K53GF

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K53GF
Phoenix, Arizona
Branding	KGF-53
Slogan	Adelan TV; La Tradición Continúa
Channels	53 (UHF) analog, 38 (UHF) (under construction) digital
Affiliations	Independent
Owner	Spanish Independent Broadcast Network
Founded	August 19, 1988
Former callsigns	K67FE (1991-2000) K69FM (1988-1991)
Former affiliations	KWHY-TV translator; inTV
Transmitter Power	20 kW
Height	511 m

K53GF, or KGF-53, is a low-power television station serving Phoenix, Arizona as a Spanish-language independent station. It provides over-the-air service on analog channel 53 from its transmitter on South Mountain. K53GF is owned by Spanish Independent Broadcast Network of Phoenix.

[edit] History

The station began with an original construction permit for K69FM channel 69, granted to Broadcasting Systems, Inc. of Phoenix on August 19, 1988. The station was licensed on January 11, 1990 with city of license of South Phoenix. Early programming is unknown. In February 1991, the station was sold to Polar Broadcasting of Arizona, a San Francisco, California-based company, who shortly thereafter applied to move the station to channel 67 and change the city of license to Phoenix. The station licensed its new facilities and its callsign was changed to K67FE in December 1992.

In June 1996, Polar Broadcasting sold the station to Paxson Communications (now ION Media Networks and the station became part of Infomall TV Network, or inTV. Paxson Communications sold the station in August 1999 to Spanish Independent Broadcasting Network, who changed the programming to Spanish-language independent, rebroadcasting station KWHY-TV channel 22 of Los Angeles, California. The next year, needing to vacate the upper-700 MHz band (channels 60 - 69), the station applied for and was granted a permit to move to channel 53. The station was licensed in June 2002 as K53GF. Since then, the station has dropped the KWHY-TV rebroadcast and operates as an independent station, airing mostly movies and infomercials for local car dealers.

In May 2005, K53GF received a request to vacate channel 53 from Aloha Partners, who were winners of the FCC auction for the spectrum now occupied by channel 54.^[1] However, with the DTV conversion still in process, there were no suitable in-core channels to which K53GF could move their analog operations. Instead, they requested to operate as a low-power digital TV station (LPDTV) on channel 38 and the FCC granted a construction permit in October 2005 to build LPDTV station K38IZ. In the meantime, Aloha Partners has not launched its proposed service to Public Safety,^[2] and K53GF remains on the air on analog channel 53.

[edit] External links

• ION Media Networks official site
• Aloha Partners
• Query the FCC's TV station database for K53GF

[edit] References

1. ^ Displacement Application Technical Exhibit, FCC, July 11, 2005, accessed March 4, 2007
2. ^ Aloha demos Lucent technology, RCR Wireless News, October 14, 2005, accessed March 4, 2007