KRON-TV
CW television in San Francisco, California.
KRON-TV (channel 4) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving as the CW network outlet for the San Francisco Bay Area. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, KRON-TV maintains studios at the ABC Broadcast Center on Front Street in the city's historic Northeast Waterfront district, immediately west of The Embarcadero, in the same building as ABC owned-and-operated station KGO-TV, channel 7 (but with completely separate operations from that station). The transmitting antenna is located atop Sutro Tower in San Francisco.
History
NBC affiliation (1949–2001)
In 1948, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) authorized a construction permit by the Chronicle Publishing Company, publishers of the San Francisco Chronicle daily newspaper, for a new television station in San Francisco, KRON-TV. Chronicle Publishing was founded by brothers Charles and Michael de Young. The company already owned radio station KRON-FM.
Managed by Michael de Young's grandson Charles de Young Thieriot, KRON-TV signed on the air on November 15, 1949, as a full-time NBC affiliate. Its opening night program schedule included a special about San Francisco entertainment followed by the usual NBC prime time lineup of the Texaco Star Theater with Milton Berle, The Life of Riley, Mohawk Showroom, and The Chesterfield Supper Club. KRON-TV was the third television outlet in the Bay Area behind KGO-TV (channel 7) and KPIX-TV (channel 5), all going on the air within a year, and the last license before the FCC placed a moratorium on new television station licenses that would last the next four years.
KRON-TV originally broadcast from studios located in the basement of the Chronicle Building at Fifth and Mission Streets. Newscasts benefited from the resources of the Chronicle and there was cooperation between KRON-TV and the newspaper. It originally maintained transmitter facilities, master control and a small insert studio on San Bruno Mountain.
The public source identifies “KRON-TV” as cW television in San Francisco, California. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around KRON-TV, television and Francisco.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “KRON-TV”, the useful work is to connect “cW television in San Francisco, California” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6336964. Authority coordinates are 37.755, -122.452. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1949, 2001 and 1948.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “KRON-TV”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow KRON-TV primary sources, KRON-TV archive and KRON-TV research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “KRON-TV”?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “KRON-TV” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.