-By Katy Bachman

The call letters KGO, whether TV or radio, are synonymous with the San Francisco market. ABC’s KGO is still the TV station to beat in local news, winning 42 sweeps periods at 5 p.m. and 20 sweeps at 6 p.m. News/Talk radio outlet KGO-AM, formerly owned by ABC and now owned by Citadel Broadcasting, has dominated the No. 1 ratings spot for more than 29 years.

The market is fluid, with some big-name anchors retiring from various outlets, including Barbara Rodgers at KPIX, CBS’ owned-and-operated station (which battles it out with KGO for the top spot at 11 p.m.), and Dennis Richmond, a 40-year market vet and 10 p.m. news anchor at KTVU, Cox TV’s Fox affiliate.

Two TV station owners with stations in San Francisco are facing financial difficulty: Young Broadcasting, which put KRON (MyNetworkTV) on the market at the beginning of the year, and Pappas Telecasting Companies, which recently filed for bankruptcy protection and owns TuVision affiliate KTNC. Along with KNTV, NBC also owns and operates Telemundo outlet KSTS. Other duopoly owners include Cox TV with KTVU and KICU (independent) and CBS with KPIX (CBS) and KBCW (CW).

The No. 2 radio station is Univision’s Regional Mexican KSOL-FM, which trounces the other Regional Mexican stations in the market. The Bay Area is also one of the few markets with a commercial Classical station, KDFC, owned by Entercom. On the horizon for radio is the change to Arbitron’s portable people meter service this September.

CBS and Clear Channel, both with large radio clusters, have healthy outdoor portfolios as well. CBS has a digital sign on the Bay Bridge and bus shelters, but recently lost the SF Bay Area Rapid Transit District contract to Titan Worldwide.

Hearst-owned San Francisco Chronicle, the largest paper in Northern California, recently named Ward Bushee its new editor in January.

Vital Stats:

* TV DMA Rank: 6
* Population 2-plus: 6,516,785
* TV Households: 2,419,440
* TV stations (Net/Ind/Public/Local Cable): 10/8/5/1
* Cable/ADS Households: 2,179,460
* Radio Metro Rank: 4
* Population 12-plus: 5,966,400
* Radio Stations (rated): 37
* No. Newspapers (Daily/Weekly): 20/41

The Numbers:

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