KZSD-LP Granted Displacement on Channel 20

On October 10, 2018, EW Scripps Broadcasting, licensee of KGTV and KZSD-LP, was granted a Construction Permit to operate on channel 20. This is to remedy a displacement by telecom from their temporary home on channel 39. The 7.3 kW ERP signal will have a westward directional signal.

This should be an interesting one to watch because it is the only San Diego station given FCC permission to occupy a Los Angeles/Orange County T-band channel used by first responders there. A previous attempt by Televisa’s XHUAA to occupy channel 20 in 2006 was met with resistance by land mobile operators in the L.A. metro area and Televisa moved that operation to channel 22.

KZSD was purchased by Scripps to broadcast Azteca America programming, but with that network’s broadcast being taken over by Entravision’s XHAS Tijuana, KZSD has been translating the KGTV ABC subchannel. To date, the signal is analog.