KFRE-TV

KFRE-TV, virtual channel 59 (UHF digital channel 36), is a CW-affiliated television station serving Fresno, California, United States that is licensed to Sanger. The station is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, as part of a duopoly with Fox affiliate KMPH-TV (channel 26). The two stations share studio facilities located on McKinley Avenue in eastern Fresno (one mile southwest of Fresno Yosemite International Airport); KFRE maintains transmitter facilities located on Bear Mountain (near Meadow Lakes).

History

The station first signed on the air on July 17, 1985 as KMSG-TV; originally operating as an independent station, channel 59 originally ran a bilingual format of Spanish language programming during the afternoon and evening hours, and English language religious programs for about six hours a day each morning; it also ran mostly English language home shopping programs during the overnight hours. The station's Spanish programming was sourced from NetSpan, the second Spanish-language television network to launch in the United States (after the Spanish International Network, now Univision); NetSpan was relaunched as Telemundo in 1987. The following year, the station dropped its inventory of English language programs, and exclusively affiliated with Telemundo.