KCNC-TV
This article needs additional citations for verification. (April 2013) |
FCC | |
Facility ID | 47903 |
---|---|
ERP | 1,000 kW |
HAAT | 374 m (1,227 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 39°43′50.6″N 105°13′55.6″W / 39.730722°N 105.232111°W |
Translator(s) | see § Translators |
Links | |
Public license information | |
Website | www |
KCNC-TV (channel 4), branded CBS Colorado, is a
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.
In 1965, KOA-TV began carrying most of NBC's American Football League game telecasts as the network obtained the league's broadcast television rights (with play-by-play announcing duties handled by Curt Gowdy); however, Denver Broncos 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; 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; 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
In 1986, General Electric acquired NBC, resulting in GE's return to broadcasting and KCNC becoming the first
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
KCNC-TV became Denver's CBS affiliate at 12:07 a.m. on September 10, 1995, after a rerun of
The station was featured in the 2007 film Blades of Glory; along with other Denver area stations, it has also been mentioned on the Colorado-set Comedy Central series South Park. In one episode, Ron Zappolo is referenced as still being with channel 4 (although at the time, Zappolo served as evening anchor at KDVR).[10]
KCNC became the last of the "big 3" stations in Denver to start a digital subchannel, launching
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
Sports programming
In 1998, CBS acquired the broadcast rights to the American Football Conference of the National Football League (which absorbed the AFL and the Broncos in 1970), moving the conference's game telecasts to the network from NBC (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 [and 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 in which the team won its second straight Super Bowl championship and fan favorite John Elway 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, the last game of quarterback Peyton Manning before he retired.
As an NBC affiliate, KCNC aired any Denver Nuggets basketball contests through the NBA on NBC 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 3+1⁄2 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 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. 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). In 1981, KBTV news director 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 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 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 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—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 group called The Order. The incident was adapted into Steven Dietz'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's play Talk Radio 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 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 sister station WCCO-TV) replaced Molly Hughes as co-anchor of the weeknight newscasts. KCNC also began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition 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 (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.[13] On February 3, 2013, KCNC debuted a "Mobile Weather Lab", a technologically equipped Chevrolet Suburban (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-owned Chevrolet) that is used for storm tracking and is equipped with a weather station that provides live data.[14] 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
KCNC re-added an hour-long 4 p.m. newscast on weekdays on September 12, 2022.
Notable former on-air staff
- Carlos Amezcua – news anchor (later anchored at KUSI-TV in San Diego)[16]
- Alan Berg – KOA radio and TV talk show host (deceased)[17]
- Wendy Bergen – reporter (deceased)[18]
- Raleigh, North Carolina)[19]
- John Ferrugia – anchor/investigative reporter (1989–1992; now at Rocky Mountain PBS)[20]
- College GameDay)[21]
- Morris Jones – midday anchor
- Philip J. LeBeau – general assignment reporter (1991–1995; now with CNBC)
- Tom Martino – consumer reporter (1982–1999; later worked at KDVR)[22]
- Les Shapiro – sports anchor (deceased)
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's signal is
Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
---|---|---|---|---|
4.1 | 1080i | 16:9 |
KCNC-TV | Main KCNC-TV programming / CBS |
4.2 | 480i | StartTV | Start TV | |
4.3 | Dabl | Dabl | ||
4.4 | MeTV | Glenwood Springs )
| ||
4.5 | Catchy | Catchy Comedy | ||
4.6 | Story | Story Television |
Analog-to-digital conversion
KCNC-TV shut down its analog signal, over
As part of the
Translators
- K20NI-D Akron
- K17KX-D Akron
- K35GO-D Haxtun
- K19EG-D Holyoke
- K25GZ-D Holyoke
- K16EK-D Idalia
- K16ET-D Pleasant Valley
- K17NH-D Sterling
- K32AB-D Yuma
See also
References
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for KCNC-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
- ^ The Douglas County News, December 24, 1953 — KOA-TV, Channel Four Premier At 6:30 P.M. On Christmas Eve
- ^ Eggerton, John (August 3, 2003). "Hope and Glory". Broadcasting & Cable: 2.[dead link]
- ^ "Coming home to NBC" (PDF). Broadcasting. November 16, 1987. p. 152. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
- ^ "Zapped." U.S. News & World Report 109.15 (1990): 24.
- ^ Carter, Bill (July 15, 1994). "CBS to Add Three Affiliates in Deal With Westinghouse". The New York Times. Retrieved July 12, 2012.
- ^ "From the official archives of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia". Retrieved September 2, 2012.
- ^ Jicha, Tom (November 22, 1994). "CBS, NBC CHANGING CHANNELS". Sun Sentinel. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
- ^ Hofmeister, Sallie (August 2, 1995). "CBS Agrees to Buyout Bid by Westinghouse : Entertainment: $5.4-billion merger would create biggest TV, radio empire. But the deal faces obstacles". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
- Denver Post. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
- ^ Decades, CBS4 Sub-Channel, Debuts This Friday (1/21/2015)
- ^ Malone, Michael (October 21, 2014). "CBS Stations, Weigel Partner on Oldies Digi-Net Decades". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
- ^ Ostrow, Joanne (August 23, 2011). "Ostrow: CBS4 drops 4 p.m. newscast". The Denver Post. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
- TVSpy. Retrieved August 11, 2014.
- ^ Barnes, Jess (February 19, 2020). "CBS Launches CBSN Denver for Live News Coverage". Cord Cutters News. Retrieved February 19, 2020.
- ^ "Carlos Amezcua's LinkedIn profile". Retrieved March 9, 2013.
- ^ "The History Of Television In Denver". Broadcast Professionals of Colorado. Archived from the original on December 27, 2012. Retrieved March 9, 2013.
- ^ Roberts, Michael (April 28, 2017). "Former CBS4 Reporter Wendy Bergen Dies: From Scandal to Redemption". Westword. Retrieved May 18, 2019.
- ^ "David Crabtree Bio". WRAL-TV. Retrieved March 9, 2013.
- ^ "7NEWS - John Ferrugia - News Team Story". Archived from the original on October 18, 2012. Retrieved October 27, 2012.
- ^ "Chris Fowler Bio". ESPN. Retrieved March 9, 2013.
- Denver Business Journal. December 17, 1999. Retrieved March 9, 2013.
- ^ "FROM BLACK & WHITE TO DIGITAL COLOR: CHANNELS 4 & 7 TURN 50". Advertising & Marketing Review. Archived from the original on January 9, 2017. Retrieved February 2, 2016.
- ^ "Reynelda Muse". Colorado Women's Hall of Fame. 2015. Retrieved February 2, 2016.
- ^ RabbitEars TV Query for KCNC
- ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
- ^ "UPDATED List of Participants in the Analog Nightlight Program" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. June 12, 2009. Retrieved June 4, 2012.