is the
NBC Television Station based in
San Diego, California . It uses the on-air branding '''''NBC 7/39''''', which reflects its channel location on all San Diego-area
Cable systems (7) and its over-the-air analog channel number (39). It is owned by a joint venture of
NBC Universal (76 percent) and
LIN Television (24 percent). However, NBC Universal runs KNSD as an NBC
Owned And Operated Station . The master control center and local commercial insertion for KNSD is at the NBC West Coast headquarters in Burbank, California.
NBC 7/39
Weather Plus is seen on KNSD's digital sub-channel.
The station went on the air on
November 16 ,
1965 as , San Diego's first UHF independent station. The station at the time was based in the building once occupied by the National Pen Company, located in
Kearny Mesa , a neighborhood ten miles northeast of downtown San Diego. However, in
1966 , a fire gutted the KAAR building, and the station was off the air for more than a year while the building was being rebuilt. Channel 39 was sold to Bass Broadcasting, a Texas-based broadcaster, and returned to the air in
1968 as '''KCST-TV'''. The new call letters supposedly stood for '''C'''alifornia '''S'''an Diego '''T'''elevision.
For a three to four year period in the late
1960s to the early
1970s , Bass tried to take the
ABC network affiliation from
XETV-TV (channel 6), a station licensed across the
Mexican Border in
Tijuana but based in San Diego. XETV had been San Diego's ABC affiliate since
1956 , but Bass claimed that it wasn't appropriate for an American television network to affiliate with a Mexican television station when there was a viable American station available. In
1972 , the
FCC revoked XETV's permission to carry ABC. KCST, as the only other commercial station in town, took over the ABC affiliation on
July 1 ,
1973 . and XETV became an independent station until it became a charter
Fox affiliate in
1987 . In
1973 , KCST started a news department, with
Harold Greene , later to gain fame in
Los Angeles , as news director and lead news anchor.
Storer Broadcasting , owner of major network stations in the East and Midwest, bought KCST on
September 30 ,
1974 . In
1977 , in the wake of its newfound success as America's number one television network, ABC switched its San Diego affiliation from KCST to
KGTV (channel 10), with KCST taking KGTV's old NBC affiliation. ABC had never been happy with the way its San Diego affiliation had ended up on KCST in the first place, and had sought a way to get back on VHF at the first opportunity. This move did not please Storer, who retaliated by dropping ABC from KCST's then-sister station,
WITI-TV in
Milwaukee , in favor of
CBS .
In 1985, Storer Broadcasting was taken over by
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR). Two years later, KCST and the other Storer stations were sold to
Gillett Communications (except for former Storer flagship
WTVG in
Toledo, Ohio , which had been sold to a separate owner). On
September 16 1988 , the station changed its call letters to the current . It also began calling itself ''"Channel 7/39"'' on-air. Gillett restructured into SCI TV in the early 1990s after it declared
Chapter 11 Bankruptcy . After SCI filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in
1992 , its stations were sold to
New World Communications . New World then entered into a deal with
News Corporation in which most New World stations (mostly CBS affiliates, with a few ABC and NBC stations mixed in) would convert to the Fox network. However, KNSD stayed with NBC since Fox was already on VHF in San Diego (see XETV). KNSD and
WVTM-TV in
Birmingham, Alabama were both sold to NBC in November
1996 . That following January, KNSD began calling itself ''"NBC 7/39"''. Later in 1997, NBC sold a minority stake (24 percent) of KNSD to
LIN Television , while in exchange, NBC acquired majority control (76 percent) of
KXAS-TV in
Dallas -
Fort Worth from LIN.
On May 18, 2007, LIN TV announced that it was exploring strategic alternatives that could result in the sale of the company, including LIN's share of KNSD.
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In spring
2001 , KNSD moved its studios and offices into a redeveloped high-rise office building in downtown San Diego, which includes an all glass enclosed street-level news studio resembling that of ''
The Today Show '' in New York City's
Rockefeller Center .
In addition to its network programming, KNSD is home to "Streetside San Diego" (a local lifestyles and infotainment program),
Ellen ,
Access Hollywood ,
Wheel Of Fortune ,
Jeopardy! and
Ebert & Roeper .
Station General Manager: Phyllis Schwartz
News Director: Greg Dawson
- Rory Devine - weekend mornings
- Catherine Garcia - 4 and 4:30 p.m.
- Marianne Kushi - weekday mornings
- Marty Levin - 4:30, 5, 6, and 11 p.m.
- Steven Luke - weekend mornings
- Bill Menish - weekday mornings
- Artie Ojeda - weekend evenings
- Susan Taylor - 4, 5, 6, and 11 p.m.
- Pat Brown - weekday evenings
- Lorrie Jordan - weekend mornings
- Whitney Southwick - weekday mornings
- Jim Laslavic - sports director (Sunday-Thursday, also hosts ''Sportswrap'')
- Jim Stone - Friday/Saturday sports anchor
- Derek Togerson - reporter
- Jason Austell - early evenings
- Kimberly King - weekday mornings, also host of ''Streetside San Diego''
- Greg Bledsoe
- George Chamberlin, money advisor
- Emily Chang
- Gene Cubbison
- Bob Dale, "Pet Parade" segment seen weekend mornings (retired)
- Monica Dean
- Bob Hansen, consumer reporter
- Ken Kramer, "About San Diego"
- Steven Luke
- Tania Luviano, anchors ''Mi San Diego TV 43''
- Mari Payton
- Peggy Pico, medical correspondent
- Tony Shin
- Anne State
- Vic Salazar
- Clark Anthony - anchor/reporter (1992-2002)
- Stacey Baca - anchor/reporter (1999-2002, now at WLS-TV in Chicago)
- Dave Bender - weather (1988-1991, later moved to KNBC and now at KOVR in Sacramento)
- Paul Bloom - anchor/reporter (1977- 1982, 1984-1986 and 1988-1994; now at KUSI )
- Laura Buxton - anchor/reporter (1980-1987, now at Channel 4 San Diego )
- Tim Carr - anchor/reporter (1989-2001)
- Bobby Estill - sports anchor (1988-1991)
- Susan Farrell - anchor/reporter (1987-1998)
- Bernard Gonzales - anchor/reporter (1988-1992 and 2001-2004)
- Dave Gonzales - anchor/reporter (1984-1989, now at KCBS in Los Angeles)
- Harold Greene - anchor (1969-1977, now at KCBS-TV in Los Angeles)
- Laurence Gross - entertainment critic
- Brian Hackney - weather anchor (1988-1990, now at KPIX-TV in San Francisco)
- Roger Hedgecock - anchor (1991-1992, now a radio host at KOGO-AM )
- Kevin Hunt - weekend anchor (1988-1990)
- Al Keck - sports anchor (1986-1988, now at WFTS-TV in Tampa, Florida )
- Lisa Kim - anchor (1995-1997, now at KNTV in San Jose/San Francisco)
- Joe Lizura - weather anchor (1990-2006); now at KUSI
- Dennis Morgigno - anchor/reporter (1978-1987, now at Channel 4 San Diego )
- Margaret Radford- Reporter/Fill-in Anchor (1994-2007), now retired
- Allison Ross - anchor (1991-1996)
- Mike Smith - sports anchor (1967-1982, now a partner in Ad-Lib Productions)
- Rolland Smith - anchor (1993-1996)
- Lynn Stewart - reporter; now at XETV-TV
- Bree Walker - anchor (1997-2000)
- Dave Walker - anchor (1968-1988, now a partner in Ad-Lib Productions)
- Sarah Wallace - anchor/reporter (1981-1985, now at WABC-TV in New York)
- Denise Yamada - anchor/reporter (1977-1994)
- KNSD, under the traditional definition, is the only network O&O in San Diego.
- KNSD is one of two NBC UHF O&O's, Hartford's WVIT /30 being the other; a third UHF O&O, WNCN /17 out of Raleigh-Durham was sold to Media General as of June 2006. In the past, the station blamed its woes on its UHF status, but as viewers move to cable and as many VHF analog stations transition to digital UHF, the problem of its position on the UHF dial has been reduced. {Link without Title}
- KNSD also owns KNSD-LP channel 62, but it is leased to Entravision to expand the coverage area of KBNT-CA .
