KNSD

KNSD (channel 39, cable channel 7), branded NBC 7 San Diego, is a television station in San Diego, California, United States. It is owned and operated by the NBC television network via its NBC Owned Television Stations division. Under common ownership with Poway-licensed Telemundo station KUAN-LD (channel 48), both stations share studio facilities 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.

San Diego Telecasters, Inc., filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on June 17, 1963, to build a new television station on ultra high frequency (UHF) channel 39 in San Diego. The applicant was owned by Larry Shushan and Leon Kahn, the president and co-owner of San Diego radio station KPRI-FM. Shushan and Kahn proposed to build channel 39 on San Miguel Mountain. The FCC approved this application on June 25, 1964, by which time preparations were under way on the transmitter site. Construction required building a road to the mountain's summit, a task that delayed the planned sign-on for the new station. A late delivery of an antenna from General Electric also set back work. In October 1965, the antenna was installed, and the station formally opened its studios on Engineer Road in Kearny Mesa.

KAAR began broadcasting on November 14, 1965. It was an independent station, San Diego's first, with a 12-hour broadcast day featuring color movies in prime time, shows for children (Suzy Mallery's Kaartoon-O-Rama) and teenagers (Kaar A Go Go), This format was not a success. In August 1966, citing a lack of advertising, KAAR cut its broadcast day to 7 to 9 p.m. from Monday to Saturday, carrying the same movie every night in the first week of its curtailed operation. The station later moved to a 7 to 10 p.m. schedule.

On January 16, 1967, educational television came to the San Diego area with the launch of instructional programming from the San Diego Instructional Television Authority, a consortium of 26 local school districts. The educational station in San Diego, KEBS-TV (channel 15), was not yet in operation, so the programs were aired by channel 39 during daytime hours under a contract with KEBS-TV's owner, San Diego State College. KAAR restored much of its lost broadcast day after the shift, instituting a late-afternoon children's block, a nightly talk show covering local issues, and a 9:30 p.m. newscast. KEBS-TV began test broadcasting on June 12 and supplanted KAAR as the broadcaster of educational television programming.

San Diego Telecasters filed to sell KAAR to Bass Brothers Enterprises on June 23, 1967, for $1.1 million. The sale was approved and the station authorized to go silent effective August 31. The station was placed under a Bass subsidiary, Western Telecasters. During this time, the new owners recast the station with new KCST call letters and a format heavy on sports. KCST returned to air on February 2, 1968; the highlight of its first day on air was live coverage of a game between the San Diego Rockets and San Francisco Warriors. The station had a package of six total Rockets games as well as 13 San Diego Gulls games. Former KOGO-TV (channel 10) sports director Bob Chandler, former KOGO-TV newscaster Bill Fouch, and Mike Smith served as the announcers for a wide slate of sports events. Chandler and Fouch hosted two sports and news updates at 7 and 10 p.m. nightly; the station built a large scoreboard to present half-hourly score updates. In addition to sports, the station had a nightly interview show and teen dance program.