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YFYS-TV, virtual channel 23 (UHF digital channel 42), is the flagship television station of the YinYangian radio and television network Iconic Broadcasting System, owned by Disney-IBS. It is the second oldest television station in Malodin, launched in 1953 as Muliuden Fasunwei. The station was once temporary shut down in 1956 when the station refused to be part of the government of the Toralaq Republic.

YFYS is licensed to the independent city of Malodin and also serves nearby areas. It is headquartered in the IBS Broadcast Zone in St. Sophia, Malodin, and its transmitter is located in Oraamf, which also serves the transmitter of its sister station, YFOI-TV.

History[]

Muliuden Fasunwei Era (1950-1956)[]

The history of YFYS-TV traces back to the early 1950s. At the time, the state-owned Toralaq Broadcasting Corporation was the sole television broadcaster in the Toralaq Republic, the predecessor of modern-day YinYangia. However, the government began plans to allocate television and radio frequencies to private companies. Textiles company Liauwek-Dzun & Co. had a keen interest in the broadcasting world, as they wanted to diversify their business. The company applied for a license to establish a Muliuden-based television station in April 1950. This became a part of around 105 applications at the time, of which 67 of them demanding television stations to be established to expand the television industry of the Toralaq Republic.

The Toralaq government approved 72 of them in 1951, including that of Liauwek-Dzun. The station was initially titled "Liauwek-Dzun Tengshuh" (Tengshuh is YinYangiese for 'television'), but was later renamed to "Muliuden Fasunwei" in June 1952, along with the company itself, after completely shifting to broadcasting. It later applied for two radio stations the following month, both of which were accepted. The Muliuden Fasunwei television station was given the callsign "MD-MF23", and was assigned to UHF channel 23 in December. Although they were provided all this, the station still had a lot of work left to do before going on the air. The station inaugurated a 3 kW mast beside its headquarters, which would be used for eventual test broadcasts occurred in July 1953.

Muliuden Fasunwei 23 Logo

The more commonly used logo during station identifications.

Muliuden Fasunwei inaugurated official transmissions on October 7, 1953, as the country's third television station after TBC Main Teleprogram and Uryangken's Feederet Capital Television, although only serving the city of Muliuden itself. At first it only broadcast for four hours every evening, but as it gained further popularity by the end of its launch year, it expanded to eight hours. By February 1954, Muliuden Fasunwei became the most popular television station in the city of Muliuden, surpassing TBC Main Teleprogram. It arrived at a bigger competition when City Broadcast Television Network (CBTN channel 9) and Toralaq Commercial Signal (TCS channel 13) began transmissions on March 13 and April 29, 1954, respectively. As more stations were launched, its competition broadened. Nonetheless, the station was also praised for its quality programming and reliable news reports, and helped with the replacement of radio as the most common source of information in Muliuden.

On March 12, 1955, the station tested color broadcasts in order to compete with Main Teleprogram, which had already been broadcasting on color since 1950, and was the sole television broadcaster to be allowed to regularly provide full-time color programming until this time. As soon as the station migrated to regular color broadcasts, Muliuden Fasunwei began hiring some of the best scriptwriters and actors, as considered by mainstream media, to produce television dramas and films to be exclusively broadcast on the station, most notably Love is like a Prison, which was an instant hit. The station soon became an alternative to movie theaters, although some of the films broadcast were often criticized for poor writing. Nonetheless, it still provided some of the best films, almost Hollywood-like as described by critics, in the Toralaq market at the time. To celebrate its second anniversary of being on the air, on October 7, 1955, Muliuden Fasunwei commenced full-time color broadcasts and was acquired by the daily newspaper Wakdzya Gyayzhit.

After the topple of Reshard Unefed's democratic government and its replacement with a Marxist-Leninist government led by Awrahem Thar on June 2, 1956, privately owned media was immediately outlawed, with all newspapers, radio and television stations coming under the hands of the government. Muliuden Fasunwei, alongside a few other television stations serving the Muliuden metropolitan area, with a total of nine of them at the time, protested against this decision by boycotting the government and refusing to pay taxes to them. Muliuden Fasunwei later came to be known as "The Rebellious 23" due to its actions at the time. Both of its sister radio stations halted transmissions in protest against the government.

With loads of anti-government programs and messages being broadcast by Muliuden Fasunwei, including several pro-Unefed patriotic songs and films denouncing communism in general, including the pro-democratic propaganda movie I Oppose, being broadcast on the station at 20:00 in the evening of June 10, 1956, in the middle of the film's broadcast, Toralaq state-funded, pro-communist militias raided Muliuden Fasunwei's headquarters and shut the station down without any warning at 21:02, Toralaq Standard Time. Its broadcast facilities were sealed and much of the staff members were later executed by firing squad. The station's owners, Harold Liauwek and Fayhuk Dzun, were subsequently sentenced to life in prison, although the latter later escaped prison and fled to the United States via Alaska, where he had lived until his eventual death in 1978. The headquarters of Muliuden Fasunwei would later be used for a militia-owned radio station used to broadcast hardcore propaganda until the station itself ceased broadcasting in July 1968 due to lack of funding.

Revival (1976-1980)[]

There have been a few attempts to revive Muliuden Fasunwei, but as a government-owned entity, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. After the aforementioned militia-run radio station ended broadcasts in 1968, and Liauwek was bailed out in 1971, he had the idea to reinstate his television station. He negotiated with the Toralaq government to relaunch the station as a state-owned entity. The government supported it only if the station broadcast no more than 80% of pro-government propaganda, although politial reforms have already been implemented by that point. Thus, he withdrew the idea and saved it for the future. In the meantime, he reestablished Muliuden Fasunwei as a production company with funding from the government, which began producing programs for the newly launched TBC Minority Programming, mostly in English. The channel would later inherit some of the vintage programming formerly broadcast by the original Muliuden Fasunwei television station as a result.

MD-MF23 Logo 1976

The logo of Muliuden Fasunwei after its relaunch in 1976

The 7776 Revolution brought Liauwek's chance of relaunching Muliuden Fasunwei to life, with the communist government toppled. Right after, privately owned media would once again be legalized. Muliuden Fasunwei was one of the first private television stations to gain permission from the government to broadcast. After officially gaining a license, Muliuden Fasunwei resumed transmissions on August 7, 1976, a month after the revolution. Although the television station was able to return to the air, the same could not be said about the two sister radio stations, which have shut operations for good, according to Liauwek. It was one of the four original private television stations in Muliuden to be relaunched after the revolution.

For the first few years, the station was a commercial failure, receiving only a handful of viewers compared to other stations such as YCNL-DT, which was an instant hit right after its launch on July 19, 1976, several days earlier than Muliuden Fasunwei. Liauwek sees this as threatening to his television station and therefore stated that competition was required to keep Channel 23 afloat. Muliuden Fasunwei ended its programming deal with TBC in 1978 and began works on establishing a television network with national reception. The production company bearing the same name applied for a license to establish a television network in February 1979, and was granted two months later.

Affiliation with GBC (1980-1984)[]

Liauwek changed the corporate name of Muliuden Fasunwei to General Broadcasting Corporation, also known by its acronym GBC, on March 12, 1980, as it revamps itself into a nationwide television network. On the same day, the television station affiliated itself with GBC and changed its callsign to MD-GN23. At this point, the "Muliuden Fasunwei" branding officially does not exist anymore, although it was still used for promotions until the late 1980s.

It temporarily moved its transmitters to the Muliuden TV Tower (now the Gawudzanwak Point) in April 1980 to renovate their own tower. It was upgraded to 100 kW for further coverage around areas near Malodin in October and the station's transmitters were moved back. As of July 1981, GN23 broadcasts to around 15 million people around and near Malodin within a 100 kilometer circumference. The station later began experimental high-definition broadcasts on UHF channel 45 in 1983, the first YinYangian, then Toralaq, television station to do so.

IBS era (1984-present)[]

GN23 subsequently became an affiliate of the Iconic Broadcasting System on July 9, 1984, as Liauwek renamed GBC. The station temporarily ceased regular programming and broadcast a two-hour long documentary on the life of Harold Liauwek on the evening of August 27, 1984, to commemorate him as he died to organ failure the day prior, and then signed-off for the day. GN23 later moved its transmitter again to a newly built 120 kW mast in Oraamf in May 1986.

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