see kronecker product . kron tv san francisco oakland san jose california united states city san francisco california branding kron 4 general mykron 4 mynetworktv promos kron 4 news newscasts callsign pronounced as chron as in chronicle slogan the bay area s news station channels digital 38 uhf virtual 4 psip affiliations .1 mynetworktv .2 sky link tv .3 gettv owner media general sale to nexstar broadcasting group pending young broadcasting of san francisco inc. first air date november 15 1949 ; 66 years ago 1949 11 15 call letters meaning san francisco chronicle sic former co owned newspaper former channel number s analog 4 vhf 1949 2009 digital 57 uhf 2004 2009 former affiliations primary nbc 1949 2001 independent 2001 2006 secondary nbc 2010 2011 transmitter power 1000 kw height 511.7 m facility id 65526 transmitter coordinates 37 45 19 n 122 27 6 w 37.75528 n 122.45167 w 37.75528 ; 122.45167 coordinates 37 45 19 n 122 27 6 w 37.75528 n 122.45167 w 37.75528 ; 122.45167 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website kron4.com kron tv virtual channel 4 uhf digital channel 38 is a mynetworktv affiliated television station located in san francisco california united states . the station is owned by media general . kron maintains studios in the abc broadcast center building 1 in the financial district and its transmitting antenna is located atop sutro tower . contents 1 history 1.1 as an nbc affiliate 1.1.1 becoming a market leader 1.2 young broadcasting purchase and loss of nbc affiliation 1.3 mynetworktv affiliation 1.4 young broadcasting bankruptcy 1.5 acquisition by media general 1.6 sale to nexstar 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 proposed subchannel affiliations 2.3 kron 4.2 2.4 kron 4.3 2.5 analog to digital conversion 3 defunct news services 3.1 baytv 3.2 kron 4 24 7 bay area news channel 4 programming 4.1 new year s live 5 news operation 5.1 news team 5.1.1 current on air staff 5.2 notable former on air staff 6 references 7 external links history edit as an nbc affiliate edit kron s original logo from 1949 depicted what would become its 50 year association with the san francisco chronicle . in the 1940 s when the channel 4 allocation in the bay area came open for bidding it soon became obvious that the license would go to either nbc or the deyoung family publishers of the san francisco chronicle newspaper . nbc wanted an owned and operated station o & o in the bay area alongside its west coast flagship radio station knbc 680 am now knbr . however in an upset the deyoungs won the license . they brought kron tv on the air on november 15 1949 as a full time nbc affiliate and was operated alongside co owned radio station kron fm 96.5 now koit fm . the station s call letters come from a modification of the chronicle s nickname the chron . it was the third television outlet in the bay area behind kgo tv channel 7 and kpix tv channel 5 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 . for most of its run as an nbc station kron tv was that network s second largest affiliate behind only philadelphia s kyw tv now a cbs o & o and its largest affiliate on the west coast . kron tv originally broadcast from studios located in the basement of the chronicle building at fifth and mission streets . it originally maintained transmitter facilities on san bruno mountain ; nbc lettering was placed near the summit of radio peak in huge white letters . in august 1959 the chronicle reported that the tower was severely damaged by an unusually strong thunderstorm requiring major repairs before kron could return to the air . newscasts benefited from the resources of the chronicle and there was cooperation between kron and the newspaper . in the 1950s and 1960s local programs produced by kron tv included the award winning documentary series assignment four fireman frank with george lamont and his puppets including scat the cat and karl the karrot and a live children s program hosted by art finley as mayor art . bay area kids known as the city council joined mayor art in the studio each day . the show featured popeye cartoons mixed with science demonstrations a newsreel feature entitled mayor art s almanac games prizes and a sock puppet named ring a ding . assignment four was a documentary series that generally aired monday evenings at 7 00 p.m. through much of the 1960s beginning in february 1960 . a promotional brochure declared each assignment four story is concerned with cultural and ethnic activities or perhaps some fascinating phase of life and living in the greater san francisco bay area . subjects ranged from skid row to the single girl the green intricate country of napa valley to no deposit no return a study of garbage disposal that won a 1966 emmy award and silver medal award in the 1966 new york international film festival . the documentary not to have lived aired january 31 1966 about mechanized society featured no dialogue or narration . 2 in 1965 kron tv began broadcasting most oakland raiders games which were at first part of the american football league which had a contract with nbc from 1965 to 1969 and then the national football league s american football conference which inherited the afl s deal with nbc from 1970 to 1997 the raiders relocated to los angeles in 1982 stripping kron of its status as the team s home station until they returned to oakland in 1995 . in 1967 kron fm tv moved to a new studio at 1001 van ness avenue in the western addition neighborhood a location that formerly served as the site of the roman catholic cathedral of san francisco where channel 4 operated until 2014 . the television transmitter was moved to sutro tower on july 4 1973 while the fm transmitter remained on san bruno mountain . since the 1970s kron s logo has incorporated a stylized number 4 design that is based on the golden gate bridge . the vertical component is a bridge tower the horizontal component is a portion of the bridge deck and the curve is a portion of a suspension cable 3 this logo was used as early as april 1974 during coverage of a symbionese liberation army bank robbery . by about 1990 1991 this evolved into the circle 4 logo in use to this day with the 4 keeping the bridge design . becoming a market leader edit the original version of kron s current logo was based on the design of the golden gate bridge . station identifications used by the station during the 1970s and 1980s usually depicted the logo hidden in positive space within a full scale design of the bridge . until the late 1970s kron tv was known for being very san francisco centric in its news coverage and audience targeting an approach that would become costly to the station as population growth in areas outside san francisco soared . realizing this and refocusing on the entire market enabled kron tv to become the dominant station in the bay area . during the 1980s kron continued its dominance by airing top rated syndicated programs including the merv griffin produced game shows jeopardy and wheel of fortune the original nbc daytime versions of both series also aired on kron as well as entertainment tonight . the game show pair would move to abc owned kgo tv channel 7 permanently in 1992 after kron tv experimented with its early prime time schedule that year while et also moved to kgo in 1988 before returning to kron in 1992 where the show has remained since . in 1982 the deyoung family s chronicle publishing company unit discussed a possible trade of kron tv for 100 million to the gannett company in exchange for acquiring gannett s oklahoma city station koco tv . the proposal ultimately fell apart by september 1983 . 4 in the late 1980s kron tv was among the few local television stations in the united states that produced a game show claim to fame was a weekly half hour show hosted by patrick van horn that usually ran on saturday evenings . during that timeframe kron also produced a saturday morning children s program called buster and me . 5 6 from the 1970s into the late 1980s the station used gabriel faur s pavane opus 50 as the music piece played during its nightly sign off alongside scenic rustic shots from around the bay area . kron also produced bay area backroads a half hour program which ran from the mid 1980s to 2008 that profiled places and people in the greater san francisco bay area and occasionally beyond . the program which generally aired on sunday evenings featured hosts such as jerry graham and doug mcconnell . despite its status as the network s largest west coast affiliate kron occasionally pre empted nbc programming . one such notable omission was another world which would eventually air on the station in the early 1990s ; kron s decision to drop the daytime soap opera in the summer of 1998 leaving days of our lives and the struggling sunset beach as the only network soaps on its schedule is thought to have hastened nbc s decision to cancel it altogether a year later . two nbc daytime game shows 50 grand slam and just men were never seen in the bay area . kron also did not air nbc s soap operas in pattern for example kron tv aired days of our lives after another world rather than the standard slot for nbc affiliates in the pacific time zone at 2 00 or 3 00 p.m. depending on the season and time slot . channel 4 also pre empted some of the network s prime time programs . similar to fellow nbc station kcra tv in neighboring sacramento kron tv stopped airing the saturday morning t nbc lineup in the early 1990s . historically nbc was far less tolerant of preemptions than the other networks but has recently eased its standards . the network would resort to purchasing stations for the sole purpose of switching or upgrading them to o & o status because of this miami s wtvj and salt lake city s kutv are such examples or find independent stations to air nbc programs that the main affiliate did not air . in the case of kron many of the shows it preempted ended up on independent kicu tv channel 36 . however despite losing valuable advertising in one of the nation s largest television markets nbc was very satisfied with kron tv which was one of its strongest affiliates . during the 1992 1993 season kron tv along with kcra tv participated in the early prime experiment in which prime time programs aired one hour earlier mirroring the scheduling of the network s primetime lineup in the central and mountain time zones the half hour late evening newscast also moved from 11 00 to 10 00 p.m. as a result . while kron moved nbc s prime time programming back to the 8 00 11 00 p.m. timeslot in september 1993 cbs affiliate kpix who adopted the early primetime schedule at the same time as kron continued with the experiment until 1998 well after it had become owned by the network through cbs s 1994 acquisition by kpix s then owner westinghouse . though both kron and kpix ran hour long newscasts at 10 p.m. neither were able to beat fox affiliate ktvu channel 2 due to that station s longtime dominance in the 10 00 hour that continues to this day . in 1993