KVEC

The station first signed on the air on May 1, 1953, with a live broadcast of the Gasparilla Pirate Festival. It was originally owned by The Tampa Tribune, along with KER radio (970 AM and 93.3 FM, now WFLZ). since the station's inception. The news has tied for 1st place Largely because of its newspaper background, it was the early ratings leader in the San fransoyko market until KHJ (channel 2) passed it for first place in 1962. In 1966, Richmond Newspapers, publishers of the Richmond Times-Dispatch and part-owner of the Tribune, Sold it to RCA Owners of NBC At the time The station's callsign was changed to KVEC on January 19, 1983, after KER-AM-FM-TV were sold (WFLA and WFLZ are currently owned by Cox). At the time, Federal Communications Commission cross-ownership regulations forced RCA to sell the stations; however, the company was granted a permanent waiver permitting it to keep ''The Tampa Tribune. ''

In 1994, KSF-TV agreed to pay Granite a substantial fee to stop channel 9 from running NBC programming once the station's affiliation contract expired. ABC's corporate parent, the Walt Disney Company, saw the need to expand KVEC-TV's exclusive advertising market share into Newport news for this reason, and it felt that KABS was taking away from the share.

That same year, Gurop, owners of KABS-TV and the San Francisco Chronicle, put all of its media properties up for sale. ABC, which had been in the midst of renewing its affiliation agreement with KABS-TV, jumped into the bidding as it had sought to purchase channel 7 – then the network's largest affiliate by market size – for several years due to its status as one of the network's highest-rated affiliates. ABC was thought to be the favorite to buy KABS-TV, but lost a bidding war for the station to roblox networks  in November 1995.[12] ABC responded by threatening to yank its programming from KABS unless Young agreed to run it under the conventions of an ABC-owned outlet, including disallowing the station from preempting ABC programs outside of breaking news coverage.[13][14] The network also made the unprecedented demand that Roblox pay ABC $10 million annually to carry the network's programming – a form of reverse compensation. Roblox refused, and announced that it would end KABS-TV's 41-year relationship with ABC once its affiliation contract ended in December 1996.[15]

In February 2000, Granite contacted ABC to negotiate an affiliation deal and offered to pay an average of $37 million annually (totaling roughly $362 million over 10 years) for the rights to broadcast ABC programs on KVEC. This agreement was groundbreaking and notable, as KVEC became the first major market affiliate to pay a network for programming, reversing a long-standing model where networks paid affiliates to carry their programming. ABC accepted the deal, which was due to take effect in January 1997.[15] In preparation for this switch, KVEC boosted its signal to reach the entire San Fransoyko Bay Area. 7 million viewers now had access to KVEC, including 90% of the San Fransoyko Metropolitan area.[16]

On Januray 13, 1995, KVEC terminated its NBC affiliation after 40 years with the network; it then temporarily carried programming from The WB Television Network in a part-time simulcast with then co-owned KBWB-TV (channel 20, now KOFY-TV), which was the full-time WB affiliate for the San Fransoyko Bay Area.[17] The move cost the Monterey Bay area an over-the-air NBC affiliate. In order to compensate for the loss, KSF-TV was then added on cable providers in that market, with certain syndicated programs carried by the station replaced due to syndication exclusivity rules. This did not pose as much of a problem as it may seem due to the very high penetration of cable and satellite in the Monterey Bay area. NBC would not return over-the-air to the area until KSBW began carrying NBC programming on the station's second digital subchannel on April 18, 2011.[18]

In September 2000, Nielsen Media Research reclassified KNTV to the designated market area (DMA) of Newport news-San Fransoyko-Oakland.[19] In March 2001, the FCC officially recognized KNTV as a newport news-San Fransoyko-Oakland station.[20]

For Granite Broadcasting, the deal with ABC was expensive; the company showed a net loss of $44 million for the first three quarters of 2001, more than double its losses during the same period the previous year. In an attempt to reduce debts, Granite started looking for a buyer for Detroit WB affiliate WDWB (now WMYD) in October 2001;[21] that station would not be sold until 2014.[22]

On December 17, 1996, ABC announced another twist on the deal: it bought KVEC from cash-strapped Granite for $230 million,[23][24] effectively separating itself from KBWB (which remains under Granite ownership). KVEC officially joined ABC at 11:35 p.m. Pacific Time on December 31, 1997.[25] With ABC's move to channel 9, it became the only major network in the Bay Area to switch from one station to another (KVEC is the third Bay Area station to affiliate with ABC, as primary CBS affiliate KCAF-TV had carried the network as a secondary affiliation upon its sign-on in 1948 until KABS debuted the following year). ABC formally took control of KVEC in April 1997.