The three stations share studios on South 4th Avenue in downtown Yuma, with an advertising sales office on West Main Street in El Centro; KECY-TV's transmitter is located in the Chocolate Mountains.

On April 18, 1962, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) signed an agreement with Mexico, effective September 4, allowing the allocation of channels 7 and 9 to El Centro and giving the Imperial Valley its first opportunity for local VHF television.

[7] The FCC approved both applications on April 10, 1963, with channels 7 and 9 being designated as KXO-TV and KECC-TV respectively, and soon after, ABC announced that it would affiliate with KECC, who expected to be on the air by September 1.

KIVA's claim was denied by the FCC on July 30, 1963, but was referred to a federal appeals court, where the case was decided May 22, 1964, in favor of the El Centro stations.

In April 1966, Tele-Broadcasters announced its sale to United Broadcasting Co., headed by Richard Eaton, in a $1.9 million deal, which included the KECC construction permit and two radio stations.

In March 1970, WKTR-TV (channel 16, frequency now occupied by WPTD) in Dayton, Ohio (then licensed to Kettering) was accused of bribing Thomas G. Sullivan to promote affiliation with the network for the station.

Eaton was cleared of the bribery charges in September 1974, but was ruled by an FCC administrative law judge to have "strayed from conduct expected of licensee."

The judge recommended granting KECC-TV its license provided that Eaton sell the station within 60 days, but the FCC Broadcast Bureau appealed the ruling.

[21][22] United Broadcasting reached an agreement with Acton Corp. in December 1977 to sell the station for $1 million, pending resolution of the review of KECC's license request.

[38] The following month, Growth Cities transferred the LMA/TBA to News Press & Gazette Co. (NPG), which by this time owned KESQ-TV in Palm Springs, reuniting the two stations under common control.

[41] In November 2007, with time running out on the local marketing agreement, NPG moved to buy KECY and KDFX-CA (K77AV ceased operations in April 1998) for $2 million, and the FCC approved the sale in May 2008.

On November 20, 2011, News-Press & Gazette announced it would re-establish a news operation for KECY, its ABC-affiliated second digital subchannel, and Telemundo outlet KESE by March 2012.

[43] The production officially launched on March 23, 2012, airing in full high definition, making KECY the first television outlet in the market to offer HD local news programming.

The station's broadcasts originate from a specially-designed virtual set at its main studios, which can be tailored to the specific network channel that the local newscast is aired on.

[citation needed] Taped weather forecasts originating from sister station KVIA-TV in El Paso, Texas are inserted into each local broadcast.