Channels Digital: 8 (VHF) Affiliations SonLife | Subchannels 8.1 SonLife First air date 1990 | |
Owner Chang Media Group
(Jeff Chang) Call letters' meaning QSL = Q code for receipt of transmission | ||
KQSL, digital channel 8, is an SonLife-affiliated television station serving the San Francisco Bay Area, and is licensed to Fort Bragg, California, United States. The station is owned by the Chang Media Group and licensed to its founder, Jeff Chang.
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The station is the nation's only full-power television station which is wholly owned by a Chinese-American. Chang, who was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, also owns and operates television stations in Los Angeles, Hawaii and Colorado.
KQSL is carried throughout the San Francisco-San Jose-Oakland TV Market on DirecTV and Dish Network on Channel 8, and AT&T U-verse on Channel 15.
History
KQSL debuted in 1990 as KFWU, under the ownership of California Oregon Broadcasting. At one point a satellite of ABC affiliate KRCR-TV in Redding, the station was sold to Lamco Communications (along with KRCR) in 1995, to Sainte Limited in 1996, and to Pappas Telecasting Companies in 1997, at which point KFWU became a satellite of KTNC-TV in Concord (though at first, KFWU was considered the main station and KTNC the satellite). It became KUNO-TV in 2003.
On January 16, 2009, it was announced that several Pappas stations, including KTNC and KUNO, would be sold to New World TV Group, after the sale received United States bankruptcy court approval.
KUNO was sold to Jeff Chang in July 2010. Chang would drop the KTNC simulcast in favor of Retro Television Network programming, under new call letters, upon taking over. In October 2010, he re-called the station as KBQR; in June 2011, the station was renamed again, this time to KQSL. KQSL joined TheCoolTV in September 2011. The network regards the station as its San Francisco affiliate. KQSL dropped TheCoolTV programing for programing from FilmOn. The station dropped FilmOn in early 2013 and carried a schedule of classic television shows and entertainment/Hollywood newsmagazines and specials until 2016, when it began broadcasting SBN.
Digital channels
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
Analog-to-digital conversion
On June 12, 2009, KQSL (as KUNO-TV) signed off its analog signal and completed its move to digital.