KSEE

KSEE (channel 24) is a television station in Fresno, California, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside CBS affiliate KGPE (channel 47). The two stations share studios on McKinley Avenue in eastern Fresno; KSEE's transmitter is located on Bear Mountain (near Meadow Lakes).

KSEE began broadcasting as KMJ-TV, the first television station in Fresno, on May 31, 1953. It was owned by McClatchy Newspapers, alongside The Fresno Bee and KMJ radio, and was the market's leading station for most of McClatchy's ownership. However, the company owning the major daily newspaper in Fresno, its leading radio station, and its leading television station led to legal scrutiny in the 1970s and a five-year battle by local investors known as San Joaquin Communications Corporation to attempt to wrest the license from McClatchy. McClatchy opted to sell to the investors in 1979, a deal completed in 1981, but they soon sold the station for financial reasons. Nexstar acquired KSEE in 2013, shortly after purchasing KGPE, and moved the latter station's operations into the former's studio building. KSEE produces daily newscasts as well as other local programs.

McClatchy Newspapers, owner of The Fresno Bee and KMJ radio (580 AM), sought to enter the world of television as early as May 1948, when it applied for authority to build television stations on channel 7 in Fresno and channel 10 in Sacramento. However, before the applications were acted on, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) instituted a four-year freeze on television station awards. Channel 7 was removed from Fresno, and McClatchy modified its application to specify channel 24 in the new ultra high frequency (UHF) band.

On September 18, 1952, the FCC granted McClatchy a construction permit for Fresno's channel 24, the first such permit awarded in California since the freeze was lifted. Work began immediately on building Fresno's first television station. In December, the McClatchy Broadcasting Company purchased the former Fresno Ice Arena on Olive Avenue with the intent to convert it to studios (with The Bee's auditorium to be used as an interim facility), while 28 miles (45 km) east of Fresno on Bear Mountain, the station's transmitter was erected. McClatchy also commissioned Walt Disney to design a cartoon bee mascot for KMJ-TV, "Teevy", to accompany the previous Disney designs of "Scoopy" and "Gaby", which were used as mascots for the Bee and the radio stations, respectively.

A test pattern was broadcast on May 26, 1953; an inaugural program was presented on May 31 with regular programming beginning the following day, using an interim lower-power transmitter as RCA could not deliver the full-power equipment in time. KMJ-TV aired programs from all networks and became a primary NBC affiliate, sharing CBS with KJEO-TV (channel 47) when it went on the air in September 1953 and until KFRE-TV started in 1956. In September 1954, KMJ-TV began transmitting NBC programs in color. After moving to facilities on N Street in 1956, a new studio facility was built near the Bee complex on the corner of Van Ness Avenue and Calaveras Street in 1959; The Bee's circulation department was also relocated there, across the street, as the newspaper outgrew existing office space.

The history of McClatchy's television undertakings was altered significantly in the 1970s by a problem that had been present nearly from the start. Like in Fresno, McClatchy had filed in 1948 to build a TV station on channel 10 in Sacramento, where it published The Sacramento Bee and owned radio station KFBK. Unlike in Fresno, however, a competing applicant applied for channel 10 after the FCC freeze was lifted. Sacramento Telecasters objected to an initial decision by an FCC hearing examiner favoring McClatchy's proposal for the Sacramento station on grounds that McClatchy already owned too many mass media outlets in the city and that the decision ran counter to FCC policy favoring diversification of media ownership. The FCC agreed with Sacramento Telecasters in October 1954 and awarded it the construction permit for KBET-TV, though McClatchy exhausted its appeals until February 1958.

In 1964, McClatchy acquired KOVR, a station in Stockton that also served Sacramento. The transaction had attracted scrutiny for potentially creating a "monopoly of news", and a court challenge to McClatchy's ownership of the station was filed in 1969 and abandoned in 1971.

When KMJ-TV's broadcast license came up for renewal in November 1974, San Joaquin Communications Corporation (SJCC), a company led by R. W. "Duke" Millard and owned by local investors, filed a competing application to establish a channel 24 station with the FCC. SJCC contended that McClatchy had "great concentration of control" and was "a monolithic media giant" as a result of its newspaper, radio, and television holdings in Fresno. A group representing local Mexican Americans also objected to the KMJ-TV license; McClatchy defended its community service record and expressed confidence that KMJ-TV's license would be renewed. The United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division also lodged a petition with the commission asking it to order the breakup of McClatchy's Fresno media holdings due to the dominance of The Bee, the main daily newspaper, and the radio and television stations. As evidence, federal attorneys noted that the Bee–KMJ combination commanded 80.4 percent of the advertising revenue in Fresno media as of 1972.