KGWN-TV

KGWN

Burke Broadcasting sold KYCU to Stauffer Communications in 1986, who changed its call sign to the current KGWN-TV on New Year's Day 1987. The station began phasing out NBC programming in the early-1980s, dropping the network entirely in 1987 when KKTU (now KQCK) signed-on as a satellite of KTWO-TV in Casper. ABC programming disappeared from the schedule by 1988. When Stauffer merged with Morris Communications in 1996, KGWN and most of the rest of Stauffer's television holdings went to Benedek Broadcasting. That company went bankrupt in 2001 (it merged with Gray Television a year later) and KGWN was sold to Chelsey Broadcasting. In 2003, the station was acquired by SagamoreHill Broadcasting.

After having been dropped from the cable system in Northern Colorado around 1995, KGWN took action to entice cable systems to carry the station in 2005. The station had talk to Comcast about getting on its Northern Colorado system in early 2005 to no avail. KGWN was talking in August to Colorado Eagles hockey team owner about broadcasting their games. By October, the station had opened a bureau in Fort Collins with two sale representatives and a reporter.^[2] US Cable agreed to carry the station beginning on November 1.^[3] The Eagles team and the station agreed to its first carriage deal for a single playoff game with the Oklahoma City Blazers on April 2, 2006, which was broadcast via Channel 5’s Cheyenne transmitter.^[4] By June 2006, a Northern Colorado newscast is airing on channel 5.^[5] In early March 2007, the station filed a case with the FCC to have the local market changed to included Larimer and Weld counties. As prior to cable's dominance in the mid-1990s, the station served the area and has made other current moves to serve the area.^[6] Comcast finally caved and added KGWN on three systems. In June 2008, the station suspended its Northern Colorado operations only to restarted them on September 15, 2008.^[7]

DT2 Northern Colorado 5 logo

As of September 2008, KGWN broadcast a separate CBS feed, identified as Northern Colorado 5 or NoCo 5 in short, on its second digital subchannel that specifically focused on Northern Colorado.^[8] Although Northern Colorado is part of the Denver market, KGWN has long claimed Northern Colorado as part of its primary coverage area, since its transmitter is close to the Colorado border. It provides city-grade coverage of Fort Collins, Loveland, and Greeley. It also provides grade B coverage as far south as Longmont and Boulder. It has long been carried on cable systems in Fort Collins, Loveland, and Greeley alongside Denver's CBS affiliate (originally KMGH-TV and now network owned-and-operated KCNC-TV). Additionally, many cable systems in Wyoming, particularly on the Wyoming side of the Denver market, carry both KGWN and KCNC.

Recent changes

Former DT2 logo, to October 2017.

Vehicle sporting the logos of Cheyenne The CW and CBS 5 NewsChannel in 2013.

On September 18, 2006, KGWN began carrying programming from The CW on a new second digital subchannel. This was dropped in September 2008 in favor of a standard definition simulcast of the main signal targeted towards Northern Colorado. The CW programming continued to be seen on area cable systems. On April 29, 2009, the carriage contract of KGWN and "Cheyenne CW" expired. This led to SagamoreHill Broadcasting demanding that Bresnan Cable remove the two channels, resulting in approximately 30,000 customers (reported as 80% of their viewership) losing access to local CBS and CW programming. The dispute hinged on the amount SagamoreHill wanted to charge Bresnan for the rights to carry the stations.

KGWN waged a propaganda campaign in the days leading up to the end of the contract attempting to change Bresnan Cable customers to Dish Network. KGWN refused to post any comments on its site regarding customers who did not wish to see the contract renewed despite news coverage of the dispute having elicited numerous such comments. On May 8, 2009, the stations were restored to the Bresnan system. In December 2011, CW programming was added to subchannel 5.3 and NOCO 5 programming on subchannel 5.2 was improved to 720p.

In May 2013, SagamoreHill Broadcasting reached a deal to sell KGWN and KSTF, along with KGNS-TV in Laredo, Texas, to Yellowstone Holdings, a subsidiary of Frontier Radio Management.^[9][10][11] On November 4, 2013, Gray Television announced a deal to acquire Yellowstone Holdings for $23 million. That reunited KGWN with many of its former sister stations under Benedek ownership after being separated for 11 years. KGWN-TV was operated under a local marketing agreement by Gray until the closure of the deal,^[12] on December 31.^[13] On December 19, 2013, KGWN announced that it would close "Northern Colorado 5," citing the inability to make the service "a viable long-term operation."^[8]

Digital channels

KGWN's semi-satellite KSTF did not offer any subchannels until upgrades to the microwave link connecting the stations were made in the mid-2010s; additionally, as the link used analog equipment, KSTF could only broadcast in standard definition.^[9] However, KGWN's high definition feed was carried in Scottsbluff on Charter digital channel 785. As of 2015, KSTF broadcasts in high definition and carries the KGWN subchannels.

In October 2017, KNEP launched on KGWN's 5.2 subchannel, replacing "NBC Cheyenne."

News operation

KGWN is the only television station with a news department based in Cheyenne. Although KTWO and KCWY-DT both have studios in Casper, those outlets feature reporters who focus their coverage on Cheyenne and the surrounding area. For many years, KSTF aired its own local newscasts and separate programs covering Scottsbluff. However, its local operations were progressively cut back from the 1990s until late-2004 when SagamoreHill finally shut down KSTF's news department entirely. The Nebraska semi-satellite currently simulcasts all newscasts from KGWN but with a separate title opening.

CW affiliate KGWN-DT3 offers the nationally syndicated morning show The Daily Buzz on weekdays from 6 until 8. KGWN does not air a full two-hour weekday morning show, local news weeknights at 5 and/or 6, as well as early evening news on weekends unlike most other CBS affiliates.

In 2005, KGWN established a Northern Colorado Bureau in Fort Collins. This provided another source of local news coverage in the area besides stations based in Denver. On September 15, 2008, this operation was expanded after KGWN-DT2 launched a weeknight 35 minute newscast in partnership with the Independent News Network (INN). Known as Northern Colorado 5 News at 10, the broadcast was recorded in advance from INN's production facility on Tremont Avenue in Davenport, Iowa. The news anchor, meteorologist, and sports anchor were provided by the centralized news operation and other personnel from INN filled-in as necessary.

At some point in time, production of Northern Colorado 5 News at 10 moved to a secondary set at KGWN's studios in Cheyenne and was no longer outsourced to the Independent News Network. Although the program was still taped in advance, it now featured anchor personnel from KGWN while three reporters based locally in Fort Collins contributed Northern Colorado-specific content to the broadcast. In addition, there were weekday morning local weather cut-ins during CBS This Morning that were taped at KGWN's facility but with a focus on Northern Colorado. Weekday mornings from 6 to 6:30, KGWN-DT2 simulcast local radio station KXBG (97.9 FM). Following at 6:30, there was a local weather forecast segment which repeats several times during the half-hour. The Colorado-focused station did not simulcast any newscasts from its parent station. "Northern Colorado 5" was discontinued on December 19, 2013.^[8]

Semi-satellites

KSTF
(semi-satellite of KGWN-TV)

Scottsbluff–Gering, Nebraska United States
City	Scottsbluff, Nebraska
Branding	CBS 10 News (general) NBC Nebraska Scottsbluff (on DT2) Cheyenne CW (on DT3)
Slogan	see KGWN-TV infobox
Channels	Digital: 29 (UHF) Virtual: 10 (PSIP)
Subchannels	(see article)
Affiliations	CBS
Owner	Gray Television (Gray Television Licensee, LLC)
Founded	August 7, 1955 (1955-08-07)
Call letters' meaning	ScoTtsbluFf
Sister station(s)	KNEP
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 10 (VHF, 1955–2009)
Former affiliations	ABC (1955–1965, 1976–1981, joint primary with CBS 1965–1969, 1981-1984, secondary 1969–1976) NBC (secondary, 1955–1976, 1984–1987)
Transmitter power	3.5 kW
Height	187 m (614 ft)
Class	DT
Facility ID	63182
Transmitter coordinates	41°59′58.4″N 103°40′32.2″W / 41.999556°N 103.675611°W / 41.999556; -103.675611 (KSTF)
Licensing authority	FCC
Public license information:	(semi-satellite of KGWN-TV) Profile (semi-satellite of KGWN-TV) CDBS

KSTF signed-on August 7, 1955 as a semi-satellite of what was then KFBC-TV. In 1958, KOTA-TV in Rapid City, South Dakota put its own satellite station on-the-air in Scottsbluff, KDUH-TV (now KNEP). During the next twelve years, there was a great amount of confusion among Scottsbluff viewers especially when the two stations aired the same program simultaneously. Both had unusual "joint primary" affiliations with ABC and CBS from 1965 onwards. Although KFBC/KSTF slightly favored ABC and KOTA/KDUH slightly favored CBS, it did not help the duplication problem. However, in 1970, KDUH, along with KOTA, dropped CBS for NBC.

On December 28, 1963, KTVS in Sterling, Colorado signed-on as another semi-satellite serving Northeastern Colorado. In September 1999, Benedek sold that station to the Newsweb Corporation which made it a satellite of Denver's KTVD. In 2000, Benedek ended most local operations at KGWC-TV in Casper and its two satellites: KGWR-TV (in Rock Springs) and KGWL-TV (in Lander). The three stations became semi-satellites of KGWN. In 2003, Chelsey Broadcasting agreed to sell all three to Mark III Media (a group that included former KTWO-TV General Manager Mark Nalbone). After the FCC dismissed several objections to the sale, Mark III consummated the agreement to buy the stations on May 31, 2006.