KKTV

KKTV, virtual channel 11 (UHF digital channel 26), is a CBS-affiliated television station licensed to Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States and also serving Pueblo. The station is owned by Gray Television. KKTV's studios are located on East Colorado Avenue in downtown Colorado Springs, and its transmitter is located on Cheyenne Mountain.

For the television station in Osaka, Japan, see Kansai Telecasting Corporation. For the television station in Kumamoto, Japan, see Kumamoto Kenmin Television.
KKTV
Colorado Springs/Pueblo, Colorado
United States
CityColorado Springs, Colorado
ChannelsDigital: 26 (UHF)
Virtual: 11 (PSIP)
BrandingKKTV 11 (general)
KKTV 11 News (newscasts)
MyKKTV (on DT2)
Programming
Affiliations11.1: CBS
11.2: MyNetworkTV/MeTV
Ownership
OwnerGray Television
(Gray Television Licensee, LLC)
History
First air date
December 7, 1952 (1952-12-07)
Former channel number(s)
Analog:
11 (VHF, 1952–2009)
Digital:
10 (VHF, 2003–2011)
49 (UHF, 2011–2019)
All secondary:
NBC (1952–1953)
DuMont (1952–1956)
ABC (1952–1960)
Technical information
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID35037
ERP350 kW
HAAT719.7 m (2,361 ft)
Transmitter coordinates38°44′42″N 104°51′45″W
Links
Public license information
Profile
[http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?list=0&facid=35037 35037 LMS]
Websitewww.kktv.com
www.kktv.com/station/mntv (DT2)

On cable, the station is available on Comcast Xfinity channel 10 in Colorado Springs (channel 11 is occupied by Class A UniMás affiliate KGHB-CD) and channel 11 in Pueblo.

In the northern part of New Mexico, KKTV's broadcast area overlaps with that of KRQE's, especially in the state capital, Santa Fe.

History

KKTV signed on the air on December 7, 1952. It is the third-oldest station in Colorado—behind Denver's KWGN-TV and KUSA-TV—and the oldest outside Denver. The station's first studio located on Mill Street was too small from the beginning. It originally carried programming from CBS, NBC, ABC, and DuMont.[1] In 1953, KRDO-TV (channel 13) signed on and took the NBC affiliation. DuMont folded in 1956, leaving KKTV as a primary CBS affiliate and secondary ABC affiliate. That same year, the station moved its operations to a new building located on South Tejon Street in Colorado Springs.

By 1960, the formerly separate Colorado Springs and Pueblo markets became one single market serving the Pikes Peak region and surrounding areas with each of the area's three TV stations becoming "exclusive" network affiliates. KKTV became a sole CBS affiliate with KRDO-TV becoming a full-time ABC affiliate and Pueblo's KCSJ-TV (channel 5, now KOAA-TV), which had been a primary NBC affiliate since its inception in 1953, becoming the area's sole NBC affiliate. In early 1960s, KKTV's original owners sold the station to Willard W. Garvey, who held a minority stake in Stauffer Publications Stations. On December 7, 1969, KKTV relocated to a new studio facility on North Nevada Avenue in Colorado Springs. Around that same time KKTV was sold to Capitol Broadcasting Company, based out of Jackson, Mississippi.

In late 1982, Capitol Broadcasting Company sold KKTV to the Seattle-based Ackerley Group, becoming one of that company's earliest acquisitions. Ackerley owned the station until early 1999 when it swapped KKTV to Benedek Broadcasting in exchange for KCOY in Santa Maria, California. Current owner Gray Television acquired KKTV when it bought most of Benedek's stations in April 2002 as part of Benedek's bankruptcy liquidation.

On October 17, 2009; KKTV became the second station in the Colorado Springs-Pueblo market to present its newscasts in high definition (HD) beginning with its 10 p.m. newscast.

On June 23, 2012 at around 2:00 p.m. MDT, KKTV began to provide live 24/7 continuous coverage of the Waldo Canyon fire in Colorado Springs. KKTV called in help from KOLN in Lincoln, Nebraska, WOWT in Omaha, Nebraska, KCNC-TV in Denver, and KOLO-TV in Reno, Nevada (KOLN, WOWT, and KOLO are sister stations to KKTV, CBS-owned KCNC shares a helicopter with KKTV) to help out with the coverage of the fire. The nonstop coverage wrapped up at midnight on June 29, 130 hours after it started. KKTV's syndicated and CBS programming were shown on Channel 11.2 during its 24/7 fire coverage. The coverage was praised by various critics, and won the Colorado Springs Independent's Best Local TV Newscast award for 2012,[2] ending a long streak in that category by KOAA. KKTV's news ratings have gone up considerably since their Waldo Canyon fire coverage, and as of January 2013, they are claiming their news ratings are "Southern Colorado's Most Watched", higher than KOAA or KRDO.

KKTV announced plans to move into a new location at 520 East Colorado Avenue in downtown Colorado Springs. The move was completed in mid-2013.[3]

Translators

KKTV is rebroadcast on several translators:

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[4]
11.11080i16:9KKTV-HDMain KKTV programming / CBS
11.2480iMETV-KKMeTV / MyNetworkTV

KKTV turned on its original digital signal at Channel 10 in 2003.

On September 5, 2006, KKTV launched an affiliate with Fox's new sister programming service MyNetworkTV on digital subchannel 11.2 called MyKKTV.[5] Other programming on MyKKTV included replays and extra runs of KKTV's syndicated programming (such as Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune) and some syndicated programs of its own such as Futurama and 30 Rock. For newscasts, MyKKTV features a 9 p.m. newscast seen only on MyKKTV. As of September 8, 2015, KKTV-DT2 is also affiliated with MeTV, while still airing some syndicated programs and MyNetworkTV programming. By October 2019, Gray replaced all programming on KKTV-DT2 outside of the MyNetworkTV schedule with the MeTV schedule, quietly continuing to air MyNetworkTV programs from 2 to 4 a.m. on Tuesdays through Saturdays.[6] MyKKTV is carried on cable channel 41 in Colorado Springs and cable channel 246 in Pueblo.

From October 2007 to January 2010, KKTV broadcast a 24-hour weather channel called "KKTV No Wait Weather" on digital channel 11.3 and area cable providers. The channel began as a time filler service on KKTV digital channel 11.2. No Wait Weather was also seen on 11.2 overnights but this was discontinued in June 2009. On January 1, 2010, this service was discontinued and KKTV-DT3 was removed from Cable 140.

Analog-to-digital conversion

KKTV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 11, on June 12, 2009, the official date in 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 VHF channel 10.[7] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 11.

On January 21, 2011, KKTV began broadcasting on UHF frequency 49 and discontinued its broadcast on VHF channel 10 at noon on January 24.[8] Moving to the UHF dial was deemed necessary because of viewer reception (all other Springs area commercial stations were on UHF by 2009) and interference issues with the VHF broadcast.[9]

On June 6, 2019, KKTV switched frequencies from RF channel 49 to RF channel 26 due to the FCC spectrum repack.

In pop culture

KKTV is mentioned in the Better Call Saul Season 2 episode "Amarillo".

References
  1. Archived January 17, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  2. "Best of 2012: Personalities | Best of 2012 Vol. II | Colorado Springs Independent". Csindy.com. Retrieved 2013-04-26.
  3. Andrew Wineke (2012-08-23). "KKTV plans to move station downtown | kktv, move, downtown - Colorado Springs Gazette, CO". Gazette.com. Archived from the original on 2012-10-02. Retrieved 2013-04-26.
  4. RabbitEars TV Query for KKTV
  5. Archived February 4, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  6. TitanTV Query for KKTV
  7. "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-08-29. Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  8. KKTV Launches New Transmitter
  9. (PDF) http://licensing.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/pubacc/Auth_Files/1333027.pdf. Retrieved May 29, 2010. Missing or empty |title= (help)
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