KGPE (channel 47) is a television station in Fresno, California, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside NBC affiliate KSEE (channel 24). Both stations share studios on McKinley Avenue in eastern Fresno, while KGPE's transmitter is located on Bear Mountain (near Meadow Lakes).
History
Early years
The station first signed on the air on September 20, 1953, as KJEO; it was the second television station to sign on in the Fresno market, after KMJ-TV (channel 24, now KSEE), which debuted three months earlier on June 1. Channel 47 originally operated as a primary ABC affiliate with a secondary CBS affiliation. KFRE-TV (channel 12, now KFSN-TV on channel 30) took the CBS affiliation full-time when it signed on in May 1956, due to sister radio station KFRE (940 AM, now KYNO)'s longtime affiliation with the CBS Radio Network. Originally, the station was owned by O'Neill Broadcasting Company, which sold the station in 1961 to Shasta Telecasting Corporation. Retlaw Broadcasting, a unit of Retlaw Enterprises (a company owned by relatives of Walt Disney), acquired KJEO from Shasta Telecasting in 1968. On September 8, 1985, KFSN's owner, Capital Cities Communications merged with ABC. KFSN-TV became an ABC owned-and-operated station, sending the CBS affiliation to KJEO.
Fisher Broadcasting merged with Retlaw in 1998, then proceeded to sell channel 47 to the Ackerley Group in 2000. Under Ackerley, the station changed its call letters to KGPE on September 14, 2000, and revamped its news operation as News 47. Clear Channel Communications (now iHeartMedia) merged with Ackerley in 2001. The acquisition was approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and was finalized in 2002. Under Clear Channel, KGPE rebranded as CBS 47 On Your Side in October 2004.
Since 2007
On April 20, 2007, Clear Channel entered into an agreement to sell its entire group of television stations to Newport Television, a broadcast holding company controlled by the private equity firm Providence Equity Partners. That sale was finalized on March 14, 2008. In mid-May 2008, Newport Television agreed to sell the license assets of KGPE and five other stations to High Plains Broadcasting, Inc. due to ownership conflicts as a result of Providence Equity Partners also holding a 19% ownership stake in Univision Communications, owner of Univision station KFTV-DT (channel 21) and Telefutura station KTFF-DT (channel 61)). The sale closed on September 15, 2008; Newport continued to operate KGPE under a shared services agreement. This resulted in KGPE having its sixth owner over the course of ten years. KJEO/KGPE has long been one of CBS' weaker affiliates. However, in recent years, it has traded fourth and fifth place with KSEE in total day viewership. The November 2012 sweeps period had KGPE place just ahead of KSEE.
Newport Television agreed to sell KGPE, along with NBC affiliate KGET-TV and Telemundo affiliate KKEY-LP in Bakersfield, to Nexstar Broadcasting Group on November 5, 2012. The FCC approved the sale on January 23, 2013; which was completed on February 19. Nexstar subsequently announced the acquisition of KSEE from Granite Broadcasting, in the process forming a duopoly with KGPE. Normally, duopolies between two "Big Four" affiliates or even "Big Three" affiliates would not be allowed because such stations usually constituted among the four highest-rated stations in a market. FCC regulations do not allow common ownership of any two of the four top-rated stations in total day viewership in the same market. However, according to Nielsen, KGPE was ranked as the fourth highest-rated station in the market and KSEE placed fifth in total day viewership, allowing a duopoly to be formed between the stations. This marked the second instance (after the Gannett Company purchased ABC affiliate WJXX in Jacksonville, Florida, creating a duopoly with that market's NBC affiliate WTLV, in 2000) in which a single company owns a duopoly involving two stations that are affiliated by a Big Three television network; and is also Nexstar's first true Big Three duopoly (Nexstar's other Big Three duopolies are virtually formed, in which the other station is owned by Mission Broadcasting). The sale was consummated on May 31.