{"id":307259,"date":"2026-05-09T05:43:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T05:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/307259\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T05:43:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T05:43:08","slug":"abc-30-turns-70-fresno-tv-marks-seven-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/307259\/","title":{"rendered":"ABC 30 turns 70: Fresno TV marks seven decades"},"content":{"rendered":"

ABC 30<\/a> in Fresno has been a generational force.<\/p>\n

The news station helped define local television, producing iconic programming and personalities for what has now been seven decades. It\u2019s celebrating that legacy with a half-hour anniversary special on Sunday<\/a>. \u201cFor generations, our commitment has been to reflect the people, the progress, and the spirit of this region,\u201d station president Martin Ortiz told The Bee.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are proud to be part of Fresno\u2019s history, and even prouder to be a champion for its future.\u201d<\/p>\n

ABC30\u2019s 70th Anniversary special walks viewers through the station\u2019s beginnings in a warehouse on L Street (it\u2019s now the Fresno Convention Center) to the inception of Action News, with its pioneering newscasters and promos.<\/p>\n

\u201cActions News. When you watch, you know.\u201d IYKYK.<\/p>\n

The half-hour features archival footage, plus interviews with ABC30 journalists past and present.<\/p>\n

Here are five things to know about ABC30.<\/p>\n

The Valley\u2019s first (VHF station)<\/p>\n

The station officially went on-air May 10, 1956 as KFRE-TV channel 12. It wouldn\u2019t begin actual programming until the following month, when it aired several new shows from the Columbia Broadcasting System (it being a CBS affiliate at the time). That included \u201cName That Tune,\u201d \u201cMighty Mouse,\u201d and others according to a story in The Fresno Bee at the time.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t the first TV station in Fresno. That was the McClatchy-owned KMJ TV, which began airing in 1953. But it was the Valley\u2019s first and only VHF station, putting it at odds with the other (UHF) stations at the time.<\/p>\n

\"From From left, Angelo Stalis, Warren Armstrong and Graciela Moreno are seen in a Bee file photo from 2003. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com The Action News Team<\/p>\n

In 1970, the station introduced the Valley to the idea of \u201caction news.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was fast-paced TV news and a \u201crevolution,\u201d according to advertising in The Bee at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cChannel 30\u2019s new Action News really does move \u2014 at a staccato pace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anchored by Roger Rocka, along with weatherman Chuck Carson and Gus Zernial on sports, the program \u201cpacked more news, sports and weather in one half hour than most stations produce in a full hour.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the late 1970s, Action News team was ready to hit its stride. In 1977, it paired then-anchor John Wallace with Nancy Osborne, a former commercial actress who became a trailblazer as one of the Fresno first female newscasters. Osborne died last month at 78<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That pairing of co-anchors became a signature and a staple at the station.<\/p>\n

Side note: In 1977 ABC30 introduced the Valley to Accuweather, a forecasting system that was reputed to be more accurate than the National Weather Service.<\/p>\n

Famous personalities<\/p>\n

From the beginning, the station churned out well-known air-on personalities. A quick list might include the aforementioned Rocka (who was an anchor, but also the channel\u2019s news director before leaving in 1978 to open the Tower District dinner theater<\/a> that bares his name), but also:<\/p>\n

Al Radka, who actually started in radio as a disc jockey\/sales executive before coming to Channel 30, where he worked for 40 years. He was responsible for some popular ad campaigns (Lamoure\u2019s Cleaners, Producers milk, Oberti olives) but also a series of programming that included the afternoon children\u2019s show \u201cFuntime.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Karen Humphrey, who was sworn in as Fresno\u2019s first female mayor in 1989. She was also the first female reporter in Fresno, according to a bio from her time as the executive director for the California Postsecondary Education Commission. She worked for Channel 30 in the 1970s before her time on the Fresno City Council.<\/p>\n

Graciela Moreno, for a more recent example. Moreno joined ABC30\u2019s Action News Team in 1997, which was notable in that she was the first journalist to cross over from Spanish language television. Her first job was as a producer for the Univision affiliate in Sacramento. She worked at the Fresno affiliate<\/a> before joining ABC30.<\/p>\n

\"Al Al Radka, seen here in a historical photo, is one of the many Fresno personalities featured in the book \u201cFresno Growing Up\u201d by Stephen Provost, a former editor at The Bee. SPECIAL TO THE BEE A ratings leader<\/p>\n

ABC 30 has long-billed itself as the Valley\u2019s new leader.<\/p>\n

Indeed, as far back as 1979, ABC\u2019s Action News was at the top of the ratings in Fresno. A Fresno Bee story reported the station topped both the Nielsen and Arbitron ratings in all but one category that year; 11 p.m. Saturday. That was held by KMJ-TV, per a Fresno Bee report on Dec. 27 of that year.<\/p>\n

The station had been gaining traction for years, according to the story, but \u201cthis is the first time they won so heavily.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those ratings reflected a staff that\u2019s been attractive to other TV markets. When the station lost five reporters to other jobs over a series of months in 2015, Fresno Bee reporter Rick Bentley put it thusly: \u201cThe good thing about having high ratings is that ABC30 is an attractive place to work, especially for young reporters looking to work their way up the ratings ladder.\u201d<\/p>\n

And according to the station, that dominance continues. \u201cThe most recent ratings reflect ABC30 delivered decisive market leadership, outperforming all competing local stations combined in household audiences and winning across every major news\u2011driven daypart in Adults 25-54.\u201d The station, citing the media analytics company Comscore<\/a>, says it also leads in digital news, and is \u201cthe most-consumed local news source online, consistently surpassing its competitors.\u201d<\/p>\n

ABC owned and operated<\/p>\n

KFSN is a bit of a rarity in today\u2019s media landscape, in that it\u2019s not a simple affiliate station.<\/p>\n

While Fresno\u2019s FOX station<\/a> is owned by Sinclair, and the city\u2019s CBS and NBC stations<\/a> by Nextstar, KFSN is owned and operated (O&O in the biz) by ABC. It\u2019s one of eight such ABC stations across the US.<\/a> The rest are in larger markets like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, RaleIgh, Philadelphia and Houston.<\/p>\n

ABC acquired the Fresno station in 1985 as part of a $3.5 billion Warren Buffett-backed deal with Capital Cities Communications (the station\u2019s parent company at the time).<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Fresno Bee<\/p>\n

Joshua Tehee<\/a><\/p>\n

The Fresno Bee<\/p>\n

Joshua Tehee covers breaking news for The Fresno Bee, writing on a wide range of topics from police, politics and weather, to arts and entertainment in the Central Valley.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ABC 30 in Fresno has been a generational force. The news station helped define local television, producing iconic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-307259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}