KHSL-TV (channel 12) is a
television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the eart ...
licensed to
Chico, California
Chico ( ; Spanish for "little") is the most populous city in Butte County, California. Located in the Sacramento Valley region of Northern California, the city had a population of 101,475 in the 2020 census, reflecting an increase from 86,18 ...
, United States, serving the Chico–
Redding market
Market is a term used to describe concepts such as:
*Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand
*Market economy
*Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market
Geography
*Märket, an ...
as an affiliate of
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
and
The CW Plus
The CW Plus is a secondary national programming service feed of The CW that is fully controlled and 75% owned by Nexstar Media Group, with Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery each owning a 12.5% stake in the network. It is intended prima ...
. It is owned by
Allen Media Broadcasting, which provides certain services to dual
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
/
Telemundo
Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is owned by Comcast. It provides content nationally with pr ...
affiliate
KNVN
KNVN (channel 24) is a dual television station licensed to Chico, California, United States, serving the Chico– Redding market as an affiliate of NBC and Telemundo. It is owned by Maxair Media, which maintains a shared services agreement (SSA) ...
(channel 24, also licensed to Chico) under a
shared services agreement (SSA) with Maxair Media. Both stations share studios at the McClung Broadcast Center on the corner of Eaton and Silverbell Road on the northwest side of Chico, while KHSL's transmitter is located along Cohasset Road in rural
Butte County northwest of
Paradise, California
Paradise is a town in Butte County, California, United States in the Sierra Nevada foothills above the northeastern Sacramento Valley. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 4,764. On November 8, 2018, a major wildfire, the Camp F ...
.
History
KHSL-TV came on air in 1953 and was established by the McClung family's Golden Empire Broadcasting Company along with
KHSL-AM 1290. The call letters are in honor of Harry Smithson and Sidney Lewis, who founded KHSL-AM in 1935. They sold the station to Hugh and Ruth "Mickey" McClung a year later. During the same year, a control panel fire broke out at the KHSL studio. The station immediately went off the air for two hours before telecasting the start of
Game 2 of the
1954 World Series
The 1954 World Series matched the National League champion New York Giants against the American League champion Cleveland Indians. The Giants swept the Series in four games to win their first championship since , defeating the heavily favored Ind ...
.
In October 1994, it was sold to
United Communications Corporation
United Communications Corporation (UCC) was a privately owned operator of three television stations in the U.S. states of Minnesota and New York. The company was the publisher of the '' Kenosha News'' of Kenosha, Wisconsin and two other daily new ...
. On September 14, 1998, KHSL-TV was purchased by
Catamount Broadcasting
KHSL-TV (channel 12) is a television station licensed to Chico, California, United States, serving the Chico– Redding market as an affiliate of CBS and The CW Plus. It is owned by Allen Media Broadcasting, which provides certain services to ...
.
From its start, KHSL-TV was an affiliate of CBS. When KRCR-TV entered the Chico–Redding market as an NBC affiliate, the two stations occasionally cherry-picked ABC programming since no third commercial station had yet existed. In 1978, KRCR-TV switched to
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
. KHSL-TV then picked up some NBC programming such as ''
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' was an American late-night talk show hosted by Johnny Carson on NBC, the third iteration of the ''Tonight Show'' franchise. The show debuted on October 1, 1962, and aired its final episode on May 22, ...
''. However, the station and signal were forced to
switch
In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type of ...
to
KRON-TV
KRON-TV (channel 4) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, KRON-TV maintains studios on Front Street in the c ...
in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
whenever NBC programming aired. This required the awkward masking of KRON's IDs and commercials. Eventually, when KCPM (now KNVN) launched and took the NBC affiliation, the sharing of a third network was no longer necessary in the Chico–Redding market. However, there may have been at least one attempt in the mid-1960s to bring a potential ABC-affiliated third commercial station to the area. The third station never materialized.
From 1956 to 1960, KHSL-TV aired a half-hour program on Sunday evenings called ''There is a Telling''. The program explored the folklore and history of northern California.
Chico State College produced the program with the aid of students. It is perhaps best remembered for its ballad theme song performed by Tom Lee. During the early 1960s, actor
Richard Kiel
Richard Dawson Kiel (September 13, 1939 – September 10, 2014) was an American actor. Standing tall, he was known for portraying Jaws in '' The Spy Who Loved Me'' (1977) and '' Moonraker'' (1979). Kiel's next-most-recognized role is the t ...
also worked at Channel 12 as the title character/host on ''The Paul Bunyan Show'', which is shown on
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
.
From 1956 to 1995, KHSL aired the half-hour music program, ''
The Moriss Taylor Show.'' The show was hosted by Moriss Taylor and featured several musicians such as Charlie Robinson, Yvonne Haygood, Bill Teague, Mark Alstad, and Rosie Mello. Reruns aired until 1997, two years after Catamount Broadcasting purchased KHSL-TV. The show aired on
KRVU-LD
KRVU-LD (channel 21) is a low-power television station in Redding, California, United States, affiliated with MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside ABC affiliate KRCR-TV (channel 7, also licensed to Redding) and three ot ...
on Saturday mornings beginning at 10 a.m. from 1997 until 2015 when that station canceled the show after it was sold to
Bonten Media Group
Bonten Media Group was a New York City-based owner of television broadcast stations in the United States. It was formed by Randall D. Bongarten and Diamond Castle Holdings in November 2006. Its first acquisition was 14 stations from Bluestone T ...
, owners of chief rival
KRCR-TV
KRCR-TV (channel 7) is a television station licensed to Redding, California, United States, serving as the ABC affiliate for the Chico–Redding market. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside five low-power stations: Chico-licens ...
.
Merger with KNVN
On August 10, 1998, when KCPM changed its callsign to KNVN, Grapevine Communications sold the station because of its large debt and likely bankruptcy. To avoid possibly putting KNVN off the air, the nearly bankrupt station signed a shared service agreement with KHSL, eventually leading to the controversial consolidation of the news departments. The ratings of the newscasts have always lagged far behind KHSL and
KRCR
KRCR-TV (channel 7) is a television station licensed to Redding, California, United States, serving as the ABC affiliate for the Chico–Redding market. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside five low-power stations: Chico-licens ...
. The takeover led to a slight rise in ratings and KHSL's ratings slightly declined. Soon after, the ratings of both stations plummeted once the newscasts merged. Today's newscasts have slightly increased ratings with six newscasts each weekday and two each day on weekends, but both KHSL and KNVN remain behind KRCR-TV and, to a lesser extent,
KCVU
KCVU (channel 20) is a television station licensed to Paradise, California, United States, serving the Chico– Redding market as an affiliate of the Fox network. It is owned by Cunningham Broadcasting, which maintains a local marketing agreem ...
, placing fourth and third respectively. The combined operation's ratings are hampered in part because most locations in the southern portion of the viewing area can receive many of the larger stations from Sacramento, including
KCRA
KCRA-TV (channel 3) is a television station in Sacramento, California, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Hearst Television alongside Stockton-licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate KQCA (channel 58). Both stations share studios on T ...
or
KOVR
KOVR (channel 13) is a television station licensed to Stockton, California, United States, broadcasting the CBS network to the Sacramento area. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside CW affiliate ...
. Both of those stations are also available on
Comcast Cable
Comcast Cable Communications, LLC, doing business as Xfinity, is an American telecommunications company and division of Comcast Corporation used to market consumer cable television, internet, telephone, and wireless services provided by the com ...
.
Sale to GOCOM
On February 6, 2013, it was announced that KHSL would be sold to GOCOM Media, LLC. Concurrently, sister station KNVN was sold by Evans Broadcasting to K4 Media Holdings, LLC. The FCC approved the sale on April 19, 2013; it was consummated on May 6. On July 14, 2015, GOCOM announced that it would sell KHSL-TV to Heartland Media (which also owns
Oregon
Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...
television stations
KDRV
KDRV (channel 12) is a television station in Medford, Oregon, United States, affiliated with ABC. The station is owned by Allen Media Broadcasting, and maintains studios on Knutson Avenue (near Rogue Valley International–Medford Airport) in no ...
in
Medford and
KEZI Kezi may refer to:
* Kezi, Iran
* Kezi, Zimbabwe
Khezi is a village in Matobo District, Matabeleland South province in zimbabwe,https://www.mindat.org/feature-888965.html located south of Bulawayo and from Maphisa, a small town which serves ...
in
Eugene), through its USA Television Holdings
joint venture
A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and economic risk, risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four rea ...
with MSouth Equity Partners, for $40 million; concurrently, K4 Media Holdings would sell KNVN to Maxair Media, with KHSL providing services to KNVN and selling up to 15 percent of channel 24's advertising time.
The sale was completed on December 1.
Sale to Heartland Media
On July 15, 2015, the announcement was made that Heartland Media, owned by Robert Prather, would be purchasing the station from Gocom and entering a local marketing agreement with Maxair-owned KNVN, which was already operated out of the same facility.
Sale to Entertainment Studios
On October 1, 2019, it was announced that media mogul
Byron Allen
Byron Allen Folks (born April 22, 1961) is the founder of the U.S. entertainment company Entertainment Studios which includes The Weather Channel. He is also a television producer, philanthropist, and comedian in his younger years.
Notable s ...
's
Entertainment Studios
Entertainment Studios, Inc., also known as Allen Media Group, is an American media and entertainment company based in Los Angeles. Owned and founded in 1993 by businessman Byron Allen, the company was initially involved in the production and ...
would be purchasing 11 of Heartland Media's stations across nine markets for $290 million. Former owner Robert Prather agreed to continue management of the stations at least through the duration of the sale's pending. The sale was completed on February 11, 2020. Allen's other holdings include
The Weather Channel
The Weather Channel (TWC) is an American pay television channel owned by Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Allen Media Group. The channel's headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia. Launched on May 2, 1982, the channel broadcasts weather foreca ...
and 21
regional sports network
In the United States and Canada, a regional sports network (RSN) is a cable television channel (many of which are also distributed on direct broadcast satellite services) that presents sports programming to a local market or geographical region.
...
s.
Chico–Redding CW
Starting in September 2006, the DT2 subcarrier added programming from
The CW Television Network
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
. This coincided with the company's acquisition of KIWB from
Bluestone Television in July 2006. It has its own 10:00 newscast titled ''CW Action News at Ten''. It broadcasts on cable channel 10 on both Comcast and
Charter systems. It is also available on Dish Network channel 43 and on DirecTV channel 10. It gets most of its programming from
The CW Plus
The CW Plus is a secondary national programming service feed of The CW that is fully controlled and 75% owned by Nexstar Media Group, with Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery each owning a 12.5% stake in the network. It is intended prima ...
, but airs ''
Maury'' at noon and ''
Dr. Phil'' at 1 p.m.
News operation
![Action News Now Chico-Redding 2016](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Action_News_Now_Chico-Redding_2016.png)
One of the station's first newscasts was ''Valley Headline News'', which is 1959 was broadcast on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:00 p.m. local time. W. E. Thomas was the news director.
From the 1970s to the late 2000s, the station produced a local public affairs program called ''Agenda 12'' (later known as just ''Agenda'') which featured various hosts.
During the 1990s, news anchor Bruce Lang hosted a half-hour news and information program called ''Sunday Evening'', which was similar to ''
CBS News Sunday Morning''. The program aired after the Sunday edition of the ''
CBS Evening News
The ''CBS Evening News'' is the flagship evening television news program of CBS News, the news division of the CBS television network in the United States. The ''CBS Evening News'' is a daily evening broadcast featuring news reports, feature st ...
'' and before ''
60 Minutes''.
''Your Show Live'' was a locally produced interview program that aired from 2002 to 2004 as a taped rebroadcast of its live program on KNVN. As of 2018, there are seven newscasts produced throughout the day. ''Action News Now at 5 and 6'' (formerly called "Wake Up!") is the station's morning news programming that airs from 5 to 7 a.m. ''Action News Now at Noon'' provides midday coverage, recapping and following up on early morning developments and often uniquely featuring in-studio guests from the surrounding community. Starting in 2017, ''Action News Now First At 4'' was added exclusively to KNVN, beginning the station's evening coverage. The evening news is rounded out with ''Action News Now at 5'', and ''Action News Now at 6''. The late night newscasts include the ''CW Action News Now at 10'' and ''Action News Now at 11'' – the former being the only newscast not broadcast on either KHSL or KNVN. The morning newscasts as well as 4 and 5 p.m. shows are all one-hour productions while all other news programming is thirty minutes. Weekend newscasts are all half-hour shows at 6 and 11 p.m. on Saturdays, as well as 5, 6, and 11 p.m. on Sundays.
A thirty-minute Spanish-language newscast is also produced for Telemundo, called ''Accíon Noticiero Telemundo'' at 6 and 11 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Notable former on-air staff
*
Louisa Hodge
Louisa Hodge is a meteorologist and Emmy award-winning general assignment reporter for KCBS-2/KCAL-9 at CBS Studio Center in Studio City, Studio City, California. She also hosted an adventure series where you could see her taking part in adventur ...
(NCN ''Wake Up!'' host) (2003–2005, now at
KCBS-2/
KCAL
The calorie is a unit of energy. For historical reasons, two main definitions of "calorie" are in wide use. The large calorie, food calorie, or kilogram calorie was originally defined as the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of o ...
-9,
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
)
*
Stan Statham (news anchor) (1960s-1970s, former California state assemblyman, now president of the California Broadcasters Association)
*
Moriss Taylor (host of ''The Moriss Taylor Show'') (1956-1995, retired in 2013, died in 2018)
*
Anthony Watts (chief meteorologist) (1987–2002, 2004, now at
KPAY radio in Chico and returned as weekend weather anchor in 2015)
Technical information
Subchannels
The stations' digital signals are
multiplexed
In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...
:
Analog-to-digital conversion
KHSL-TV became digital-only on December 22, 2008. The station shut down its analog signal, over
VHF channel 12, on January 1, 2009. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition
UHF channel 43. Through the use of
PSIP
The Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) is the MPEG (a video and audio industry group) and privately defined program-specific information originally defined by General Instrument for the DigiCipher 2 system and later extended for the AT ...
, digital television receivers display the station's
virtual channel
In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver's ...
as its former VHF analog channel 12.
Early switchover
KHSL replaced normal programming with digital TV information on analog channel 12, and eventually turned it off on January 1, 2009. KHSL's 235 kW, digital tower doubled its power to nearly 500 kW on February 17, 2009.
Loss in over-the-air coverage
According to KHSL's engineering department, KHSL chose not return to VHF channel 12 as the digital transmission has much poorer results than UHF channels. There was still a substantial loss in over-the-air (OTA) coverage. There has been criticized because a VHF signal better covers the terrain of the rural, mountainous viewing area in local communities and could have actually gained coverage if the digital transmitter used the analog tower. However, results by most stations in the U.S. show a loss of coverage with a VHF signal, but the Chico–Redding area is unique in the fact that the valley is suited better for UHF (VHF is notorious for impulse noise) while the foothills and mountains are better suited for VHF (UHF does not travel the natural curve of the Earth well); but KHSL had to take a loss of approximately 50,000 potential viewers since it cannot satisfy both types of terrain at the same time, less than it would have on VHF 12 but still much worse than the other stations in the area which saw little or no loss in coverage.
However, it covers 537,000 people which is still second to KCVU—which now covers 550,000 people and pulls ahead of KRCR, KIXE, and KNVN, which better cover the core Chico–Redding area, only covering 400,000 people each. Many rural cable systems use
Dish Network to feed their systems now since they have now lost OTA coverage. Viewers in northern areas of
Sacramento
)
, image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg
, mapsize = 250x200px
, map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...
can now occasionally receive a clear KHSL signal, when before they could only get a snowy image at best. To make up for the reception problem in Redding, KHSL has launched a digital fill-in translator from South Fork Mountain on channel 36. In 2018, the translator relocated to channel 18.
Translators
*1: K31PS-D formerly operated on channel 35 under the
call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assign ...
K35LB-D until 2019.
*2: K19GA-D formerly operated on
analog
Analog or analogue may refer to:
Computing and electronics
* Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable
** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals
*** Analog electronics, circuits which use analog ...
channel 59 under the call sign K59ET until 2008.
*3: K35JX-D formerly operated on analog channel 69 under the call sign K69EN until 1990; it then operated on analog channel 54 under the call sign K45EE until 2010, when it converted to digital as K35JX-D.
See also
*
KHSL-FM
KHSL-FM (103.5 MHz, "The Blaze") is a country music formatted radio station based in Chico, California. It is owned and operated by Deer Creek Broadcasting and Digital Interactive LLC, which also owns News-Talk 93.9 KPAY-FM (formerly KFMF-FM), ...
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Khsl-Tv
Entertainment Studios
1953 establishments in California
CBS network affiliates
Ion Television affiliates
Television channels and stations established in 1953
HSL-TV