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. 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. During the late 1950s, KKTV was a primary CBS affiliate and held a secondary affiliation with ABC.
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 (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.
Since Saturday June 23rd, 2012 at around 2:00 p.m. MDT, KKTV 11 has been on-the-air 24/7, providing live continious coverage of the Waldo Canyon Fire in Colorado Springs. Even the station has called in help from KOLN in Lincoln, Nebraska, WOWT in Omaha, Nebraska, KCNC in Denver, and KOLO-TV in Reno, Nevada( sister stations to KKTV 11, KCNC sharing a helicopter with them) to help out with the coverage of the fire that wrapped up at midnight June 29, 130 hours after it started. It's unknown where KKTV 11's syndicated & CBS programming were shown during its 24/7 fire coverage.
KKTV has announced plans to move into a new location on East Colorado Avenue in downtown Colorado Springs. The move is scheduled for early 2013.
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