KKTV, virtual channel 11 (UHF digital channel 49), 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. KKTV is carried on Comcast Xfinity cable channel 10 in Colorado Springs 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.
Video KKTV
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. 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. On December 7, 1969, KKTV relocated to a new studio facility on North Nevada Avenue in Colorado Springs. 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 late 1982, KKTV's original local owners sold the station 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.
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 provided 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 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 won acclaim from various critics, and won the Colorado Springs Independent's Best Local TV Newscast award for 2012, 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 has announced plans to move into a new location at 520 East Colorado Avenue in downtown Colorado Springs. The move was completed in mid-2013.
Maps KKTV
Translators
Associated Translator Facilities
K25LE-D Ch. 25 Las Animas
K36LB-D Ch. 36 Cheyenne Wells
K13ZI-D Ch. 13 Canon City (formerly K10LI Ch. 10 analog)
K07BW-D Ch. 7 Westcliffe
K31IV-D Ch. 31 Romeo
K35JS-D Ch. 35 Lamar
K47MP-D Ch. 47 and K18JX-D Ch. 18 Hoehne
Digital television
Digital channels
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
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 network MyNetworkTV on digital subchannel 11.2 called MyKKTV. Other programming on MyKKTV includes 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. 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. As of September 8, 2015, KKTV-DT2 is also affiliated with MeTV, while still airing some syndicated programs and My Network TV programming.
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. 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. 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.
Trivia
Current evening news anchor Don Ward appeared on the long-running British children's show Crackerjack. It was his first appearance on TV ever. Ward was a contestant in their "Crackerjack Young Entertainer of The Year" contest as a young magician. His father was in the American Armed Forces stationed in the UK at the time. However, Ward did not move into the semi-finals.
References
External links
- Official KKTV Website
- Official MyKKTV Website
- Query the FCC's TV station database for KKTV
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KKTV-TV
Source of article : Wikipedia
0 Comments