KIAA-FTV

KIAA-FTV

Denver, Colorado United States
Branding	KIAA 9 (general) 9 News (newscasts)
Slogan	Today, Tomorrow, Always. (primary) Colorado's Own (secondary)
Channels	Digital: 8 (VHF) Virtual: 9 (PSIP)
Subchannels	9.1 The CW 9.2 local weather 9.3 weather radar
Translators	KICO-FCD 16 (UHF) Denver KDEN-FTV 58.3 (UHF) Fort Collins
Affiliations	The CW
Owner	United Broadcasting (Colorado Broadcasting, LLC)
First air date	July 1, 1948 (1948-07-01)
Sister station(s)	KDEN-FTV
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 9 (VHF, 1948–2009)
Former affiliations	Primary: NBC (1948–2015) Secondary: CBS (1948–1953) DuMont (1948–1955)
Transmitter power	45 kW (main signal) 15 kW (fill-in translator)
Height	584 m (main signal) 190.5 m (fill-in translator)

KIAA-FTV, virtual channel 9 (VHF digital channel 8), is a CW-affiliated fantasy television station located in Denver, Colorado. The station is owned by United Broadcasting, as part of a duopoly with MyNetworkTV affiliate KDEN (channel 58). The two stations share studio facilities located on Speer Street (at the east end of the Television Row section) on the near east side of Denver; KIAA maintains transmitter facilities located in Westminister.

History

As an NBC affiliate

The station first signed on the air at 6:00 p.m. on July 1, 1948 as an NBC affiliate – it was the second television station to sign on in the Denver market, after KLZL-TV (channel 4). KIAA-FTV originally operated as a primary NBC affiliate with a secondary affiliation with the DuMont Television Network. The station also carried several CBS programs until KDNC signed on in October 1953.

Colorado Broadcasting became the United Broadcasting Corporation in 1957, with KIAA-FTV serving as the company's flagship station.

Losing NBC

On February 11, 2015, NoSirGifts announced that independent station KZCO-FTV would become the market's NBC affiliate on June 1, 2015, as part of an agreement that also renewed the NBC affiliations on NoSirGifts-owned stations in eight other markets. The deal, which will result in the end of KIAA-FTV's 67-year relationship with NBC, was reportedly struck as a result of KIAA station management balking at the network's demands for reverse retransmission consent compensation from its affiliates.

As the other major broadcast networks already owned other area stations (ABC owning KTRJ and CBS owning KLZL since 1995), KIAA announced on May 1, 2015 that it would become an independent station upon losing NBC, filling timeslots previously occupied by network shows with additional newscasts and an expanded inventory of syndicated talk shows, newsmagazines and sitcoms, including some relocated from sister station KDEN-FTV (channel 58) to make up for the station's loss of NBC's daytime and late-night programs on channel 9's schedule and a national news program from TouchVision to serve as a replacement for the Early Today.

However, on May 22, DakMedia announced that it would sell the market's MyNetwork TV affiliation to United Broadcasting (a deal that occurred a week after the completion of the company's merger with MHB Television). As a result, this triggered Denver's second affiliation switch with KIAA becoming a CW affiliate and taking sister station KDEN's CW affiliation in effect KDEN became a sole MyNetwork TV affiliate. The last NBC program to air on KIAA was American Odyssey that aired at 9:00 PM Mountain Time on May 31, 2015 and all NBC programming moved to KZCO after that program ended. The Bill Cunningham Show was the very first CW program to air on KIAA on June 1, 2015.

Programming

Syndicated programs broadcast by KIAA include Steve Harvey, Rachael Ray, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Family Feud, Access Hollywood, The Real and Entertainment Tonight. Atypical for a CW-affiliated station, the station does not currently air sitcoms within its weekday schedule – particularly during early evening and late-night timeslots not occupied by local newscasts (opting to fill those periods with talk shows and newsmagazines instead); however, KIAA airs runs of syndicated comedies broadcast otherwise by sister station KDEN on weekend late afternoons and evenings. The station also produces the hour-long talk and lifestyle program Denver Style, which airs weekday mornings at 9:00 a.m.

On May 24, 2018, in the wake of broadcast networks reviving their own popular classic series (Will & Grace on NBC (formerly shown on KIAA, now on KZCO), Roseanne on ABC (formerly shown on KLZL from 1988-1996 and KTRJ 1996-1997 and 2018), Murphy Brown on CBS (formerly shown on KDNC from 1988-1996, later KLZL from 1996-1998 and since 2018) and The X-Files for Fox (formerly shown on KDEN from 1993-96 and later KDNC )), Fox Fantasy Televiision Stations announced it had given a series order to a thirteen episode revival of Queen of the Willis for the 2019–2020 season.

On November 19, 2018, Queen of the Willis creator Ava Zinn and United Broadcasting announced that the show will move from NoSirGifts-owned stations to United Broadcasting-owned CW affiliates in Indianapolis, Denver, Miami and Atlanta. As part of the deal, KIAA would be the third to air the one-hour telecast Saturdays at 6:00 p.m. (MT) serving as a lead-out to 9 News at 6 (after Fort Wayne independent station WXXC and Indianapolis sister station WEVI.

The Queen of the Willis reboot will premiere on Saturday, March 2, 2019 at 6:00 p.m. on channel 9 and a repeat broadcast Saturday/Early Sunday at 12:00 a.m. as part of KDEN (channel 58)'s schedule.

The station also carries the The Jerry Springer at 1:00 p.m. weekdays, two hours earlier than The CW's recommended timeslot of 3:00 p.m., which has been the common scheduling for the program among CW stations with syndicated talk shows that pull stronger ratings and/or have full-fledged news operations; it also splits the network's educational programming block One Magnificent Morning over two days: the first two hours air on Saturdays on a four-hour delay (to 11:00 a.m.) due to the Saturday edition of its Colorado Daybreak newscast and paid programming, while the last two hours air on Sunday middays.

As an NBC affiliate, KIAA cleared the majority of the NBC network schedule in its later years, with exception of the Saturday edition of Today and the weekend editions of the NBC Nightly News, which aired instead on KDEN. KDEN also aired other NBC programs channel 9 was unable to air due to extended breaking news or severe weather coverage, or special programming.

Sports programming

In its later years as an NBC affiliate, KIAA aired most Denver Broncos regular season games as well as any playoff games involving the team through NBC, via the network's broadcast rights to the NFL's American Football Conference until 1998 when CBS when CBS acquired the rights to the AFC, and airing Broncos games scheduled for an NBC Sunday Night Football telecast from 2006 until 2014. KIAA also aired most Colorado Avalanche regular season games as well as any playoff games involving the team through NBC, via the network's broadcast rights to the NHL.

As a result the NBC affiliation moving from KIAA to KZCO in June 2015, the station's status as the unofficial "home" station of the Broncos and Avalance ended after the the respective 2014 NFL and 2014-15 NHL regular seasons. Consequently, it will no longer air any Broncos nor Avalanche related progamming after the 2014-15 season (except for Countdown to Kickoff and possibly Huddle Up Denver), nor will KIAA and KDEN be affiliated with the Broncos nor Avalanche. Broncos games continue to air on CBS-owned KLZL while Avalanche games will began to air on KZCO in October 2015. The coach's show and Broncos Up Close will move to KZCO and its sister Fox affiliate KDNC (channel 2), for the 2015 NFL season.

After losing NBC, KIAA gradually cobbled together agreements to restore sports events onto the station's schedule in order to make up for both the loss of sports coverage provided by NBC as well as the absence of such content from The CW's schedule. First on August 17, 2015, KIAA signed a two-year agreement with the to carry home games of telecasts of Denver Pioneers and Colorado Buffaloes basketball, baseball, football, and soccer games. All game telecasts and a half-hour post-game show that follows each game are produced under an outsourcing agreement with Indianapolis-based video production firm WebStream Sports.

On March 20, 2015, United Broadcasting announced that KIAA and KDEN would become part of the Colorado Rockies broadcast television networks and carry many of the games the teams will broadcast locally in the Denver market. KIAA will have a Sunday-only schedule of games due to the contractual restrictions of their CW affiliation, with KDEN airing the remainder of the weekday schedule of games and a few Sunday games.

News operation

KIAA-FTV presently broadcasts 63 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with ten hours on weekdays and 6½ hours on Saturdays and Sundays); in addition, the station produces two half-hour sports highlight programs on Sunday evenings: The Sports Locker, which airs at 9:30 p.m. and Colorado Sports Tonight, which airs at 10:30 p.m.

Soon after KIAA signed on, the station hired sports anchor Bob Reynolds and meteorologist Dorthy Walsh. Walsh, who had just graduated from the University of Northern Colorado, as its chief meteorologist soon after KIAA signed on in 1948 was one of Colorado's first ever news meteorologists, went on to run KIAA's award-winning weather department for more than five decades, is currently the only remaining original employee still working at the station, and is currently in her 68th consecutive year at KIAA. Reynolds, meanwhile was KIAA's first sports anchor and sports director and went on to run the station's award-winning sports department for nearly 36 years.

In 1963, KIAA-FTV became the first television station in the market to provide extensive live coverage of a major local news event. KIAA's newscasts were the highest-rated in the Denver market from the mid-1970s until KDNC overtook it for the #1 position in 2007. The station's ratings success was largely attributed to the longevity of most of its news staff, some of whom have been at the station for over 20 to 25 years.

Edd Stardell was the station's main weeknight news anchor as well as the de facto face of its newsroom for more than 30 years (the longest tenure of anyone in Denver FTV television history); he joined channel 9 as a reporter in 1967 and was promoted to lead anchor in 1974, where he remained until his retirement from the anchor chair on December 1, 2004 (Stardell later hosted sister station KDEN's now-cancelled interview program One on One). Elaine Carson was the station's main weeknight co-anchor as well as the de facto face of its newsroom for more than 30 years (the longest tenure of any female in Denver FTV television history); she joined channel 9 as a reporter in 1969 and was promoted to lead anchor in 1973, where she remained until her retirement from the anchor chair in 1993. Carson would serve as the face of KIAA for nearly 24 years and became best known for her catchphrase at the end of every newscast, "Good night, and may Colorado's good news be yours". Carson's successor, Adelle Allen was promoted from weekend anchor to co-anchor on the weeknight newscasts in 1993 and remained with the station until she retired on November 26, 2014.

For a time during the 1990s, KIAA advertised that "more people in Colorado get their local news from 9 News than from any other source" at the close of many of its newscasts and in promos for its newscasts. The station's local newscasts are currently at a distant second place behind KDNC in most timeslots, except during the 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. period on weeknights, when both stations maintain a much tighter viewership margin. However, due to the recent weakness of NBC's primetime lineup, KIAA has recently crashed to fourth in the 10:00 p.m. slot. The station's "I-Team 9" investigative reports have earned the station numerous journalism awards, including Regional Emmy, Peabody and Edward R. Murrow Awards (the station was awarded the latter in 1998 and 2006). In 2008, the Colorado Associated Press Broadcast Association honored KIAA-FTV with the "Outstanding News Operation" and "Outstanding Weather Operation" designations.

On September 8, 2008, KIAA-FTV became the third fantasy television station in Colrado to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition; the KDEN newscasts were included in the upgrade. On September 9, 2013, KIAA-FTV added a half-hour to its weekday morning newscast at 4:30 a.m., becoming the last English language news-producing station in the market to expand its morning newscast to a pre-5:00 a.m. timeslot (KDNC had an eight-year head start, expanding its morning newscast into the 4:30 slot in 2009; that station was later joined by KLZL in 2009 and KTRJ in 2010).

On February 27, 2009, shortly after United Broadcasting announced its purchase of channel 58, KIAA-FTV took over production of KDEN's 9:00 p.m. newscast (replacing KCAA-FTV, now KZCO) from KTRJ, which had become the ABC owned and operated station on that date produced the program from its inception on March 2, 1996; this partnership expanded to include an hour-long extension of KIAA's weekday morning newscast at 7:00 a.m., which debuted on January 5, 2009.

When it became an affiliate of The CW on June 1, 2015, KIAA-FTV became one of two CW affiliates in the Mountain Time Zone (the other being KAZA-FTV in Phoenix) with a functioning news department. It expanded its news programming by 20 hours (increasing its weekly total from 37 to 63 hours a week). Most existing newscasts were retained, though the 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. newscasts it produced for KDEN moved to channel 9 (the former of which is part of an expansion of Today in Colorado that extended the weekday edition of the program by two hours and the weekend editions by one), while the noon newscast expanded to one hour and a 5:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. newscast on weeknights were added.The weekend 5:00 and 9:00 p.m. newscasts were also shortened to a half-hour, with the Sports Locker being moved to bookending the latter and the 10:00 p.m. news on Sunday nights, and a new sports program (Colorado Sports Tonight) replacing it in its former slot.

On-air staff

Notable former on-air staff

• Adelle Allen - anchor (1986–2014; retired November 26, 2014; came out of retirement as anchor for KZCO on 6/1/15; died January 22, 2017)
• Bryant Allen - morning anchor (1989-1995; ; brother of Adelle Allen)
• Eddie Bjork - anchor (now at KLZL)
• Kym Christian - anchor/reporter (1989-1993; went to KDNC where she became a legendary anchor, later at WTOR/WXXC Fort Wayne, Indiana, died August 25, 2017)
• Elaine Carson - anchor/reporter (1969-1993; later with KTRJ from 1995–2001; died July 11, 2003)
• Kylie Dwyar - anchor/reporter (1990–2014; now at WTOR/WXXC Fort Wayne, Indiana)
• Edd Stardell - anchor/reporter (1967–2004; later at sister station KDEN as host of One on One with Edd Stardell
• Mike Wilson - reporter (1996-2013; now incarcerated)