KHSL-TV is a television station located in the Chico-Redding market of California. It was founded in 1953 by the Golden Empire Broadcasting Company, along with its sister station KHSL-AM 1290. The call letters are a tribute to Harry Smithson and Sidney Lewis, who started KHSL-AM in 1935. The station was later sold to the McClung family, and then to United Communications Corporation in 1994. In 1998, KHSL-TV was acquired by Catamount Broadcasting. From the beginning, the station was affiliated with CBS, but it also aired programming from other networks such as ABC and NBC, especially when there were no other commercial stations available in the market to provide those networks' programming. In 1978, KRCR-TV switched to ABC, allowing KHSL-TV to air some NBC programming. However, the station had to rely on KRON-TV in San Francisco for full coverage of NBC programming. When KCPM (now KNVN) launched and became the NBC affiliate for the Chico-Redding market, KHSL-TV no longer had to share a network. There were reportedly attempts to bring a potential ABC affiliate third commercial station to the area in the 1960s, but the plans never came to fruition.