KLSN

**KLSN-TV**, virtual channel 17, is an NBC-affiliated television station licensed to Los Santos, San Andreas, United States. Owned by the Portland, Oregon-based Dorado Media Group, it is part of a duopoly with Fox affiliate KLSA-TV (channel 14); Dorado also operates Morningwood-licensed CW affiliate KGXQ (channel 6) under joint sales and shared services agreements with owner Central Broadcasting. The stations share studios on Palomino Avenue in the Little Seoul neighborhood of Los Santos, while KLSN-TV’s transmitter is located atop Mount Haan in Vinewood.

## History

### **Early history**

In 1961, two companies applied to build channel 17 in Los Santos: Richards’ Broadcasting, owned by Solomon Richards before he later began to produce his own movies and eventually gained fame during the late 1970s and early 1980s for making commercially successful but artistically mediocre movies, and the Canyon Broadcasting Group. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gave permission to Canyon in 1962.

The station first signed on the air on April 11, 1966, as KYED on UHF analog channel 17. It originally operated as a small station that primarily carried religious programming and public domain movies that aired on weekends. Six months after going on air, KYED was sold to Richards. Channel 17’s original studios were located on 622 Greenwich Parkway in La Puerta, with a 1,550-foot (470 m) transmitter located nearby, broadcasting with 2.6 million watts of power.

KYED was almost sold two years after it started to Irvin Jenning’s Champion Corporation; Jenning’s proposed a movie-heavy schedule for channel 17. However, a problem developed in another pending Champion acquisition, of a television station in Louisville, Kentucky, which delayed any filing of the license transfer with the FCC. Richards retained the station, which dropped religious programming in 1969 to air movies and older syndicated shows.

For the next two years, KYED continued with a slightly better schedule than it had.

### **CBS ownership**

Richards sold KYED in 1994 to The Rockford Company, for $5.4 million. Rockford made major changes in programming, affiliated channel 17 with the new WB network, and changed the call letters to KLSN at the start of 1995. The call sign was permanent, but the affiliation was temporary: in November 1994, the station was announced as the new CBS affiliate for the market beginning in the fall of 1995.

Rockford had good relations with CBS. Its other stations, WTEV in Providence and WCAH-TV in Columbus, Ohio, were affiliated with CBS, which was looking for an upgrade in the market. As construction began to turn the former WCTR studios on Palomino Avenue into a new facility for channel 17 and on improvements to yield an increase in transmitter power, and the assembly of a news department began, so too would the ownership change: Rockford accepted a $198 million offer from CBS in August 1995.

KLSN became the full-time CBS affiliate in the Los Santos market on September 10, 1995—a month earlier than planned. Ahead of the CBS move, channel 17 began producing local news on September 4, and new station KGXQ signed on with The WB. After the CBS sale closed in 1996, the station began using the CBS eye extensively in its own branding. Around the 2000s, KLSN relocated its transmitter facilities from the La Puerta tower to Mount Haan.

### **Sale to Vinewood Media**

On January 9, 2006, CBS Television Stations announced it was putting KLSN up for sale, along with WBIR in Birmingham, Alabama. On April 6, 2006, Vinewood Media announced that it would acquire the station. The sale was finalized on June 26, 2006. In April 2013, as part of a new branding campaign, the station switched its branding from "CBS 17" to just KLSN; the new brand was intended to emphasize the station's "strong desire to more aggressively serve its local communities". The station's marketing director declared both "CBS" and "17" as "irrelevant to our local content mission".

### **Switch to NBC, sale to Dorado**

On January 15, 2016, it was announced that KLSN would switch to NBC on February 29, 2016, after existing affiliate KLOS-TV decided not to renew its affiliation. CBS, in turn, returned to KLOS-TV, which had been the market’s CBS affiliate from 1956 to 1962. Soon thereafter, on January 27, 2016, it was announced that the Dorado Media Group would buy Vinewood Media for $4.6 billion. KLSN became part of Dorado upon the sale's consummation on January 17, 2017.

Upon the switch to NBC, the station changed its on-air branding to "NBC San Andreas" and its newscasts to "San Andreas News". While, in the lead-up to the switch, KLSN emphasized the strong rating performance of NBC programming and primetime shows.

On March 15, 2018, KLSN rebranded as NBC 17.

## Programming

KLSN-TV carries the entire NBC programming schedule. Syndicated programs broadcast on KLSN-TV include The Kelly Clarkson Show, Judge Judy, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and Access Hollywood among others.

KLSN-TV also produces the hour-long daytime talk show *Los Santos Living*, which airs weekday mornings at 11:00 a.m. On August 22, 2010, KLSN-TV announced that it would replace *Live! with Regis and Kelly* with *Rachael Ray* on September 13 in an effort to boost ratings for *Los Santos Living.* What is now *Live with Kelly and Ryan* returned to the market on KKLS in September 2011.

### **News operation**

KLSN-TV presently broadcasts 27 hours, 25 minutes of locally produced newscasts each week (with 5 hours, 5 minutes each weekday, and one hour each on Saturdays and Sundays); in addition, the station produces the half-hour sports highlight program *Sports Sunday*, which airs Sundays at 11:30 p.m.

On September 16, 2009, KLSN-TV became the third television station in the Los Santos market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. It was the first television station in the market to provide news video from the field in true high definition, as KLSN upgraded its ENG vehicles, satellite truck, studio and field cameras, and other equipment in order to broadcast news footage from the field in high definition, in addition to segments broadcast from the main studio.

On September 6, 2010, KLSN-TV expanded its 6:00 p.m. newscast to one hour, with the addition of a half-hour extension at 6:30 p.m. On January 25, 2016, KLSN debuted a half-hour noon newscast, which has now extended to a full hour.

## Technical information

### **Subchannels**

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

 **17.2** | 480i
 **17.3** | Grit
 **17.4** | Circle

### **Analog-to-digital conversion**

KLSN-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 17, at 12:30 p.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 from its pre-transition UHF channel 55, 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 17.

**CBS affiliates:** KBDO | KESL-TV | KSCA | KSYX
**See also:** Dorado station logos

**Regional cable news:**New England Now | Northwest News Now

**Regional sports networks:** ACME Sports17: ACME Sports Bay Area | ACME Sports Northwest
Voom Sports17:

**Digital subchannel networks:** FGO (TV network) | QTV2 | Rewind3

**Programming:***EyeOpener*

1Owned by Central Broadcasting and operated by Dorado under an outsourcing agreement.
2Owned by ACME Networks, LLC, a joint venture of Dorado and WarnerMedia.
3Owned by Dorado and operated by WarnerMedia.