KGUN-TV

KGUN-TV
Tucson, Arizona
Branding KGUN 9 (general)
KGUN 9 News (newscasts)
(pronounced "K-GUN")
Slogan On Your Side
Channels Digital: 9 (VHF)
DirecTV (Southern Arizona only): 9
Cox (Tucson): 9
Subchannels (see article)
Translators K16EO Oro Valley
K65DM Duncan
Affiliations ABC
Antenna TV
This TV
Owner E. W. Scripps Company
(Journal Broadcast Corporation)
First air date June 3, 1956
Call letters' meaning former owner's interest in GUN collecting and the Westerns that were filmed in Tucson
Sister station(s) KWBA-TV, KNXV-TV, KTNV-TV
Former callsigns KDWI-TV (1956-1957)
KGUN-TV (1957-1987)
KGUN (1987-2009)
Former channel number(s) Analog:
9 (VHF, 1956-2009)
Digital:
35 (UHF, 2005-2009)
Transmitter power 10.3 kw
Height 1140 m
Facility ID 36918
Transmitter coordinates 32°24′55.7″N 110°42′53.2″W / 32.415472°N 110.714778°W
Website www.kgun9.com

KGUN-TV, channel 9, is the ABC-affiliated television station serving Tucson, Arizona, owned by E. W. Scripps Company. It broadcasts its digital signal on VHF channel 9 from Mount Bigelow, located northeast of Tucson, while its studio operations are located on East Rosewood Street in East Tucson. It is known locally as "K-GUN".

History

The station was founded in 1955 by rancher D.W. Ingram, who gave the station his initials, KDWI-TV. It began broadcasting June 3, 1956.[1] Shortly afterward, Ingram sold it to H. U. Garrett, who changed the station's call sign to KGUN on March 14, 1957.[1] The change came in part because Garrett was concerned about possible negative connotations with the letters "DWI."[2] Garrett was also an avid Western fan and gun collector, and thought having "gun" in the station's calls would be apropos.

Garrett sold the station to Cincinnati meatpacker Henry S. Hilberg in 1960, and Hilberg sold it to Gilmore Broadcasting in 1964. The station came under the ownership of May Broadcasting in 1968.[3] May would sell KGUN and sister station KMTV in Omaha, Nebraska) to Lee Enterprises in 1986, which, in turn, sold both stations to Emmis Communications in 2000. In 2005, Emmis liquidated all of its television properties, sending KGUN and control of KMTV to the Milwaukee based Journal Broadcast Group, which already owned four radio stations in Tucson.[4] The sale was finalized in December 2005.

On July 30, 2014, it was announced that the E. W. Scripps Company would acquire Journal Communications in an all-stock transaction. The combined firm will retain their broadcast properties, including KGUN, and spin off their print assets as Journal Media Group. The deal made KGUN a sister station to Phoenix's ABC affiliate, KNXV-TV, along with connecting it through statewide coverage to existing sister station and ABC affiliate KTNV-TV in Las Vegas. [5] The FCC approved the deal on December 12, 2014. It was approved by shareholders on March 11, 2015. The merger was completed on April 1, 2015.[6][7]

Digital television

Channel Video Aspect Programming
9.1 720p 16:9 Main KGUN-TV programming / ABC
9.2 480i 4:3 Antenna TV [8]
9.3 This TV [9]

The station's digital signal is multiplexed. In January 2009, KGUN added Mexicanal, on its digital channel 9.2. It also carried TheCoolTV until the stations parent company filed a lawsuit against TheCoolTV for non-payment, and dropped the networks from all of its stations. KGUN-TV soon replaced it with Live Well Network. In October 2012, Antenna TV replaced Mexicanal. In January 2015, Live Well Network was replaced on 9.3 with This TV when Live Well Network announced plans of its shut down.

Analog-to-digital conversion

In 1997, the Federal Communications Commission assigned UHF channel 35 to KGUN for digital operations. The station was granted an application to build its digital operations in October 2001 and, after several extensions, brought KGUN-DT to air in August 2005.

KGUN has selected channel 9 for its post-transition digital operations, and since the analog television shutdown, on June 12, 2009, KGUN broadcasts in digital from channel 9.[10] As with all of Journal's television stations, following the digital transition, as of June 19, 2009, KGUN added the -TV suffix to its callsign (the station had previously used the KGUN-TV callsign from 1957 to 1987, when it dropped the suffix).

Programming

An ABC affiliate, KGUN broadcasts the network's schedule, supplemented by syndicated and local programming, most of which is local news. Syndicated programming currently featured on KGUN-TV includes: Wheel of Fortune, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Steve Harvey, Jeopardy!, and Live! with Kelly and Michael. KGUN aired Who Wants to Be a Millionaire aired from the start of syndication in 2002 until September 2, 2013, when the show was dropped in favor of Inside Edition;[11] Millionaire would return to the station in September 2014.

On April 26, 2010, KGUN began producing a lifestyle and entertainment magazine program called The Morning Blend,[12] a program which was adapted from Journal flagship station WTMJ-TV. The program airs weekdays from 11 a.m. to noon; the show replaced KGUN's 11 a.m. newscast.

News operation

In 1997, KGUN added a 5:30 p.m. newscast, moving ABC's World News Tonight to 6 p.m. and expanding its news department.[13] On April 23, 2011, KGUN became the third station in Tucson to begin airing local newscasts in high definition. On April 21, 2014, KGUN will launch an one hour extension of their morning newscast, Good Morning Tucson on KWBA from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. [14]

Notable former on-air staff

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Journal of Wis. to purchase KGUN-TV". Arizona Daily Star. 2005-08-23. Retrieved 2009-01-12.
  2. ↑ Archive of station history page
  3. ↑ "TV Transfers" (PDF). 1972 Broadcasting Yearbook. Retrieved 2009-01-12.
  4. ↑ "Emmis Announces Sale of Nine Television Stations". Emmis Press Release. 2005-08-22. Retrieved 2009-01-12.
  5. ↑ Glauber, Bill (30 July 2014). "Journal, Scripps deal announced". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
  6. ↑ Scripps, Journal Merger Complete - Broadcasting & Cable
  7. ↑ Scripps, Journal Communications Complete Merger And Spinoff - NetNewsCheck.com
  8. ↑ Antenna TV Affiliates
  9. ↑ Rabbitears: KGUN
  10. ↑ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). FCC CDBS database. Retrieved 2009-01-12.
  11. ↑ "Show times scheduled to change on KGUN9". www.jrn.com. Rikki Mitchell. Retrieved 7 January 2015.
  12. ↑ http://www.tucsonmorningblend.com/
  13. ↑ Rademacher, Kevin. "KGUN to introduce hour-long newscast tonight." Inside Tucson Business 6 Jan. 1997: 9-10.
  14. ↑ KWBA Tucson To Launch New Morning Newscast

External links