KCNS

KCNS is a television station in San Francisco, California, in the United States, owned by Multicultural Broadcasting. It carries educational and informative programming on Monday mornings, Chinese-language programming in the evenings, and infomercials the rest of the time. Currently, the channel broadcasts pre-recorded Cantonese and Mandarin news programs from Sino TV New York respectively from 6 PM to 6:30 PM and 10 PM to 11 PM, Monday through Friday. China and Taiwan news programs are broadcasted Saturday and Sunday from 6 PM to 7 PM. The station operates on Channel 38 analog and 39 digital, covering the entire San Francisco Bay Area.

History

Channel 38 originally signed on the air in December 1968 as KUDO-TV. The station initially broadcast financial programming in the mornings and early afternoons. The station also aired movies at night, most of them black and white from the 1930s and 1940s. The station went dark in 1971. In the early 1970's, the Faith Center (owned by Eugene Scott) acquired the station for a cheap price and returned it to the air as KVOF-TV. However, the station, along with sister stations KHOF-FM (now KKLA) in Los Angeles and KHOF-TV (now KPXN) in San Bernardino, California, lost its FCC license after Faith Center refused to give financial records to the FCC. KVOF-TV thus went off the air on or around December 30, 1985.

The current KCNS license began broadcasting in January 1986 as KWBB, and was located on San Bruno Mountain. The station shared a building on Radio Road with KTSF. The licensee, West Coast United Broadcasting, leased the old KVOF broadcasting facilities from Dr. Scott and the successors to Faith Center and sold airtime back to Dr. Scott, in effect allowing it to have a transmitter site for "free." It ran infomercials and other programming during the day, retaining Dr. Scott's programming from the old Channel 38 at night.

In May 1988, the station was sold to Global Broadcasting Systems and changed its call sign to KCNS. The station switched to Chinese and Filipino programming, with studios at the Hamms Building in San Francisco. In addition, the power was increased to five megawatts, and the transmitter moved to Sutro Tower in August 1989, becoming the last analog television station to move there.

In 1998, Global Broadcasting went into bankruptcy and sold KCNS to the Shop at Home Network, who switched the station to their home shopping programming. This lasted until June 21, 2006, when the Shop at Home's parent, The E. W. Scripps Company, suspended its operation. KCNS switched to Jewelry Television, and two days later, it started broadcasting a mixture of both networks, after Jewelry Television bought Shop at Home and resumed its operation.

On September 26, 2006, Multicultural Television announced it was buying KCNS from Scripps, as part of a deal to buy all of Scripps' Shop at Home channels for $170 million. [1] Multicultural closed on KCNS and the Cleveland and Raleigh stations on December 20, 2006. On January 14, 2007, KCNS ended its simulcast of Shop at Home and switched to educational and informational programming on early weekday mornings and infomercials the rest of the day. On April 27, 2007, KCNS began broadcasting Chinese language programming in both Mandarin and Cantonese, under the "Sino TV" (華語電視) banner daily from 7 PM to 10 PM. The channel extended its hours of Chinese programming from 6PM to 12AM on June 9, 2007 including news programs in both Mandarin and Cantonese.

See also

• Eugene Scott

External links

• KCNS-TV 38 San Francisco
• Ming Pao (San Francisco edition) article on Chinese programming on KCNS, dated April 6, 2007 (in Chinese)
• Ming Pao (San Francisco edition) article on additional Chinese programming on KCNS, dated June 6, 2007 (in Chinese)
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KCNS

• KCNS — Pacific Lutheran University's Student Run Television Station

Television stations broadcasting in the Chinese language

The following channels offer at least some programming in Chinese

Canada	Fairchild TV (National) • Talentvision (National) • OMNI.2 (Ontario) • Channel M (Vancouver) • CJNT (Montreal)
China	CCTV (National) →See also: Template: CCTV • BTV (Beijing) • CQTV (Chongqing) • FJTV (Fujian) • GDTV (Guangdong) • HEBTV (Hebei) • HLJTV (Harbin) • HTV (Hunan) • NBN (Nanjing) • SMG (Shanghai) • SZMG (Shenzhen) • TJTV (Tianjin) • XJTV (Ürümqi) • XMTV (Xiamen) • Xing Kong
	Hong Kong	ATV • Cable TV • now TV • Phoenix Television • RTHK • TVB
	Macau	TDM
	International	CCTV: CCTV-4 (CCTV International America, CCTV International Asia, CCTV International Europe)
Indonesia	Metro TV
Malaysia	RTM1 • RTM2 • TV3 • ntv7 • 8TV • TV9 • Astro AEC • Astro Hua Hee Dai • Astro Kirana • Astro Shuang Xing • Astro Wah Lai Toi • Astro Xiao Tai Yang • Astro On Demand • Jia Yu Channel
Singapore	Channel 8 • Channel U • Channel NewsAsia • TVMobile
Taiwan	Free-to-air (All national)	TTV: Main • Family • Finance | CTV: Main • News • MyLife | FTV: Free-to-air • FMTV TBS: CTS: Main • Education and Culture • Recreation • PTS: Main • Dimo TV
	Cable TV (All national)	TBS	Hakka • TITV	SET	SET Taiwan • SET Metro • SET News
		TVBS	TVBS • TVBS-G • TVBS-NEWS	ERA	Era News • Much TV • Azio TV
		CTi	News • Variety • Entertainment	USTV	UBN • USTV
		STAR	Chinese • Chinese Movies • Sports • Channel V • ESPN	GTV	One • Entertainment • Drama • K Channel
		ETTV	News • ETTV-S • Variety • Drama • Movie • Entertainment • Yoyo TV • Shopping: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5
		VL	Sports • Movie • General Entertainment (ONTV) • Drama • Max-TV • Kids TV
		Others	FTV News • DaAi • Good TV • Disney • Cartoon Network • Animax • JET TV • GoldSunTV • MTV
	International	Taiwan Macroview TV • TTV World • TVBS-Asia • ETTV America • ETTV Asia • CTi International • SET International • USTV International
USA	NTDTV (New York) • SinoVision (New York) • KBTV-CA (Sacramento) • KCNS (San Francisco) • KMTP (San Francisco) • KSCI (Los Angeles) • KTSF (San Francisco)

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