KSBY (channel 6) is a television station licensed to San Luis Obispo, California, United States, serving the Central Coast of California as an affiliate of NBC and The CW Plus. The station is owned by the E.W. Scripps Company, and maintains studios on Calle Joaquin in southern San Luis Obispo, with an additional studio on Skyway Drive in Santa Maria, near the Santa Maria Public Airport. Its transmitter is located atop Cuesta Peak. History The station went on the air in May 1953, as KVEC-TV. The VEC stood for Valley Electric Company, which also built Sonic Cable, the original cable television system in San Luis Obispo. KVEC-TV was the first television station in the Central and South Coast, and aired programming from NBC, ABC, CBS, and DuMont, with NBC being its primary affiliation. During its first four years on the air, the station was co-owned with radio station KVEC. Ownership with KSBW From 1957 to 1996, the station was a sister station to KSBW channel 8 in Salinas, which is why the station currently has a similar call sign. From 1957 to 1979, KSBY was largely a semi-satellite of KSBW, with the exception of local commercials, its local newscasts, some syndicated programs, and preempting CBS network shows also carried by KCOY in adjacent Santa Maria, once it began operation in 1964. During this period, the KSBY sales office was located at co-owned Sonic Cable, and its local programming originated at the transmitter site. In 1960, ABC programming was effectively dropped when KSBW lost its affiliation with that network to KNTV in San Jose. Finally, in 1969, KSBY became the sole NBC station for both San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties when they were consolidated into a single market (with Santa Barbara-based KEYT as the ABC affiliate). KSBY and KSBW were acquired by Blair Broadcasting in 1979, at which time KSBY became a free-standing station. The stations were sold to Gillett Communications in 1986. Ownership changes After Gillett restructured into SCI TV in the early 1990s, it sold KSBY and KSBW to EP Communications in 1994. EP, in turn, sold both stations to Smith Broadcasting in 1995. Almost immediately, KSBY was spun off to SJL Broadcasting in 1996, because Smith Broadcasting already owned rival station KEYT, and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules of the time did not permit duopolies. Even today, common ownership of KEYT and KSBY would be a