KNSD

KNSD, channel 39, is an owned-and-operated television station of the NBC Television Network, located in San Diego, California, USA. KNSD maintains studios at the NBC Building in downtown San Diego, and its transmitter is located southeast of Spring Valley in San Diego County; master control and local commercial insertion is handled at NBC's West Coast headquarters in Burbank. The station is known on-air as NBC 7 San Diego, derived from KNSD's cable channel position in the market on the cable systems serving the San Diego area (Time Warner Cable, Cox and AT&T U-verse).

From 1997 to 2013, LIN Media owned a minority interest in KNSD alongside NBCUniversal through a share in the holding company Station Venture Operations L.P. (which also owned sister station KXAS-TV). In February 2013, LIN pulled out of the joint venture, giving NBC 100% ownership.

Digital television
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

On December 20, 2012, KNSD and other NBC-owned stations began carrying Cozi TV on digital subchannel 39.2. Cozi TV is a classic television network (similar to Me-TV, Antenna TV and ThisTV, among others) which replaced NBC (California) Nonstop, which had been carried on subchannel 39.2 since 2011.

Early history
The station went on the air on November 14, 1965 as KAAR, San Diego's first UHF outlet and first independent station. The station originally operated from the building once occupied by the National Pen Company, located in the neighborhood of Kearny Mesa, 10 mi northeast of downtown San Diego. However in 1966, a fire destroyed the KAAR transmitter, and the station was off the air for more than a year. Channel 39 was sold to Western Telecasters Inc., controlled by the Texas-based Bass family, and returned to the air in January 1968 as KCST (the new call letters standing for "California San Diego Television").

For a four-year period from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, Western Telecasters tried to take the ABC affiliation from XETV (channel 6)–a station licensed across the Mexican border in Tijuana but which broadcasted exclusively in English, with a studio in San Diego. XETV had been San Diego's ABC affiliate since 1956 under special arrangement between the Federal Communications Commission and Mexican authorities, subject to renewal by the Commission every year. Upon the FCC granting its annual renewal to ABC/XETV in late 1968 Western Telecasters countered, claiming that the presence of KCST made it no longer necessary for an American television network to affiliate with a Mexican television station.

In May 1972, the FCC revoked XETV's permission to carry ABC. As the only other commercial station in the market other than CBS affiliate KFMB-TV (channel 8) and NBC outlet KGTV (channel 10), KCST took over the ABC affiliation in two stages: Daytime programming moved to channel 39 in June 1973, followed by primetime and all other shows by July 1, 1973. Four months earlier in March, Western Telecasters agreed to sell KCST to Storer Broadcasting, owner of major network affiliates in the Eastern and Midwestern United States. The sale was completed on September 30, 1974; shortly afterwards, Storer added the -TV suffix to the KCST callsign. The switch and sale changed channel 39's fortunes, transforming the low-rated independent into a major player in the market. Riding on the heels of ABC's ascent to first place nationally during the 1975-76 season, KCST also out-rated its network-affiliated rivals locally. XETV, meanwhile, took over as San Diego's independent station until 1986, when it became a charter affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Company.

Switch to NBC
On June 27, 1977, in the wake of its new success as America's number one television network, ABC moved its San Diego affiliation from KCST to KGTV, causing an affiliation swap that ended with KCST taking KGTV's former NBC affiliation. ABC had never been happy with the way that 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, with which Storer had strong relations. Around the same time, KCST adopted the "Channel's Alive" station image package from Peters Productions, rebranding as "39 Alive".

In 1985, the Storer stations were taken over by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.. Two years later, KCST and the other Storer stations were sold to Gillett Communications (except for former Storer flagship WTVG in Toledo, Ohio, which was sold separately to a local employee/investor group). On September 16, 1988, the station changed its call letters to the current KNSD, and began calling itself "Channel 7/39" (in reference to both its cable and over-the-air channel positions) on-air. Gillett restructured into SCI TV in 1991, after 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 that would result in most of New World's television stations (which were primarily CBS affiliates, along with a few ABC and NBC stations) switching from their "Big Three" network affiliations to join Fox, causing the network's affiliations in the affected markets relocating from UHF to VHF stations. However, KNSD retained its NBC affiliation since Fox's San Diego affiliation was already on VHF through XETV. KNSD and WVTM-TV in Birmingham, Alabama were both sold to NBC in May 1996, the sale becoming final that August; that following January, KNSD modified its on-air branding to "NBC 7/39". In October 1997, NBC sold a 24% minority stake in KNSD to LIN Television, with NBC acquiring majority control (76%) of KXAS-TV in Fort Worth from LIN in exchange. 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.

Under the traditional definition, KNSD is the only network-owned in San Diego (current Fox affiliate KSWB-TV (channel 69) was previously an owned-and-operated station of The WB from 1996 to 2006, due to owner Tribune Company's ownership stake in that network). The station blamed its woes on its UHF status in the past, but as viewers started migrating to cable television (San Diego has one of the highest cable penetration rates in the country) and as many VHF analog stations transitioned to digital UHF, the issues with its position on the UHF dial have been reduced. KNSD formerly owned KNSD-LP (channel 62), which was leased to Entravision to expand the coverage area of KTCD-CA.

In the spring of 2001, KNSD moved its studios and offices into the NBC Building, a redeveloped high-rise office building in downtown San Diego, which includes a glass enclosed street-level news studio resembling that of the Rockefeller Center street side studio used by NBC's Today in New York City.

In February 2013, LIN Media reached a deal with NBC to withdraw itself from the joint venture as part of a corporate re-organization. As a result, NBC re-gained full ownership of KNSD.

Analog-to-digital conversion
After KNSD shut down its analog signal on the originally-planned digital television conversion date of February 17, 2009 (which was later pushed back five months to June 12, 2009), KNSD remained on its pre-transition UHF digital channel 40. However through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display KNSD's virtual channel as its former analog channel 39. After KFMB-TV, KGTV and KSWB-TV went digital-only on February 17, KNSD became 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) that continued to transmit an analog signal for regular programming; the other two were KUSI-TV and KPBS.

Programming
Local lifestyles and infotainment program Streetside San Diego and Spanish-language newscast Noticias Mi San Diego (the latter of which 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.

News operation
With the addition of California Nonstop, KNSD currently produces 29½ hours of local news each week (with 5½ hours on weekdays and one hour on weekends), however due to NBC Sunday Night Football, the Sunday 6 p.m. newscast is typically preempted during the NFL season. Unlike most NBC owned-and-operated stations, KNSD does not carry a newscast on weekend mornings. The 11 p.m. newscast was rebroadcast at 4 a.m. weekdays (immediately before the network's early morning news program Early Today, which leads into its local morning newscast) until October 24, 2012. On October 25, 2012; Early Today was moved to 4 a.m. weekdays to accommodate the newly expanded NBC 7 News in the Morning starting at 4:30 a.m.

In 1973, as KCST, the station started a news department, with Harold Greene (later to gain fame in Los Angeles) as news director and lead news anchor. On October 28, 2005, KNSD began producing a nightly half-hour 10 p.m. newscast for Tribune Broadcasting-owned KSWB (channel 69; which was a WB affiliate at the time), following the shutdown of KSWB's in-house news department, although KSWB continued to produce local news updates during its simulcast of Los Angeles sister station KTLA's weekday morning newscast from the station's Kearny Mesa studios. KNSD's news outsourcing agreement with KSWB ended on July 31, 2008, when that station resumed in-house news operations upon switching its affiliation from The CW to Fox.

From June 2009 to October 2011, weather forecasts during the evening newscasts were presented by meteorologists from Los Angeles sister station KNBC, making KNSD the only network-owned station in the United States and one of the few stations in North America to outsource weather forecasts to a co-owned station; that month, KNSD moved all weather forecasts in-house with the hiring of three weather anchors (including chief weather anchor Dagmar Midcap, previously with Atlanta CBS affiliate WGCL-TV) and the promotion of Jodi Kodesh from reporter to morning weather anchor. In December 2010, KNSD underwent major renovations for the first time since moving to the new studios in 2001. The new look debuted on December 13, 2010. The studio itself mainly mirrors that of Today, and served as its first step towards HD newscasts.

On January 29, 2011, KNSD became the fifth television station in the San Diego market, and the last NBC-owned station to produce its local newscasts in high definition, although not all field reports are shot in true HD. The station also implemented a new logo and on-air design designed by NBC Artworks and the advertising agency Mother New York, and dropped the NBC 7/39 brand in favor of simply NBC San Diego (later revised to NBC 7 San Diego). The "block" graphics and branding used in this period (which featured similarities to the design of the NBC Nonstop channels) were intended to be rolled out on the other NBC-owned stations (and was also used on the websites of those stations during the same period)KNSD was the only one that ultimately used the graphics and logo scheme on-air.

Newscast titles

 * Channel 39 Eyewitness News (1973–1976)
 * 39 News Alive (1976–1981)
 * NewsCenter 39 (1981–1988)
 * News San Diego (1988–1997)
 * NBC 7/39 News (1997–2011)
 * NBC San Diego News (January–June 2011)
 * NBC 7 San Diego News (June 2011–present)

Station slogans

 * "39 Alive!" (1976–1979; station image package by Peters Productions, San Diego)
 * "39, Proud as a Peacock!" (1979–1981; localized version of NBC ad campaign)
 * "39, 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 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; by the time this slogan debuted, KNSD adopted its channel 7 cable designation)
 * "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)
 * "Come Home To The Best, Only on 39"/"Come Home to The Best, 39 Cable 7" (1988–1990; localized version of NBC ad campaign)
 * "We're There When You Need Us" (1990–1991)
 * "News – San Diego (as in K-N-S-D)" (1990–1993)
 * "Coverage You Can Count On" (1993–2012)
 * "Coverage You Count On" (2012–present)

News team

 * Mark Mullen - weeknights at 5, 6 and 11 p.m., and at 7 p.m. on California Nonstop
 * Dagmar Midcap - chief weather anchor; weekdays at 4, and weeknights at 5, 6 and 11 p.m.
 * Jim Laslavic - sports director; Sunday-Thursdays at 6 and 11 p.m., also host of

Notable past on-air staff

 * Courtney Friel (now at KTTV in Los Angeles and Fox News Channel)
 * Harold Greene - anchor (1973–1974; now retired)
 * Roger Hedgecock - anchor (1991–1992, now a radio host at KOGO-AM)
 * Joe Lizura - weather/meteorologist (1990–2006, subsequently at KUSI)
 * Rolland Smith - anchor (1993–1996, returned to New York)
 * Anne State - anchor/reporter (2002–2008, later at WBBM-TV in Chicago, now at WITI-TV in Milwaukee)
 * Lou Waters - news director and anchor (subsequently an early and tenured CNN anchor)