KHSL-TV
KHSL-TV, channel 12, is a CBS affiliate television station based in Chico, California. Its transmitter is located in Cohasset, California. Owned by Heartland Media, this station also operates its sister station NBC affiliate, KNVN channel 24, owned by Maxair Media, LLC. That transmitter is located in Red Bluff, California, sharing the news and advertising focus between Chico and Redding. The station's Redding office is located near the Redding Civic Auditorium (737 Auditorium Dr, Redding, CA 96001)
For many years, KHSL-TV has been a dominant television station in the Central Valley north of Sacramento. News presenters have referred to the viewing area on air as the "North State." Until recently, the San Francisco Chronicle included KHSL-TV in its television listings. Under certain weather conditions, KHSL's old analog signal could occasionally be received as far south as the eastern portion of the San Francisco Bay Area. For many years, KHSL-TV provided a signal to a large network of translators, but due to satellite and cable TV, only the station translators are still in operation.
KHSL-FM
KHSL-FM (103.5 FM, "The Blaze") is a country music formatted radio station based in Chico, California. It is owned and operated by Deer Creek Broadcasting, which also owns NewsTalk 1290 KPAY, Mix 95.1 KMXI-FM, and Spanish station KHHZ-FM 97.7 (known as La Gran X/Radio Mexico). The station's general manager is longtime Chico media personality Dino Corbin, who served as general manager at KHSL-TV for over 20 years. The program director and morning personality is Mike Wessels. The distinction of the longest-tenured on-air talent at the station goes to Moriss Taylor, who has been a fixture at the station for six decades. (Taylor has since retired.)
History
KHSL Radio began in Chico, CA, in 1935 at the request of the Chico Chamber of Commerce. Two people, Harry Smithson and Sidney Lewis, put KHSL AM on the air. The first letters of these gentlemen's first and last names form the call letters (KHSL). Over the years these call letters have become an institution in the Northstate.
In 1936, KHSL was purchased by Hugh and Mickey McClung of the Golden Empire Broadcasting Company. In 1953 the McClungs signed on the first commercial television in the Northstate, KHSL-TV. Golden Empire Broadcasting Company, which included KHSL AM and KHSL-TV, was owned by the McClungs until October 1994, and, until the sale, was one of the last original family-owned broadcast companies in the country. Mickey McClung was noted as one of the first female broadcast pioneers in the industry. (Source: Original KHSL website: no longer exists)
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