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KCNC-TV (channel 4) 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 ...
in
Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
, United States, airing programming from the
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
network. 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 (formerly CBS Television Stations) is a division of the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global that owns and operates a group of American television stations. , Paramount owns 28 stations, broken down as follows: ...
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. There is over of office space in downtown Denver, with 132,000 workers. The downtown area consists mostly of the neighborhoods of Union ...
; its transmitter is based on
Lookout Mountain Lookout Mountain is a mountain ridge located 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-centu ...
, near
Golden Golden means made of, or relating to gold. Golden may also refer to: Places United Kingdom *Golden, in the parish of Probus, Cornwall *Golden Cap, Dorset *Golden Square, Soho, London *Golden Valley, a valley on the River Frome in Gloucestershir ...
.


History


As an 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 a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in more than 70 short and feature films, with 5 ...
, and not to be confused with a similarly-named company later known as
Metromedia Metromedia (also often MetroMedia) was an American media company that owned radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986 and controlled Orion Pictures from 1988 to 1997. Metromedia was established in 1956 after the DuMo ...
), 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 * in ...
and 103.5 FM, now
KRFX KRFX (103.5 FM) is a 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 Street in the ...
), channel 4 immediately assumed the
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
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, Afghanistan * ...
), due to KOA radio's longtime affiliation with and ownership by the
NBC Red Network The National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (known as the NBC Red Network prior to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in operation from 1926 through 2004. Along with the NBC Blue Network it was one of the first t ...
. 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, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Football Conference. ...
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 Sp ...
); however,
Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquart ...
home games aired by the network had to be
blacked out ''Blacked Out'' is a studio album by American country rap duo Moonshine Bandits from California. It was released on July 17, 2015 via Average Joes Entertainment. It features guest appearances from Bubba Sparxxx, Colt Ford, Crucifix, Demun Jones, D ...
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 Geography *Märket, a ...
; 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 (LSD), also known colloquially as acid, is a potent psychedelic drug. Effects typically include intensified thoughts, emotions, and sensory perception. At sufficiently high dosages LSD manifests primarily mental, vi ...
''; 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) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...
for $10 million. General Electric sold the KOA and KOAQ radio stations to
A. H. Belo Corporation DallasNews Corporation, formerly A. H. Belo Corporation (), is a Dallas-based media holding company of The Dallas Morning News and Belo + Company. The current corporation was formed when Belo Corporation separated its broadcasting and publi ...
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 affiliate ...
of a major network in the state of Colorado. 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.


Switch to CBS (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. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was renamed "Westinghouse Electric Corporation" in ...
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, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, and maintains studios and offices on Televi ...
in
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
and longtime NBC stations
KYW-TV KYW-TV (channel 3) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside CW affiliate WPSG (channel 57 ...
in
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
and
WBZ-TV WBZ-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside independent station WSBK-TV (channe ...
in
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
) become CBS affiliates, joining the company's two longtime CBS affiliates (
KDKA-TV KDKA-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside Jeannette-licensed CW affil ...
in
Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
and
KPIX KPIX-TV (channel 5) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's CBS network outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside ...
in
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
). 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, airing programming from the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Mount Laurel, New Jerse ...
; 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. ...
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–licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate K ...
in
Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...
(which NBC had acquired the month before), along with the VHF channel 4 allocation and transmitter in
Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
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'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...
'' 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-licensed translato ...
(channel 7) switched its affiliation to
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...
through a multi-station affiliation agreement with KMGH's owners at the time,
McGraw-Hill McGraw Hill is an American educational publishing company and one of the "big three" educational publishers that publishes educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education. The company also publishes referenc ...
; 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 McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.New World Communications New World Pictures (also known as New World Entertainment and New World Communications Group, Inc.) was an American independent production, distribution, and (in its final years as an autonomous entity) multimedia company. It was founded in 197 ...
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 Corner, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into tw ...
) 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 is the only television station in the Denver market that is an owned-and-operated station of one of the five major
English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
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 (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...
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. The two stations are owned by Nexstar Media Gr ...
(channel 31), which it would eventually sell to Local TV in 2008; it is now owned by
Nexstar Media Group Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarter offices in Irving, Texas; Midtown Manhattan; and Chicago, Illinois. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 te ...
). In 2003, KCNC changed its on-air branding to "CBS 4" (the logo seen above similar in style to that of
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
sister duopoly of
KCBS-TV KCBS-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside independent outl ...
/
KCAL-TV KCAL-TV (channel 9) is an independent television station in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group alongside CBS West Coast flagship KCBS-TV (channel 2). Both stations share studios at the C ...
) to comply with the network mandated branding conventions (although it retained the longtime ''News 4'' title for its newscasts until 2005, when the newscasts were rebranded as ''CBS 4 News''). 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, and starring Will Ferrell and Jon Heder with Will Arnett, Amy Poehler, William Fich ...
''; along with other Denver area stations, it has also been mentioned on the Colorado-set
Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...
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 boys Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand th ...
''. 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 () is a period of ten years. Decades may describe any ten-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 that "du ...
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, Illinois, alongside its flagship station WCIU-TV (Channel 26), at 26 North Halsted Street in the Greektown neighborhood. It currently owns 25 television sta ...
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 televis ...
subchannel which launched on September 3, 2018.


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 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 s ...
'') a half-hour earlier than most affiliates due to its hour-long 5:00 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, Mexico, Central America, some Caribbean Islands, and part of the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Central Standard Time (CST) is six hours behind Coordinate ...
) 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, Dana Jacobson and Jeff Glor. Although the program's name has changed sever ...
'' (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. It is hosted by Gayle King, Tony Dokoupil, and 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 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a small por ...
). Syndicated programs broadcast by KCNC () include ''
Hot Bench ''Hot Bench'' is a nontraditional panel-based court show that made its debut in first-run syndication on September 15, 2014. The series is produced by ''Judge Judy''s Judge Judy Sheindlin, who also created the program and concept with executive ...
'', '' NCIS: New Orleans'', ''
Dr. Phil Phillip Calvin McGraw (born September 1, 1950), better known as Dr. Phil, is an American television personality and author best known for hosting the talk show '' Dr. Phil''. He holds a doctorate in clinical psychology, though he ceased rene ...
'' and ''
The Drew Barrymore Show ''The Drew Barrymore Show'' (often shortened to ''Drew'') is a first-run syndicated American talk show hosted by actress Drew Barrymore. The show is distributed by CBS Media Ventures and debuted on September 14, 2020. In April 2022, the show w ...
'' all of which are produced by corporate cousin
CBS Media Ventures CBS Media Ventures, Inc. (formerly CBS Television Distribution, Inc. and CBS Paramount Domestic Television, Inc.) is an American television distribution company owned by CBS Studios, part of CBS Entertainment Group, a division of Paramount Glob ...
.


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 frozen water, in soil in permanently ...
,
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
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 professional level of 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 American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
(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 Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
(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 tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...
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 professional football executive and former quarterback who is the president of football operations for the Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL). Elway played college f ...
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) cha ...
, the last game of quarterback
Peyton Manning Peyton Williams Manning (born March 24, 1976) is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons. Nicknamed "the Sheriff", he spent 14 seasons with the Indianapolis Colts and four with th ...
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 league's Western Conference Northwest Division. The team was founded as the D ...
basketball contests through the ''
NBA on NBC The ''NBA on NBC'' is the branding used for presentations of National Basketball Association (NBA) games produced by the NBC television network in the United States. NBC held broadcast rights from 1955 to 1962 and again from 1990 (when it obta ...
'' 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; 3½ hours 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 edition of the 10:00 p.m. newscast) and ''AutoNation All Access'' (which airs after the Sunday edition of the 10:00 p.m. newscast). In 1969, Bob Palmer, who served as anchor of the 10:00 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 ...
. In the 1970s, the station ran its late evening newscasts on weekends at 11:00 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 clo ...
). In 1981, KBTV
news director A news director is an individual at a broadcast station or network or a newspaper 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, ph ...
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 Jeff ullinger is a 0 time-Emmy Award-winning news and sports anchor from Atlanta. He has also been inducted into the Southeast Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Silver Circle. Jeff is now with WXIA-TV NBC Atlanta. He h ...
, Steve Anderson, Stephanie White, Merrie Lynn,
Tom Martino Thomas Gerard Martino (born 1953) is a Consumer Protection, consumer advocate and United States, American talk radio host. He is also known as "The Troubleshooter". His nationally Radio syndication, syndicated show "The Troubleshooter Show" airs ...
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 4:00 p.m., and remained on the station until it was cancelled on May 26, 2006, in order to air ''
The Oprah Winfrey Show ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', often referred to as ''The Oprah Show'' or simply ''Oprah'', is an American daytime broadcast syndication, syndicated talk show that aired nationally for 25 seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in Chicag ...
'' 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; it is expressed as mass of alcohol per volume or mass of blood. For exampl ...
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 18, 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 murdered by ...
—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 raceHeidi Beirich and Kevin Hicks. "Chapter 7: White nationalism in America". In Perry, Barbara. ''Hate Crimes''. Greenwoo ...
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 of
Eric Bogosian Eric Bogosian ( hy, Էրիկ Բոգոսյան; ; 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 ...
'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. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often featur ...
'' 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 ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , s ...
to join channel 4. In 2003, Molly Hughes and Bill Stuart served as KCNC's primary evening news team for its 10:00 p.m. newscast, with Brian Maass and Rick Sallinger as reporters. On April 21, 2008, Karen Leigh (who previously worked at
Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
sister station
WCCO-TV WCCO-TV (channel 4) is a television station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, broadcasting the CBS network to the Twin Cities area. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, and maintains studios ...
) 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 *HD DVD, discontinued optical disc format *HD Photo, former name for the JPEG XR image file format *HDV, format for recording high-definition video onto magnetic tape * HiDef, 24 frames-pe ...
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). Both stations share studios on East Speer Boulevard in Denver's Speer ...
(channel 20)). On May 27, 2010, KCNC implemented a new standardized graphics package for the CBS-owned stations, with the
CBS Eye logo CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
(includes the glass design) featured prominently in the package. KCNC retained
615 Music 615 Music is a broadcast production music company based in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded by Randy Wachtler. 615 Music composes television news music packages and custom image campaigns for many television networks around the world. 615 Music als ...
's "Newstime" as the theme music for its newscasts (whose used upon the 2003 station's rebranding) until October 6, 2011, when the station began using
Gari Media Group Frank Daniel Garofalo (born April 1, 1944), known professionally as Frank Gari, is an American singer-songwriter and composer. Early life Gari was a popular singer and songwriter from the late 1950s and early 1960s. His best known songs as a ...
's "CBS Enforcer News Music Collection" (with the theme music based from "This Is My City, Chicago's My Town" signature) as most of CBS' other owned-and-operated stations (the theme's signature; when it was introduced by
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...
WBBM-TV WBBM-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. Owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, the station maintains studios on West Washington Stre ...
in the mid-1970s) did upon or before adopting the standardized graphics (cuts from "Newstime" continue to be used for sponsor tags during the newscasts). The 4:00 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 automobiles built by the Chevrolet division of General Motors. The name started in 1934 for the 1935 U.S. model year, making it the longest continuously used automobile nameplate in production. It has tra ...
(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 The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...
-owned
Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...
) 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 (formerly CBSN, also known as 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 blocks ...
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 a 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 industry. Airin ...
– news anchor (later anchored at
KUSI-TV KUSI-TV (channel 51) is an independent television station in San Diego, California, United States. It is the sole property of locally based McKinnon Broadcasting Company. KUSI-TV's studios are located on Viewridge Avenue (near I-15) in the ...
in
San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...
) *
Alan Berg Alan Harrison Berg (January 18, 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 murdered by ...
– KOA radio and TV talk show host (deceased) *
Wendy Bergen Wendy Anne Bergen (January 3, 1956 – April 26, 2017) was a double Emmy award-winning television journalist. Bergen was raised in Greenwich, Connecticut, and graduated from the University of Utah. She began her television career as a weather r ...
– reporter (deceased) *
David Crabtree David Crabtree is an American award-winning 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 ...
– anchor/reporter (1991–1994; now with
WRAL-TV WRAL-TV (channel 5) is a television station licensed to Raleigh, North Carolina, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for the Research Triangle area. It is the flagship station of the locally based Capitol Broadcasting Company, which h ...
in
Raleigh Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Southeas ...
,
North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
) *
John Ferrugia John Ferrugia 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, Colorado. Fro ...
– anchor/investigative reporter (1989–1992; now at
Rocky Mountain PBS Rocky Mountain PBS is a network of PBS member television stations serving the U.S. state of Colorado. Headquartered in Denver, it is operated by Rocky Mountain Public Media, Inc., a non-profit organization which holds the licenses for most of the ...
) *
Chris Fowler Chris Fowler (born ) 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'', which he h ...
– sports reporter (now at
ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
; lead
college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...
and
tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
commentator, former host of '' College GameDay'') * Morris Jones – midday anchor *
Philip J. LeBeau Phil LeBeau is a top reporter for CNBC.Philip J. LebBau
CNBC
He started out at
– general assignment reporter (1991–1995; now with
CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...
) *
Tom Martino Thomas Gerard Martino (born 1953) is a Consumer Protection, consumer advocate and United States, American talk radio host. He is also known as "The Troubleshooter". His nationally Radio syndication, syndicated show "The Troubleshooter Show" airs ...
– consumer reporter (1982–1999; later worked at
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. The two stations are owned by Nexstar Media Gr ...
) *
Reynelda Muse Reynelda Muse (born 1946) is a former American television news anchor. In 1969 she became the first woman and first African American television news anchor in Colorado, co-anchoring a newscast at KOA-TV (later renamed KCNC-TV) in Denver. In 1980 ...
– first woman and first
African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
to anchor a television news program in Colorado * Les Shapiro – sports anchor (deceased)


Technical information


Subchannels

The station's digital 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 - a ...
:


Analog-to-digital conversion

KCNC-TV shut down its analog signal, over
VHF Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter. Frequencies immediately below VHF ...
channel 4, 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
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 (on ...
channel 35. Through the use of
PSIP The Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) is the MPEG (a video and audio industry group) and privately defined program-specific information originally defined by General Instrument for the DigiCipher 2 system and later extended for the A ...
, digital television receivers display the station's
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 via digits on a receiver's ...
as its former VHF analog channel 4. As part of the
SAFER Act In cryptography, SAFER (Secure And Fast Encryption Routine) is the name of a family of block ciphers designed primarily by James Massey (one of the designers of IDEA) on behalf of Cylink Corporation. The early SAFER K and SAFER SK designs share ...
, 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. In the UK, they are generally called a public information film (PIF); in Hong Kong, ...
s from the
National Association of Broadcasters The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is a trade association and lobby group representing the interests of commercial and non-commercial over-the-air radio and television broadcasters in the United States. The NAB represents more than ...
.


Translators


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, C ...


References


External links


Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kcnc-Tv CBS network affiliates Start TV affiliates Dabl affiliates MeTV affiliates CBS News and Stations CNC-TV Television channels and stations established in 1953 1953 establishments in Colorado National Football League primary television stations Peabody Award winners Former General Electric subsidiaries