KERO-TV

KERO-TV, channel 23, is a television station located in Bakersfield, California, US. KERO-TV is owned by the broadcasting division of the E. W. Scripps Company, and is an affiliate of the ABC television network. The studios are located on 21st Street in downtown Bakersfield, and its transmitter is based on Breckenridge Mountain.

History

KERO-TV went on the air on September 26, 1953, on channel 10 as an NBC affiliate. During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network. KERO-TV was first owned by a local interest, Kern County Broadcasters, along with KERO radio (1230 AM, now KGEO). The TV station, along with KERO radio, originally broadcast from the lobby of the El Tejon Hotel, which was located at the corner of Truxtun Avenue and Chester Avenue. KERO-TV later moved to its current studios at 321 21st Street.

The radio and TV stations were broken up in late 1955, when KERO radio was sold. Wrather-Alvarez Broadcasting, parent of KFMB-AM-TV in San Diego, purchased KERO-TV in early 1957; when the Wrather–Alvarez partnership broke up a year later, Jack Wrather kept KERO-TV and the San Diego stations as part of his newly renamed Marietta Broadcasting. In 1959, Wrather merged Marietta Broadcasting into Buffalo, New York-based Transcontinent Television Corporation.