 San Francisco was also unaffected by the 1994 switches, as Westinghouse-owned KPIX-TV had been a CBS affiliate since it signed on in 1948.However, on January 1, 2002, KRON-TV (channel 4) became an independent station after a bitter dispute between NBC and the station's then-owner Young Broadcasting (which merged with Media General in 2013); after Young outbid NBC to buy the station from the Chronicle Publishing Company (publishers of the "San Francisco Chronicle", which was sold to the Hearst Corporation as part of a liquidation of Chronicle's assets) for $823 million in November 1999, NBC demanded that Young run the station under the conventions of an NBC O&O as a condition of renewing its affiliation; Young refused these demands, along with the affiliation renewal.In February 2000, NBC struck an affiliation deal with Granite Broadcasting-owned KNTV (channel 11) in San Jose; it became a WB affiliate (in conjunction with the network's existing Bay Area affiliate, then-sister station KBWB (channel 20, now independent station KOFY-TV)) in July 2000 after agreeing to disaffiliate from ABC due to a market exclusivity claim for the network in San Jose by ABC O&O KGO-TV (channel 7).