KTAS

For other uses, see KTAS (disambiguation).

KTAS

San Luis Obispo–Santa Maria– Santa Barbara, California United States
City	San Luis Obispo, California
Channels	Digital: 34 (UHF) Virtual: 33
Programming
Affiliations	33.1: TeleXitos 33.2: QVC
Ownership
Owner	Raul and Consuelo Palazuelos (Raul Palazuelos)
History
First air date	January 21, 1990 (1990-01-21) [lower-alpha 1]
Former call signs	KADE (1990–1997)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 33 (UHF, 1990–2009)
Former affiliations	Independent (1990–1991) Silent (1991–1997) Univision (1997–2001) Telemundo (2001–2023)
Call sign meaning	Replaced K07TA "KTA"
Technical information [1]
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	12930
ERP	80.4 kW
HAAT	453 m (1,486 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	35°21′37.9″N120°39′24.6″W / 35.360528°N 120.656833°W / 35.360528; -120.656833
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS

KTAS (channel 33) is a television station licensed to San Luis Obispo, California, United States, serving the Central Coast of California as an affiliate of the Spanish-language diginet TeleXitos. Owned by Raul and Consuelo Palazuelos, the station maintains studios on Carmen Lane in Santa Maria and a transmitter atop Cuesta Peak.

Channel 33 in San Luis Obispo went on the air in January 1990 as KADE. Its airtime was leased by KADY, an independent station in Oxnard, to expand its programming. A dispute over payment terms ended the lease in November 1991 and plunged the station into non-operational status for more than five years. It returned to the air in February 1997 and was sold later that year to Raul and Consuelo Palazuelos. The Palazuelos family renamed the station KTAS, inheriting the Spanish-language programming that had aired on two low-power TV stations in the market since 1986. The station was a Telemundo affiliate from 2001 to 2023, when the family sold the license and transferred rights to Telemundo programming to KCOY-TV effective February 1.

History

In 1984, the Federal Communications Commission designated a series of nine applications for channel 33 in San Luis Obispo for comparative hearing, ^[2] Community Media Corporation was awarded the construction permit and built the station in association with Riklis Broadcasting, which owned KADY in Oxnard and leased the station's broadcast day. Channel 33 went on the air as KADE, a simulcast of KADY, on January 21, 1990. The deal included a provision allowing Riklis to buy KADE for an agreed price. ^[3]

Riklis management contended that the demands of Community Media owner Alene Whitten for operating capital grew too high for their budgetary requirements. Riklis then sought to buy the station as previously agreed, only for Community Media to refuse. As a result of Riklis ceasing to make monthly lease payments, KADE shut down on November 1, 1991, a move that cost KADY advertising revenue, ratings, and cable carriage in the San Luis Obispo area. ^[3] After the FCC approved a transfer of control of Community Media to Riklis in 1993, this never took place, and the company instead applied to sell KADE to Raul and Consuelo Palazuelos, who had been original applicants for channel 33 in 1984 in partnership with Sainte Broadcasting, a company owned by Chester Smith.

Meanwhile, in 1986, K07TA (sometimes promoted as "KOTA" or "KTA") went on as a low-power Spanish-language station at Santa Maria. Built by Sainte, it expanded its reach with the launch of Morro Bay-licensed K09UF ("KOUF"), serving San Luis Obispo. Riklis reached a deal to acquire the stations at the end of 1988 in order to expand the coverage area of KADY, ^[4] but it later dropped out once it became clear that Riklis could not inherit the cable carriage of the existing low-power stations. ^[5] In addition to network programming from Univision, K07TA aired some local programming, such as the half-hour Media Hora news and features program, which debuted in 1990. ^[6] However, it also struggled beginning in 1993 when Sonic Cable removed it from its lineup and replaced it with the national feed of Telemundo, in which Sonic could sell its own advertising time. ^[7] KTA was not restored to the Sonic lineup until January 1996. ^[8]

Parties associated with KADY intervened in the attempt to sell KADE to the Palazuelos, which delayed completion of the sale until 1997, when a trustee appointed the year before to handle Riklis's affairs ^[9] withdrew the company's opposition. ^[10] That year, the station returned to air as KTAS, a full-power successor to the low-power stations. KTAS lost its Univision affiliation and switched to Telemundo on April 1, 2001, when KPMR signed on the air. ^[11]

On January 4, 2023, Raul and Consuelo Palazuelos filed to sell KTAS to International Communications Network—owner of KSDY-LD in San Diego—for $4 million. The Telemundo affiliation was not included in the sale. ^[12] A message appearing on the Telemundo Costa Central website at that time indicated that the service would move to KCOY-TV 12.1 and KKFX-CD 24.2, previously airing the national digital channel Dabl, on February 1; at the time of launch, KEYT-TV 3.5 was also added. ^{[13] [14]} The sale fell through in December 2023; a notice of non-consummation was posted on December 21. ^[15]

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of KTAS ^[16]

Channel	Res.	Aspect	Short name	Programming
33.1	1080i	16:9	KTAS-HD	TeleXitos
33.2	480i		QVC	QVC

Analog-to-digital conversion

KTAS shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 33, on February 17, 2009, the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 34, using virtual channel 33. ^[17]

Notes

1. Station off the air from November 1, 1991, to February 7, 1997.

References

1. "Facility Technical Data for KTAS". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
2. "Public Notice". San Luis Obispo County Telegram-Tribune. San Luis Obispo, California. August 10, 1984. p. B-6. Archived from the original on January 5, 2023. Retrieved January 5, 2023– via Newspapers.com.
3. Harris, Gardiner (November 6, 1991). "Airwaves brawl: KADE-TV goes dark". Telegram-Tribune. San Luis Obispo, California. p. C-8. Archived from the original on January 5, 2023. Retrieved January 5, 2023– via Newspapers.com.
4. Taylor, Gary (December 31, 1988). "County to lose only Spanish TV station". Telegram-Tribune. p. A-4. Archived from the original on January 5, 2023. Retrieved January 5, 2023– via Newspapers.com.
5. Magee, Jack (January 6, 1989). "Spanish-Language TV Likely To Stay On Local Screens (K07TA K09UF)". Times-Press-Recorder. Arroyo Grande, California. p. 10. Archived from the original on January 5, 2023. Retrieved January 5, 2023– via Newspapers.com.
6. "New Hispanic program starts". Times-Press-Recorder. December 14, 1990. p. 2B. Archived from the original on January 5, 2023. Retrieved January 5, 2023– via Newspapers.com.
7. Lemus, Carlos (October 26, 1993). "Sonic Cable drops KTA's signal". Santa Maria Times. p. A-3. Archived from the original on January 5, 2023. Retrieved January 5, 2023– via Newspapers.com.
8. Firpo, Eric (January 11, 1996). "Sonic hears yelps for moving, cutting KTA, Catholic channel". Santa Maria Times. Santa Maria, California. p. A-4. Archived from the original on January 5, 2023. Retrieved January 5, 2023– via Newspapers.com.
9. Kelley, Daryl (July 10, 1996). "Court-Named Trustee Takes Over at KADY". Los Angeles Times. pp. Ventura B3. Archived from the original on January 5, 2023. Retrieved February 10, 2021.
10. "Legal Notices – BALCT-19940413KE". Consolidated Database System. Federal Communications Commission. Archived from the original on January 5, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
11. García, María T. (April 4, 2001). "Adios, Univision: Popular network likely to return, says Charter". The Tribune. San Luis Obispo, California. p. A1, A4. Archived from the original on January 5, 2023. Retrieved January 5, 2023– via Newspapers.com.
12. "Assignment of Authorization #206276". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission. January 4, 2023. Archived from the original on January 4, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
13. "¡Buenas Noticias!" (in Spanish). Archived from the original on December 18, 2022. Retrieved January 4, 2023. A partir del miércoles 1 de febrero Telemundo Costa Central estrenara una nueva casa. Podrás seguir disfrutando de tu programación favorita por KCOY en el canal 12.1 en alta definición. La señal de KCOY también estára disponible en el canal 24.2 en San Luis Obispo.
14. "Telemundo to begin broadcasting on new station in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo counties". News Channel 3-12. February 1, 2023. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
15. "Non-Consummation Notification". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission. December 21, 2023. Retrieved December 22, 2023.
16. "RabbitEars TV Query for KTAS". RabbitEars . Archived from the original on August 5, 2020. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
17. "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. May 23, 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved August 29, 2021.