branding denver 7 general denver 7 news newscasts slogan start here general always investigating newscasts channels digital 7 vhf virtual 7 psip translators kzco ld 7 denver affiliations .1 abc .2 azteca .3 laff .4 24 7 news channel owner e. w. scripps company scripps broadcasting holdings llc first air date november 1 1952 ; 63 years ago 1952 11 01 call letters meaning k mcgraw hill former owner former callsigns klz tv 1952 1972 former channel number s analog 7 vhf 1952 2009 digital 17 uhf 1995 2009 former affiliations dt1 nbc 1952 1953 cbs 1953 1995 dt4 thecooltv 2009 2013 transmitter power 27 kw height 359 m facility id 40875 transmitter coordinates 39 43 51 n 105 13 54 w 39.73083 n 105.23167 w 39.73083 ; 105.23167 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website thedenverchannel.com kmgh tv virtual channel and vhf digital channel 7 is an abc affiliated television station located in denver colorado united states . the station is owned by the e. w. scripps company and is a sister station to azteca affiliate kzco ld channel 27 whose digital signal also serves as a fill in translator of kmgh . the two stations share studio facilities located on east speer boulevard in denver s speer neighborhood to the immediate north of the studios shared by kdvr channel 31 and kwgn tv channel 2 ; kmgh maintains transmitter facilities located atop lookout mountain near golden . on cable the station is available on comcast xfinity channel 7 and in high definition on digital channel 652 it s also available on centurylink prism channel 7 & high definition channel 1007 . contents 1 history 1.1 as a cbs affiliate 1.2 switch to abc 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 4 news operation 4.1 notable current on air staff 4.2 notable former on air staff 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit as a cbs affiliate edit the station first signed on the air on november 1 1952 as klz tv . 1 it was founded by the oklahoma city based oklahoma publishing company operated by edward k. gaylord which also owned klz radio 560 am and 106.7 fm now kbpi . klz tv immediately took the cbs affiliation from kbtv channel 9 now kusa owing to klz radio s longtime affiliation with the cbs radio network . in 1954 gaylord sold the klz television and radio stations to time life . 2 the station s original studio facilities were housed in a renovated former auto dealership on the east side of the block at east 6th avenue and sherman street . the taping of a religious public affairs program at the station in 1968 . during the 1950s channel 7 s staff included newscaster later sports anchor and dialing for dollars host starr yelland who came to the station from koa tv channel 4 now kcnc tv ; weatherman warren chandler and ed scott who hosted a children s program on the station as sheriff scotty . 3 in 1956 klz tv presented the first remote television broadcast from a courtroom after general manager hugh terry won a court battle to allow cameras into the courtroom . in 1957 the station s weekly public affairs series panorama which was written and hosted by gene amole became the first locally produced program in the denver market to earn a peabody award channel 7 has since won three more peabody awards for the investigative reports honor and betrayal scandal at the air force academy in 2003 reported by john ferrugia and produced by kurt silver and current news director jeff harris 4 2008 s failing the children deadly mistakes reported by ferrugia and produced by tom burke and arthur kane 5 and 2012 s investigating the fire 6 . the station was the first in denver to operate a news bureau in washington d.c. as well as the first denver station to receive reports from its own radio and television correspondents in europe and asia . channel 7 televised the first kidney transplant in the mid 1960s . starting in 1968 and running through 1983 klz tv aired one of the most popular children s programs in the denver market the noell and andy show which aired weekday mornings at 8 00 a.m. the program s coloring contest drew hundreds of entries each week . 3 channel 7 moved to its present studio facilities an eight sided five story building called the communications center on the intersection of speer boulevard and lincoln street in 1969 . time life sold the station to mcgraw hill in late october 1970 in a group deal that also involved the company s other radio and television combinations in indianapolis san diego and grand rapids michigan ; and kero tv in bakersfield california . 7 in order to comply with the federal communications commission s new restrictions on concentration of media ownership that went into effect shortly afterward mcgraw hill was required to sell the klz radio stations as well as their sister radio properties in indianapolis san diego and grand rapids to other companies . time life would later purchase wotv now wood tv in grand rapids in the final deal . by the time the sale was finalized in june 1972 the purchase price for the entire group was just over 57 million . wfbm tv now wrtv in indianapolis kero tv in bakersfield and kogo tv now kgtv in san diego were retained by mcgraw hill along with klz tv which subsequently changed its call letters to kmgh tv . 8 the 1990s did not begin well for kmgh ; the station saw significant overall profit losses in 1990 and 1991 as well as a decrease in viewership for its local newscasts . a new management team introduced in 1991 turned things around at kmgh ; net profit soared 105.5 % in 1992 as a result . 9 switch to abc edit although kmgh had been one of cbs s stronger affiliates the station would end up disaffiliating from the network due to a series of events that were set in motion as a result of cbs partnership with the westinghouse electric corporation in july 1994 and the network s eventual merger with that company in august 1995 . 10 11 as part of the deal the network moved its programming from its owned and operated station in philadelphia wcau tv to westinghouse s kyw tv . in a three way trade cbs traded wcau to nbc in exchange for two of that network s o & os then longtime affiliates denver s kcnc tv which had been an o & o since the station s then owner general electric purchased nbc in 1986 and salt lake city s kutv which the network had acquired less than one month earlier . cbs then formed a joint venture with westinghouse that assumed ownership of kyw tv kcnc and kutv with westinghouse serving as majority owner . group w cbs and nbc also swapped the transmitter facilities and by association channel frequencies of their respective stations in miami wcix now wfor tv and wtvj . 12 a shot of the kmgh studios taken from east speer boulevard . at the same time mcgraw hill had struck an affiliation agreement with abc due partly to the fact that its stations in san diego and indianapolis had already been aligned with the network bakersfield sister station kero tv was also involved in the deal between mcgraw hill and abc ; however that station had to wait for its affiliation contract with cbs to expire in march 1996 before it could finally switch to abc . in keeping with all of this each of the three major broadcast networks relocated their programming to different stations in the denver market on september 10 1995 ; abc moved its programming to kmgh from kusa with kmgh s outgoing cbs affiliation going to kcnc and nbc moving from kcnc to kusa . on june 14 2011 mcgraw hill announced that it would exit from the broadcasting industry and put its entire television station group up for sale ; 13 on october 3 of that year the company announced that it had entered into an agreement to sell the eight station broadcasting division to the e. w. scripps company . 14 the fcc approved the sale on november 29 2011 and the deal was officially completed on december 30 2011 . 15 the deal marked a re entry into the denver market for scripps ; prior to its acquisition of kmgh the company had owned the rocky mountain news from 1926 until the afternoon newspaper ceased publishing in 2009 . digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital channel is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 16 7.1 720p 16 9 kmgh dt main kmgh tv programming abc 7.2 480i 4 3 azteca azteca simulcast of kzco lp 7.2 7.3 laff laff 7.4 channel currently blank kmgh tv operates the 24 7 news channel on digital subchannel 7.4 and is also carried on comcast xfinity digital channel 247 . the channel rebroadcasts kmgh s local newscasts throughout the day with the 10 00 p.m. news running until the next morning alongside weather updates and real time weather information that is also shown on screen . 17 18 analog to digital conversion edit kmgh tv shut down its analog signal over vhf channel 7 on april 16 2009 . the station s digital signal relocated from its pre transition uhf channel 17 to vhf channel 7 for post transition operations . 19 programming edit kmgh tv clears the entire abc network schedule ; however it is one of the few abc stations that airs the saturday and sunday editions of abc world news a half hour to one hour earlier than most affiliates due to its hour long 5 00 p.m. newscast and also airs the weekend editions of good morning america and this week one hour earlier aligning those programs with their recommended airtimes of both programs in the central time zone . syndicated programs broadcast by kmgh tv include the list let s ask america right this minute inside edition and the meredith vieira show among others . kmgh was denver s longtime home to hit game shows jeopardy and wheel of fortune airing both shows at 6 and 6 30pm respectively prior to their removal before removing both game shows in september 2014 in a move where scripps removed both sony game shows and a few other shows from their stations for lower cost internally produced programming ; with the station adding a 6 p.m. newscast and scripps the list newsmagazine in their place . both game shows ended up moving to denver s fox affiliate kdvr . 20 in 2012 kmgh acquired the broadcast rights to denver broncos head coach john fox s weekly analysis show the john fox show ; the station aired the program until the team s 2013 season losing the rights to kdvr which renamed the program as fox on fox on august 7 2014 . 21 news operation edit 7 news generic newscast title card used since october 15 2012 . kmgh tv presently broadcasts 30 hours of locally produced newscasts each week with 4 hours on weekdays 3 hours on saturdays and four hours on sundays . unlike most stations affiliated with abc or its competitors kmgh did not broadcast a local newscast in the 6 00 p.m. timeslot on weeknights for eight years opting to fill the hour with episodes of jeopardy and wheel of fortune the station s previous 6 00 p.m. news program was canceled after the may 26 2006 broadcast . in addition the station produces the sports highlight program 7news sports xtra which airs saturdays during the final 15 minutes of the 10 00 p.m. newscast . as mentioned above the