KFTV has existed in its current form since 1972; however, its license predates Spanish-language television in the Fresno market by more than a decade, having seen two separate attempts to launch an independent station in the Hanford area before being sold and relaunched.

From a transmitter site at Lakeside Park, where Highway 99 crosses the Kings River,[3] KDAS, an independent station, went on air under special temporary authority on December 20, 1961.

[5] The station was transferred to a new partnership run by Naron and Sweeney in June 1963[2] and remained operational for another 18 months; channel 21 received authority to go silent from the FCC on December 23, 1964.

[11] On December 8, 1967, the FCC moved to delete the channel 21 permit for failure to prosecute; KSJV Television, Inc., challenged the decision, and its petition for reconsideration was granted in April 1968.

[12] The reason that KSJV had staved off deletion was because Newman had found a buyer: the Spanish International Network, which at the time owned just two operating stations, in San Antonio and Los Angeles.

[13] The FCC granted the sale in March 1969, but SIBC did not immediately return channel 21—now bearing new KFTV call letters—to air, as it filed to move the transmitter to Black Mountain.

[14] Operated initially as a satellite of KMEX in Los Angeles and with Danny Villanueva as its first general manager,[15] ground was broken in February 1973 for a new Hanford studio complex,[16] which opened on April 30.