KBEH

The station first signed on the air on August 17, 1985 as independent station KTIE, originally licensed to Oxnard. It was the first television station to operate in Ventura County, since KKOG-TV (channel 16) shut down in 1969. The original owner, Don Sterling (no relation to the former Los Angeles Clippers owner of the same name), fighting ongoing losses, sold the station in 1988 to billionaire Meshulam Riklis, the then-husband of actress Pia Zadora. Riklis changed the call letters to KADY-TV in honor of his and Zadora's daughter Kady, in turn the name of the role Zadora played in the movie Butterfly famously financed by Riklis. Riklis infused capital to build up the station, but it remained unprofitable.

Riklis achieved his wealth by inventing complicated paper schemes like junk bonds and leveraged buyouts. As Riklis' empire began to unravel, KADY-TV was part of settlements. The subsequent company, E-II Holdings (a group of jilted Riklis investors),[1][2] discovered this was an unprofitable venture and essentially bailed out on the operation.[3] The station was then sold to former general manager under Riklis, John Huddy. How Huddy, a former entertainment critic for The Miami Herald and executive producer of Tomorrow, came to own a television station was never clear. While Huddy made some innovative moves, he did not have the financial resources to operate at a loss. One of his improvements to KADY was making it one of the original affiliates of UPN when it launched on January 16, 1995, and another was to duplicate the signal in the Central Coast using leased time on San Luis Obispo's KADE (channel 33; now KTAS). Huddy, in the name of KADY, left bad debts throughout the area business community, including $4 million to Don Sterling,[4] the original owner and still the building's landlord. After lying in bankruptcy court in July 1996, the property was immediately seized.[5]

After a transitional period under court supervision with John Hyde acting as trustee,[6] a sale to Biltmore Broadcasting was arranged in November 1997.[7] The UPN affiliation, while serving a portion of the market designated to UPN flagship KCOP-TV (channel 13) came under network criticism. In 2002, KADY dropped its UPN affiliation and became an independent station again. Among the shows seen on the station were rebroadcasts of local newscasts from Santa Barbara ABC affiliate KEYT-TV. KADY was also added to DirecTV's Los Angeles station package.

KBEH logo used while Spanish independent

In 2004, Blitmore sold the station to Bela, LLC, a Florida-based Spanish-language broadcaster. As a result, in May 2004, the call letters of channel 63 were changed to KBEH, and it was reformatted as a Spanish-language independent. To expand the station's coverage area, KBEH began identifying as "Oxnard–Los Angeles", and has gained coverage on local cable providers.[8] One year later, when MTV Tr3s launched, Bela switched KBEH, KMOH-TV in Kingman, Arizona, and KEJR-LP in Phoenix to the network. With such a move, KBEH and KMOH became the network's lone full-power affiliates.

Bela Broadcasting sold KBEH to Hero Broadcasting in January 2008.[9]

On January 28, 2012, KBEH began serving as the pilot station of CNN Latino, a news service targeting U.S. Hispanics focusing on news, lifestyle, documentary, talk and debate program as an alternative to traditional Hispanic networks. The service's initial rollout on the station began with a branded programming block of eight hours of customized content from 3 to 11 p.m.

In the FCC's incentive auction, KBEH sold its spectrum for $146,627,980 and indicated that it would enter into a post-auction channel sharing agreement.[10] In April 2017, KBEH reached a channel sharing agreement with KWHY-TV (channel 22); Hero Broadcasting also agreed to sell the KBEH license to KWHY's owner, Meruelo Television, for $10 million.[11]

Former KBEH logo used until March 2018

In March 2018, KBEH began airing classic movies and children's programming that normally air on sister station KWHY-TV. The network added the children's program Reino Animal to their Niños 63 block and started airing a block of classic Mexican movies named Cine en la Casa.[12][13]

On May 7, 2018, KBEH began airing a broad mix of Spanish language programming from various Latin American countries. The station pulled the programing on August 9, 2018 and replaced it with religious programming.

Prior to 2018, KBEH's programming consisted primarily of infomercials 24 hours a day outside required E/I programming. In 2013, KBEH joined the ACC Network for broadcasts of selected Atlantic Coast Conference football games syndicated by Raycom Media. It returned such broadcasts to the Los Angeles market after a one-season absence after KCOP-TV had dropped the telecasts. These broadcasts ended in 2014, when they were picked up by KDOC-TV. KDOC previously carried SEC football games, but these broadcasts ended due to the shutdown of SEC TV as a result of the launch of the cable-only SEC Network.

On May 7, 2018, KBEH began airing a broad mix of Spanish language programming, such as telenovelas, court shows, sitcoms, and children's programming from various Latin American countries, plus Spain. KBEH started airing the Venezuelan telenovela Rebeca,[15] the Venezuelan comedy Tómame o déjame,[16] the telenovela Camelia la Texana,[17] and the Mexican telenovela Las Aparicio.[18] The network also starting airing court shows La corte del pueblo and Sala de Justicia, talk show Triunfadores Latinos, Multimedios singing competition show Cantadisimo Junior, as well as classic Mexican movies.[19][20][21][22]

The station pulled all the programming on August 9, 2018 and started airing religious programming from Universal Church.[23]

Because of its original transmitter location on South Mountain (near Santa Paula in Ventura County), KBEH's signal only provided spotty coverage into Los Angeles County. To overcome this, KBEH employed a low-power booster station KBEH1 to broadcast its signal into Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. The analog (and later digital) booster was discontinued in November 2009 when KBEH commenced using its maximum-power facilities at Mt. Harvard (a peak adjacent to Mount Wilson).[24] It is also seen in Santa Barbara over-the-air on KSBT-LD channel 32 and on local cable systems like Charter Communications, Cox Communications, AT&T U-Verse, Verizon Fios, DirecTV and Dish Network.

• KBEH in the FCC's TV station database
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KBEH-TV