The station on channel 32 began commercially as one of the first UHF TV stations in the United States in 1954 as KSAN-TV, owned by the Patterson family, operators of KSAN radio, showing an amalgam of boxing and wrestling matches, medical conferences, and old movies.
The TV station was purchased by Metromedia in 1968, when the call sign was moved to an FM station and the station rechristened KNEW-TV, to match its co-owned KNEW radio and to compliment Metromedia's flagship station in New York, WNEW-TV (now Fox-owned WNYW).