KSCI, virtual and UHF digital channel 18, is an independent television station serving Los Angeles, California, United States that is licensed to Long Beach. The station is owned by NRJ TV LLC. KSCI's studios are located on South Bundy Drive in West Los Angeles, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Harvard. The station's signal is relayed on low-power translator station KSKT-CD (channel 43) in San Marcos. KSCI served as a multicultural television station until July 2017, when it changed to a schedule primarily featuring infomercials.
History
The channel 18 allocation in Los Angeles was previously occupied by KCHU-TV, which was licensed to San Bernardino and signed on the air on August 1, 1962. The station was owned by the San Bernardino Sun-Telegram. KSCI signed on the air on June 30, 1977, operating from studios in West Los Angeles, although still licensed in San Bernardino. It became a non-profit owned by the Transcendental Meditation movement (the call letters stood for Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's theoretical "Science of Creative Intelligence"). The station broadcast news stories, prerecorded lectures and variety shows with TM celebrities.[1] KSCI's goal was to report "only good news"; sister stations were planned for San Francisco and Washington, D.C. The station manager was Mark Fleischer, son of Hollywood director Richard Fleischer.
In 1980, KSCI switched to a for-profit operation and earned $1 million on revenues of $8 million in 1985. In November 1985, the station loaned $350,000 to Maharishi International University in Iowa. By June 1986, the station's content began to consist of "a hodgepodge of programming" in 14 languages. In October 1986, the station was purchased by its general manager and an investor for $40.5 million.
In 1990, the station was sold to Intercontinental Television Group Inc., with programming being produced by Wahid Boctor of Arab American Television. In 1998, KSCI transferred its city of license from San Bernardino to Long Beach. In 2000, a Korean newspaper, The Hankook Ilbo, took over the International Media Group (IMG), which operated KSCI. IMG was re-launched as the AsianMedia Group, Inc., who purchased the station.
By 2005, the station was broadcasting seven English-language and three Spanish-language newscasts plus "local news programs in Vietnamese, Mandarin Chinese and Korean" to 2.5 million Asian-American viewers in Southern California. In early 2005, KSCI changed its on-air branding to "LA-18."[citation needed]
In October 2008, KSCI broadcast the Presidential debate along with translation in Mandarin and offered political analysis by their news staff. The broadcast was one of several that covered election events in Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese and Tagalog languages.
On January 9, 2012, KSCI, Inc. filed a voluntary petition for reorganization under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. On August 11, 2012, KSCI was purchased by NRJ TV LLC, a company which has acquired smaller television stations in various U.S. cities for the possibility of placing their spectrum for auction once the Federal Communications Commission rolls out a voluntary spectrum auction for use for non-broadcast purposes in 2014.
On June 22, 2017, KSCI announced that they have canceled all of its programming in Chinese, Filipino, Spanish and Armenian and replaced with English-language infomercials beginning July 1, the subchannels of the station continued to air its programs in Chinese and Armenian as a result of the station's programming cutbacks, the station also announced they reduced its Korean programming from 8 to 11 p.m. and they will cut its subchannels list from 12 to 5 next year.
On September 12, 2017, KSCI's parent company NRJ TV LLC announced that they would sell its Poway translator station, KUAN-LD, to the NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations group (owners of KNBC/KVEA and KNSD), for $650,000 once the purchase receives FCC approval.
| TV stations in California | |
|---|---|
| Independent stations | Public TV stations |
| KBTV-CD, Sacramento | KCET, Los Angeles |
| KCAL, Los Angeles | KMTP, San Francisco |
| KIIO-LD, Los Angeles | KPJK, San Mateo |
| KSCI, Long Beach | |
| KHTV-CD, Los Angeles | |
| KNLA-CD, Los Angeles | |
| KBSV, Ceres | |
| KTSF, San Francisco | |
| KICU, San Francisco/San Jose | |
| KXLA, Rancho Palos Verdes/Los Angeles | |
| KUSI, San Diego | |
| KSKT-CD, San Diego | |
| KDOC, Los Angeles | |
| TV stations in Southern California, including Los Angeles, Orange County, and portions of the Inland Empire |
|---|
| KCBS 2 (CBS) KNBC 4 (NBC) KTLA 5 (CW) KHTV-CD 6 (MeTV+) KABC 7 (ABC) KFLA-LD 8 (NEWSNET) KCAL 9 (Ind) KIIO-LD 10 (IND) KTTV 11 (FOX) KTBV-LD 12 (Ind) KCOP 13 (MNTV) KPOM-CD 14 (Story) KSCI 18 (Ind) KNLA-CD 20 (SBN) KVME 20 (H&I) KWHY 22 (Ind) KVCR 24 (PBS) KVHD-LD 26 (EVINE) KSFV-CD 27 (JTV) KCET 28 (ETV) KPXN 30 (Ion) KVMD 31 (LATV) KCIO-LD 33 (IND) KMEX-DT 34 (UNI) KTAV-LD 35 (ALMA) K36JH-D 36 (TVA) KHIZ-LD 39 (COURT) KTBN 40 (TBN) KXLA 44 (Ind) KFTR-DT 46 (UnM) KOCE 50 (PBS) KVEA 52 (TLM) KAZA 54 (MeTV) KDOC 56 (Ind) KJLA 57 (Ind) KLCS 58 (PBS) KRCA 62 (ESTRELA) KBEH 63 (Rel) KILM 64 (BOUNCE) KEDD-LD 69 (HSN) |