KECY-TV

KECY-TV is the primary Fox and secondary MyNetworkTV television station for El Centro, California and Yuma, Arizona. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 9 from a transmitter between the two cities in the Chocolate Mountains in Imperial County, California. The station can also be seen on Time Warner Cable channel 9. Owned by the News-Press & Gazette Company, KECY maintains studios on South 4th Avenue in Yuma and operates an advertising sales office on West Main Street in El Centro. The station is a sister station to Telemundo affiliate KESE-LP, and also operates CBS affiliate KSWT and NBC affiliate KYMA-DT through a resource sharing agreement with Blackhawk Broadcasting. Syndicated programming on the station includes Friends, Two and a Half Men, Kathy, Ellen, Judge Judy, and Seinfeld. Programming from MyNetworkTV airs weeknights from 10 pm until midnight.

History

On April 18, 1962, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) signed an agreement with Mexico, effective September 4, allowing the allocation of channels 7 and 9 to El Centro and giving the Imperial Valley its first opportunity for local VHF television. Before the channels were added to the Table of Allocations, Tele-Broadcasters of California, Inc., applied to build a station on channel 7 on July 5, 1962, requesting a waiver from the FCC to do so. KXO-TV, Inc., submitted a rival channel 7 bid on September 14, 1962, meaning that the FCC would need to decide who would be awarded the construction permit. To avoid delays in build-out, Tele-Broadcasters agreed to amend its application on November 9, 1962, to specify operations on channel 9. The FCC approved both applications on April 10, 1963, with channel 7 being designated KXO-TV and channel 9 KECC-TV, and soon after, ABC announced that it would affiliate with KECC, who expected to be on the air by September 1.