1981–1982 CMC was founded on August 31, 1981, by Rick Kurkjian, launching on March 1, 1982, as a half-hour show telecast twelve times per week on Teleprompter Cable Oakland Channel 12. The first three music videos to be shown on CMC were according to host Rick Kurkjian, "based on a theme of eyes, since this is the age of video," and included in order "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes, "Private Eyes" by Hall and Oates, and "For Your Eyes Only" by Sheena Easton. 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.
1983 In 1983, KCSM-TV was one of a batch 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 auto dealer associations like the Northern California Toyota Dealer Association, 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.
1984 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 where CMC remained through February 23, 2018.
2016 In 2016 and 2018,
Nielsen Media Research encodes, samples, and reports the San Francisco DMA transmissions of CMC as local broadcast TV station
CMC-TV and CMC-USA as station CMCU-TV.
2018 In 2018, CMC Broadcasting purchased KTVJ-LD channel 6 licensed to Nampa/Boise, Idaho from OMI.
2019 In 2019,
Gracenote and other television listing services classified CMC and CMC-USA as Digital Broadcast Networks. "Cruisin' with Chuy" launched on October 6. Hosted by Chuy Gomez, the program is CMC's take on the long-standing Bay Area tradition of "Sunday Night Oldies." The live broadcast features fan requests and shout outs via social media platforms, giveaways, and all the best classic hits from 6 pm to 10 pm on every Sunday night.
2021 In 2021, construction began on KTVJ-LD RF 6 Virtual 3 serving Boise-Nampa-Meridian, Idaho. KTVJ signed on the air on November 5, 2021. KTVJ carries digital broadcast networks theDove on 3.1,
Newsmax 2 on 3.2, and CMC sister network, CMC-USA, on 3.3. CMC partnered with Amagi for worldwide digital distribution, Dynamic Ad Insertion, and FAST channel applications and platforms. == Format ==