Carroll R. Hauser obtained a
construction permit to build a television station on channel 13 in Eureka on January 17, 1957. The construction permit bore the call letters KHUM-TV. Shasta Telecasting (owner of
KVIP-TV in
Redding), acquired half-interest in the permit, which was transferred to California Northwest Broadcasting, in 1957. The permittees then successfully requested channel 6 instead of 13 due to the region's rough terrain. The call letters were changed to KVIQ-TV before the station launched on April 1, 1958, from studios on Humboldt Hill Road in Eureka. In 1960, Carl R. and Leah McConnell acquired all of the shares in California Northwest Broadcasting. A year later, the station switched from a primary
NBC affiliation to a primary
ABC hookup with some programming from NBC. In 1985,
KIEM-TV, the then-CBS affiliate, signed an affiliation agreement with NBC; that station intended to broadcast some CBS shows, but CBS responded by affiliating with KVIQ beginning in January 1986. The McConnells sold the station to Miller Broadcasting in 1986; Ronald W. Miller was already channel 6's general manager. Miller Broadcasting sold KVIQ to the
Ackerley Group in 1998. Ackerley invested quite a bit of money into its news operations. Ackerley merged with corporate giant
Clear Channel Communications in 2002. Not long after this merger, the news operation at KVIQ was quickly abandoned. The station was managed by David Silverbrand with its engineering functions performed by James Mixon. Providing operational and sales staff was
Sainte Partners II, L.P. Sainte Partners sold the station in 2014. In December 2013, Sainte Partners II reached a deal to sell KVIQ to Redwood Television Partners, a subsidiary of Frontier Radio Management. The sale was completed on June 30, 2014. On January 29, 2016, Frontier Radio Management sold Redwood Broadcast Partners to NBI Holdings, LLC, which owned
Northwest Broadcasting. The sale was completed on March 24. Northwest Broadcasting agreed to sell KVIQ to Prime Cities Broadcasting on August 16, 2017; the sale was concurrent with Northwest's acquisition of KIEM-TV. Upon completion of the sale, Prime Cities changed channel 17's call letters to KJRW. Northwest Broadcasting retained the KVIQ intellectual unit and CBS affiliation, and moved it to a low-power station it owned, K10FS (which was later K14QL-D), which changed its call letters to KVIQ-LP. on digital channel 14. On April 8, 2018, Prime Cities
turned off KJRW's signal because of technical issues. After KJRW's shutdown, Ion programming was moved to KIEM 3.2. KJRW never regularly operated under Prime Cities; after again going off the air to perform transmitter repairs on May 29, 2019, its license expired May 29, 2020, and was canceled on July 23. In February 2019,
Reuters reported that
Apollo Global Management had agreed to acquire the entirety of Brian Brady's television portfolio, which it intends to merge with
Cox Media Group (which Apollo was acquiring at the same time) and stations spun off from
Nexstar Media Group's purchase of
Tribune Broadcasting, once the purchases are approved by the FCC. In March 2019 filings with the FCC, Apollo confirmed that its newly-formed broadcasting group, Terrier Media, would acquire Northwest Broadcasting, with Brian Brady holding an unspecified minority interest in Terrier. In June 2019, it was announced that Terrier Media would instead operate as Cox Media Group, as Apollo had reached a deal to also acquire Cox's radio and advertising businesses. The transaction was completed on December 17. On March 29, 2022, Cox Media Group announced it would sell KVIQ-LD, KIEM-TV and 16 other stations to
Imagicomm Communications, an affiliate of the parent company of the
INSP cable channel, for $488 million; the sale was completed on August 1. The transaction was completed on May 1. ==News operation==