergency alerts and warning messages to the public via Cable television, cable ...

. However, the message read that the activation was for an Emergency Action Notification. It is unknown if any panic from residents followed. On April 21, 2017,

announced its intent to purchase the Bonten stations (including KUCO-LP) for $240 million. The sale was completed September 1, 2017.Consummation Notice
''CDBS Public Access'',

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 ...

, Retrieved September 6, 2017. The station changed its call sign to KUCO-LD on April 5, 2019, coincident with receiving its license for digital operations.

Subchannels

The station's signal is

multiplexed In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource— ...

: On October 13, 2021, KUCO-LD gained two additional subchannels:

TBD TBD may refer to: Arts and media * TBD (TV network), an American broadcast television network for millennials * TBD TV (now ''WJLA 24/7 News''), a local cable news channel for Washington, D.C. * TBD Records, an American record label * TBD.com ...

moved over from

; and

Rewind TV Rewind TV is an American digital television network owned by Nexstar Media Group, and is a spinoff/sister network of Antenna TV. The network's programming consists of classic television series, primarily sitcoms, from the 1980s to the early 2000 ...

was added.

References

{{SBGI 2003 establishments in California Low-power television stations in California Sinclair Broadcast Group UCO-LD Television channels and stations established in 2003 UCO-LD Univision affiliates