KQCK


KQCK, virtual channel 39, is a CTN owned-and-operated television station licensed to Cheyenne, Wyoming, United States and also serving Denver, Colorado. The station is owned by the Christian Television Network. KQCK's studios are located on East Lincoln Way in Cheyenne, and its transmitter is located on Horsetooth Mountain, just outside Fort Collins, Colorado.
KQDK-CD in Denver operates as a low-powered, Class A digital translator of KQCK.

History

The station was originally assigned the call letters KDBJ when the station was first licensed by the Federal Communications Commission on August 14, 1985. The station first signed on the air on August 28, 1987 as KKTU. It originally operated as a satellite station of NBC affiliate KTWO-TV in Casper. As a result of KKTU's sign-on, Cheyenne became one of the last markets in the United States to receive full-time affiliations from the three major broadcast networks. Prior to 1987, NBC programming had been relegated to off-hours clearances on KGWN-TV, although the network's Denver affiliate KCNC-TV had been available in the area on cable television for decades. For a time starting in 1995, KKTU had a secondary affiliation with The WB.
On September 1, 2003, the NBC affiliation in Casper moved from KTWO to KCWY. Although KTWO temporarily became an independent station at that time until it could acquire the ABC affiliation from KFNB, KKTU was able to immediately switch to ABC; it began branding itself as "ABC 8," in reference to its channel placement on Cheyenne area cable systems. This made Cheyenne one of the last markets in the country to have an ABC affiliate. Before the switch, cable systems piped in Denver's ABC affiliate—first via KUSA-TV, then from KMGH-TV following a three-way network affiliation switch that occurred on September 10, 1995. KMGH had actually operated a translator in Cheyenne since the late 1990s. On May 31, 2005, the station changed its call letters to KDEV, with plans on expanding its signal into the nearby Denver market. Indeed, it built its digital transmitter in Fort Collins, in the Denver market.
On May 31, 2006, the Equity Broadcasting Corporation sold KTWO to Silverton Media. Equity retained ownership of KDEV, but entered into a local marketing agreement with Silverton to operate it as a satellite of KTWO. Equity later moved the ABC affiliation in Cheyenne to a low-powered repeater, KKTU-LP, and switched KDEV's affiliation to its in-house classic television network, the Retro Television Network. On June 8, 2008, KDEV began simulcasting KKTU-LP's ABC programming over its analog signal, and on its second digital subchannel. Nine days later on June 17, 2008, the station changed its call sign to KQCK.
On January 4, 2009, a contract conflict between Equity and Luken Communications resulted in many RTN affiliates losing the network's programming. As a result, Luken moved RTN's operations to its headquarters in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and dropped its programming from all Equity-owned affiliates, including KQCK, effective immediately. RTN would eventually sign a deal to affiliate with Sterling-based KCDO-TV that May. KQCK subsequently switched to AMGTV, and then later to @SportsTV.
On April 16, 2009, KQCK, along with two other television stations, were purchased at auction by Valley Bank for $7 million. Valley Bank, in turn, filed to sell KQCK and Aurora, Colorado repeater KQDK-CA to an ownership group connected to Fusion Communications on September 9. ABC programming remained on KQCK-DT2 and channel 40, by then renamed KDEV-LP, until 2009, when KTWO began simulcasting its programming over the second digital subchannel of KLWY. KQCK and KDEV-LP eventually parted ways; the latter station eventually switched to MyNetworkTV and then Me-TV before shutting down in 2012.
In January 2010, KQCK joined the Spanish language network VasalloVision. KQCK was acquired by Casa Media Partners in April 2012. The station subsequently switched its affiliation to MundoFox on August 13, 2012; in late 2014, KQCK dropped MundoFox for the Christian Television Network. Casa Media Partners filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on April 14, 2015. On January 9, 2017, CTN's parent company, the Christian Television Corporation, agreed to purchase KQCK outright; the sale was completed on June 30, 2017.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP Short NameProgramming
39.11080iKQCK TVMain KQCK programming / CTN
39.2480iCTNiCTNi
39.3480iCTNCTN national feed
39.4480iLifestyLifeStyle Family TV

Analog-to-digital conversion

KQCK shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 33, on June 27, 2008, as a result of an equipment failure that forced the station to shut down the analog signal; however, it continued to transmit its programming over its digital signal and on cable via a direct-to-studio transmission link. Due to the cost of repairing the analog facilities, and the proximity of the end of the digital television transition, KQCK requested to permanently shut down its analog transmissions. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 11. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 33.
In May 2017, KQCK changed its virtual channel from 33 to 39, to match translator station KQDK-CD.