not to be confused with wusa its sister station in washington d.c. 9news . com redirects here . for other uses see 9news . kusa denver colorado united states city denver colorado branding channel 9 general 9 news newscasts slogan everywhere colorado s news leader channels digital 9 vhf 19 uhf virtual 9 psip translators see article affiliations .1 nbc .2 weathernation tv .3 justice network owner tegna media multimedia holdings corporation first air date october 12 1952 ; 64 years ago 1952 10 12 call letters meaning united states of america usa today owned by gannett kusa s former owner sister station s ktvd former callsigns kbtv 1952 1984 former channel number s analog 9 vhf 1952 2009 digital 16 uhf 1997 2009 former affiliations dt1 cbs 1952 1953 dumont 1953 1956 abc 1953 1995 ; secondary until 1956 dt2 nbc weather plus 2004 2008 the local accuweather channel 2009 2013 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 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.9news.com kusa virtual and vhf digital channel 9 with a duplicate signal on uhf 19 is an nbc affiliated television station located in denver colorado united states . the station is owned by tegna as part of a duopoly with mynetworktv affiliate ktvd channel 20 . the two stations share studio facilities located on east speer boulevard in denver s speer neighborhood southeast of the studios of kmgh tv channel 7 and the studios shared by kdvr channel 31 and kwgn tv channel 2 ; kusa maintains transmitter facilities atop lookout mountain near golden . on cable the station is available on comcast xfinity channel 9 and in high definition on digital channel 653 . it s also available on century link prism channel 9 & high definition channel 1009 . kusa is also carried by carnival cruise lines through the in room entertainment system available on ships touring the caribbean and south pacific . contents 1 history 1.1 early years 1.2 switch to nbc 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 4 news operation 5 reception 6 notable former on air staff 7 translators 8 see also 9 references 10 external links history edit early years edit the station first signed on the air on october 12 1952 as kbtv ; it was the second television station to sign on in the denver market after kfel tv channel 2 now kwgn tv which signed on just over three months earlier on july 18 . founded by mullins broadcasting the station initially served as a primary affiliate of cbs but also carried programs from abc and nbc through secondary affiliations with both networks . it originally operated from studio facilities located in a converted former car dealership at 1089 bannock street in denver s civic center neighborhood . channel 9 gained an affiliation with the dumont television network in 1953 but lost cbs programming to klz tv channel 7 now kmgh tv when that station signed on in november 1953 ; this was followed by the loss of the nbc affiliation to koa tv channel 4 now kcnc tv when it signed on in december of that year both klz tv and koa tv inherited the affiliations as a result of their sister radio stations respective longtime affiliations with the cbs radio network and the nbc red network . this left kbtv as a primary dumont and secondary abc affiliate . kusa s current numerical logo used since 1984 contrary to this picture the 9 is seldom seen by itself . a variant featuring the kusa callsign with a negative space star between the k and u served as the station s primary logo until it was phased out following the 1995 switch to nbc . similar logos have been used by other stations such as wsoc kwtv and kgun . 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 . in 1969 the station gained some national attention for refusing to air the abc sketch comedy series turn on as the network s affiliates east of the rocky mountains voiced displeasure about the program s risqu content during the airing of the pilot episode with some pulling the program off the air during its broadcast leading to its cancellation by the network after just one episode . in 1972 mullins broadcasting sold kbtv and sister station kark tv in little rock arkansas to the combined communications corporation . 1 combined s station properties would eventually be merged into the gannett company seven years later in may 1978 in what was the largest media merger in united states history at the time . 2 3 in order to align itself with gannett s new newspaper entity usa today the station changed its call letters to kusa tv on march 19 1984 minneapolis st. paul sister station wtcn underwent a similar rebranding in 1985 when it changed its call letters to wusa ; however after gannett purchased washington d.c. station wdvm tv in 1986 it moved the wusa call letters to its newly acquired station ; the minneapolis station that originally held the wusa calls was renamed kare tv . 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 . in april 1992 the station moved its operations into a new state of the art facility at 500 speer boulevard the original studio location was subsequently occupied by pbs member station krma tv channel 6 . the kbtv call letters are now at beaumont texas fox affiliated tv station . switch to nbc edit see also 1994 united states broadcast tv realignment in july 1994 cbs and westinghouse broadcasting group w agreed to a long term affiliation deal that saw longtime abc affiliate wjz tv in baltimore and longtime nbc affiliates kyw tv in philadelphia and wbz tv in boston become cbs affiliates . westinghouse s other two stations kdka tv in pittsburgh and kpix tv in san francisco were already longtime cbs affiliates . 4 that november nbc traded kcnc tv which was the network s owned 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 . 5 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 heavy capital gains taxes and proceeds from the deal . to make the transaction a legal trade the network swapped ownership of kcnc tv and required in a deal was salt lake city s kutv which nbc had acquired earlier this year along with the vhf channel 4 frequency and transmitter in miami then home to wtvj to cbs in exchange for wcau and the channel 6 frequency in miami then home to wcix which subsequently became wfor tv . 5 mcgraw hill owner of longtime cbs affiliate kmgh entered into an affiliation agreement with abc at the same time . more or less by default kusa affiliated with nbc . 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 1 00 a.m. on september 10 1995 which resulted in kusa switching to nbc kmgh switching to abc and kcnc switching to cbs westinghouse purchased cbs in a group deal one month before making kcnc a cbs owned and operated station when the deal was finalized 2 months later 6 . in july 1996 rapid city nbc affilaite kevn tv opted to join fox leaving the black hills region of south dakota without a full power nbc affiliate . as a result most cable providers in that region began piping in kusa . channel 9 served as the market s default nbc affiliate until may 14 2000 when knbn signed on as the rapid city market s nbc station . scenes for the nbc made for tv movie asteroid 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 . 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 their high school football games ; the program has since extended to cover winter sports at the schools . around the first week of october 2012 gannett entered a dispute against dish network regarding compensation fees and dish s autohop commercial skip feature on its hopper digital 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 such as kusa and ktvd should the skirmish continue beyond october 7 and dish and gannett fail to reach an agreement . 7 8 the two parties eventually reached an agreement after extending the deadline for a few hours . 9 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 named tegna . 10 digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital channel is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 11 9.1 1080i 16 9 kusa dt main kusa programming nbc 9.2 480i 9news n weathernation tv 9.3 kusa jn justice network in april 2005 kusa began carrying nbc weather plus on its second digital subchannel branded as 9news weather plus . on december 31 2008 following nbc weather plus shutdown kusa affiliated the subchannel with the 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 to weathernation tv . digital subchannel 9.2 is carried on cable through comcast digital channel 249 & centurylink prism channel 10 . in late january 2015 kusa began to broadcast a duplicate of their primary digital subchannel 9.1 on the ktvd rf 19 transmitter as digital subchannel 9.4 kusa hd . analog to digital conversion edit kusa shut down its analog signal over vhf channel 9 on april 16 2009 . the station s digital signal relocated from its pre transition uhf channel 16 to vhf channel 9 for post transition operations . 12 13 14 programming edit syndicated programming seen on kusa includes the ellen degeneres show entertainment tonight extra t.d. jakes & repeats of the doctors in the overnight hours . the station clears the entire nbc schedule although it airs the fourth hour of today one hour later than most nbc affiliates at 11 00 a.m. and airs days of our lives at 2 00 p.m. the secondary slot to nbc s primary recommended 1 00 p.m. timeslot with syndicated programs airing in the preceding hour days aired on kusa at 3 00 p.m. upon joining nbc in 1995 and continued to air in that slot until the fall of 2003 when it acquired ellen and moved days to 1 00 p.m. where it remained until the 2007 cancellation of passions . 15 kusa produces a weekdaily lifestyle program called colorado & company