KSTS (channel 48) is atelevision station licensed toSan Jose, California, United States, serving as theSan Francisco Bay Area outlet for the Spanish-language networkTelemundo. It isowned and operated byNBCUniversal'sTelemundo Station Group alongsideNBC outletKNTV (channel 11); it is also sister toregional sports networksNBC Sports Bay Area andNBC Sports California. KSTS and KNTV share studios on North 1st Street in theNorth San Jose Innovation District; KSTS's transmitter is located onMount Allison, and two of its subchannels are also broadcast from the KNTV tower onSan Bruno Mountain.

KSTS

San Jose–San Francisco– Oakland, California United States
City	San Jose, California
Channels	Digital: 19 (UHF) Virtual: 48
Branding	Telemundo 48 Telemundo Área de la Bahía ("Telemundo Bay Area") Noticiero Telemundo 48
Programming
Affiliations	48.1:Telemundo 11.3:NBC for others, see§ Subchannels
Ownership
Owner	Telemundo Station Group (NBC Telemundo LicenseLLC)
Sister stations	KNTV,NBC Sports Bay Area,NBC Sports California
History
First air date	May 31, 1981 (43 years ago) (1981-05-31)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 48 (UHF, 1981–2009) Digital: 49 (UHF, until 2020)
Former affiliations	Independent (1981–1989)
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	64987
ERP	500 kW
HAAT	703 m (2,306 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	37°29′57″N121°52′20″W / 37.49917°N 121.87222°W /37.49917; -121.87222
Translator(s)	KNTV-DT 48.3 (11.3VHF) San Jose
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	www.telemundoareadelabahia.com

KSTS was established in 1981 to provide subscription television service in the South Bay and Santa Clara Valley. The STV programming ended in 1983, and the station mostly became noted for specialty programming about business and computers as well as some ethnic programs. Telemundo purchased the station in 1987, giving the Bay Area a second station focusing on Spanish-language programming and a second choice for Spanish-language local news.

On March 29, 1978, theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) granted National Group Television aconstruction permit to build a new television station on channel 48 in San Jose. The permit took the call letters KQWT before becoming KSTS on January 2, 1979.^[2] John Douglas, the principal owner of National Group Television, attempted for more than a year to secure network affiliation for channel 48, but neither CBS nor NBC wanted to cannibalize theirSan Francisco affiliates.^[3] The station first signed on the air on May 31, 1981, as anindependent station.^[4] The station's commercial programming included business programs, including a local program calledBusiness Today, as well as old off-network shows.^[5] More daytime hours were filled by the then-newFinancial News Network after it launched in November 1981.^[6]

At night, the station originally carriedsubscription television programming supplied bySatellite Television & Associated Resources (STAR TV) ofSanta Monica;^[7] STAR had acquired the franchise from Universal Subscription Television three months prior to launch,^[8] a factor that delayed the new station's launch.^[9] STAR, which was not ready even after the delayed launch,^[3] bought the Super Time STV service onKTSF and relaunched it as STAR TV that September;^[10] the company promised to simulcast its STV programs on both stations for a year.^[11] Channel 48 broadcast its first subscription programs on November 8.^[12] The service ended in June after STAR became unable to pay KSTS; the loss of this revenue prompted the cancellation ofBusiness Today and several layoffs.^[13][14] It would be replaced by a unique STV offering known as International Network Television,^[15] which consisted of three program tiers: two hours a night of Japanese-language shows, another two hours of Chinese-language programming, and a late-night adult film block.^[16] This generated enough business to allow the station to rehire two previously laid off employees.^[17]

The STV service, with just 3,000 subscribers in February 1983,^[15] ended on September 1.^[18] The station then added Chinese-language shows in prime time^[18] and additional brokered programming, including several shows on the young computer industry. The Thursday nightAffordable Computer Hotline, channel 48's highest-rated show, was one of three devoted to the topic and cemented KSTS's place as "The Computer Connection".^[19] The station also rebroadcast the 1984 shareholders meeting ofApple Computer, where theMacintosh was introduced, as the company had been unable to accommodate all those who wanted to attend.^[20] However, whenmust-carry provisions were struck down, KSTS disappeared from several San Francisco-market cable systems; the manager ofViacom Cablevision systems inMarin County said that channel 48 had "phenomenally low ratings".^[21] The vast majority of its programming continued to be related to business and computing, as well as sports, wine, and photography, passions linked to its upscale audience.^[22] Further, the station aired foreign-language programming inFilipino andVietnamese, among others, from independent producers.^[23]

In 1987, after several members of National Group Television desired to sell, Douglas sold KSTS to Telemundo Group, Inc., which operated the fledglingTelemundo Spanish-language network, for $17 million.^[24] At the insistence of network executive Paul Niedermayer, who had been instrumental in the 1985 launch ofKVEA in the Los Angeles area, the network bypassedKCNS channel 38 to buy the station in San Jose, which at the time was home to 35 percent of the Hispanics in the Bay Area.^[25] The station, however, was not Spanish around the clock even after the sale. As late as 1990, locally produced programs inPortuguese andFarsi were airing on KSTS.^[26] An effort at regional expansion began in 1990 whenK15CU "KCU", a KSTS translator, began broadcasting inSalinas.^[27]

In October 1990, half of KSTS's 18 employees went on strike in protest of low pay and poor working conditions.^[28] The week-long strike, which resulted in temporary suspensions of the station's 6 p.m. newscast and the outright cancellation of its 11 p.m. news,^[29] resulted in the station staff unionizing with theInternational Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and agreeing to a contract in 1992.^[30]

The acquisition of Telemundo by NBC in 2002 came at the same time the network bought San Jose's KNTV and turned it into an NBC owned-and-operated station. Both stations moved from their separate facilities—KSTS from its site on Bering Drive—to a new building on First Street.^[31]

In 1988, KSTS launched its news department with the debut of a half-hour 6 p.m. newscast, which was originally co-anchored by Celina Rodriguez and Dante Betteo; both left in 1999.^[32] The program proved successful, which resulted in the station later adding a half-hour 11 p.m. newscast. This was canceled after the 1990 strike^[29] and was not reinstated until 1997.^[33] In 1999, KSTS hired modelMónica Mesones to present the weather, resulting in controversy over the selection.^[32]

KSTS expanded its news programming in 2001, launching a morning newscast,Noticiero 48 Esta Mañana, and a mid-morning newscast,Noticiero 48 Al Mediodía, anchored by Blanca Garza and Santiago Aburto. These were canceled in 2004. At this time, César Bayona and Mariate Ramos anchored the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts. 2006 saw the dismantling of the local news operation and the creation of a regional news operation to serve the western United States as part of the NBCUni 2.0 cost-cutting initiative.^[34] This was later reversed, and local news production was restored at KSTS in 2010.^[35] On February 27, 2012, KSTS became the first Spanish language television station in the Bay Area to begin broadcasting its local newscasts inhigh definition.^[36]

There was a series of news expansions at Telemundo in 2014, which included KSTS. A second attempt at a morning newscast, titledNoticiero Telemundo 48 Primera Edición, began in June, and in November, KSTS launched a 5:30 p.m. newscast as part of a national news expansion; a 10 a.m. newscast also was added to the schedule at this time. Additionally, KSTS received a new set, began producing its own weather segments locally, launched a localTelemundo Responde consumer investigative franchise, added 20 additional staffers to its news department, and began a deeper sharing of resources, including thepublic affairs programComunidad del Valle, with KNTV.^[37]

Effective June 27, 2016, the morning and 10 a.m. newscasts were canceled in order to begin the production of weekend editions of the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts beginning July 2.^[38]

The station's signal ismultiplexed:

Between them, KNTV and KSTS broadcast the same five services (48.3 and 48.4 on the KNTV multiplex simulcast 48.1 and 48.2 on the KSTS multiplex andvice versa for KNTV), though Oxygen is only broadcast by KSTS.^[40]

KSTS shut down its analog signal, overUHF channel 48, on June 12, 2009, as part of thefederally mandated transition from analog to digital television, and continued broadcasting in digital on channel 49, usingvirtual channel 48.^[41]

The station wasrepacked from channel 49 to 19 in 2020.^[39]

• Official website