Kail - History

History

KAIL-TV became Fresno's first independent TV station on December 18, 1961, beating out soon to be competitor, KICU-TV (now KGMC) by 5 days. In its early years, it produced a great deal of its own programming, including children's shows such as Leebo the Clown and others. During the 1960s, KAIL ran religious shows, public affairs programs, a few older syndicated shows, some cartoons, older movies, and some sports. The station was on the air about 8 hours a day.

Through the 1970s KAIL ran older cartoons, drama shows, several hours a day of religious shows, and specialty shows. As new syndicated cartoons became abundant in the mid-1980s, KAIL added more of those. They also continued to lean toward barter syndicated shows. Their ratings continued to be modest throughout the 1980s.

In the 1995, the station became a charter affiliate of UPN, when the network launched in January 1995. In the 1990s, KAIL added stronger programs such as recent off network sitcoms, talk shows, reality shows, and court shows. The station began gradually phasing out cartoons around 2000 and dropped the weekday cartoons in the fall of 2003, when UPN ended its DIsney kids' block. When UPN affiliation was dropped (several weeks before the network's already announced demise), the station became a charter affiliate of MyNetworkTV on September 5, 2006.

KAIL holds the record for the longest continuous usage of a station's original call letters in the Fresno market, having used the callsign since its sign-on in 1961; it has held the record since 2000, when KJEO-TV (which signed on under those call letters in 1953) changed its call letters to KGPE-TV. (Several other stations have had the same call letters since their original licensing, but are younger than KAIL.) Also the station has never had a change in ownership since its 1961 sign on.

Prior to the licencing of KAIL-TV, Channel 53 broadcast as KBID-TV for a few months in 1954. The station was owned by veteran broadcaster John Poole, original owner of channel 22 in Los Angeles, originally KBIC-TV. KBID left the air when the station was unable to acquire a network affiliation. At the time, only CBS did not have an affiliate in Fresno. CBS would eventually affiliate with channel 12 (now channel 30) in 1956.

In 2008, KAIL became the flagship for Fresno State Bulldogs sports, which moved from KFRE-TV.