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| Channels | |
| Branding | 9 News |
| Programming | |
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| Ownership | |
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| KTVD | |
| History | |
First air date | October 12, 1952 (73 years ago) (1952-10-12) |
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Call sign meaning |
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| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 23074 |
| ERP | 45kW |
| HAAT | 352.4 m (1,156 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 39°43′50.6″N105°13′55.6″W / 39.730722°N 105.232111°W /39.730722; -105.232111 |
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Public license information | |
| Website | www |
KUSA (channel 9) is atelevision station inDenver, Colorado, United States, affiliated withNBC. It is owned byTegna Inc. alongsideMyNetworkTV affiliateKTVD (channel 20). The two stations share studios on East Speer Boulevard in Denver'sSpeer neighborhood; KUSA's transmitter is located atopLookout Mountain, nearGolden. In addition to its main studios, the station also operates a secondary studio andnews bureau on Canyon Avenue inFort Collins.
Following theFederal Communications Commission (FCC)'s "freeze" on new television station licenses in 1948, Colorado politicians, including SenatorsEdwin C. Johnson andEugene Millikin, formally protested the commission's proposed allocations for the state. They argued that limiting Denver to threeVHF channels would stifle competition and requested additional allocations.[3][4] When the FCC lifted the freeze in April 1952, the Colorado Television Corporation—owner of radio stationKVOD (now KHOW)—applied for the channel 9 license on June 19, 1952. The corporation was capitalized at $1 million and led by W. D. Pyle and T. C. Ekrem; major stockholders includedAksel Nielsen (president of the Denver Chamber of Commerce), oilman Maurice Robineau, and former Colorado Attorney GeneralGail Ireland.[5][6]
Initially, the application for channel 9 was contested by the Empire Coil Company ofNew Rochelle, New York. However, Empire Coil amended its application to seekUHF channel 26 instead, wishing to avoid a lengthy competitive hearing.[7] Consequently, on July 11, 1952, the FCC granted construction permits to the Colorado Television Corporation (channel 9),KFEL-TV (channel 2), and Empire Coil (channel 26). These were among the first television grants issued by the government in nearly four years.[8][9]
Following the grant, station officials initially projected a 90-day timeline to get on the air.[10] In August 1952, the company hired Joe Herold, a former technical director forWOW inOmaha, Nebraska, and consultant for stations inBrazil andCuba, as the station manager. Jerry Lee was appointed commercial manager, while Ekrem traveled to New York to negotiate a network affiliation.[11][12] Although the station was informally referred to as KVOD-TV in the press throughout the summer, the FCC officially assigned the call letters KBTV on September 11, 1952.[13]
Construction of the station's transmitter building and the erection of a 75-foot (23 m) six-bay antenna took place onLookout Mountain in September 1952, located directly south of the transmitter for KFEL-TV, which had launched in July.[14] While the station set a firm launch date of September 29, delays in the delivery of a 2,000-watt amplifier from theRadio Corporation of America forced a postponement.[15][16] Further technical difficulties with the transmitter stalled attempts to air a test pattern on September 30 and October 1.[17]
KBTV began broadcasting test patterns on October 2, 1952, operating under a special temporary authority from the FCC.[18] The station officially commenced regular commercial programming at 2:15 p.m. on October 12, 1952. It was the second television station to sign on in the Denver market, launching just over three months after KFEL-TV (channel 2, nowKWGN-TV), which had signed on July 18.[19][20] The first program aired on the station wasQuiz Kids at 2:30 p.m. Upon its debut, KBTV served as a primary affiliate for both the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) and theAmerican Broadcasting Company (ABC), carrying a slate of programming that includedSuper Circus andWhat's My Line?.[21]
Weeks after its launch, KBTV participated in the first coast-to-coast television coverage of a presidential election on November 4, 1952. The station utilized feeds from both CBS and ABC to broadcast returns for the race betweenDwight D. Eisenhower andAdlai Stevenson II.[22][23] The station's high-altitude transmitter site on Lookout Mountain proved vulnerable to severe weather and technical faults during its early years. Viewers reported outages during the election cycle due to transmitter difficulties, and severe electrical storms and high winds caused power failures and equipment misalignment in August and December 1953.[24][25][26]
Originally operating from studios at 1100 California Street, the station purchased a 30,000-square-foot (2,800 m2) building—a former automobile agency and car dealership—at 1089 Bannock Street in November 1952. Operations moved to the new facility in May 1953.[27] In July 1953, KBTV increased its effective radiated power to 240,000 watts, the maximum permitted for the channel at the time.[28]
The Denver television market underwent a significant realignment in late 1953 with the launch ofKLZ-TV (Channel 7) andKOA-TV (Channel 4). Channel 9 gained an affiliation with theDuMont Television Network in 1953, but lost CBS programming to KLZ-TV when that station signed on in November of that year; this was followed by the loss of the NBC affiliation to KOA-TV when it signed on a month later (both KLZ-TV and KOA-TV inherited the affiliations as a result of their sister radio stations' respective longtime affiliations with theCBS Radio Network and theNBC Red Network). This left KBTV as a primary DuMont and secondary ABC affiliate. It would become a full-time ABC affiliate when DuMont ceased operations in 1956.[29] To adapt to the loss of network programming during this transition, station management emphasized local productions. In February 1953, the station began airing a weekly program sponsored by theDenver Bears baseball team.[30] Long before the establishment of theDenver Broncos, KBTV served as the outlet forNational Football League games, broadcastingChicago Bears andChicago Cardinals home games on Sundays.[31]
The station also engaged in significant public service efforts early on. In April 1953, KBTV broadcast a 14-hour telethon forUnited Cerebral Palsy, featuring national personalities likeDennis James and raising $125,000. The event became an annual tradition, with the second iteration in 1954 featuringWarren Hull and utilizing over 1,000 volunteers.[32][33] However, local programming did not always meet with viewer approval. In January 1954, a broadcast of a horse show and rodeo drew complaints for excessive interruptions by commercials and interviews. Station producer Everett Wren publicly acknowledged the criticism, stating the station was still learning how to balance coverage for such events.[34]
In late 1953, amidst public speculation about the arrival ofcolor broadcasting, KBTV aired a five-week series titledDebunking Color. The program, moderated by station executives and electrical league officials, was designed to explain the technical and economic obstacles remaining before color television could become a reality in Denver.[35][36]
In March 1955, the FCC approved the sale of KBTV from the Colorado Television Company to TV Denver, Inc. for $900,000. The new ownership group was led by John C. Mullins ofTulsa, Oklahoma, and Frank R. Leu ofNashville, Tennessee, each holding a 50 percent interest. The sale separated the television station from its original radio partner, KVOD.[37] Under Mullins' ownership (later organized as Mullins Broadcasting), the station would eventually form a radio news partnership with KBTR (nowKNUS) that lasted until the mid-1980s. Upon taking over in 1955, Mullins faced a station losing approximately $25,000 per month. He implemented changes that eventually turned the operation profitable, with the station's valuation reportedly rising to $3.5 million by 1958.[38] The ownership structure shifted again in 1956 when Leu petitioned the FCC to transfer his 50 percent interest to the New York–based real estate firmWebb & Knapp, headed byWilliam Zeckendorf. Under this arrangement, Zeckendorf became chairman of the board while Mullins remained president.[39]
During this period, the station explored relocating its facilities. In late 1955, KBTV abandoned a $100,000 remodeling project at its Bannock Street studios amid rumors of a move to the Courthouse Square development.[40] By 1957, plans were announced to move the station's studios into the Denver Hilton hotel (now the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel), then under construction by Zeckendorf's firm. The proposed facility was to occupy 34,000 square feet (3,200 m2) on two sub-surface levels.[41] However, in April 1959, these plans were canceled when the hotel space was reallocated for a ballroom and exhibit hall. Consequently, Mullins announced that the station would instead remodel and expand its existing headquarters at 1089 Bannock Street.[42]
In November 1955, KBTV entered a partnership withThe Denver Post to produce a daily afternoon news segment. The program featuredPost editors and reporters presenting stories directly from the newspaper's newsroom, a collaboration described by publisher Palmer Hoyt as a "joint endeavor" between competing media.[43] The station also expanded its local coverage with the launch ofCrime Report, Denver in 1956 and the first televised coverage of theLakeside Amusement Park fireworks display that July.[44][45] In January 1957, KBTV began broadcasting daily highlights of theNational Western Stock Show. This marked the beginning of a broadcasting tradition that the station (now KUSA) has continued annually to the present day.[46] In April 1959, the station secured rights to televise nine Denver Bears baseball games, utilizing a five-camera setup to boost interest in the team.[47]
As an ABC affiliate, KBTV benefited from the network's ratings surge in the late 1950s, driven by the popularity of westerns such asMaverick.[48] However, the station drew significant viewer ire in March 1959 during a broadcast of a championship fight betweenArchie Moore andHogan Bassey. When the fight ended abruptly in the 13th round, the station cut away to a scheduled block of local commercials rather than showing the official decision or explaining the fight's conclusion, leading to a deluge of complaints.[49]
In September 1957, Mullins submitted an informal application to the Denver City Council seeking authority to introduce asubscription television service. The proposal outlined potential delivery methods, including wire systems or scrambled air signals, to offer exclusive programming such as major sports and theatrical productions.[50] Like other Denver stations, KBTV's operations were severely impacted by a massive blizzard in April 1957. A power line failure on Lookout Mountain knocked the station off the air for nearly 20 hours, with engineers snowshoeing into the transmitter site to restore operations.[51] Tragedy struck the technical staff the following year; in December 1958, engineer Joe Pershin died of a cerebral hemorrhage while installing microwave equipment on a rooftop for a remote telecast.[52]
In 1972, Mullins Broadcasting sold KBTV and sister stationKARK-TV (channel 4) inLittle Rock, Arkansas, to the Combined Communications Corporation, owned jointly byPhoenix advertising mogulKarl Eller andChicago advertiser John J. Louis Sr., which already owned its flagship advertising business and stationsKTAR-AM and KTAR-TV (channel 12, nowKPNX-TV).[53] Combined's station properties would eventually be merged into theGannett Company seven years later in May 1978, in what was the largest media merger in United States history at the time.[54][55]
In order to align itself with Gannett's new newspaper entityUSA Today, the station changed its call letters to KUSA-TV on March 19, 1984 (Minneapolis–Saint Paul sister station WTCN underwent a similar rebranding in 1985, when it changed its call letters to WUSA; however, after Gannett purchasedWashington, D.C. station WDVM-TV in 1986, it moved theWUSA call letters to its newly acquired station; the Minneapolis station that originally held the WUSA calls was renamedKARE-TV). TheKBTV call letters are now at a station inBeaumont, Texas. In April 1992, KUSA moved its operations into a new state-of-the-art facility at 500 Speer Boulevard (the original studio location was subsequently occupied byPBS member stationKRMA-TV (channel 6)).
On July 14, 1994, as a result of an affiliation agreement between theE. W. Scripps Company and ABC that was spurred byFox's affiliation deal withNew World Communications, CBS andWestinghouse Broadcasting (Group W) agreed to a long-term affiliation deal that saw longtime ABC affiliateWJZ-TV inBaltimore and longtime NBC affiliatesKYW-TV inPhiladelphia andWBZ-TV inBoston become CBS affiliates. Westinghouse's other two stations,KDKA-TV inPittsburgh andKPIX-TV inSan Francisco, were already longtime CBS affiliates.[56] That November, NBC traded KCNC-TV, which was the network'sowned-and-operated station at the time, to CBS in return for CBS' former O&O in Philadelphia,WCAU, as a result of a complex ownership deal between the network, Westinghouse and NBC.[57] CBS had originally planned to sell WCAU to NBC as part of its plan to move its affiliation to KYW-TV, but discovered that an outright sale would incur heavycapital gains taxes on proceeds from the deal. To make the transaction a legal trade, the network swapped ownership of KCNC-TV andKUTV inSalt Lake City (which NBC had acquired earlier that year), along with the VHF channel 4 frequency and transmitter inMiami (then home toWTVJ), to CBS in exchange for WCAU and the channel 6 frequency in Miami (then home to WCIX, which subsequently becameWFOR-TV).[57] NBC then signed an affiliation agreement with KUSA, bypassing Denver's incumbent CBS affiliate, KMGH-TV.[58]
Gannett then signed a multi-station affiliation agreement with NBC that included KUSA. This resulted in all three of Denver's "Big Three" stations swapping affiliations at 12:07 a.m. on September 10, 1995, which resulted in KUSA switching to NBC, KMGH switching to ABC, and KCNC switching to CBS; Westinghouse had purchased CBS in a group deal one month before, making KCNC a CBS owned-and-operated station when the deal was finalized on November 24 of that year.[59] The final ABC program to air on channel 9 was a repeat of theABC Saturday Night at the Movies featureGremlins 2: The New Batch, on September 9, 1995.
In July 1996,Rapid City NBC affiliateKEVN-TV opted to join Fox, leaving theBlack Hills region ofSouth Dakota without a full-power NBC affiliate. As a result, most cable providers in that region began piping in KUSA. Channel 9 served as themarket's default NBC affiliate until 1998, whenKNBN-LP signed on as the network's new affiliate for the Black Hills region; that station was not carried on cable until it was upgraded to full-power asKNBN on May 14, 2000.
In August 2007, KUSA began the "9NEWS High School Hotshots Program", which awarded one of twelve student athletes from Colorado's high schools nominated for their academic excellence, selected by the school's administration and staff that recorded theirhigh school football games; the program has since extended to cover winter sports at the schools.
Like many Gannett stations, KUSA dropped the "-TV" suffix ten days after the official digital television transition date of June 12, 2009, although KUSA had made the transition to digital-exclusive broadcasts nearly two months earlier.
Around the first week of October 2012, Gannett entered adispute againstDish Network regardingcompensation fees and Dish's AutoHop commercial-skip feature on its Hopperdigital video recorders. Gannett ordered that Dish discontinue AutoHop on the account that it is affecting advertising revenues for KUSA and KTVD, thus taking a big chunk out of the pockets of potential advertisers in the Rocky Mountains. Gannett threatened to pull all of its stations (including KUSA and KTVD) should the skirmish continue beyond October 7 and Dish and Gannett fail to reach an agreement.[60][61] The two parties eventually reached an agreement after extending the deadline for a few hours.[62]
On June 29, 2015, the Gannett Company split in two, with one side specializing in print media and the other side specializing in broadcast and digital media. KUSA and KTVD were retained by the latter company, namedTegna.[63]
On August 19, 2025,Nexstar Media Group agreed to acquire Tegna for $6.2 billion.[1] In Denver, Nexstar already ownsKDVR and KWGN-TV.[64]
KUSA clears the entire NBC schedule, although it airs thefourth hour ofToday one hour later than most NBC affiliates at 11 a.m., and until September 2022, airedDays of Our Lives (now streaming exclusively onPeacock) at 2 p.m. (the secondary slot to NBC's primary recommended 1 p.m. timeslot), with syndicated programs airing in the preceding hour (Days aired on KUSA at 3 p.m. upon joining NBC in 1995 and continued to air in that slot until the fall of 2003, when it acquiredEllen and movedDays to 1 p.m., where it remained until the 2007 cancellation ofPassions).[65] It also airs NBC'sHeart of a Champion on Wednesday afternoons instead of the show's recommended early Saturday afternoon time slot (most NBC stations air it at 12:30 p.m. on Saturdays).
The station struggled in the ratings for several years, in part because ABC's overall ratings were not on par with the other major networks until the 1970s. The station lost the DuMont affiliation when the network shut down on August 6, 1956, which left the station as an exclusive ABC affiliate. In 1969, the station gained some national attention for refusing to air the ABCsketch comedy seriesTurn-On as the network's affiliates east of theRocky Mountains voiced displeasure about the program's risqué content during the airing of thepilot episode, with some pulling the program off the air during its broadcast, leading to itscancellation by the network after just one episode.
On the day KUSA joined NBC, it took over KCNC's role as the default home station for the Denver Broncos (who are part of theAFC, which NBC held the broadcast rights to then, channel 4 had aired most Broncos games from1965 until the1995 season-opening game a week before the switch), but would only hold this role for only three seasons; however, channel 9 did air the Broncos' firstSuper Bowl victory inSuper Bowl XXXII in 1998 (it also happened to be the last Broncos game aired on the station [and the last NFL game for NBC] for eight years); after this, KCNC, thanks to CBS' acquisition of the AFC broadcast rights, resumed its role as the home station of the team. Since2006, Broncos games are aired on channel 9 when they are shown on NBC'sSunday Night Football. KUSA also aired anyDenver Nuggets contests via theNBA on NBC from 1995 to 2002, andColorado Avalanche games via theNHL on NBC from 2006 to 2021.
KUSA produces a daily lifestyle program calledColorado & Company, that features paid segments by local companies and made its debut in September 2004; it airs at 10 a.m. following the third hour ofToday.Colorado & Company was rebroadcast onKPXC-TV (channel 59) from its debut, until the conclusion of NBC's affiliate partnership and partial ownership ofPax TV in June 2005. KUSA ran the Gannett ID and sounder (often colloquially nicknamed the "Death Star") at the end of the station's weeknight 6 p.m. newscasts from 1994 to 2011; in June 2011, KUSA began to show Gannett's new corporate ID tag at the end of all of the station's newscasts, except for the weekday morning programs; as of December 2015, they show Tegna's ID after all of their newscasts.
Beginning with the2024–25 NBA season and the2024–25 NHL season, sister station KTVD-TV reached an agreement withAltitude Sports and Entertainment to simulcast 20 Denver Nuggets games and 20 Colorado Avalanche games. Ten games will also be simulcast on KUSA.[66] This will be in addition to any games selected for broadcast on Tuesday nights when NBC's NBA contract begins in the 2025–26 season. KTVD would later agree to simulcast tenColorado Rockies games produced byMLB Local Media in the2025 MLB season, with five of those scheduled for simulcast on KUSA.[67]
KUSA presently broadcasts a total of 45 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with6+3⁄5 hours on weekdays,4+0⁄0 hours on Saturdays and four hours on Sundays); this does not account for newscasts aired on KTVD (Combined however,9 News broadcasts55+1⁄2 hours of local news, and has the second highest local newscast output in the state of Colorado behind Nexstar's KDVR and KWGN combined). The station also provides daily weather forecasts for the formerly co-ownedFort Collins Coloradoan newspaper. Until November 2016, KUSA provided local weather updates for six radio stations owned byEntercom:KQMT (99.5 FM),KALC (105.9 FM),K276FK (103.1 FM),KQKS (107.5 FM),KKSE (950 AM) andKEZW (1430 AM); this partnership began on January 1, 2008, after the station's agreement to provide forecasts forKOA (850 AM) radio ended. Weather segments during the station's newscasts are typically presented in the "9 Back Yard", acourtyard outside the Speer Boulevard studios that features achroma key wall and robotic camera (local weather inserts forThe Today Show and updates for 9NEWS Now are done from a chroma key wall inside the weather center).
In addition to its main studios in downtown Denver, KUSA operates a "Northern Newsroom" that based out of theColoradoan offices in Fort Collins; the bureau employs a rotating staff of reporters and photojournalists out of Denver. The station also operates a "Mountain Newsroom" based inSilverthorne. The station'sweather radar is presented on-air as "HD-Doppler 9", a DWSR-10001C radar model supplied byEnterprise Electronics Corporation that is located nearElizabeth and operates at aradiated power of 1 million watts. KUSA brands its websites and sister television properties under the "9NEWS Networks" banner (described by KUSA as its three websites: 9News.com, m.9News.com and HighSchoolSports.net; KTVD (channel 20) and its website; the 9NEWS Now digital subchannel;Metromix;Telemundo owned-and-operated stationKDEN-TV (channel 25, whoseSpanish-language newscasts are produced by KUSA through a news share agreement) and the "9NEWS Weather Call" weather alert service).
For the better part of the last four decades, KUSA's newscasts (currently titled as9NEWS) have dominated Denver's local news ratings. In February 1976, Ed Sardella and John Rayburn anchored the weeknight editions of the 10 p.m. newscast, helping that program overtake longtime leader KMGH-TV for first place in the ratings; Rayburn was succeeded by Mike Landess in 1977. Landess and Sardella would remain as channel 9's top anchor team until Landess left for KUSA'sAtlanta sister stationWXIA-TV in late 1993.Adele Arakawa, who had been an anchor atWBBM-TV in Chicago, was hired to succeed Landess. Sardella retired from the anchor desk in 2000, and was succeeded by Jim Benemann, but returned briefly in 2003 to replace Benemann when he left for KCNC-TV.[68] Landess, after anchoring atWTTG in Washington, D.C., returned to Denver at rival KMGH-TV in 2002.
The "KUSA News Package" (created by Third Street Music) was commissioned by KUSA as the theme music for its newscasts in 1995. Scenes for the NBCmade-for-TV movieAsteroid were shot at the KUSA studios; the producers filmed the fictional news reports seen in the movie out of the station's 1996–2004 news set. On October 15, 2008, KUSA debuted a standardized graphics package for the Gannett stations created by the Gannett Graphics Group, along with a standardized music package composed by Rampage Music New York. The closing cut of the previous theme was last used on February 6, 2009, and the remastered talent bumper cut was used until January 10, 2013 (Minneapolissister station KARE continued to use its own custom theme composed in 1996 by Third Street Music called the "KARE 11 News Theme" until January 25, 2013, when it discontinued it for a new standardized news package by Gari Media Group called "This Is Home"). KUSA formerly rebroadcast its weeknight 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts on KPXC-TV as part of an agreement between NBC and Pax TV to provide news re-broadcasts from the network's stations on Pax'sowned-and-operated stations nationally, which ended in June 2005 upon that network's rebrand to I: Independent Television.
In April 2004, KUSA became the first television station in the Denver market, the first Gannett-owned station and the second U.S. television station to begin producing its local newscasts inhigh definition. On September 5, 2006, KUSA began to produce a daily half-hour prime time newscast at 9 p.m. on sister station KTVD, coinciding with that station's affiliation switch fromUPN toMyNetworkTV; this expanded on December 5, 2006, to include a two-hour extension of KUSA's weekday morning newscast from 7 to 9 a.m. and later to weekend morning newscasts at 6 a.m. on KTVD. During the November 2007sweeps period, KCNC's newscasts surged over KUSA in the 5 p.m. timeslot for the first time in over a decade, that station also overtook KUSA in overall sign-on to sign-off numbers (this is partially due to KCNC's shift towards investigative reports and human interest stories, though the strength of CBS' prime time lineup and viewership declines for NBC prime time also played a factor). Overall, KUSA remains the highest-rated local news outlet in the market despite a very close ratings battle between it, KCNC-TV and KMGH-TV.
On March 6, 2009, KUSA began streaming its noon newscast on the station's website, with a live chat room feature included next to the streaming player (the station now streams all newscasts seen on KUSA and KTVD). In June 2010, KUSA expanded its weekday morning newscast to2+1⁄2 hours with the addition of a half-hour at 4:30 a.m.; the KUSA-produced 9 p.m. newscast on KTVD also expanded to one hour that month. On February 20, 2012, KUSA updated its HD-ready set constructed in 2004 to feature a new backdrop for its daytime newscasts that is a variant of its evening backdrop photograph in a daytime setting. On June 3 of that year, KUSA's newscasts were relocated to a temporary set in "Studio B" for two weeks while their primary news set received updatedduratrans.[69]
In January 2016, KUSA announced that they would be constructing a brand new studio to "better cover and explain the news." The new studio and set, which was completed in March, replaced the previous one, which debuted in 2004. Newscasts were relocated to the news room temporarily before moving to another temporary set.[70]
In 1986, theCommittee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSICOP) presented KUSA anchor and investigative reporter Ward Lucas with theResponsibility in Journalism award, "In recognition of contributions to fair and balanced reporting of paranormal claims".[71]
A newscast from the station (as KBTV) was featured prominently in the 1980Stanley Kubrick filmThe Shining, set in Colorado.[80]
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | KUSA-HD | NBC |
| 9.2 | 480i | Cozi | Cozi TV | |
| 9.3 | Crime | True Crime Network | ||
| 9.5 | Quest | Quest | ||
| 9.6 | NEST | The Nest | ||
| 2.2 | 480i | 16:9 | GetTV | Get (KWGN-TV) |
In April 2005, KUSA began carryingNBC Weather Plus on its seconddigital subchannel (branded as "9NEWS Weather Plus"). OnDecember 31, 2008, following NBC Weather Plus' shutdown, KUSA affiliated the subchannel withThe Local AccuWeather Channel; on May 27, 2013, as part of a multi-station deal between Gannett and the network, KUSA 9.2 switched its affiliation toWeatherNation TV. Digital subchannel 9.2 is carried oncable throughComcast digital channel 249 andCenturyLink Prism channel 10. On August 27, 2017, at noon MDT, KUSA temporarily switched digital subchannel 9.2 from WeatherNation TV to a live feed of aWFAA/KHOU simulcast covering the aftermath ofHurricane Harvey after it flooded theHouston metro area. This simulcast ended on August 31, 2017, at 6:30 p.m. MDT when the subchannel returned to WeatherNation TV. On December 29, 2018, KUSA dropped WeatherNation TV from the channel and switched toCozi TV.
In late January 2015, KUSA began to broadcast a duplicate 1080i signal of their primary digital subchannel (9.1) on theKTVD (RF 31) transmitter as digital subchannel 9.4, "KUSA-HD". This allows viewers with issues receiving KUSA'sVHF signal or with a UHF-only antenna to view KUSA in some form over the air.
KUSA shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 9, on April 16, 2009. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transitionUHF channel 16 to VHF channel 9.[82][83][84]
KUSA operates a large network oftranslators to relay its signal to portions of Colorado,Nebraska andWyoming within and adjacent to the Denver market.
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofColorado | ||
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Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Colorado | ||
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Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Nebraska | ||
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Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofWyoming | ||
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Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Wyoming | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
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| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
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