K49AS - History

History

It originally signed on in September 1954 as Utah's ABC affiliate. In 1960, it joined NBC trading affiliations with KCPX-TV (now KTVX). The original co-owners were Frank C. Carman & Associates and The Salt Lake Tribune owned by the Kearns-Tribune Corporation. The deal was spearheaded by Tribune publisher John F. Fitzpatrick after his experience with two successful investments in local radio, including KSL (radio) and KALL. In 1956 the Carman group sold its interest to A.L. Glasman for the Ogden Standard-Examiner and his son-in-law and daughter, George and Gene Hatch. In the reorganization the Kearns-Tribune Corporation retained thirty-five percent interest until 1970.

In 1994, NBC bought majority control (88%) of KUTV from VS&A Communications Partners (by this point, the Hatch's stake had been reduced to 12%), making it the second owned-and-operated station in Utah. Hoewever, in September 1995, KUTV became a CBS affiliate as part of a complex deal resulting from Westinghouse Broadcasting (Group W)'s affiliation deal with CBS. CBS traded its longtime O&O in Philadelphia, WCAU-TV, to NBC in exchange for KCNC-TV in Denver, with KUTV added to the deal as compensation. NBC and CBS also swapped transmitters in Miami as part of the deal. CBS then sold controlling interest in KUTV to Group W. NBC initially wanted to return to KTVX, but ultimately signed with KSL-TV.

When Group W's owner, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, merged with CBS at the end of 1995, KUTV became a CBS O&O. It is one of the few stations in the country to have been affiliated with all three original television networks, and one of a number to have been owned by two different networks. At the time, KUTV retained one NBC program: Saturday Night Live, which remained in its Saturday 10:30 p.m. time slot until about five months later, when it moved to KUWB (now KUCW).

In 2003, the station moved from a facility in West Valley City to a street-side studio at 299 Main Street in Downtown Salt Lake's Wells Fargo Building. The move was financed in part by the Salt Lake City Redevelopment Agency—in the form of $1.2-million in interest free loans. KUTV's newscasts overlook the street, and many segments take advantage of outdoor camera positions. Nearby Gallivan Center is also featured in some KUTV programming.

Under CBS ownership, KUTV was one of five CBS-O&O stations that did not follow the CBS Mandate, given the fact it is called 2News as opposed to CBS2 (this branding used on sisters WCBS, WBBM and KCBS. The other five are WCCO in Minneapolis-St. Paul - branded as WCCO 4, KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh - branded as simply KDKA-TV or KDKA-TV 2 (there is a CBS2 logo but residents of Pittsburgh would be upset had this been used "over-the-air"), WJZ in Baltimore - branded as WJZ 13, WBZ in Boston, branded as simply WBZ, and WWJ-TV in Detroit, branded simply as WWJTV.

On February 7, 2007, CBS Corporation reached an agreement to sell seven of its smaller-market stations, including KUTV and what was then KUSG, to Cerberus Capital Management, L.P., for $185 million. Cerberus then formed a new holding company for the stations, Four Points Media Group, who took over the operation of the stations through local marketing agreements in late-June 2007. Subsequently, the site was moved to kutv.com with an interface somewhat similar to the former CBS version. The sale was finally approved by the FCC in mid-November 2007, and ownership was officially transferred on January 10, 2008.

As of November 26, 2007, KUTV started hosting master control operations for its Providence sister station, The CW affiliate WLWC, which was also acquired by the Four Points Media Group. On February 25, 2008, KUTV added three new stations from West Palm Beach, Florida to this operation, officially becoming the hub network for Four Points. The stations are The CW affiliate WTVX, the MyNetworkTV affiliate WTCN-CA, and Azteca América affiliate WWHB. On March 20, 2009, the Nexstar Broadcasting Group took over the management of all of the Four Points stations, including KUTV, under a three-year outsourcing agreement.

On May 9, 2008 KUTV.com launched KUTV Greener Living a web site focused green businesses and products in Utah; the site also delivers localized environmental and political news.

On September 8, 2011, Cerberus Capital Management announced the sale of the entire Four Points station group to the Sinclair Broadcast Group for $200 million. The fate of the LSA between Four Points and Nexstar is unknown once Sinclair assumes ownership of the stations; at some point in October, Sinclair took over the management of the stations, including KUTV, under local marketing agreements following antitrust approval, until the close of the sale, which is expected in early 2012. The deal was completed on January 1, 2012. However, the Four Points station Web sites remained operated by Nexstar's interactive unit until early February 2012 when they were relaunched through Sinclair's in-house digital interactive unit. (Nexstar would not be out of Utah for long as it purchased current ABC affiliate KTVX and The CW affiliate KUCW from Newport Television later in 2012.)