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| KUAN-LD | |
| History | |
First air date | November 14, 1965 |
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Call sign meaning | "News San Diego" (former news branding) |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 35277 |
| ERP | 387 kW |
| HAAT | 577 m (1,893 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 32°41′48.7″N 116°56′9.2″W / 32.696861°N 116.935889°W |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
KNSD (channel 39, cable channel 7), known as NBC 7 San Diego, is a television station in San Diego, California, United States, serving as the market's NBC outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Poway-licensed Telemundo station KUAN-LD (channel 48). KNSD and KUAN-LD share studios on Granite Ridge Drive in the Kearny Mesa section of San Diego and are broadcast from the same transmitter on San Miguel Mountain, southeast of Spring Valley.
Channel 39 began broadcasting November 14, 1965, as KAAR from studios in Kearny Mesa. Owned by locally based San Diego Telecasters, it was the third television station in San Diego and its first independent station. As the first ultra high frequency (UHF) station in San Diego, it struggled to attract viewers and advertisers; at one point, it cut back its schedule to two hours a night, and when it was sold to Bass Brothers Enterprises in 1967, it went off the air for nearly six months, returning as KCST with an emphasis on local sports coverage.
Shortly after the relaunch, ownership began a quest to force ABC to affiliate with channel 39. This was possible because ABC needed annual FCC approval to feed network programming to XETV, across the Mexican border in Tijuana, and the FCC had provided this because San Diego lacked a third commercial station. A multi-year legal battle ended in 1972 with the FCC directing ABC to affiliate with KCST, which it did in 1973. Concurrent with the new network affiliation, the station launched a local news department and was sold to Storer Broadcasting. In 1976, after finding itself suddenly in first place in the national ratings, ABC sought an upgrade and agreed to move its programming to KGTV; channel 39 affiliated with NBC instead. KCST remained mired in third place in the local news ratings throughout this time period.
In 1988, after being purchased by Gillett Communications, KCST was relaunched with new KNSD call letters and an overhauled news department. The changes did not have an immediate ratings impact, but as the 1990s wore on, KNSD became more competitive particularly in late news ratings. NBC acquired KNSD from New World Communications in 1996. In 2001, KNSD moved its studios to the downtown 225 Broadway office tower, returning to Kearny Mesa in 2016. NBC brought the Telemundo affiliation in San Diego in-house in 2017, resulting in a further expansion to the news department.
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for KNSD". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.