About Bakersfield NOW
KBAK-TV is a television station located in Bakersfield, California that signed on the air on August 20, 1953 as KAFY-TV. It was originally owned by Sheldon Anderson, along with KAFY radio (AM 550, now AM 1100). The station's studios were originally located on Chester Avenue in Bakersfield. KBAK-TV is the oldest television station in Bakersfield; KERO-TV (channel 23) went on the air a month later. In February 1954, shortly after becoming a full-time CBS affiliate, the station changed its callsign to the current KBAK-TV.Four months after signing on, Anderson sold KAFY-TV to Chronicle Publishing Company of San Francisco. As a CBS and later ABC affiliate, KBAK-TV aired all of each network's color programs in color and transitioned to full color broadcasting in 1967. In 1974, KBAK-TV swapped affiliations with channel 17, then known as KJTV, and became an ABC affiliate. The station was sold to Reeves Telecom in 1960.