KKTV
KKTV, virtual channel 11, 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.
On cable, the station is available on Comcast Xfinity 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.
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 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, 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 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 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, 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.
Translators
Associated Translator FacilitiesK25LE-D Ch. 25 Las Animas
K36LB-D Ch. 36 Cheyenne Wells
K13ZI-D Ch. 13 Canon City
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:Channel | Video | Aspect | PSIP Short Name | Programming |
11.1 | 1080i | KKTV-HD | Main KKTV programming / CBS | |
11.2 | 480i | METV-KK | MeTV / 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. Other programming on MyKKTV included replays and extra runs of KKTV's syndicated programming 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. 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. 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 and interference issues with the VHF broadcast.
On June 6, 2019, KKTV switched frequencies from RF channel 49 to RF channel 26 due to the FCC spectrum repack.