KUSA-TV

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KUSA-TV
Denver, Colorado
Slogan	Where News Comes First / Colorado's News Leader station_branding = 9NEWS
Channels	9 (VHF) analog, 16 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	NBC (secondary 1952-53, primary 1995-present) NBC Weather Plus (on DT2)
Owner	Gannett
Founded	October 12, 1952
Call letters meaning	K United States of America
Former affiliations	ABC (1952-95, secondary until 1953) CBS (1952-53))
Transmitter Power	316 kW/320 m(analog) 80 kW/303 m (digital)
Website	9news.com

KUSA-TV is the NBC affiliated television station in Denver, Colorado; broadcasting on VHF channel 9 (187.25 MHz video / 191.75 MHz audio). The station is owned by Gannett. KUSA, which is known on-air as "9 NEWS", is sister station to KTVD channel 20, Denver's MyNetworkTV affiliate. KTVD is housed and operated out of KUSA's high definition studios. KUSA's transmitter is located in Golden, Colorado.

KUSA produces nearly 49 hours of local news a week. It is currently the only Denver station that broadcasts local news in HDTV. KUSA also owns the market's first high definition helicopter, "SKY 9", which it shares with KOA-AM. KUSA produces two weekday and five weekend newscasts for its sister station, KTVD.

Contents 1 History 2 News Operations 3 Translators 3.1 Newscasts 4 News Team 4.1 Former Personalities 5 Trivia 6 Past Logos 7 External links

[edit] History

The station first went on the air on October 12, 1952 as KBTV, the second television station in the state of Colorado (KFEL-TV, now KWGN-TV, also in Denver, was first by about three months). It was owned by Mullins Broadcasting. The station carried programming from CBS, ABC and NBC, but was a primary CBS affiliate. Channel 9 lost CBS to KLZ-TV (now KMGH-TV) in November 1953 and lost NBC to KOA-TV (now KCNC-TV on Christmas Eve of that year, leaving it as an ABC affiliate. The station struggled in the ratings for some years, in part because ABC was not on par with the other major networks until the 1970s.

In 1979, the station was sold to Combined Communications, and it became a Gannett-owned station later that year, following the merger of Gannett and Combined. The station changed its call letters to the current KUSA-TV on March 19, 1984.

In 1995, Denver's longtime NBC affiliate, KCNC, became a CBS affiliate as a result of a complex ownership/affiliation deal between Westinghouse, NBC and CBS. At the same time, McGraw-Hill, owner of longtime CBS affiliate KMGH, cut an affiliation deal with ABC. As a result, KUSA joined NBC on September 10, 1995.

In April of 2004, KUSA became the first television station in the Denver market & the first ever Gannett owned station to produce newscasts in high definition, and the third such station nationally. Since then, a handful of other Gannett stations are now producing newscasts in High Definition (HD or HDTV), including: KARE in Minneapolis - St. Paul, MN (debuted in April of 2006), KSDK in St. Louis, MO, KPNX in Phoenix, AZ, WKYC in Cleveland, OH, WUSA in Washington D.C., WXIA in Atlanta, GA, and KXTV in Sacramento, CA (KXTV currently produces Sacramento Kings NBA games, Friday Night Football highlights, and "California Postcard" reports in HD. There has been no official word yet on when KXTV's newscasts will convert to full HD.) All are NBC affiliates, except WUSA, which is a CBS affiliate, and KXTV, which is with ABC. Other Gannett owned and operated television stations with news departments are expected to follow suit.

In April of 2005, KUSA started broadcasting NBC Weather Plus on its DT2 digital subchannel and Comcast digital cable channel 249. Weather Plus can also be viewed on KUSA's website.

[edit] News Operations

KUSA's newscasts, which are known as "9NEWS", has been the ratings leader in Denver since February of 1976, when Ed Sardella and John Rayburn anchored the weekday edition of 9News at 10 PM to the top of the ratings. Rayburn was later succeeded by Mike Landess in 1977, who would remain paired with Sardella as one of Denver's top anchor teams for 16 years until leaving for KUSA's sister station WXIA-TV in Atlanta in late 1993. Sardella retired from the anchor desk in 2000, but returned briefly to replace Jim Benemann, who had returned to KCNC-TV. Landess, after anchoring at WTTG in Washington D.C., returned to Denver on rival KMGH-TV.

On September 5, 2006, KUSA launched a daily half-hour 9 PM newscast on sister station KTVD, to coincide with that station's affiliation switch from UPN to MyNetworkTV. On December 5, 2006, KUSA launched a 2 hour extension of its weekday morning newscast on KTVD. KUSA now produces weekend morning newscasts at 6 AM on KTVD. Since June of 2005, in addition to its main studios on Downtown Denver, KUSA has been operating a "Northern Newsrooom" out of the offices of Fort Collins based Fort Collins Coloradoan newspaper. The newsroom is staffed by photo journalist Gary Wolfe & Reporter Adam Chodak. The station also operates a "Mountain Newsroom" in Frisco. KUSA has the distinction of being one of two stations in the U.S. that requires anchors and reporters to wear a lapel pin with the "9" logo on it. The other station to do this is KABC in Los Angeles, CA in which anchors wear a lapel pin with the Circle 7 logo. The station's radar is called "HD Doppler 9".

[edit] Translators

The Denver market includes large portions of Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming. KUSA serves this vast area with one of the largest translator networks in the country.

• K41EV - Akron
• K49EX - Anton
• K02FW - Ashcroft
• K19FH - Ashcroft
• K06HU - Aspen
• K06BX - Axial Basin
• K07KR - Basalt
• K59BZ - Broadmoor
• K59AP - Bethune/Burlington

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[edit] Newscasts

Weekdays

• 9 NEWS Daybreak (5-6 AM)
• 9 NEWS 6 AM (6-7 AM)
• 9 NEWS Morning's at 7 AM on My 20 (7-8 AM on KTVD)
• 9 NEWS Morning's at 8 AM on My 20 (8-9 AM on KTVD)
• 9 NEWS at Noon (12-12:30 PM)
• 4 O'Clock at 9 NEWS (4-5 PM)
• 9 NEWS at 5 PM (5-5:30 PM)
• 9 NEWS at 6 PM (6-6:30 PM)
• 9 NEWS at 9 PM on My 20 (9-9:30 PM on KTVD)
• 9 NEWS at 10 PM (10-10:35 PM)

Saturday

• 9 NEWS Saturday Morning on My 20 (6-7 AM on KTVD)
• 9 NEWS Saturday Morning (7-9 AM)
• 9 NEWS at 5 PM (5-6 PM)
• 9 NEWS at 9 PM on My 20 (9-9:30 PM on KTVD)
• 9 NEWS at 10 PM (10-10:35 PM)

Sundays

• 9 NEWS Sunday Morning on My 20 (6-7 AM on KTVD)
• 9 NEWS Sunday Morning (7-9 AM)
• 9 NEWS at 5 PM
• 9 NEWS at 9 PM on My 20 (9-9:30 PM on KTVD)
• 9 NEWS at 10 PM (10-10:35 PM)
• Overtime (10:35-11:05 PM) (weekly sports replay)

[edit] News Team

Anchors

• Gary Shapiro - weekday mornings and Noon
• Kyle Dyer - weekday mornings and Noon
• Mark Koebrich - 4 PM weekdays, 9 PM on KTVD weekdays, reporter
• Kim Christiansen - 4 PM weekdays, reporter
• Bob Kendrick - 5 PM, 6 PM, and 10 PM weekdays
• Adele Arakawa - 5 PM, 6 PM, and 10 PM weekdays
• Shawn Patrick - weekend mornings, reporter
• Cheryl Preheim - weekend mornings, reporter
• Ward Lucas - weekend evenings, investigative reporter
• Bazi Kanani - weekend evenings, 9 PM on KTVD weekdays and weekends, reporter
• Kirk Montgomery -4pm weekdays,9pm weekdays on KTVD, Anchor

Meteorologists

• Kathy Sabine - chief forecaster (Official Title), chief meteorologist (On Air Title) , seen weekday evenings (provides daily weather forcasts on KOA-AM 850, KHOW AM 630, the Denver Post, and the Fort Collins Coloradoan)
• Nick Carter - weekday mornings/noon
• Marty Coniglio - weekend evenings
• Ashton Altieri- weekend mornings and NBC Weather Plus meteorologist

Sports

• Drew Soicher - weekday evenings
• Susie Wargin - weekday mornings
• Rod Mackey - weekend evenings
• Brian Joyce- sports reporter

Reporters

• Anastasiya Bolton
• Adam Chodak -Northern News Room Reporter
• Carrie McClure
• Quynh Nguyen
• Chris Vanderveen
• Deborah Sherman - investigative reporter
• Paula Woodward - investigative reporter
• Taunia Hottman - SKY9 reporter seen weekday mornings& weekday afternoons
• Kirk Montgomery - 4 PM weekday entertainment reporter, fill in anchor, 9pm Weekdays
• Matt Renoux - Mountain Newsroom reporter
• Nelson Garcia - education / technology reporter
• Gregg Moss - weekday morning business reporter
• Adam Schrager - legislative reporter

Photo Journalists

• Brett Alles
• Matt Arnold
• Don Brookins
• Tom Cole
• Dave Delozier
• Dennis Dolan
• Anne Herbst
• Eric Kehe
• John Kuhrt
• Anna Mitchell
• Ken Mostek
• Brian Olson
• Byron Reed
• Corky Scholl
• Manny Sotelo
• Dan Weaver
• Brian Willie
• Gary Wolfe
• Dan Wood
• Scott Wright

[edit] Former Personalities

• Jim Benemann- Anchor (2000-2003) Now with KCNC
• Tom Costello - reporter, (early 1990s, now with NBC News as a correspondent for NBC Nightly News and MSNBC)
• Frank Currier - anchor/reporter (1972-1979)
• Ed Green - meteorologist
• Leanne Gregg - reporter (1996-2000, now with NBC's NEWS CHANNEL)
• Jinah Kim - reporter (now with NBC's Nightly News)
• Bill Kuster - weather anchor (1979-96, deceased)
• Mike Landess - anchor (1977-93, now with KMGH)
• Anita Lopez - anchor/reporter, now working as a real estate broker in Boulder CO, as well as Anchoring the Comcast Local Edition on CNN Headline News.
• Bertha Lynn - reporter (1976-81, now with KMGH)
• Cristina Mendosa - anchor/reporter (1991-1997, now at sister station KXTV)
• Mike Nelson - meteorologist (1991-2004, now with KMGH)
• Nick O'Kelly - meteorologist (2004-2007, left to do some things on his own & go into Private Business.)
• Ed Sardella - anchor (1974-2004, now retired)
• Roger Wolfe - Northern newsroom reporter (1985-June 2006)
• Chip Yost - Investivative Reporter (2004-2005, now with KNBC and NBC's NEWS CHANNEL)
• Ron Zappolo - sports anchor (1990-2000, now a news anchor with KDVR)

[edit] Trivia

• When NBC partnered with Pax TV in the late 1990s, 9 NEWS rebroadcasted its 6:00 and 10:00PM newscasts Monday through Friday on KPXC-TV. This ended in 2005, when NBC ended its agreement with Pax.

• The weather forecasts are typically performed outside, in the "9Back Yard". The back yard is simply a courtyard, with 2 chroma key (bluescreen) walls and a robo cam. Weather forecasts for "The Today Show" and updates on NBC WeatherPlus are done in the studio.

• Starting on March 11,2007 9NEWS Started Closing there News Cast's by showing the "9NEWS NETWORKS" Which are 9NEWS.COM,9NEWS NOW,WEATHER PLUS,& MY20.

[edit] Past Logos

[edit] External links

• KUSA-TV Web site
• KTVD-TV Web site
• Gannett Broadcasting Web site
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KUSA

v • d • e Broadcast Television stations in the Denver market  (Nielsen DMA #18)
KWGN 2 (The CW) - KCNC 4 (CBS) - KRMA 6 (PBS/RMPBS) - KMGH 7 (ABC) - KUSA 9 (NBC) - KBDI 12 (PBS) - KTFD 14 / KDVT-LP 36 (TFU) - KTVD 20 / KUPN 3 (MNTV) - KDEN 25 (TMD) - KZCO 27 (AZA) - KDVR 31 / KFCT 22 (Fox) - KDEV-LP 39 (RTN) - KRMT 41 (DS) - KCEC 50 (UNI) - KWHD 53 (LeSEA) - KPXC 59 (ION)
Outlying Areas: KTNE 13 / KRNE 12 (PBS/NET) - K36DB 36 (RSN) - K45IE 45 (RSN)
Local cable television channels
Altitude - CET - FSN Rocky Mountain
See also Broadcast television in the Cheyenne market