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KCNC-TV (channel 4), branded CBS Colorado, is a
television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's s ...
in
Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...
, Colorado, United States, serving as the market's
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
outlet. It is
owned and operated In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an affiliate ...
by the network's
CBS News and Stations CBS News and Stations is a division of the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global that owns and operates a group of United States, American television stations along with CBS News. , the division owns 28 stations: 15 are the core stati ...
division, and maintains studios on Lincoln Street (between East 10th and 11th Avenues) in
downtown Denver Downtown Denver is the main financial, commercial, business, and entertainment district in Denver, Colorado, United States. There is over of office space in downtown Denver, with 132,000 workers. The downtown area consists mostly of the neigh ...
; its transmitter is based on
Lookout Mountain Lookout Mountain is a mountain ridge at the northwest corner of the U.S. state of Georgia, the northeast corner of Alabama, and along the southeastern Tennessee state line in Chattanooga. Lookout Mountain was the scene of the 18th-century "La ...
, near Golden.


History


NBC affiliate (1953–1995)

The station first signed on the air at 6:30 p.m. on December 24, 1953, as KOA-TV. KOA-TV brought NBC programming to the area which prior to the station's launch, was temporarily discontinued. The station aired an inaugural program followed by the Christmas feature ''The Lamb and the Manger''. Founded by Metropolitan TV Company (partly owned by famed comedian
Bob Hope Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was an American comedian, actor, entertainer and producer with a career that spanned nearly 80 years and achievements in vaudeville, network radio, television, and USO Tours. He appeared ...
, and not to be confused with a similarly named company later known as
Metromedia Metromedia, Inc. (also often MetroMedia) was an American media company that owned radio station, radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986 and controlled Orion Pictures from 1988 to 1997. Metromedia was established in ...
), owners of KOA radio (
850 AM The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 850 kHz: 850 AM is a United States clear-channel frequency. KOA and KICY share Class A status of 850 kHz. In Argentina * La Gauchita in Morón, Buenos Aires In Mexico * ...
and 103.5 FM, now
KRFX KRFX (103.5 FM) is an American commercial radio station in Denver, Colorado, serving the Denver metropolitan area. It is owned by iHeartMedia, and airs a classic rock radio format. The KRFX studios and offices are located on South Monaco Str ...
), channel 4 immediately assumed the
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
affiliation from KBTV (channel 9, now
KUSA Kusa or KUSA may refer to: * Kusa, Russia, a town in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia * Kusa, Latvia, a village in Madona district, Latvia * Kusa, Oklahoma, United States * Kusa, indigenous name of Beles River (in Gumuz language) * KUSA (TV), a televisi ...
), due to KOA radio's longtime affiliation with and ownership by the
NBC Red Network The National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (also known as the NBC Red Network from 1927 to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in continuous operation from 1926 through 1999. Along with the NBC Blue Network, it wa ...
. In 1965, KOA-TV began carrying most of NBC's
American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, AFL–NFL merger, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Foot ...
game telecasts as the network obtained the league's broadcast television rights (with play-by-play announcing duties handled by
Curt Gowdy Curtis Edward Gowdy (July 31, 1919 – February 20, 2006) was an American sportscaster. He called Boston Red Sox games on radio and TV for 15 years, and then covered many nationally televised sporting events, primarily for NBC Sports and ABC S ...
); however,
Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC West, West division. The team is headquartered in E ...
home games aired by the network had to be blacked out due to the team's inability to sell out tickets to the games (NFL blackout rules in effect at the time required teams to sell all tickets for home games in order to allow them to be broadcast in the team's primary
market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market *Marketing, the act of sat ...
; the league later lowered the designated sales threshold to allow home game broadcasts to 75% of all tickets, and as of 2015, the blackout rules have been lifted indefinitely), this partnership continues to this day with CBS (with exception of a hiatus from the second week of the 1995 season to end of the 1997 season, when most games moved to KUSA in that interim period). In 1967, KOA-TV ran an award-winning documentary ''The Acid Test,
LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD (from German ; often referred to as acid or lucy), is a semisynthetic, hallucinogenic compound derived from ergot, known for its powerful psychological effects and serotonergic activity. I ...
''; hosted by news editor Bob Palmer, the film took five months to produce with more than 5,000 feet of film shot. Photographers involved included Bill Baker, Medill Barnes, Allan Bisset, Jerry Curran, Sam Houston and Barry Trader. In 1968, Metropolitan TV Company sold KOA-AM-TV to
General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...
for $10 million. General Electric sold the KOA and KOAQ radio stations to
A. H. Belo Corporation Belo may refer to: Organizations * Belo Corporation, known as A. H. Belo Corporation from 1926-2000, a United States media company now part of Tegna Inc. * DallasNews Corporation, known as A. H. Belo Corporation from 2008-2021, a newspaper pub ...
in 1983 for $22 million, as part of the company's overall exit from broadcasting. GE retained channel 4, but was required by FCC regulations at the time—which forbade TV and radio stations in the same city, but with different owners from sharing the same call letters—to change the station's call letters to KCNC-TV (standing for "Colorado's News Channel"), which it officially adopted on August 12 of that year. In 1986, General Electric acquired NBC, resulting in GE's return to broadcasting and KCNC becoming the first
owned-and-operated station In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an network af ...
of a major network in the state of Colorado. In 1987, control of the station has been transferred from GE itself to NBC, becoming a proper O&O. By 1990, KCNC-TV devoted nearly all of its programming hours outside of network shows to locally produced news programs, broadcasting nearly 40 hours of newscasts each week.
General manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...
Roger Ogden felt his station's money was better spent on local programming, rather than paying syndication distributors to acquire nationally syndicated shows. In 1990, KCNC paid $11,000 to the market's PBS member station KRMA-TV (channel 6) to carry the station's election coverage (using KCNC's reporters), in order to allow channel 4 to air NBC's Tuesday night lineup, including '' Matlock'' and '' In the Heat of the Night''. By early 1995, KCNC-TV was airing 41 hours of news a week, and the station programmed either local-interest programming or newscasts at times when NBC did not have network programming, because the station did not buy syndicated programming. This ended almost as soon as Group W/CBS took over after the affiliation switch.


CBS switch and ownership (1995–present)

On July 14, 1994, CBS and
Westinghouse Electric Corporation The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse and headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was ...
agreed to a long-term affiliation deal that would result in three of Westinghouse's television stations (longtime ABC affiliate
WJZ-TV WJZ-TV (channel 13) is a television station in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, serving as the market's CBS outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, and maintains studios and offices on Woodberry, B ...
in
Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...
and longtime NBC stations
KYW-TV KYW-TV (channel 3), branded as CBS Philadelphia, is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It is owned and operated by the CBS television network through its CBS News and Stations division alongside WPSG (channel 57 ...
in
Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
and
WBZ-TV WBZ-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, serving as the market's CBS outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside independent WSBK-TV (channel 38). Bo ...
in
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
) become CBS affiliates, joining the company's two longtime CBS affiliates (
KDKA-TV KDKA-TV (channel 2), branded CBS Pittsburgh, is a television station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It is owned and operated by the CBS television network through its CBS News and Stations division alongside WPKD-TV (channel 19), a ...
in
Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
and
KPIX KPIX-TV (channel 5), branded on-air as CBS Bay Area, is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving as the CBS network outlet for the San Francisco Bay Area. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS ...
in
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
). The deal initially called for CBS to sell its owned-and-operated Philadelphia station
WCAU WCAU (channel 10) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It is owned and operated by the NBC television network through its NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Mount Laurel, New Jersey–licensed ...
; however, CBS later discovered that if it sold WCAU in order to affiliate with KYW-TV, it would have had to pay hefty
capital gains Capital gain is an economic concept defined as the profit earned on the sale of an asset which has increased in value over the holding period. An asset may include tangible property, a car, a business, or intangible property such as shares. A ca ...
taxes on the profit of the transaction. To alleviate this problem, in November 1994, NBC decided to swap ownership of KCNC-TV and
KUTV KUTV (channel 2) is a television station in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside independent station KJZZ-TV (channel 14) and St. George, Utah, St. George–licensed MyNetwor ...
in
Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...
(which NBC had acquired the month before), along with the VHF channel 4 allocation and transmitter in
Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...
to CBS in exchange for WCAU and the VHF channel 6 allocation and transmitter in Miami, which for legal purposes made the deal an even trade. KCNC-TV became Denver's CBS affiliate at 12:07 a.m. on September 10, 1995, after a rerun of ''
Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...
'' ended, as part of a three-way affiliation swap involving each of the market's "Big Three" network affiliates. Longtime CBS affiliate
KMGH-TV KMGH-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Denver, Colorado, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Sterling-licensed independent station KCDO-TV, channel 3 (and its Denver-based translator ...
(channel 7) switched its affiliation to
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...
through a multi-station affiliation agreement with KMGH's owners at the time,
McGraw-Hill McGraw Hill is an American education science company that provides educational content, software, and services for students and educators across various levels—from K-12 to higher education and professional settings. They produce textbooks, ...
; while longtime ABC affiliate KUSA took the NBC affiliation through a multi-station affiliation agreement with the
Gannett Company Gannett Co., Inc. ( ) is an American mass media holding company headquartered in New York City. It is the largest U.S. newspaper publisher as measured by total daily circulation. It owns the national newspaper ''USA Today'', as well as severa ...
, which itself was spurred by the initial affiliation deal that was reached between
New World Communications New World Pictures (also known as New World Entertainment, New World Communications Group, Inc., and New World International) was an American independent production, distribution, and (in its final years as an autonomous entity) multimedia comp ...
and Fox. (Gannett had already owned several NBC affiliates at the time, as is the case in the present day with successor company
Tegna Inc. Tegna Inc. (stylized in all caps as TEGNA) is an American publicly traded broadcast, digital media and marketing services company headquartered in Tysons, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into two publ ...
) Under the terms of the CBS/Westinghouse deal, CBS a sold controlling ownership interest (55%) in KCNC to Westinghouse's broadcasting division Group W. The previous month on August 1, Westinghouse had acquired CBS for $5.4 billion; once the merger was finalized on November 24, 1995, KCNC-TV became a CBS-owned-and-operated station, making it one of a handful of television stations that have been owned by two different networks at separate points in its history. , KCNC, along with CW outlet
KWGN-TV KWGN-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Denver, Colorado, United States, serving as the local The CW, CW outlet. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox affiliate KDVR ...
(through its owner
Nexstar Media Group Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarters in Irving, Texas, Midtown Manhattan, and Chicago. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 television station ...
) are the only television stations in the Denver market that are owned-and-operated stations of one of the five major
English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...
broadcast networks (concurrent to the CBS-Westinghouse merger,
Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...
had acquired
KDVR KDVR (channel 31) is a television station in Denver, Colorado, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is simulcast full-time over satellite station KFCT (channel 22) in Fort Collins. Nexstar Media Group owns KDVR and KFCT alongsi ...
(channel 31), which it would eventually sell to Local TV in 2008; it is now owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside KWGN-TV). The station was featured in the 2007 film ''
Blades of Glory ''Blades of Glory'' is a 2007 American sports comedy film directed by Will Speck and Josh Gordon, written by Jeff Cox, Craig Cox, John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky. It stars Will Ferrell and Jon Heder as a mismatched pair of banned figure s ...
''; along with other Denver area stations, it has also been mentioned on the Colorado-set
Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...
series ''
South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boysStan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand the ...
''. In one episode, Ron Zappolo is referenced as still being with channel 4 (although at the time, Zappolo served as evening anchor at KDVR). KCNC became the last of the "big 3" stations in Denver to start a digital subchannel, launching
Decades A decade (from , , ) is a period of 10 years. Decades may describe any 10-year period, such as those of a person's life, or refer to specific groupings of calendar years. Usage Any period of ten years is a "decade". For example, the statement t ...
on January 23, 2015.Decades, CBS4 Sub-Channel, Debuts This Friday (1/21/2015)
/ref> On July 24, 2018, CBS and
Weigel Broadcasting Weigel Broadcasting Co. is an American television broadcasting company based in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, alongside its flagship station WCIU-TV (Channel 26), at 26 North Halsted Street in the Greektown, Chicago, Greektown neighborhood. It cur ...
announced the creation of the
Start TV Start TV is an American free-to-air television network owned as a joint venture between Weigel Broadcasting and the CBS News and Stations subsidiary of Paramount Global. Predominantly carried on the digital subchannels of its affiliated tele ...
subchannel which launched on September 3, 2018. In March 2023, the station rebranded as "CBS Colorado", as part of a rebranding of all of the CBS owned-and-operated stations. At that time the newscasts were rebranded as ''CBS News Colorado'', which was already the name of KCNC-TV's streaming news service.


Programming

As an owned-and-operated station, KCNC-TV clears the entire CBS network schedule; however, it is one of the few CBS stations that airs the ''
CBS Weekend News The ''CBS Evening News'' is the flagship evening television news program of CBS News, the news division of the CBS television network in the United States. The ''CBS Evening News'' is a daily evening broadcast featuring news reports, feature st ...
'' (the Saturday and Sunday editions of the ''
CBS Evening News The ''CBS Evening News'' is the flagship evening News broadcasting#Television, television news program of CBS News, the news division of the CBS television network in the United States. The ''CBS Evening News'' is a daily evening broadcast featu ...
'') a half-hour earlier than most affiliates due to its hour-long 5 p.m. newscast (aligning it with the program's recommended timeslot in the
Central Time Zone The North American Central Time Zone (CT) is a time zone in parts of Canada, the United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It ...
) and ''
CBS Saturday Morning ''CBS Saturday Morning'' is a Saturday morning television program that broadcasts on the American television network, CBS. It is currently anchored by Michelle Miller and Dana Jacobson. Although the program's name has changed several times ...
'' (the Saturday edition of ''
CBS Mornings ''CBS Mornings'' is an American morning television program which is broadcast on CBS. The program debuted on September 7, 2021, and airs live every weekday from 7:00a.m. to 9:00a.m., EST. It is hosted by Gayle King, Tony Dokoupil, Nate Burleson, ...
'') two hours earlier than most CBS stations (aligning it with the program's recommended timeslot in the
Eastern Time Zone The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 U.S. states, states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico. * Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five ...
).


Sports programming

In
1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...
,
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
acquired the broadcast rights to the
American Football Conference The American Football Conference (AFC) is one of the two conferences of the National Football League (NFL), the highest level of professional American football in the United States. The AFC and its counterpart, the National Football Conference ...
of the
National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...
(which absorbed the AFL and the Broncos in 1970), moving the conference's game telecasts to the network from
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
(and with it, from KUSA, which aired most games between the second week of the 1995 season to the end of the 1997 regular season nd Super Bowl XXXII in January 1998, which the Broncos won">Super_Bowl_XXXII.html" ;"title="nd Super Bowl XXXII">nd Super Bowl XXXII in January 1998, which the Broncos won; as a result, KCNC regained the local television rights to the Broncos (coinciding with the season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...
in which the team won its Super Bowl XXXIII">second straight Super Bowl championship and fan favorite
John Elway John Albert Elway Jr. (born June 28, 1960) is an American former professional football quarterback who spent his entire 16-year career with the Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL). Following his playing career, he then spent 1 ...
played his final season with the Broncos before his retirement from the NFL). Ironically, KCNC would later carry the Broncos' win in
Super Bowl 50 Super Bowl 50 was an American football game to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2015 season. The American Football Conference (AFC) champion Denver Broncos defeated the National Football Conference (NFC) ...
, the last game of quarterback
Peyton Manning Peyton Williams Manning (born March 24, 1976) is an American former professional American football, football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons. Nicknamed "the Sheriff", he spent 14 seasons with the In ...
before he retired. As an NBC affiliate, KCNC aired any
Denver Nuggets The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division (NBA), Northwest Division of the Western Conference (NBA), W ...
basketball contests through the ''
NBA on NBC Television broadcasts of the National Basketball Association (NBA) games produced by NBC Sports has aired on American broadcast network NBC under the ''NBA on NBC'' branding throughout three incarnations in its history. The NBA was first telev ...
'' beginning in 1990 until the station's 1995 disaffiliation with the network.


News operation

KCNC-TV presently broadcasts 39 hours, 55 minutes of locally produced newscasts each week (with 6 hours, 35 minutes on Mondays through Thursdays; 6 hours, 5 minutes on Fridays; and hours each on Saturdays and Sundays); in addition, the station produces the public affairs program ''Together with Karen Leigh'' (which airs every Friday at 6:30 p.m., with a rebroadcast on Sunday mornings at 7:30 a.m.) and sports highlight/discussion programs ''Saturday Sports Extra'' (which airs during the final 13 minutes of the Saturday 10 p.m. newscast) and ''
AutoNation AutoNation, Inc. is an American automotive retailer based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which provides new and pre-owned vehicles and associated services in the United States. The company was founded by Wayne Huizenga in 1996, starting with twelv ...
All Access'' (which airs after the Sunday 10 p.m. newscast). In 1969, Bob Palmer, who served as anchor of the 10 p.m. newscast, left channel 4 for KLZ-TV (now KMGH-TV), to replace John Rayburn, who left for an anchor job at a station in
Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more t ...
. In the 1970s, the station ran its late evening newscasts on weekends at 11 p.m. (one hour later than the typical late news timeslot in the
Mountain Time Zone The Mountain Time Zone of North America keeps time by subtracting seven hours from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) when standard time ( UTC−07:00) is in effect, and by subtracting six hours during daylight saving time ( UTC−06:00). The ...
). In 1981, KBTV
news director A news director is an individual at a broadcast station or network who is in charge of the news department. In local news, the news director is typically in charge of the entire news staff, including journalists, news presenters, photographers, ...
Roger Ogden was hired by KOA-TV as its general manager; during his tenure, Ogden hired Marv Rockford and John Haralson, who had both worked alongside Ogden at channel 9, to join the station's news staff. Ogden named George Caldwell, Sam Allred and Ron Zappolo as its main anchor team. Janet Zappala and Alan Berg joined the station as well that year. In 1983, Marv Rockford was promoted to the news director position; while Peter Rogot was named the station's weekend anchor and Marty Aarons joined Bob Palmer and Janet Zappala as anchors; other staffers that joined channel 4 during 1983 included Wendy Bergen, Karen Layton, Marcia Neville, Tom Raponi and Mike Silva. In 1982, KMGH-TV anchor Bill Stuart left to join KOA-TV, joining several other new hires such as Linda Farrell, Sylvia Cordy, Jeff Hullinger, Steve Anderson, Stephanie White, Merrie Lynn,
Tom Martino Thomas Gerard Martino (born 1953) is a consumer advocate and American talk radio host. He is also known as "The Troubleshooter". His nationally syndicated show "The Troubleshooter Show" airs from KHOW, based in Denver, Colorado. His show f ...
and Tom Baer. That June, KOA-TV debuted a half-hour 4:30 p.m. newscast titled ''First News'', which was co-anchored by Larry Green and Linda Farrell, with Suzanne McCarroll as the featured reporter on the new show; the program would eventually expand to an hour-long broadcast beginning at 4 p.m., and remained on the station until it was canceled on May 26, 2006, in order to air ''
The Oprah Winfrey Show ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'' is an American first-run syndicated talk show that was hosted by Oprah Winfrey. The show ran for twenty-five seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in which it broadcast 4,561 episodes. The show was taped i ...
'' in the timeslot. Also that year, the station's news helicopter ("Copter 4") crashed into a snowy stand of pine trees near Larkspur, while en route to the crash site of a commuter airplane, killing KOA-TV pilot/reporter Karen Key (who was the first female pilot of a news helicopter in the country) and mechanic Larry Zane; autopsy results later reported that Key had a
blood alcohol content Blood alcohol content (BAC), also called blood alcohol concentration or blood alcohol level, is a measurement of alcohol intoxication used for legal or medical purposes. BAC is expressed as mass of alcohol per volume of blood. In US and many i ...
at the time of the crash at 0.09 (just below the legal limit of 0.10). On the evening of June 18, 1984,
Alan Berg Alan Harrison Berg (January 1934 – June 18, 1984) was an American talk radio show host in Denver, Colorado. Born to a Jewish family, he had outspoken atheistic and liberal views and a confrontational interview style. Berg was assassinated b ...
—an attorney who hosted programs on both KOA radio and KOA-TV and was known for taking a largely liberal stand on issues, using an abrasive and combative demeanor to callers and guests with opposing views at times—was shot and killed in the driveway of his home by members of a
White Nationalist White nationalism is a type of racial nationalism or pan-nationalism which espouses the belief that white people are a Race (human categorization), raceHeidi Beirich and Kevin Hicks. "Chapter 7: White nationalism in America". In Perry, Barbara ...
group called The Order. The incident was adapted into
Steven Dietz Steven Dietz (born June 23, 1958) is an American playwright, theatre director, and teacher. Called "the most ubiquitous American playwright whose name you may never have heard", Dietz has long been one of America's most prolific and widely prod ...
's 1988 play ''God's Country'' and the 1988 film '' Betrayed'', as well as the film ''Brotherhood of Murder'' (1999). Oliver Stone's
1988 film 1988 was a crucial year in the early history of the Internet—it was the year of the first well-known computer virus, the 1988 Internet worm. The first permanent intercontinental Internet link was made between the United States (National ...
of
Eric Bogosian Eric Michael Bogosian (; born April 24, 1953) is an American actor, playwright, monologuist, novelist, and historian. Descended from Armenian-American immigrants, he grew up in Watertown and Woburn, Massachusetts, and attended the University ...
's play ''
Talk Radio Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. They may feature monologues, dialogues between the hosts, Interview (jo ...
'' drew inspiration from Berg's plight. In 2002, Marv Rockford was forced out as general manager of KCNC and replaced by Walt DeHaven. Meanwhile, Tony Lopez moved from
San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...
to join channel 4. In 2003, Molly Hughes and Bill Stuart served as KCNC's primary evening news team for its 10 p.m. newscast, with Brian Maass and Rick Sallinger as reporters. On April 21, 2008, Karen Leigh (who previously worked at
Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...
sister station
WCCO-TV WCCO-TV (channel 4), branded CBS Minnesota, is a television station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, serving the Twin Cities area. It is owned and operated by the CBS television network through its CBS News and Stations divisi ...
) replaced Molly Hughes as co-anchor of the weeknight newscasts. KCNC also began broadcasting its local newscasts in
high definition High definition or HD may refer to: Visual technologies *Blu-ray Disc, the universal optical High Definition disc format *HD Photo, former name for the JPEG XR image file format *HDV, format for recording high-definition video onto magnetic tap ...
on that date, becoming the second television station in the Denver market (after KUSA) to make the conversion and the market's third station to broadcast all of its programming, including syndicated programs, in the format (behind KUSA and its sister station
KTVD KTVD (channel 20) is a television station in Denver, Colorado, United States, affiliated with MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside NBC affiliate KUSA (channel 9). The two stations share studios on East Speer Boulevard in Denver's ...
(channel 20)). The 4 p.m. newscast returned to the schedule on June 13, 2011, only lasting less than three months before it was dropped a second time after the September 2, 2011, broadcast and replaced three days later by ''Dr. Phil''. On February 3, 2013, KCNC debuted a "Mobile Weather Lab", a technologically equipped
Chevrolet Suburban The Chevrolet Suburban is a series of SUVs built by Chevrolet since the 1935 model year. The longest-used automobile nameplate in the world, the Chevrolet Suburban is currently in its twelfth generation, introduced for 2021. Beginning life a ...
(which is retrofitted for off-road use and is primarily used during the weekday morning newscasts; and the equipped-based model was manufactured by
General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...
-owned
Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ) is an American automobile division of the manufacturer General Motors (GM). In North America, Chevrolet produces and sells a wide range of vehicles, from subcompact automobiles to medium-duty commercial trucks. Due to the promi ...
) that is used for storm tracking and is equipped with a weather station that provides live data. On January 13, 2014, KCNC expanded its weekday morning newscast to 2½ hours, with the addition of a half-hour at 4:30 a.m. KCNC-TV launched a streaming news service, CBSN Denver (now CBS News Colorado) on February 19, 2020, as part of a rollout of similar services (each a localized version of the national
CBSN CBS News 24/7 (formerly known as CBSN and the CBS News Streaming Network) is an American streaming video news channel operated by the CBS News and Paramount Streaming divisions of Paramount Global. Launched on November 6, 2014, it features block ...
service) across the CBS-owned stations. KCNC re-added an hour-long 4 p.m. newscast on weekdays on September 12, 2022.


Notable former on-air staff

*
Carlos Amezcua Carlos Amezcua is an American journalist best known for his sixteen years as the original co-anchor for the '' KTLA Morning News'', with Barbara Beck as his co-anchor, Mark Kriski handling weather and Sam Rubin reporting on the entertainment ind ...
– news anchor *
Alan Berg Alan Harrison Berg (January 1934 – June 18, 1984) was an American talk radio show host in Denver, Colorado. Born to a Jewish family, he had outspoken atheistic and liberal views and a confrontational interview style. Berg was assassinated b ...
– KOA radio and TV talk show host *
Wendy Bergen Wendy Anne Bergen (January 3, 1956 – April 26, 2017) was an American television journalist. Bergen was raised in Greenwich, Connecticut, and graduated from the University of Utah. She began her television career as a weather reporter in Lake ...
– reporter *
David Crabtree David Crabtree is an American journalist, former television news anchor, and television executive. He served as the lead anchor of WRAL-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina, for much of his 28 years at the network through 2022. Following a forty-year ca ...
– anchor/reporter (1991–1994) *
John Ferrugia John Ferrugia (born 1951) is an investigative reporter who is currently working as a journalist/trainer for the non-profit Colorado News Collaborative (COLab). He is the former News Anchor and Managing Editor for Rocky Mountain PBS in Denver, ...
– anchor/investigative reporter (1989–1992) *
Chris Fowler Chris Fowler (born August 23, 1962) is an American sports broadcaster for ESPN, who serves as the play-by-play announcer for '' Saturday Night Football'' on ABC and ESPN's tennis coverage. He is also known for his work on '' College GameDay ...
– sports reporter * Morris Jones – midday anchor * Philip J. LeBeau – general assignment reporter *
Tom Martino Thomas Gerard Martino (born 1953) is a consumer advocate and American talk radio host. He is also known as "The Troubleshooter". His nationally syndicated show "The Troubleshooter Show" airs from KHOW, based in Denver, Colorado. His show f ...
– consumer reporter (1982–1999) * Reynelda Muse – first woman and first
African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
to anchor a television news program in Colorado * Les Shapiro – sports anchor


Technical information


Subchannels

The station's signal is
multiplexed In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource— ...
:


Analog-to-digital conversion

KCNC-TV ended regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 4, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition
UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter ...
channel 35, using
virtual channel In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered as digits on a receiver's ...
4. As part of the
SAFER Act The Short-term Analog Flash and Emergency Readiness Act, or SAFER Act, (, ) is a U.S. law that required the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to allow the continuation of full-power analog TV transmissions in 2009 for an additional 30 da ...
, KCNC kept its analog signal on the air until July 12 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of
public service announcement A public service announcement (PSA) is a message in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge to raise public awareness and change behavior. Oftentimes these messages feature unsettling imagery, ideas or behaviors that are des ...
s from the
National Association of Broadcasters The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is a Industry trade group, trade association and lobbying, lobby group representing the interests of commercial and non-commercial over-the-air radio and television broadcasting, broadcasters in th ...
.


Translators

*
Akron Akron () is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the fifth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 190,469 at the 2020 census. The Akron metropolitan area, covering Summit and Portage counties, had ...
* Akron *
Haxtun Haxtun is a statutory town in Phillips County, Colorado, United States As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 981. Geography At the 2020 United States census, the town had a total area of , all of it land. Demographics A ...
*
Holyoke Holyoke is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, that lies between the western bank of the Connecticut River and the Mount Tom Range. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 38,247. Loca ...
* Holyoke * Idalia * Pleasant Valley *
Sterling Sterling may refer to: Currency * The English penny, historically known as the ''sterling'' * Pound sterling, the currency of the United Kingdom * Sterling silver, a grade of silver Places United Kingdom * Stirling, a Scottish city whose al ...
* Yuma


See also

*
KOA (AM) KOA (850 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Denver, Colorado. Owned by iHeartMedia, it serves the Denver-Boulder media market. KOA broadcasts a news/talk radio format, and is also the flagship station of the Denver Broncos, Col ...


References


External links


Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kcnc-Tv 1953 establishments in Colorado Catchy Comedy affiliates CBS affiliates CBS News and Stations Dabl affiliates MeTV affiliates NFL primary television stations Peabody Award winners Start TV affiliates Story Television affiliates Television channels and stations established in 1953 CNC-TV