KTVD - History

History

Prior to KTVD's sign on, the channel 20 allocation in Denver was occupied by the early UHF station KHBC. The station went dark due to low viewership the result of the Federal Communications Commission not yet requiring television sets to have built-in UHF tuners. A later construction permit for a planned station using the callsign KIRV that would have operated on the same channel expired without any station signing on.

KTVD first went on the air on April 11, 1988 as a general entertainment independent station featuring classic cartoons and sitcoms, old movies and religious programming. The station lost money over its first two years on the air, and its original owners filed the station for bankruptcy in August 1990. At one point, the station only had a few low-budget shows, religious programs and infomercials. The station began to turn a profit with the paid programming that aired, and gradually added a number of barter syndicated shows, such as cartoons, some older sitcoms and first-run talk shows. KTVD was purchased by Newsweb Corporation in March 1994, operating under the licensee of Channel 20 TV Company, and emerged out of bankruptcy.

On January 16, 1995, KTVD became a charter affiliate of the upstart United Paramount Network. Channel 20 TV Company acquired KTVS (channel 3) out of Sterling in 1999, and converted it into a satellite station of KTVD, changing its callsign to KUPN in 2002 to reflect its UPN affiliation. In 2003, the station became the local broadcast home for the Colorado Rockies Major League Baseball franchise, the station lost the rights to the games in 2009.

On December 15, 2005, Newsweb Corporation announced the sale of KTVD to the Gannett Company, despite rumors that Fox Television Stations (which owned KDVR at the time locally, and is current owner of former Chicago sister station WPWR-TV) would purchase the station to create a duopoly with KDVR; the transaction was finalized on June 26, 2006. Newsweb retained possession of KUPN, and converted it into an independent station in June 2006.

On January 24, 2006, Time Warner and CBS Corporation would consolidated the operations of The WB and UPN (which CBS acquired one month earlier in December 2005 following its split from Viacom), to jointly-own a new "fifth" network called The CW Television Network. As part of the announcement, the network signed a ten-year affiliation agreement with Tribune Broadcasting for 13 of the 16 WB affiliates that the company owned at the time, with WB affiliate KWGN-TV named as the network's Denver charter affiliate. Nearly one month later on February 22, News Corporation announced a new competing network, MyNetworkTV, which would be run by its Fox Television Stations and Twentieth Television units. Gannett Company signed an affiliation agreement to make KTVD MyNetworkTV's Denver area affiliate on July 12, 2006, officially affiliating with the network upon its September 5, 2006 launch.

KTVD is one of the few MyNetworkTV affiliates that broadcasts its programming in the 1080i high definition format, rather than the network's native 720p resolution. As of March 2012, the KTVD website is now a beta site based on the Gannett website design used by KUSA with MyNetworkTV's video player and the station's logo.