KLSF-FTV

KLSF-FTV

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San Francisco, California United States
Branding	CBS 29 (general) CBS 29 Action News (or The Bay's Action News) (newscasts)
Slogan	The Bay Area's CBS (general) Your Hometown Team (newscasts)
Channels	Digital: 29 (UHF) Virtual: 29 (PSIP)
Subchannels	29.1 CBS
Affiliations	CBS
Owner	NoSirGifts Fantasy Television Stations (NoSirGifts Fantasy Television Stations San Francisco, Inc.)
Founded	1953
First air date	Template:Start year
Sister station(s)	KBYF-FTV
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 29 (VHF, 1953–2009)
Former affiliations	ABC (1953–1957) NBC (1957-2001) independent (2002-2015)
Transmitter power	1000 kW
Height	484 m (1,588 ft)Template:Convert/track/abbr/onTemplate:Convert/track/disp/Template:Convert/track/adj/

KLSF-FTV, virtual channel 29, is a CBS affiliated fantasy TV station located in San Francisco, California. The station is owned by NoSirGifts Venues as part of a duopoly with Fox station KBYF-FTV (channel 2). The two stations share studio facilities located on the north end of Downtown San Francisco, and its transmitter is located in Oakland, California.

History

Early history and as an NBC affiliate

The station first signed on the air in 1953; it was the second television station to sign on in San Francisco (after KWJZ-FTV (channel 5), which debuted in 1949). It was founded by the San Francisco Chronicle, which also owned KLSF radio.

It originally served as a primary ABC affiliate and held secondary affiliations with NBC. ABC programming moved to KASF-FTV (channel 44) when it signed on in August 1957; this left channel 29 exclusively affiliated with NBC.

KLSF pre-empted moderate amounts of NBC programming, usually some daytime shows and an occasional primetime program. Among the notable pre-emptions were Another World (which was pre-empted by the station from its debut until 1976). Although NBC had been intolerant of preemptions, it usually did not raise objections to KLSF's preemptions; between 1969 and 1971, most of the pre-empted NBC shows aired instead on then-independent station and eventual sister station KBYF-FTV (channel 2, now a Fox affiliate).

As an independent station

In 2009, NoSirGifts acquired KLSF from NT Communications, creating a duopoly with Fox affiliate KBYF; the sale was finalized in August 2010. Later that month, KLSF began to be branded on-air as "KLSF 29." In 2013, NoSirGifts' independent stations began to branding similar mostly to sister independent stations in Fort Wayne, Indiana (INNCD 47), Milwaukee (Z-24), Denver (Z-24, now an NBC affiliate), and Chattanooga (MEL 45).

Although NoSirGifts owns both KBYF and KLSF, KBYF aired the Saturday morning children's program block eventually known as 4Kids TV until Fox discontinued its programming agreement with 4Kids Entertainment and replaced the block with the Weekend Marketplace infomercial lineup in December 2008, which allowed KBYF for the first time in its history cleared its network's entire schedule.

Switch to CBS

On August 11, 2014, CBS and NoSirGifts announced that KLSF would become San Francisco's CBS affiliate beginning on December 1, 2015. This deal was driven by CBS' desire for reverse retransmission consent compensation from their affiliates; KWJZ-FTV (channel 5) had been in negotiations to renew its agreement with the network, but reportedly balked at CBS' demands. This led to CBS reaching a deal with KLSF and Lafayette, Indiana sister station WWKI, which NoSirGifts was eager to land since the network holds the broadcast television rights to the AFC, which includes rights to most of the Oakland Raiders' regular season games.

The first CBS program to air on KLSF was Late Show with Stephen Colbert that aired at 12:35 AM Pacific Time on December 1, 2015.

KLSF became the third fantasy television station in San Francisco to affiliate with CBS. The network had originally aligned with KSFC from 1948 to 1953 before moving to KWJZ. KLSF became one of the few stations in the United States, and the first in San Francisco to have served as a primary affiliate of all three heritage broadcast networks. It is also the only American television station to have carried affiliations with each of the "Big Three" networks (excluding the "Big Four" era's Fox) and have independent status on its primary channel all at different periods through its history.

In preparation for the move to CBS, KLSF rolled out a separate website in November 2015, after three years of being relegated to a section of KBYF's website. At the same time, the station announced that it would change its branding from "KLSF 29" to "CBS 29" (with branding similar mostly to CBS affiliates owned by the network and and unveiled a logo (seen above) that is similar to the CBS channel number-style logo seen on KLSF's Indiana sister stations in Fort Wayne (CBS 41), Indianapolis (CBS 11), South Bend (CBS 17)) upon affiliating with the network.

Digital television

Digital channel

Channel	Video	Aspect	PSIP Short Name	Programming
29.1	1080p	16:9	KLSF FDT	Main KLSF-FTV programming / CBS
29.2	480i	4:3	Ant TV	Antenna TV
29.3			This	This TV

Analog-to-digital conversion

KLSF-FTV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 29, at 8:30 a.m. on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated its digital signal from its pre-transition UHF channel 54, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to its analog-era UHF channel 29.

This TV was added digital subchannel 29.2 in October 2009 as part of a groupwide affiliation agreement with NoSirGifts and was relocated to 29.3 upon the launch of Antenna TV on digital subchannel 2.2 on January 1, 2011, as part of a groupwide affiliation agreement with NoSirGifts; the Tribune Broadcasting-owned Antenna TV network replaced RTV on some NoSirGifts-owned stations in other markets.

Programming

KLSF clears the entire CBS schedule; this differs from KWJZ-FTV, which preempted select programs from the network and passed them to second digital subchannel from 2006 to 2015. As of September 2015, syndicated programs broadcast on KLSF include TMZ on TV, The People's Court, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy! (both shows air their first run-episodes on KBYF), Elementary, Person of Interest and The Big Bang Theory (the latter three of which also air their first-run episodes on the station via CBS).

From becoming a sister station to KBYF in 2009 until the switch to CBS, KLSF aired Fox programs that KBYF was unable to air due to extended breaking news or severe weather coverage, or other special programming, including at one time in 2009 American Idol as KBYF aired an Oakland Athletics game. As a result of KLSF's CBS affiliation, any preempted programming will now airs on KBYF's second digital sub-channel that is affiliated with MeTV.

Channel 29 also airs select San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders telecasts, as part of CBS' American Football Conference package. Shortly before KLSF switched to CBS, the teams announced a deal with NoSirGifts that made KBYF and KLSF official broadcast partners. This means both stations will air both 49ers and Raiders preseason games with KLSF airing 49ers games when they host an AFC opponent, team programming and coach's show beginning in the summer of 2016, though a majority of the games will still air on KBYF, owing to Fox's NFC rights. Advertising within Levi's Stadium is also included in the deal. Additionally, both stations will carry the Super Bowl for two out of every three years starting in 2016, with KLSF carrying CBS' coverage of Super Bowl 50 in 2016 and KBYF's Fox's coverage of Super Bowl LI in 2017. The only time the 49ers and/or Raiders would not play on a NoSirGifts station would be if they were scheduled for either a Sunday Night telecast, which would air on NBC-owned KSFC (channel 11), or ESPN Monday Night Football, which would normally air on ABC-owned KASF (channel 44) or CW affiliate KWBS (channel 23).

News operation

Dating back to its NBC affiliation, channel 29 has long battled KWJZ and KASF for the most-watched newscast in San Francisco market. During the mid 1980s and 1990s, KLSF's newscasts placed second behind KASF, however it ended the latter decade in first place. Not long after KLSF became an independent station in 2002, KLSF's newscasts have rotated between second and third place with either KWJZ, KASF, KSFC, or even KBYF in various timeslots since the late 1990s.

After KLSF became an independent station, channel 29 adopted a news-intensive schedule, increasing its news programming output from about 30 hours a week to nearly 50 hours. The station retained all of its existing newscasts, but it expanded its weekday morning newscast from two to five hours (with three hours added from 7:00 to 10:00 a.m.); extended the half-hour 6:00 p.m. newscast to one hour into a two-hour early evening news block (by adding a half-hour newscast at 6:30); and added an hour-long primetime newscast at 10:00 p.m., which leads into the existing 11 p.m. newscast.

After becoming a sister station to KBYF, KLSF's news department merged and changes at KBYF anfd KLSF were made and expanded newscasts for both stations. The newscasts on KBYF rebranded from BayFox 2 News (KBYF's news branding from 1989 to 2009) to Fox 2 Action News (later Bay 2 Action News) while KLSF's were rebranded to KLSF 29 Action News (now CBS 29 Action News) and the combined news operation of KBYF and KLSF were rebranded as San Francisco's Action News. This resulted in KLSF simulcasting KBYF's 5:00 to 9:00 a.m. block of KZCO's weekday morning newscast, its midday and its nightly 4:00, 5:00 and 10:00 p.m. newscasts. The nightly simulcasts were dropped in December 2015, when KLSF became a CBS affiliate.

When KLSF announced that upon its switch to CBS it would launch a separate news operation from KBYF with its own on-air staff (similar to, though also differing in structure from the shared news operation of Knoxville sister duopoly WATK (formerly WKNX)/WNXT (ABC/Fox), the latter of which maintains separate anchors from WATK for certain newscasts), KBYF/KLSF became the fourth known duopoly (legal or virtual) involving a Big Three affiliate and a Fox station, in which the two stations maintain separate news departments and newscasts in competing timeslots (except the morning newscast as the presence of two separate, but jointly based news departments controlled by one company structured in this manner is more common with duopolies involving stations affiliated with two of the Big Three networks). Both stations' news departments are housed out of their shared facility in Downtown San Francisco, and – while it does hinder both stations – each produce newscasts that compete in most traditional timeslots, except on weekend mornings (as KLSF carries the CBS Kids lineup), weekdays at 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. (as KLSF airs syndicated programming), weekdays at noon and 7:00 p.m. (as KBYF airs syndicated programming), and weekends at 6:00 p.m. (as KBYF airs syndicated programming in both periods, with sports programming periodically airing on either station). There is also a considerable amount of sharing between KBYF and KLSF in regards to news coverage, video footage and the use of reporters; though both outlets maintain their own primary on-air personalities (such as news anchors and meteorologists) that only appear on their respective station.