KNSD 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 (and digital virtual channel) number (39). On both San Diego area cable systems, KNSD's high definition signal can be seen on Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable on channel 707. The station is also available on its customary Channel 39 position (in both standard defintion and in high definiton) on both of DirecTV's and Dish Network's Local Channels packages. It is owned by a joint venture of NBC Universal (76 percent) and LIN TV (24 percent). However, because NBC Universal has majority control, KNSD is run 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 NBC Plus is seen on KNSD's digital sub-channel 39.2.

History

The station went on the air on November 16, 1965 as KAAR, 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. The new call letters stood for California San Diego Television.

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 other than the CBS and NBC stations, took over the ABC affiliation on July 1, 1973. and XETV became an independent station until it became a charter Fox affiliate in 1987 and more recently, a CW affiliate in 2008. 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. Shortly afterwards, Storer added the -TV suffix to KCST's call sign. 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 and also using the "Channel's Alive" Promotion from Peters Productions as "39 Alive" that same year.

In 1985, the Storer stations were 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 KNSD. It also began calling itself "Channel 7/39" on-air. Gillett restructured into SCI TV in the early 1990s when Gillett defaulted on some of his bond purchases. 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 October 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. The deal closed on March 2, 1998, marking the official launch of the new NBC / LIN joint venture (controlled by NBC) known as Station Venture Operations, LP.

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.[120657]

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.

Programming

In addition to its network programming, KNSD is home to Deal or No Deal, The Martha Stewart Show, The Bonnie Hunt Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Access Hollywood, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy! and At the Movies.

Streetside San Diego (a local lifestyles and infotainment program) and Noticias Mi San Diego (a Spanish-language newscast; it was a holdover from KNSD's operation of KBOP-CA) were local programs previously produced by KNSD; these programs, along with the station's weekend morning newscasts, were canceled on December 5, 2008 as a result of budget cuts at the station.

Personnel

Station General Manager: Jackie Bradford

News Director: Greg Dawson

Personalities

Current

Anchors

• Catherine Garcia - 4 & 4:30 PM
• Marianne Kushi - weekday mornings
• Marty Levin - 4:30, 5, 6 & 11 PM
• Jason Austell - weekday mornings
• Artie Ojeda - weekend evenings
• Susan Taylor - 4, 5, 6 & 11 PM

Weather

• Fritz Coleman - weekday evenings, also the weekday weatherman for KNBC Los Angeles.
• Whitney Southwick - weekday mornings
• Pablo Pereira - weekend evenings, also the weekend weatherman for KNBC Los Angeles.

Sports

• Jim Laslavic - sports director (Sunday-Thursday, hosts Sportswrap)
• Jim Stone - Friday/Saturday sports anchor
• Derek Togerson - reporter

Traffic

• Jodi Kodesh - weekday mornings

Reporters

• Greg Bledsoe
• George Chamberlin, money advisor
• Gene Cubbison
• Rory Devine
• Monica Dean
• Bob Hansen, "Consumer Bob", consumer reporter
• Lorrie Jordan - also host of Streetside San Diego
• Steven Luke
• Mari Payton
• Tony Shin
• Nicole Ward

Past

• 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)
• Pat Brown- weather anchor (2001-2009)
• Laura Buxton - anchor/reporter (1980-1987, now at Channel 4 San Diego)
• Tim Carr - anchor/reporter (1989-2001)
• Bob Dale - (deceased) weather
• Bobby Estill - sports anchor (1988-1991)
• Susan Farrell - anchor/reporter (1987-1998)
• Jack Gates - reporter (1980-1997, now at Channel 4 San Diego)
• Bernard Gonzales - anchor/reporter (1988-1992 and 2001-2004)
• Dave Gonzales - anchor/reporter (1984-1989, now at KCBS in Los Angeles)as KCAL's noon and 2pm anchor
• John Gregory - reporter, now at KABC-TV in Los Angeles
• Harold Greene - anchor (1973-1974), now retired
• Laurence Gross - (deceased) entertainment critic
• Brian Hackney - weather anchor (1985-1990, 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 5pm and 11pm anchor at KNTV in San Jose/San Francisco)
• Kimberly King - Traffic anchor (1998-2008)
• Ken Kramer - About San Diego (1995-2009)
• Lauren Krause - reporter, weekend evening anchor
• Jovana Lara - reporter, now weekend evening co-anchor at KABC-TV in Los Angeles
• Joe Lizura - weather anchor (1990-2006); now at KUSI
• Katia Lopez Hodayan - reporter for KNSD and Mi San Diego
• Tania Luviano - anchor Mi San Diego
• Greg Mills - News Reporter/Anchor (2003), now Reporter at KCBS/KCAL in Los Angeles
• Dennis Morgigno - anchor/reporter (1978-1987, now at Channel 4 San Diego)
• Soncee Partida - anchor, weekday mornings
• Margaret Radford- Reporter/Fill-in Anchor (1994-2007), now retired
• Suzanne Rico - reporter; now morning co-anchor at KCBS-TV in Los Angeles
• Allison Ross - anchor (1991-1996)
• Vic Salazar - reporter, anchor (xxxx-2008)
• Mike Smith - sports anchor (1967-1982, now a partner in Ad-Lib Productions)
• Rolland Smith - anchor (1993-1996, returned to New York)
• Anne State - anchor/reporter (2002-2008, now at WBBM-TV in Chicago)
• Lynn Stewart - reporter; now at XETV-TV
• Bree Walker - anchor (1997-2000)
• Dave Walker - anchor (1968-1988, now a partner in Ad-Lib Productions)
• Mark Walton
• Sarah Wallace - anchor/reporter (1981-1985, now at WABC-TV in New York)
• Denise Yamada - anchor/reporter (1987-1994)
• Kim Devore - anchor/reporter

News/Station Presentation

Newscast Titles

• Channel 39 Eyewitness News (1973-1977)
• 39 News Alive (1977-1981)
• NewsCenter 39 (1981-1987)
• News San Diego (1987-1995)
• NBC 7/39 News (1995-present)

Station Slogans

• 39 Cable 7, Proud as a Peacock! (1979-1981; localized version of NBC ad campaign)
• 39 Cable 7, Our Pride is Showing (1981-1982; localized version of NBC ad campaign)
• We're KCST, Just Watch Us Now (1982-1983; localized version of NBC ad campaign)
• 39 Cable 7 There, Be There (1983-1984; localized version of NBC ad campaign)
• 39 Cable 7, Let's All Be There (1984-1986; localized version of NBC ad campaign)
• Come Home to 39 Cable 7 (1986-1987, localized version of NBC ad campaign)
• San Diego's Leader in Electronic Journalism (1985-1987)
• Covering All of San Diego County and Beyond (1987-1990)
• News - San Diego (as in K-N-S-D) (1990-1993)
• Coverage You Can Count On (1993-present)

Trivia

• KNSD, under the traditional definition, is the only network O&O in San Diego. Another local station, KSWB-TV was previously an O&O of The WB.
• KNSD is one of two NBC UHF O&Os, Hartford's WVIT (channel 30) being the other; a third UHF O&O, WNCN (channel 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 moved to cable (San Diego has one of the highest cable penetration rates in the country) and as many VHF analog stations transition to digital UHF, the problem of its position on the UHF dial has been reduced. [120658]
• KNSD used to own KNSD-LP (channel 62), which was leased to Entravision to expand the coverage area of KBNT-CA.

Digital Television

After the analog television shutdown and digital conversion on February 17, 2009 , KNSD remained on its current pre-transition channel number, 40. However, through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers will display KNSD's virtual channel as 39. As of February 17, KNSD is one of only three full-power English-language stations in the San Diego market (not counting XETV or XHDTV, which are licensed by the Mexican government, but broadcast in the English language) which still have an analog signal for regular programming; the other two are KUSI-TV and KPBS.

References

1. http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf
2. CDBS Print

External links

• KNSD's website