KMPH-TV

KMPH-TV is a television station in Fresno, California broadcasting digitally on television channel 28, and is licensed to nearby Visalia. It is the Fresno-area affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is owned by Titan Broadcast Group and is sister station to KFRE-TV, the Central Valley's CW affiliate. Prior to October 2009, KMPH was the flagship station of Pappas Telecasting Companies.

This station formerly operated KMPH-CA in Merced, California on channel 17. KMPH Fox 26 can also be picked up in and around the Bakersfield area. However, local Fox affiliate KBFX-CA has more exclusive rights in the Bakersfield television market. The television station's airwaves extend northward to Mariposa, California and the southern Sierra Nevada, and sometimes can be received to the south in Kern County for those who live about north of Bakersfield.

History

KMPH began broadcasting on October 11, 1971 as an independent station, the first television station founded by the Pappas brothers, Mike, Pete, and Harry. The funding for KMPH came from General Manager Harry Pappas' plan of having hundreds of investors each investing a small amount of money needed to construct the station, rather than having one investor providing all the capital; as a result, the Pappas brothers had a combined ownership stake of only 30.5%, with the other 69.5% controlled by other investors. Throughout the early- to mid-1980s, KMPH was one of the top independent stations in the country....
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