KUSI-TV (channel 51, cable channel 9) is a television station in San Diego, California, United States, serving as the area's CW outlet. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Fox affiliate KSWB-TV (channel 69); Nexstar's Tegna subsidiary owns CBS affiliate KFMB-TV (channel 8). KUSI-TV and KSWB-TV share studios on Viewridge Avenue (near I-15) in the Kearny Mesa section of San Diego; KUSI-TV's transmitter is located southeast of Spring Valley. After a 15-year dispute over permit ownership that almost derailed the launch of the station on multiple occasions, KUSI began broadcasting in 1982 as a partnership between United States International University and McKinnon Broadcasting Company. It was the first independent station built in San Diego proper. Financial and accreditation problems at USIU led to the sale of its stake to McKinnon in 1990, with McKinnon exercising veto power to block any sale to another entity. McKinnon then started KUSI's news department, which has since grown to produce newscasts throughout the day. In 2023, McKinnon sold KUSI to Nexstar; the station joined The CW in March 2026 after Nexstar completed its purchase of KFMB owner Tegna. KUSI's transmitter broadcasts it and KSWB-TV in ATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV) format.
History
15 years of fighting The construction permit for a channel 51 television station in San Diego was first issued on June 23, 1965, to Jack O. Gross, who had previously founded KFMB-TV (channel 8), as KJOG-TV. The permit was issued after applications by Gross and California Western University of San Diego were filed the year before; Gross proposed a conventional independent station, while the private university planned a station with "high educational and cultural content". In October 1967, with the station still unbuilt, California Western filed to have the station transferred to it, stating that Gross was refusing to abide by an agreement reached that April to sell the station to CWU for $16,000 in expenses. However, a complication arose when Gross informed the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that he had reached another deal to sell the station to the Broadmoor Broadcasting Corporation, owned by Michael and Dan McKinnon alongside local radio stations KSON (1240 AM) and KSEA (97.3 FM) and television station KIII of Corpus Christi, Texas, for $15,000. Under that agreement, Broadmoor would honor a deal brokered with the university, which had also applied for the channel, to acquire 50 percent. The situation, in which Gross reached sale agreements with two different buyers, prompted the FCC to designate an application to extend the life of the construction permit for hearing in late 1968, by which time the university had changed its name to United States International University (USIU). FCC administrative law judge Basil P. Cooper in 1970 ruled that Gross had trafficked in the permit, by retaining an interest without the obligation to make further funds available, but granted the time extension. However, the FCC's review board, later joined by the full commission, reversed the initial decision in 1972 and denied the application for more time to build the station. A year later, however, the commission granted authority to extend the permit in order to consider the 1967 application to sell it to USIU, finding that Gross's actions did not merit immediate disqualification and would unfairly harm USIU. Broadmoor continued to challenge any authority by USIU to build KJOG-TV, and in 1975, the FCC designated the university's acquisition of the construction permit for hearing, this time over concerns about whether USIU was financially qualified to construct the station and whether financial issues at the university itself, spurred by a long-delayed and complicated land sale in the early 1970s and the collapse of one of the university's major lenders, weighed on its capacity. A religious group, Christian Communications Network, intervened in the proceeding in a bid to seek the use of the channel; it provided Christian television programming on local cable. On June 7, 1977, administrative law judge David I. Kraushaar ruled against the proposed transfer to USIU and its affiliate University Television, Inc., concerned over the financial issues and by cost estimates that were extremely low during a period of major inflation.
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