The station became linked to KSBW-TV in Salinas in 1957, changing its call sign to KSBY-TV; they continued to share programming into the 1970s, and the two outlets were co-owned for the next 38 years.

SJL moved KSBY from its original studios in a residential area on Hill Street to the present hilltop site on Calle Joaquin; the station also began broadcasting a digital signal under its ownership.

[3] However, the application was not acted on by October 1948, when the commission instituted a freeze on new TV station grants to sort out possible changes to television broadcast standards.

[6] The original studios were shared with KVEC radio at Mountain View and Hill streets;[7] when the facility was constructed in 1949, space was set aside for a future TV station.

While the pairing maintained studios in Salinas and San Luis Obispo, the combination was promoted as the Gold Coast Stations, and they began carrying the same mix of CBS, ABC, and NBC network programming.

[22] The ownership consortium, later known as Central California Communications Corporation, also owned the cable systems in Salinas and San Luis Obispo.

[23] The FCC ordered Central California Communications Corporation to file for operation of KSBY on a standalone, non-satellite basis in 1975, on account of its financial condition; the order stemmed from a dispute with Gill Industries, owner of KNTV, over the combination of KSBW and KSBY viewership figures for ratings purposes in the Salinas–Monterey market, where the stations' competition—KNTV and KMST in the north and KCOY-TV in the south—did not serve the same area.

[24] KSBW and KSBY were acquired in 1979 by John Blair & Co., a New York firm that represented TV and radio stations to national advertisers.

[26] In 1986, Blair fended off a hostile takeover attempt by Macfadden Acquisition Corporation[27] by accepting a competing, higher offer from Reliance Capital Group, led by financier Saul Steinberg.

[34] Gillett announced on March 25, 1994, that KSBY and KSBW would be sold to EP Communications, a new company formed by Elisabeth Murdoch—daughter of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, owner of the Fox network—and her husband, Elkin Pianim.

The Los Angeles Times reported a month before the announcement that Rupert Murdoch was interested in giving his daughter and son-in-law hands-on experience running a business.

The general manager was fired, months after he was promoted;[41] several news department employees departed for positions in other markets or out of TV news,[42] while Elisabeth Murdoch wrote to the San Luis Obispo County Telegram-Tribune, decrying its coverage of changes at her station as "a commercially motivated attempt to embarrass a competitor for advertising dollars".

[48] In hindsight, observers noted that Murdoch brought to KSBW and KSBY a larger-market style that was at odds with the stations' prior image,[40] but it was more aggressive and professional with fewer on-air errors.

[48] The stations were able to quickly improve their financial positions on account of reduced program costs and a 50-percent[48] increase in network compensation from NBC.

[55] Jason Elkins, founder of New Vision, had previously owned and sold a group of stations under that name in the 1990s; KSBY and KVII-TV in Amarillo, Texas, were the second incarnation's first acquisitions.

[60] On April 19, 2024, Nexstar Media Group, majority owner of The CW, announced that the network would not renew its affiliations with Scripps-owned stations, including KSBY.