KUSA (TV)

KUSA

Denver, Colorado
City of license	Denver
Branding	9 NEWS
Slogan	Colorado's High Definition News Leader Everywhere
Channels	Digital: 9 (VHF)
Subchannels	9.1 NBC 9.2 AccuWX
Translators	(see article)
Affiliations	NBC (secondary, 1952-1953; primary 1995-present)
Owner	Gannett Company (Multimedia Holdings Corporation)
First air date	October 12, 1952
Call letters' meaning	United States of America USA Today (also owned by Gannett)
Sister station(s)	KTVD, KDEN-TV
Former callsigns	KBTV (1952-1984)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 9 (VHF, 1952-2009) Digital: 16 (UHF, 1997-2009)
Former affiliations	CBS (1952-1953) DuMont (1953-1956) ABC (1952-1995; secondary until 1956) NBC Weather Plus (DT2, 2005-2008)
Transmitter power	45 kW
Height	352.4 m
Facility ID	23074
Transmitter coordinates	39°43′50″N 105°13′53″W / 39.73056°N 105.23139°W / 39.73056; -105.23139
Website	9NEWS.com

KUSA, channel 9, is an NBC-affiliated television station in Denver, Colorado. KUSA is owned by the Gannett Company, and is a sister station to MyNetworkTV affiliate KTVD (channel 20). Both stations share studio facilities in Denver, and KUSA's transmitter is atop Lookout Mountain in Golden, Colorado.

Digital programming

Digital channels

Virtual Channel	Video	Aspect	Programming
9.1	1080i	16:9	Main KUSA programming / NBC
9.2	480i	4:3	"9 News Weather Plus"

The station also carried Universal Sports on 9.3 until January 10, 2011, when it moved to KTVD-DT2 to even out the bandwidth between both stations.

Analog-to-digital conversion

On April 16, 2009, KUSA remained on channel 9 when the analog to digital conversion was completed.^[1][2]

History

As a primary ABC affiliate

The station first went on the air on October 12, 1952 as KBTV, the second television station in Denver (KFEL-TV, now KWGN-TV, was first by about three months). It was owned originally 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 (channel 7, now KMGH-TV) in November 1953 and lost NBC to KOA-TV (channel 4, now KCNC-TV) a month later, leaving it with ABC. ABC was secondary to their foremost affilitation, the Dumont Network. 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, and because soon Dumont Network would shutdown in 1956.

The current logo, in use since 1984 (contrary to this picture, the 9 is seldom seen by itself). A variant with "KUSA" next to the 9 (with a five-point star contained in negative space between the "K" and "U" ) had served as the primary logo until the network switch; it was slowly phased out from that point on. This "9" has also been used by other stations around the country, such as WSYR and KGUN.

In 1972, the station was sold along with then sister station KARK-TV in Little Rock, Arkansas to Combined Communications, which would be merged into the Gannett Company seven years later. The station changed its call letters to KUSA-TV on March 19, 1984. Like many Gannett stations, KUSA dropped the "-TV" suffix ten days after the official digital television transition date of June 12, 2009 although KUSA went digital-exclusive nearly two months earlier.

Joining NBC

In 1995, KCNC-TV, then an NBC-owned station, became a CBS owned and affiliated station as a result of a complex ownership deal between Westinghouse Electric Corporation, NBC and CBS. NBC discovered it could not buy Philadelphia'sWCAU outright without going over the FCC's ownership limit of the time. To solve this problem, NBC swapped KCNC-TV and KUTV in Salt Lake City, as well as the channel 4 frequency in Miami (then home to WTVJ) to CBS in return for WCAU and the channel 6 frequency in Miami (then home to WCIX, which became WFOR-TV). At the same time, McGraw-Hill, owner of longtime CBS affiliate KMGH-TV, entered into a network affiliation agreement with ABC, thereby causing KMGH to become an ABC station. Gannett then entered into an affiliation agreement with NBC that included, among others, KUSA, which then became an NBC affiliate in the very early morning hours of September 10, 1995.

KUSA served as the default NBC affiliate for Rapid City, South Dakota, from 1995, when KEVN (channel 7) flipped to Fox, until 2000, when KNBN (channel 21) went on the air.

In April 2004, KUSA became the first television station in the Denver market, the first Gannett-owned station, and the second station nationally to produce newscasts in high definition. From April 2005 until December 2008, KUSA aired NBC Weather Plus on its second digital subchannel (9.2) and Comcast digital cable channel 249. KUSA replaced the NBC Weather Plus network with The AccuWeather Channel on the same broadcast channels after NBC announced Weather Plus would be shut down. The station continues to use the brand "9 NEWS Weather Plus".

In August 2007, KUSA started the "9NEWS High School Hotshots Program", which incorporated twelve Colorado high schools. The "Hotshots" are students from each school, selected by the administration and staff of the school, who filmed the school's football games. The program has since extended to cover winter sports at the schools.

Programming

Syndicated programing on the station includes The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Entertainment Tonight, Extra! and The Doctors. KUSA airs the fourth hour of Today apart from the first three hours; it airs at 11 a.m., with Colorado & Company airing between the first three hours and the fourth hour. KUSA airs Days of Our Lives airs out of pattern at 2 p.m., instead of NBC's recommended 1 p.m. time slot; this is because KUSA airs The Doctors at 1 p.m. (the station aired Days at 3 p.m. from when it affiliated with NBC in 1995 until the fall of 2003, when it picked up Ellen and moved Days to its current time slot).^[3]

In September 2004, KUSA started broadcasting a lifestyle magazine called Colorado & Company. It airs after the third hour of The Today Show at 10 a.m. MT. When the show started, it also aired on KPXC-TV, but that ended when NBC ended its joint ownership of Pax/Ion Television. Colorado & Company is produced live each weekday morning from the KUSA studios and features paid segments by local companies.

KUSA ran the Gannett ID and sounder (The "Death Star") at the end of the 6 p.m. newscasts on weeknights only from 1994 to 2011; in June 2011, KUSA started airing the new Gannett logo/chime after all newscasts, except the weekday morning newscasts.

News operation

"9 NEWS" logo, in use since 1984. The NBC peacock was added in 1996. This logo now features an "HD" tag next to it during newscasts.

KUSA and KTVD collectively air approximately 47.5 hours of local news a week; KUSA airs 32 hours of local news per week (five hours on weekdays and 3½ hours on weekends), while KTVD airs 15.5 hours of local news per week (2½ hours on weekdays and an hour-and-a-half on weekends).

KUSA brands its sister websites and sister stations under the "9NEWS Networks" banner; according to a newscast closing from October 18, 2011 the 9NEWS Networks are the station's website 9NEWS.com, KTVD, 9NEWS Weather Plus (their version of NBC Plus), Metromix.com, Telemundo affiliate KDEN-TV, Universal Sports and KTVD's website My20Denver.com. The 9NEWS Networks also include m.9news.com (the mobile website for Palm Pilots and other mobile devices), HighSchoolSports.net and 9NEWS Weather Call. MomsLikeMe.com was shutdown on October 15, 2011, because Gannett interactive wanted to pursue other opportunities. The station's weather forecasts are typically presented outside in the "9 Back Yard". The backyard is simply a courtyard, with a chroma key (bluescreen) wall and a robo cam. Weather forecasts for The Today Show and updates for 9 NEWS Weather Plus are done from a chroma key wall inside the weather center. It uses Enterprise Electronics Corporation’s "DWSR-10001C" radar known on air as "HD-Doppler 9". It uses a maximum of 1,000,000 watts of power and is located east of Elizabeth, Colorado.

For over 30 years, KUSA's newscasts, which are known as 9NEWS, have dominated the ratings in Denver. In February 1976, Ed Sardella and John Rayburn anchored the weekday edition of 9NEWS at 10PM to the top of the ratings, overtaking longtime leader KMGH-TV. Rayburn was succeeded by Mike Landess in 1977. He 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 left for KCNC.^[4] Landess, after anchoring at WTTG in Washington, D.C., returned to Denver on rival KMGH-TV.

The KUSA News Package (created by Third Street Music) was commissioned by KUSA in 1995, making it one of the two Gannett-owned NBC affiliated stations to use a custom news package by Third Street Music. KUSA's sister station, KARE in Minneapolis-St. Paul commissioned the KARE 11 News Theme for its newscasts since 1996. On October 15, 2008, KUSA debuted a brand new and standardized graphics package created by the Gannett Graphics Group (G3), and a standardized music package composed by Rampage Music New York, which is used by other Gannett stations. The closing cut of the theme was last used on February 6, 2009; the remastered talent bumper cut is still being used. KARE is also using the new graphics package, but is still using KARE 11 News Theme as of this day.

When NBC partnered with Pax (now ION Television) in the late 1990s, KUSA rebroadcast its weeknight 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts on KPXC-TV (channel 59). This ended in 2005 when NBC ended its agreement with Pax. The station stopped providing weather forecasts for KOA (AM), on January 1, 2008 and entered a partnership with Entercom Communications to provide daily weather forecasts for KALC, KEZW, KQMT, and KOSI. On March 6, 2009, KUSA started streaming its noon newscast on its website with a live chat room and now steams all newscasts on KUSA and KTVD.

On September 5, 2006, KUSA launched a daily half-hour 9 p.m. newscast on sister station KTVD, to coincide with that station's affiliation switch from UPN to MyNetworkTV. On December 5, 2006, KUSA launched a two-hour extension of its weekday morning newscast on KTVD, which airs from 7 to 9 a.m. with the same anchors as its 5 to 7 a.m. morning newscast on KUSA. The station now produces weekend morning newscasts at 6 a.m. on KTVD. In addition to its main studios in downtown Denver, KUSA operates a "Northern Newsroom" out of the offices of the Fort Collins-based Fort Collins Coloradoan newspaper. The newsroom is currently staffed on a rotating basis from staff out of Denver. Longtime photojournalist Gary Wolfe died in 2010 and reporter Adam Chodak left the station in early 2011. The station also operates a "Mountain Newsroom" in Silverthorne staffed by Matt Renoux. In the November 2007 sweeps, KCNC's 5 p.m. newscast surged over KUSA for the first time in over a decade, and also overtook KUSA in overall sign-on to sign-off numbers. This is partially due to KCNC's recent highlights in investigative reports and human interest stories, though also largely due to CBS's primetime lineup strengths and NBC's primetime lineup weaknesses. However, overall, KUSA is still the #1 station for news despite the closest ratings between KUSA, KCNC, and KMGH ever. Comcasts new ownership of NBC should tip the scales in some matter.

In June 2010, KUSA expanded its morning newscast to 2½ hours with the addition of a 4:30 a.m. newscast, the KUSA-produced 9 p.m. newscast on KTVD will also expand that month to one hour. On the week of February 13, 2011, KUSA relaunched its website with a new look. Since KUSA is the Gannett flagship, this new website is thought to be a precursor to a Gannett system-wide update.

News and station presentation

Newscast titles

• KBTV NEWS (1960–1970)
• 9 KBTV NEWS (1970–1976)^[5]
• KBTV Action Center--9NEWS (1976–1977)^[6]
• 9 NEWS-Action Center (1977–1984)^[7]
• 9 NEWS (1984–present)^[8]

Station slogans

• "#1 In Colorado" (1977–1992)
• "Colorado's News Leader" (1976–2008)
• "It's All Right Here on Channel 9" (1988–1992; used during period station used Frank Gari's It's All Right Here)
• "Colorado's 24-Hour News Source" (1992–1995)
• "9NEWS & PAX TV, Colorado's News Leaders" (1999–2005, used for KPXC rebroadcasts of 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts)
• "Where News Comes First" (2004–2011)
• "Colorado's High Definition News Leader" (2008–present)
• "The 9NEWS Networks, Colorado's Information Center" (2008–present; used on newscast reopens)
• "9NEWS, Everywhere." (2011–present; used to close out the newscast and used in promos for health segments, E-Block and the weekday noon newscast)

This film, television or video-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it with reliably sourced additions.

News team

Current on-air staff^[9]

Anchors

• Adele Arakawa - weeknights at 5, 6, and 10 p.m.
• Kim Christiansen - weekdays at 4 p.m. and weeknights at 9 p.m. (on KTVD); also reporter
• Kyle Clark - weekends at 9 p.m. (on KTVD); also reporter
• Kyle Dyer - weekday mornings
• Matt Flener - weekend mornings
• Eric Kahnert - weekends at 5, 9 (on KTVD) and 10 p.m.; also weeknight reporter
• Mark Koebrich - weekdays at 4, and weeknights at 5, 6, and 10 p.m.; also consumer reporter
• Cheryl Preheim - weekends at 5, 9 (on KTVD) and 10 p.m.; also weeknight reporter
• Corey Rose - weekend mornings
• Gary Shiparo - weekday mornings (4:30-7 a.m.) and noon

Weather team
The weather team also provides daily weather forecasts for the Denver Post and the Fort Collins Coloradoan newspapers, and KALC, KEZW, KQMT and KOSI radio.

• Kathy Sabine (AMS and NWA Seal of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weekdays at 4, and weeknights at 5, 6, 9 (on KTVD) and 10 p.m.
• Ashton Altieri (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist and NWA Seals of Approval) - meteorologist; weekend mornings
• Marty Coniglio (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist and NWA Seals of Approval) - meteorologist; weekends at 5, 9 (on KTVD) and 10 p.m.
• Becky Ditchfield (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekday mornings (4:30-7 a.m.) and noon

Sports team

• Drew Soicher - sports director; weeknights at 5, 6, 9 (on KTVD) and 10 p.m.
• Rod Mackey - sports anchor; weekends at 5, 9 (on KTVD) and 10 p.m., also weeknight sports reporter
• Susie Wargen - sports anchor; weekday mornings (5-7 a.m.)
• Aaron Matas - prep sports reporter

Reporters

• Anastasiya Bolton - general assignment reporter
• Dave Delozier - general assignment reporter
• Amelia Earhart - weekday morning traffic reporter
• Matt Flener - general assignment reporter
• Nelson Garcia - education and technology reporter
• Jeremy Jojola - investigative reporter ("9 Wants to Know")
• Jace Larson - investigative reporter ("9 Wants to Know")
• Heidi McGuire - host of Metromix.com TV
• Nick McGurk - Northern Newsroom reporter
• Kirk Montgomery - entertainment anchor; seen weekdays at 4 p.m.
• Gregg Moss - business reporter; also fill-in anchor
• Matt Renoux - Mountain Newsroom reporter
• Will Ripley - general assignment reporter ("9 Wants to Know")
• Corey Rose - general assignment reporter
• Jennifer Ryan - weekday morning reporter
• Deborah Sherman - investigative reporter ("9 Wants to Know")
• Brooke Thacker - weekday morning reporter
• TaRhonda Thomas - general assignment reporter
• Dr. John Torres - medical reporter
• Kevin Torres - general assignment reporter ("Backpack Journalist")
• Chris Vanderveen - general assignment reporter
• Jessica Zartler - weekday morning and evening reporter

Contributors

• Floyd Ciruli - political analyst
• Greg Feith - aviation expert
• Scott Robinson - legal analyst
• Dr. James Rouse - nutrition expert; now featured only on 9NEWS.com
• Steve Spangler - science experiments; featured on the weekday morning and 4 p.m. newscasts^[10]

Notable former on-air staff

• Kevin Corke - sports anchor; (1994-2000; now with WTVJ in Miami)^[11]
• Tom Costello - reporter (early 1990s; now with NBC News as a correspondent for NBC Nightly News and MSNBC)
• Frank Currier - anchor/reporter (1970–1978; longtime CBS News correspondent, now a journalism professor at Syracuse University)^[12]
• Fred Dressler - political reporter and station editorial director (later an executive with Time Warner Cable; deceased)^[13]
• Bazi Kanani - anchor (2003-2011; now with ABC News)
• Bob Kendrick - news anchor (2003-2008; now with WSYX/WTTE in Columbus, Ohio)
• Bill Kuster - weather anchor (1979-1996; deceased)
• Cristina Mendonsa - anchor/reporter (1991-1995; now at sister station KXTV in Sacramento, California)
• Leon "Stormy" Rottman - meteorologist (1969-1988; deceased)
• Ed Sardella - anchor (1974-2000; now retired and living in Denver)
• Phil Keating - lead reporter (1994-2000; went to KDVR, now at Fox News Channel)

Trivia

• KUSA's 1996-2004 news set was seen in the NBC made-for-TV movie Asteroid.
• KUSA along with four other Denver stations can be seen on Carnival cruise ships in the Caribbean and South Pacific.
• KUSA was the only non NBC owned-and-operated station to air the NBC Daily Connection, it aired on sister station KTVD.

Translators

The Denver market includes large portions of Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming. KUSA & NBC serve this vast area with one of the largest translator networks in the country. (All translators on this list are in Colorado unless otherwise listed)

• K41EV - Akron
• K49EX - Anton
• K02FW - Ashcroft
• K19FH - Ashcroft
• K06HU - Aspen
• K06BX - Axial Basin
• K07KR - Basalt
• K59BZ - Broadmoor
• K59AP - Bethune/Burlington
• K10LW - Carbondale
• K48IC - Carbondale
• K24CH - Cortez
• K55KN-D - Cortez
• K03CK - Craig
• K04GS - Crested Butte, ETC
• K58AA - Crystal, ETC
• K02GJ - Delta, ETC
• K02JD - East Elk Creek
• K08OF-D - Estes Park
• K61AA - Estes Park
• K69AX - Flagler-Seibert
• K39BT - Fraser, ETC
• K02IK - Gateview, ETC
• K12KP - Glen Haven
• K09DC - Glenwood Springs
• K07JM - Grand Vally, ETC
• K04DH - Gunnison
• K64AQ - Hartsel, ETC
• K41IT - Haxtun
• K28FX - Idalia & S. Yuma Cty
• K55JC - Julesburg
• K13GI - Leadville
• K11LM - Lower Frying Pan River
• K50AS - Marvine Creek Campground
• K48CL - Meeker
• K06JJ - Meeker,ETC
• KXHD-LP - Montrose
• K11JZ - New Castle, ETC
• K09QA - Paonia, ETC.
• K63CX - Parlin, ETC.
• K64AV - Piceance Creek
• K08JZ - Pitkin-Ohio, CO
• K18GM - Pleasant Valley
• K12LX - Powder Horn Valley
• K04HP - Red Stone
• K09XN - Red Stone (NBC / Universal-Owned Translator)
• K06HF - Salida, ETC.
• K46DB - Sapinero
• K57CS - Sargents
• K04HH - Snowmass-At-Aspen
• K10KK - Somerset
• K56GL - Sterling ETC.
• K39HE - Woody Creek
• K44GQ - Woody Creek (NBC/Universal-Owned Translator)
• K11LW - Woody Creek
• K52FZ - Wray
• K07GK - Yampa
• K38AD - Yuma

See also

• KTVD
• List of news aircraft accidents and incidents
• Ed Sardella

References

1. ^ DTV Transition: Still not seeing a picture?, KUSA 9 News, Denver, April 2009
2. ^ http://www.9news.com/company/press_releases/article.aspx?storyid=112050&catid=263
3. ^ http://www.9news.com/life/programming/default.aspx
4. ^ cbs4denver.com - Jim Benemann
5. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_rpgRWinE4&feature=related
6. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_rpgRWinE4
7. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8duQK134iA&feature=related
8. ^ http://www.9news.com
9. ^ News Team
10. ^ http://www.9news.com/news/education/spangler/default.aspx
11. ^ http://flnewscenter.com/?p=754
12. ^ "Frank Currier". CBS News. June 9, 1998. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1998/06/09/archive/main11386.shtml. Retrieved 18 October 2010. 
13. ^ Time Warner Cable Veteran Fred Dressler Dies at 66

External links

• KUSA Official Website
• KUSA Mobile Site
• Gannett Broadcasting
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KUSA
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KUSA-TV
• Broadcast coverage map for KUSA-DT's main transmitter at TV Fool