California Music Channel

California Music Channel (CMC-TV) is an American music video service based in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is one of the longest running local music video television stations in the world. The live broadcasts feature on-camera disc jockeys, audience participation, and contemporary music videos. It is owned by CMC Broadcasting Company, Inc. CMC is broadcast on Northern California television stations KFTL, KKPM and KTSF.

CMC-TV was founded on August 31, 1981 by Rick Kurkjian, debuting on March 1, 1982 as a half-hour show telecast twelve times per week on Teleprompter Cable Oakland Channel 12. The notion of a Bay Area Interconnect was developed early on as CMC expanded by doing local original cable channels on Concord TV Cable Ch. 11, Viacom Cable of San Francisco Ch 6, Viacom of Marin and Castro Valley Cable TV. After a little more than a year on the local cable channels CMC started running a Saturday night version of the program on KCSM-TV Ch 60 in San Mateo. The CMC broadcast was simulcast in stereo on KCSM-TV's sister station, KCSM-FM 91.1.

In 1983, KCSM-TV was one of a handful of Educational-access television stations to experiment with running expanded underwriting announcements and full 30-second commercial TV spots from non profit organizations. In addition to the U.S. Army, many of its other advertisers were coincidentally set up as non-profit organizations under dealer associations and franchise organizations such as the California Milk Advisory Board and the McDonald's "Golden Arches Advertising Fund". As such, CMC was able to include commercials for these organizations on the otherwise non-commercial, educational, KCSM. This revenue allowed the show to remain profitable, when other local music video shows were struggling to remain on the air or even on non commercial Public-access television.

In 1984, the demand from CMC advertisers grew beyond the scope of underwriting announcements and non profit 30s. On October 1, 1984 the California Music Channel debuted its Monday to Friday broadcast on full power independent KTSF-TV.

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