KQCA

The station first signed on the air on April 13, 1986, as KSCH. It was owned by the SFN Companies (Schuyler Broadcasting Co.). It originally operated as an independent station and aired classic television series from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, as well as some daytime programs that were preempted by KCRA-TV and KXTV (channel 10). The station originally operated from studios located on West Weber Avenue in Stockton. Some programs that were aired on the station had not been seen since their original network/syndication runs. On August 9 of that year, SFN sold the station to Pegasus Broadcasting. In 1988, the station moved its studios to a new building located on Gold Canal Drive in Rancho Cordova. KSCH was also the first station in the Sacramento–Stockton–Modesto area to provide stereo sound from its sign-on. In December 1994, KSCH entered into a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Kelly Broadcasting, then-owner of KCRA. That station then took over the operations of KSCH.

KQCA/KCRA Studios at 3 Television Circle

On February 1, 1995, the station changed its call letters to the current KQCA; it also became an affiliate of UPN, and changed its on-air branding to "Q 58" (a branding similar to KCRA's then-sister station, Fox affiliate KCPQ in Seattle, Washington, which it still uses to this day), barely missing the January 16 launch of the network (meaning viewers had to watch the network via KBHK-TV in San Francisco those first two weeks). On January 5, 1998, it swapped affiliations with KMAX-TV (channel 31) and became an affiliate of The WB. When Hearst-Argyle Television (which became Hearst Television in 2009) bought KCRA and its LMA with KQCA in 1999, the station dropped its "Q 58" branding in favor of using its call letters and channel number. Hearst-Argyle bought KQCA outright in 2000 after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began allowing duopolies, creating the first duopoly in the market in the process; the station adopted the "WB 58" branding in September 2004.

On January 24, 2006, the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner and CBS Corporation announced that the two companies would shut down The WB and UPN and combine the networks' respective programming to create a new "fifth" network called The CW.[1][2] Through CBS's part-ownership of The CW, KMAX was announced as the network's Sacramento affiliate as part of an 11-station affiliation deal.

Logo used until 2019

On February 22, 2006, News Corporation announced the launch of a new programming service called MyNetworkTV, which would be operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division Twentieth Television. MyNetworkTV was created to compete against The CW as well as to give UPN and WB stations that were not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates another option besides converting to independent stations.[3][4] KQCA affiliated with MyNetworkTV when it launched on September 5, 2006. KMAX began broadcasting The CW when it launched on September 18.

From September 5, 2006 to September 18, 2009, KQCA did not follow MyNetworkTV's standard 8 to 10 p.m. prime time scheduling like other affiliates in the Pacific Time Zone, opting instead to air its programming one hour early from 7 to 9 p.m. followed by The Oprah Winfrey Show from 9 to 10 p.m. as a lead-in for the KCRA-produced 10 p.m. newscast (similarly, CBS owned-and-operated station KOVR, channel 13, has carried that network's programming from 7 to 10 p.m. since it switched to CBS in March 1995). KQCA was also one of five MyNetworkTV affiliates on the West Coast that did not follow the 8 to 10 p.m. scheduling: KRON-TV in San Francisco, KEVU-CD in Eugene, Oregon and KPDX in Portland, Oregon all air MyNetworkTV programs from 9 to 11 p.m., while KMYQ (now KZJO) in Seattle aired its programming from 7 to 9 p.m. until September 13, 2010, when that station moved MyNetworkTV programming to 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. On September 21, 2009, KQCA began airing the MyNetworkTV schedule in pattern until September 19, 2014, when the station moved MyNetworkTV programming to 12 to 2 a.m. on a four-hour delay on September 22, 2014.

In August 2007, KQCA began carrying Oakland (now Las Vegas Raiders) preseason games, assuming the broadcasting rights from KMAX.

Syndicated programs broadcast on KQCA include The Office, Friends, Maury, and The Simpsons, among others.

KCRA began producing a nightly half-hour 10:00 p.m. newscast for KQCA in 2002, to compete with Fox affiliate KTXL-TV (channel 40) and CBS affiliate (now owned-and-operated) KOVR (channel 13)'s longer-established 10 p.m. newscasts. Prior to affiliating with MyNetworkTV in 2006, the KQCA newscast was produced out of a secondary set within KCRA-KQCA's Television Circle studios. Soon after picking up the MyNetworkTV affiliation, the newscast began to broadcast from KCRA's main news set.

On February 12, 2007, KCRA began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition; the KQCA newscasts were included in the upgrade. Footage broadcast from the studio was only available in HD, while video recorded from field cameras and other station camera feeds are presented in upconverted widescreen standard definition. In 2007, KQCA discontinued the daily television broadcast of the Armstrong & Getty Show radio program, replacing it with a two-hour extension of KCRA's weekday morning newscast (which follows a simulcast of the KCRA morning newscast that runs from 4:30 to 7:00 a.m., and also competes KTXL's weekday morning newscast and KMAX-TV's longer-established Good Day).

Occasionally, as time permits, KQCA may air KCRA's newscasts whenever channel 3 is unable due to prescheduled starts or overruns of NBC Sports telecasts into regular news timeslots (for example, if an NFL football game is scheduled to air at 5 p.m. Sunday on channel 3, KCRA will air its 5 p.m. newscast over on KQCA instead).

On September 22, 2014, KCRA announced on its evening newscast that the 10 p.m. newscast on KQCA would be expanded from thirty minutes to a full hour, putting it in direct competition with KTXL's and KOVR's already established 10 p.m. newscasts.

A Spanish-subtitled simulcast of KCRA's 5 p.m. newscast was added to the Estrella TV subchannel on September 5, 2017. This newscast is not in direct competition with any other Spanish-language newscast in the market.

• KQCA station website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KQCA
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KQCA-TV