KEMO-TV

KEMO-TV, virtual channel 50 (UHF digital channel 32), is an Azteca América-affiliated television station serving the San Francisco Bay Area that is licensed to Santa Rosa, California, United States. The station is owned by Northstar Media, LLC. KEMO maintains studios and offices located on 533 Mendocino Ave in Santa Rosa and sales offices in San Jose, and its transmitter is located atop Mount St. Helena. The station is available on cable via Comcast channel 31, and 719 HD.

History

The station first went on the air in 1972 and quickly attracted eager young broadcasters who honed their craft and went on to bigger markets. Among the Channel 50 pioneers were Jon Miller, now the longtime play-by-play voice of the San Francisco Giants, and Stan Atkinson, who would become one of the Sacramento area's best-known TV reporters and anchors.

This much anticipated effort to establish a local North Bay TV station in Santa Rosa, led by Atkinson and partner Kit Spier, (formerly a KNBC-Los Angeles executive), was under-financed and lasted only a year. The station was off the air more than it was on, and after the novelty of a new TV station wore off, viewers had little confidence and the station went dark.