In 1949, KSDJ was sold to Charles Eliot Salik and became San Diego's second CBS network affiliate.

To coincide with the new network affiliation, the KSDJ call letters were changed to KCBQ, meaning "Columbia Broadcasting Quality".

The call letters "KCBS" were sought, but the CBS network wanted them for the network-owned station in San Francisco.

KCBQ's transmitter site was next to the Campus Drive-In at El Cajon Boulevard and College Ave.

In 1956 the station spent a few months in an old Victorian house during a gap between the end of their lease at the Imig Manor and the completion of the new glass studios at the El Cortez Center at 7th and Ash.

Those studios are dedicated in 1957 with a live broadcast from an outdoor stage featuring the music of Bill Green's Big Band.

The boosted power was more of an appeal to ad agencies than an actual reception improvement with virtually all of the signal being shot out over the Pacific Ocean.

In 1968, the studios moved to the Santee transmitter site where they remained through several ownership changes, until being purchased by Salem Broadcasting in the 1990s.

In 1978, with music-formatted radio becoming dominated by FM stations, KCBQ dropped top 40 in favor of an adult contemporary format, to be followed in 1980 by a switch to country music.

PD Bob McKay, in 1985 the station changed to a syndicated "first decade of rock 'n' roll" oldies format, Kool Gold, which carried it through most of the 1990s.

KCBQ is the San Diego affiliate for Salem's line up of conservative nationally syndicated hosts, which include, but are not limited to Mike Gallagher, Dennis Prager, Hugh Hewitt, Larry Elder and Sebastian Gorka.

The antenna was originally a six-element directional array in the city of Santee off of Mission Gorge Road.

The antenna site was sold amidst urban development in the area, and is now a shopping center, anchored by a Kohl's and a Lowe's.

In October 2016, Salem Communications purchased K260CG, an FM translator station in Mohave Valley, Arizona.

[11] The FM transmitter's power is 0.25 kilowatts directional, and is only received in the North County area, in order to avoid co-channel interference with KYDO, which has used the 96.1 frequency since 2013.