KNSD Celebrating 40 Years (Aug 22, 2005)

Here's more to the history: The FCC set up rules against broadcasters transmitting their signals (such as live network feeds or local U.S.-based stations) across the U.S. border to a foreign station (such as Mexico and Canada) which could rebroadcast the signal back into the U.S. withouth a 325(c) permit authorized by the FCC on a case by case basis. This was many years before the NAFTA act in the 90s permitted applications on a more lenient basis.

In the case of KCST vs. XETV, in 1968, KCST filed a petition to deny ABC-TV's permit to rebroadcast the network programming to XETV, and the station argued that it could become an ABC affilliate that can provide better local programming, also arguing that XETV's local programming was "blantantly defective, rendering no local service meeting the needs of the San Diego community". It also argued that since XETV stopped producing local news programming in 1967 (it resumed as a Fox affilliate in 1999 as demanded by News Corp.), it did not intend to resume such programming, never interrupting its programs for local news bulletins, the same way that the sole two San Diego commercial broadcasters, KFMB 8 (CBS) and KOGO 10 (NBC) did. Finally, KCST presented the argument that XETV was simply a passive conduit of national network programming (although XETV did pre-empt local programming for Tijuana Window to the South and movies for example.) It also argued that the existance of KCST removed the rationale for the original granting of the permit in 1956.

In 1972, the FCC agreed with KCST saying that the public interest no longer supported the ABC permit for XETV, but the FCC also reasoned that denying the permit would help encourage the development of U.S.-based UHF television stations. In July of 1973, KCST became an ABC affilliate for four years while XETV touted itself in ads as San Diego's Newest Independent, and for a while, XETV relayed cast-off network programs such as Match Game '74, The Dumplings, and even Captain Kangaroo, all relayed via delayed means of videotape bicycled in to Tijuana (but not broadcast directly from the network feed).

KAAR, as KCST (now KNSD) was then know, started up operations in November 16, 1965, and from 1975-1992, it translated its programming for La Jolla viewers on channel 62, and nowadays has a digital channel on 40. During the power boost in 1975 to some five million watts, it's moniker was "39 Alive".

It's current call letters, KNSD since 1988, used to just mean "News San Diego", but nowadays as many people thought back then, it's also standing for "NBC San Diego."

When KAAR started up as San Diego's first independent station (KPBS 15 was the second in 1968), Mission Cable (now Cox) placed the channel on cable 3, and it stayed there until 1983 when it was moved to channel 7 (moving TBS to 17 after a year) and eventually, SouthWestern (now Time-Warner) and the other systems followed the move to shift KCST/KNSD from 3 to 7, resulting in a clearer picture and better ratings.

A side note: back in the 60s and early 70s, KCST didn't sign on until mid afternoon, so sometimes you could hear the audio for KEYT 3 from Santa Barbara leaking onto the Mission Cable systems.

What was the first network program KCST carried? I belive it was in 1971 when, since XETV wasn't carrying the stories of Phoebe, Joe, or Erica, the station started carrying the soap opera "All My Children" into San Diego at 1pm (it was 30 minutes like all soaps were back then). KCST also beamed in shows such as the "Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour" from CBS that KFMB didn't care to carry in 1971.

In 1975, KCST, since it signed off at about 11:30 or so, decided to put ABC-TV's late night programming, "Wide World of Entertainment" from 3:30 until 5pm, following "General Hospital" (3-3:30pm). That lasted for about six months. When KCST moved the late night show back to late night, and cancelled "GH" and "One Life to Live" (2:30-3pm) to make room for an afternoon movie, viewers called the station demanding that they be put back on the air, though that week's TV Guide in June listed the two soaps as moving to XETV, which never cared much for the ABC soaps back then anyway (pre-empting them for Banana Splits and cartoons). KCST ran double shots for the two soaps for a week or so and placed them from 9:30-10:30am, just before Bill Cullen's game show "Winning Streak."

KAAR was on the air from 1965-1966 because a fire destroyed the National Pen Company building in Kearny Mesa that KAAR was a tenant of. As a result, the station didn't come back until I'm guessing the spring of 1968 (my letter was read on the Suzy Saturn show in about May) During the time, Bass Broadcasting owned the station, rechristened KCST when it came back on the air.

In 1974, Storer Broadcasting bought the KCST station, which was then starting its second year of ABC fall network programming that month. Then in 1977, around March or so, I learned that NBC-affilliate KGTV (formerly KOGO) was handing its affilliation to KCST because ABC, with its success on such shows that year such as "Charlie's Angels" and "Happy Days", wanted a VHF station in San Diego to beam its ABC programming and somehow managed to get KGTV and KCST to swap network affilliatons in July of 1977.

What was ironic that during the heydays of ABC's cultural pop television success, forcing myself to remember that I could find Dianne Kay on Eight is Enough on channel 10 instead of cable 3 among others, KCST, stuck with the then-bottom NBC network with shows such as The Waverly Wonders and The Man From Atlantis, would have the last laugh in the 80s after the actors' strike in 1980 resulted in NBC suddenly getting some foundation for future success. How? While ABC was stuck with reruns of its 1979-80 shows in September and October of 1980, NBC had several 8pm hours running first-run AFTRA-free programing such as Real People co-starring former San Diegan Sarah Purcell and the miniseries Shogun, giving NBC a heads-up on the then three-network competetion. While ABC on KGTV was bungling with flops such as Aloha Paradise, NBC suddenly had success with The Facts of Life, but on the daytime side, NBC's daytime show was skidding opposite ABC's surging General Hospital with its Dr. Freeze storyline in 1981, so it was a win-lose situation for both networks, but NBC had one other weapon in 1981: The Smufs! That, and later on, The Cosby Show, Miami Vice, Hill St. Blues, etc, helped KCST get on top of KGTV's forgettable ABC lineup in prime time, but its local news operation, despite NBC's popularity, was still third-rate.

In 1985, KCST was the first San Diego television station to broadcast in stereo. This was so you could watch Friday Night Videos and other shows in stereo.

In 1987, KCST (as well as its parent company Storer) was sold to Gillette Communications, and in September 16, 1988, the call letters were changed before the Seoul Olympics to KNSD, with a revamp of its news operation, and adding locally-produced shows such as Larry Himmel (fresh from vacating Himmel At Large on KFMB) and for a short while, Roger Hedgecock had an afternoon show in 1991.

More consolidation would continue when Gillette and its stations were sold to New World Communications in c. 1992. In an ironic twist, New World went into a deal with News Corporation in which the New Wourd stations would convert to the Fox network, whose San Diego affilliate was, by gum, happened to be XETV 6, a charter affilliate since 1986 (remember the ill-fated Joan Rivers late night show?). What I thought could have happened is that there would be yet another network affilliation switch, with Fox moving to KNSD and NBC moving to XETV, but that didn't happen. New World dealt off KNSD to General Electric, then-owner of NBC-TV, in 1996, and KNSD became an NBC owned and operated station.

In the spring of 2001, KNSD moved its studios and offices from Kearny Mesa to a downtown office building mostly wired up for a broadcast station, complete with a Today-ish street-level open window news studio for its morning local news broadcasts, while their old building, their second home on 8330 Engineer Road, was demolished to make room for a car dealership.

NBCSanDiego.com has a 40th anniversary page up at http://www.nbcsandiego.com/40thanniversary/index.html