KNTV

KNTV, channel 11 (branded on-air as NBC Bay Area), is an NBC owned-and-operated television station licensed to San Jose, California, USA and serving the San Francisco Bay Area. The station is owned by the NBC Owned Television Stations subsidiary of NBCUniversal; KNTV's studios and main office are located on First Street in San Jose, which it shares with co-owned Telemundo station KSTS (channel 48) and CNBC's Silicon Valley bureau. The station's transmitter is located on San Bruno Mountain, just south of San Francisco.

On cable, KNTV is available on Comcast cable systems in the Bay Area on channel 3. In the few areas of the western United States where an NBC station is not receivable over-the-air, KNTV is available as part of All American Direct's standard definition distant network package for Dish Network subscribers.

History

Early years

KNTV signed on the air on September 12, 1955, originally operating as an independent station covering the entire north-central California coast from Monterey to San Francisco. It was the first television station in the South Bay, and was originally operated by Standard Radio and Television Corporation, which was owned by Allen T. Gilliland. The station's studios and offices were adjacent to the Gilliland-owned Sunlite Baking Company on Park Avenue in downtown San Jose, and its antenna was originally located on Loma Prieta Peak, some 60 miles (100 km) south of San Francisco. Channel 11 often aired shows from CBS, DuMont and NBC that were respectively turned down by San Francisco's KPIX (channel 5) and KRON-TV (channel 4), as well as some ABC shows that also aired on KGO-TV (channel 7). The station was not viable as an independent, and the going got even more difficult when Oakland-based KTVU (channel 2) signed on in 1958.