KVMD (channel 31) is a
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 ...
in
Twentynine Palms, California
Twentynine Palms (also known as 29 Palms) is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States. It serves as one of the entry points to Joshua Tree National Park and the Mojave Desert region.
History
Native Americans, such as the S ...
, United States, airing programming from
Merit TV. Station owner Ronald Ulloa is also president and majority owner of
Rancho Palos Verdes–licensed
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 ...
KXLA (channel 44). KVMD'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 Snow Peak in the
San Bernardino Mountains, north of
Banning, California; its broadcast signal covers most of the area within the
Inland Empire
The Inland Empire (commonly abbreviated as the IE) is a metropolitan area and region inland of and adjacent to coastal Southern California, centering around the cities of San Bernardino and Riverside, and bordering Los Angeles County and Or ...
.
KVMD's signal is relayed by two
low-power translators
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...
: KSMV-LD in
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, ...
and KIMG-LD in
Ventura, both of which also broadcast on digital channel 23 and virtual channel 31. The station is carried throughout the Los Angeles
media market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television station, television and radio broadcasting, ra ...
on various
cable television
Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...
systems. KVMD-DT is also available on
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 ...
and
Dish Network
DISH Network L.L.C., often referred to as DISH, an abbreviation for Digital Sky Highway, is an American provider of satellite television and IPTV services and wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation.
The company was originally establ ...
on channel 31, its former
analog channel.
The station broadcasts digitally on 19
subchannels. Currently, programming is offered in
English,
Spanish,
Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin ( ; zh, s=, t=, p=Guānhuà, l=Mandarin (bureaucrat), officials' speech) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area that stretch ...
,
Vietnamese and
Armenian
Armenian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent
** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...
.
History
On December 1, 1997, KVMD launched on analog channel 31 with
America One
America One was an American television network established in 1995 by USFR Media Group through its America One Television subsidiary. programming. Its original analog signal was weak and could not generally be received beyond Twentynine Palms and
Yucca Valley. However, it sought and obtained carriage on many cable systems throughout Southern California, as well as
satellite TV
Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location.ITU Radio Regulations, Section IV. Radio Stations and Systems ...
, due to its location on the outskirts of the Los Angeles DMA and
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)
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 ...
rules.
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 covering most of the
Inland Empire
The Inland Empire (commonly abbreviated as the IE) is a metropolitan area and region inland of and adjacent to coastal Southern California, centering around the cities of San Bernardino and Riverside, and bordering Los Angeles County and Or ...
. It also reaches much of
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, ...
,
Orange and northern
San Diego
San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...
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. On August 31, 2017, KVMD discontinued ARTN programming and moved to cable-only; KVMD also switched to
Almavision programming.
In December 2017, it was announced that the station will become the Los Angeles market's
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 ...
affiliate on January 1, 2018, replacing
KJLA, which became the market's new
Azteca América affiliate.
On July 1, 2021, KVMD replaced its affiliation with LATV on its main channel with
New Tang Dynasty Television (NTD). The former LATV affiliation moved to its fifth subchannel.
On October 20, 2023, NTD pulled its affiliation from KVMD’s main channel. The programming has been replaced with infomercials.
KVMD began to carry the
Phil McGraw
Phillip Calvin McGraw (born September 1, 1950), also known as Dr. Phil, is an American television personality and author who is best known for hosting the talk show '' Dr. Phil''. He holds a doctorate in clinical psychology, though he ceased ...
-backed
Merit Street Media on its debut day, April 2, 2024, under a programming agreement with the
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 ...
to assure main-channel
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 ...
coverage of the network on pay-TV providers throughout the Los Angeles market. TBN flagship
KTBN-TV (channel 40) carries Merit Street on its second subchannel, but as it also asks for must-carry coverage which disallows subchannel carriage, would have had to make separate agreements with providers to carry the network otherwise.
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— ...
:
Translators
* 23
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, ...
* 23
Ventura
References
External links
Official website
''Multichannel News'', December 16, 2002
2006 FCC petition
requesting mandatory carriage under "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 ...
" rules
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kvmd
1997 establishments in California
Merit TV affiliates
VMD
Television channels and stations established in 1997
VMD