KSBY up for sale as parent company looks to exit TV news business

KSBY is up for sale.

The TV station’s President and General Manager Kathleen Choal confirmed the local NBC affiliate was being sold by its parent group Cordillera Communications on Friday.

“However, it is premature to comment any further as there are many future steps ahead and right now we are only on step 1,” Choal wrote in an email to The Tribune. “In the meantime, it is business as usual at KSBY-TV.”

KSBY was founded in 1953 as KVEC-TV, the first local television station built on the Central Coast of California, according to its website. In the 65 years since its founding, the station has switched hands eight times, most recently in 2005 when the company moved from New Vision Group to Cordillera Communications, the broadcast branch of the Evening Post Publishing Company.

Broadcast trade paper TV News Check broke the news of Cordillera Communications placing its stations up for sale Aug. 1.

According to TV News Check, Cordillera hired Methuselah Advisors of New York City to sell its portfolio of stations in 11 small markets. KSBY is Cordillera’s only station in California.

Cordillera representatives did not respond to a request for comment.