Owned in turn by Corinthian Broadcasting and Belo before being acquired by Tegna's forerunner Gannett in 1999, the station slowly rose to a second place in local news ratings before falling back to third in the late 2000s.

Both groups originally proposed to build a transmitter facility at Pine Hill, 29 miles (47 km) east of Sacramento in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.

[8] Where McClatchy expressed concern over the lack of broadcast expertise in most of the ownership, KMOD's public service record,[7] and the possibility that the economic interests involved in Sacramento Telecasters might withdraw their advertising from other stations,[5] Sacramento Telecasters contended that McClatchy—with its ownership of newspapers and broadcasting properties covering areas from Bakersfield in the south to Red Bluff in the north—was overly dominant in the region.

He found in favor of McClatchy, citing its long record in broadcasting including five years of training personnel in television, though noting that both applications were unobjectionable.

"[13] The next month, the firm filed a 55-page objection and 113 pages of supporting briefs urging the commission to overturn the initial decision, its argument hinging on the question of diversification of media ownership.

[15] On October 4, 1954, the FCC unanimously overturned the initial decision and granted a construction permit to Sacramento Telecasters, which it deemed a newcomer that "warrants a substantial preference" over McClatchy despite the latter's public service record with its existing stations.

In addition to continuing to argue that the FCC was unfair to newspapers in denying its application and looked upon them with a "jaundiced eye",[24][25] an argument unanimously rejected by a three-man panel,[26] the newspaper company added a new argument related to its decision to change the transmitter site from Pine Hill to Logtown, which reduced the station's coverage area and were a downgrade from the original proposals for both companies.

[27] McClatchy found more success in this line of argument; in October 1956, the appeals court ordered the commission to hold hearings on the KBET-TV tower site change.

[30] However, a petition by McClatchy to enlarge the issues to be considered in the tower site hearing such as to force a review of the comparative merits of its original 1952 application alongside that of Sacramento Telecasters was not looked on favorably.

[37] The strike lasted more than two years and featured a secondary boycott of the station led by the unions, leading to the loss of several advertising contracts; at various times, both parties were found to be guilty of unfair labor practices.

[38][39] In a final ruling at the end of 1964, the National Labor Relations Board found that unions were allowed to engage in publicity other than picketing and thus that their actions were protected.

[1] Even though at one point in the early 1970s KXTV briefly eclipsed it,[62] the station has spent most of its history a distant second or third to KCRA-TV, the Sacramento area's traditional news leader.

[65][66] In 2022, KXTV and reporter Brandon Rittiman were honored with a Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award for a series on the role electrical utility PG&E played in sparking the Camp Fire in 2018.

[67] The station won another in 2025 for "The Wild West of Education", a news series by reporter Andie Judson over failings and financial improprieties at Highlands Community Charter and Technical Schools.

[75] In 2014, KXTV filed to build a digital replacement translator broadcasting with 15 kW on UHF channel 36, located on the Weather Tower, to improve reception in the immediate Sacramento area.

[77] Though it does not host any additional subchannels, KXTV is part of Sacramento's ATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV) deployment on KQCA, which began operating in July 2021.