Recent discussions led to me to wonder:
Why wasn't there a channel 3 in southern Colorado?
Before TV went digital, there was a channel 3 in northeastern Colorado (Sterling), and a channel 5 just over the state border in Wyoming (Cheyenne). There was also a channel 5 in Pueblo.
It turns out that channel 3 was originally assigned to Pueblo. Not only that, but Pueblo's first TV station was on channel 3.
KDZA radio in Pueblo put KDZA-TV on the air in March 1953, using a low-power facility under a temporary authorization. This was nothing special; many TV stations first started with temporary facilities until they could get their full-power construction permits built. Often this was due to supply chain issues with so many TV stations coming on the air after the FCC lifted its freeze on new VHF stations in 1952.
Denver's KFEL-TV, on channel 2, was the first on the air in that city. That station got its grant early in July 1952. It had already bought some low-power equipment. All it needed to do was to put up a transmitting antenna. Up went a 25-foot pole on Lookout Mountain just west of Denver. KFEL owner Gene O'Fallon had sent a telegram to the Federal Communications Commission upon getting his construction permit asking for temporary authorization to operate. Television Digest in its July 19 issue reported, "FCC was almost too startled to act". It wanted assurances that Denver would get a "Grade A" signal. KFEL-TV's station manager flew to Washington with the calculations and got the go-ahead on July 18.
Why the haste? Denver was the biggest city to be left without TV service when the FCC imposed its freeze on new VHF licenses in 1948. With O'Fallon's rush to get on the air, his station could take programs from all four networks that were available at the time.
The history of KDZA-TV is intertwined with that of KFEL-TV.
Back to Pueblo: When KDZA-TV came on the air in 1953, it received network and other programming via a 104-mile microwave relay from KFEL-TV. The radio operations for KDZA did not have a network affiliation; KFEL was a Mutual affiliate. These facts would become important as additional TV stations, associated with radio stations that had major network affiliations, came on the air.
At the time, Pueblo and Colorado Springs appeared to be separate markets. Colorado Springs had an excellent transmitter site available on Cheyenne Mountain. The best site for Pueblo appeared to be a high mesa northeast of the city. Pueblo signals probably struggled to get into Colorado Springs, but the opposite wasn't always true.
Even before KDZA-TV made it to the air, it didn't have Pueblo viewers by itself. KKTV (11) in Colorado Springs was on the air by December of 1952 as a CBS and ABC affiliate. It was on Cheyenne Mountain from the start, giving it a good shot at reaching Pueblo. KRDO-TV (13) had a somewhat longer road to getting on the air, and wasn't on the mountain for its first few years.
In Pueblo, KCSJ-TV (5) started operations toward the end of June 1953. It became an NBC affiliate. Since both KCSJ-TV and KRDO-TV had some coverage limitations, both were NBC affiliates.
KCSJ radio was an NBC affiliate, so NBC gravitated toward KCSJ-TV as an affiliate. KKTV was a joint effort of Colorado Springs radio station KVOR, a CBS affiliate, and Pueblo station KGHF, an ABC affiliate; hence KKTV's affiliations with those networks. KDZA-TV was left with the dying DuMont network.
KFEL-TV had the same problem with network affiliations as KDZA-TV, with new stations coming on the air in Denver taking the major network affiliations. Later in 1952, KBTV (9) got the ABC affiliation, thanks to its association with KVOD radio. Then KLZ-TV (7) started as a CBS affiliate in October 1953. Finally, KOA-TV (4) took the NBC affiliation in December 1953. KFEL-TV was left with DuMont.
KDZA-TV might have had a lifeline by teaming up with KFEL-TV, especially given that the two stations were already linked by microwave. In August, 1953, Gene O'Fallon proposed buying KDZA-TV. Due to economic pressures caused by the loss
of KFEL-TV's affiliations, O'Fallon dropped the offer within a few months.
Moreover, the microwave relay between KFEL-TV and KDZA-TV was "found uneconomical" (Television Digest, May 15, 1954) and discontinued. Thus, KDZA-TV was left adrift.
Technically speaking, KDZA-TV still didn't have its license and continued to operate with temporary facilities. It went off the air for equipment repairs on May 7, 1954. It never returned to the air. KDZA-TV simply let its construction permit expire.
So a nice low-band VHF allocation in Pueblo was just waiting for a taker. But the market wasn't big enough to support an independent station.
The next year, the FCC proposed moving the allocation west from Pueblo to Alamosa, in the San Juan Valley. KCSJ-TV made the proposal, and said it would apply for a station there once the allocation was moved.
Opposition to the proposed move came in September 1955 from Gene O'Fallon, who said that he planned to apply for a new station in Pueblo on channel 3. (By then, O'Fallon had sold KFEL-TV.) A week after filing his objection, O'Fallon withdrew it, saying that "plans to file for Pueblo had changed". (Television Digest, September 10, 1955) The allocation moved to Alamosa.
But it wasn't until 1959 before anyone actually filed for the channel. The part-owner of Colorado Springs' KVOR radio, Harrison Fuerst, filed for that channel as well as channel 11 in Santa Fe, New Mexico in August. KCSJ-TV filed a competing claim in October.
Fuerst won the construction permit for Alamosa in 1961, with the new station to be called KOUL-TV, but it lapsed on December 19, 1961, and Fuerst didn't apply to have it reinstated. The FCC deleted the station in May 1962. Fuerst then proposed moving the allocation back to Pueblo.
From a business standpoint, one wonders why all this action centered on Pueblo. After November 4, 1959, when KRDO-TV became a primary ABC affiliate, the Pueblo-Colorado Springs market (by then combined) had a full complement of network affiliates. It would be hard for an independent station in a smaller market to make a go of it. In addition, Denver's KOA-TV bought KCSJ-TV in 1962, renaming it KOAA-TV. It still has those calls today, while its former parent station in Denver has since changed call letters and network affiliation. (KRDO-TV affiliation switch in Broadcasting, September 21, 1959.)
In any event, channel 3 had, by that time, been allocated to Sterling, in northeastern Colorado. The FCC found that a channel 3 allocation in Pueblo would be short-spaced to Sterling.
Alamosa was not what one would consider a desirable community to try to run a TV station. So the allocation sat vacant for years.
In 1979, a newly formed company, Western Slope Communications, petitioned the FCC to make several allocation changes in Colorado and Utah. The idea was to put a station on channel 3 in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. The existing Alamosa allocation and two for channel 3 in Price and Vernal, Utah were in the way. Western Slope proposed to change the Utah allocations to channel 6, and delete the Alamosa allocation, reassigning it to Glenwood Springs. The FCC approved the shift in January 1980 (Broadcasting, February 11, 1980).
That's where Pueblo's channel 3 went: all the way on the other side of the state. Technically speaking, it didn't move; it was deleted (after being moved to Alamosa) and then re-created in Glenwood Springs.
KCWS-TV went on the air in January 1984 as an independent station, promoting the fact that it was "the first full-power television station based in the Colorado mountain regions servicing the state's mountain communities". (Broadcasting, December 19, 1983) After an apparent attempt to get an NBC affiliation, which didn't succeed, and a bankruptcy (see Broadcasting, March 31, 1986) and several sales, the station is now KREG-TV.
Acknowledgements go to worldradiohistory.com and its collection of Broadcasting magazines and the weekly Television Digest newsletter. Television Digest, in particular, is extremely valuable in tracing the activities of TV stations in the 1950s, and in providing context for what was going on in TV that decade.
Why wasn't there a channel 3 in southern Colorado?
Before TV went digital, there was a channel 3 in northeastern Colorado (Sterling), and a channel 5 just over the state border in Wyoming (Cheyenne). There was also a channel 5 in Pueblo.
It turns out that channel 3 was originally assigned to Pueblo. Not only that, but Pueblo's first TV station was on channel 3.
KDZA radio in Pueblo put KDZA-TV on the air in March 1953, using a low-power facility under a temporary authorization. This was nothing special; many TV stations first started with temporary facilities until they could get their full-power construction permits built. Often this was due to supply chain issues with so many TV stations coming on the air after the FCC lifted its freeze on new VHF stations in 1952.
Denver's KFEL-TV, on channel 2, was the first on the air in that city. That station got its grant early in July 1952. It had already bought some low-power equipment. All it needed to do was to put up a transmitting antenna. Up went a 25-foot pole on Lookout Mountain just west of Denver. KFEL owner Gene O'Fallon had sent a telegram to the Federal Communications Commission upon getting his construction permit asking for temporary authorization to operate. Television Digest in its July 19 issue reported, "FCC was almost too startled to act". It wanted assurances that Denver would get a "Grade A" signal. KFEL-TV's station manager flew to Washington with the calculations and got the go-ahead on July 18.
Why the haste? Denver was the biggest city to be left without TV service when the FCC imposed its freeze on new VHF licenses in 1948. With O'Fallon's rush to get on the air, his station could take programs from all four networks that were available at the time.
The history of KDZA-TV is intertwined with that of KFEL-TV.
Back to Pueblo: When KDZA-TV came on the air in 1953, it received network and other programming via a 104-mile microwave relay from KFEL-TV. The radio operations for KDZA did not have a network affiliation; KFEL was a Mutual affiliate. These facts would become important as additional TV stations, associated with radio stations that had major network affiliations, came on the air.
At the time, Pueblo and Colorado Springs appeared to be separate markets. Colorado Springs had an excellent transmitter site available on Cheyenne Mountain. The best site for Pueblo appeared to be a high mesa northeast of the city. Pueblo signals probably struggled to get into Colorado Springs, but the opposite wasn't always true.
Even before KDZA-TV made it to the air, it didn't have Pueblo viewers by itself. KKTV (11) in Colorado Springs was on the air by December of 1952 as a CBS and ABC affiliate. It was on Cheyenne Mountain from the start, giving it a good shot at reaching Pueblo. KRDO-TV (13) had a somewhat longer road to getting on the air, and wasn't on the mountain for its first few years.
In Pueblo, KCSJ-TV (5) started operations toward the end of June 1953. It became an NBC affiliate. Since both KCSJ-TV and KRDO-TV had some coverage limitations, both were NBC affiliates.
KCSJ radio was an NBC affiliate, so NBC gravitated toward KCSJ-TV as an affiliate. KKTV was a joint effort of Colorado Springs radio station KVOR, a CBS affiliate, and Pueblo station KGHF, an ABC affiliate; hence KKTV's affiliations with those networks. KDZA-TV was left with the dying DuMont network.
KFEL-TV had the same problem with network affiliations as KDZA-TV, with new stations coming on the air in Denver taking the major network affiliations. Later in 1952, KBTV (9) got the ABC affiliation, thanks to its association with KVOD radio. Then KLZ-TV (7) started as a CBS affiliate in October 1953. Finally, KOA-TV (4) took the NBC affiliation in December 1953. KFEL-TV was left with DuMont.
KDZA-TV might have had a lifeline by teaming up with KFEL-TV, especially given that the two stations were already linked by microwave. In August, 1953, Gene O'Fallon proposed buying KDZA-TV. Due to economic pressures caused by the loss
of KFEL-TV's affiliations, O'Fallon dropped the offer within a few months.
Moreover, the microwave relay between KFEL-TV and KDZA-TV was "found uneconomical" (Television Digest, May 15, 1954) and discontinued. Thus, KDZA-TV was left adrift.
Technically speaking, KDZA-TV still didn't have its license and continued to operate with temporary facilities. It went off the air for equipment repairs on May 7, 1954. It never returned to the air. KDZA-TV simply let its construction permit expire.
So a nice low-band VHF allocation in Pueblo was just waiting for a taker. But the market wasn't big enough to support an independent station.
The next year, the FCC proposed moving the allocation west from Pueblo to Alamosa, in the San Juan Valley. KCSJ-TV made the proposal, and said it would apply for a station there once the allocation was moved.
Opposition to the proposed move came in September 1955 from Gene O'Fallon, who said that he planned to apply for a new station in Pueblo on channel 3. (By then, O'Fallon had sold KFEL-TV.) A week after filing his objection, O'Fallon withdrew it, saying that "plans to file for Pueblo had changed". (Television Digest, September 10, 1955) The allocation moved to Alamosa.
But it wasn't until 1959 before anyone actually filed for the channel. The part-owner of Colorado Springs' KVOR radio, Harrison Fuerst, filed for that channel as well as channel 11 in Santa Fe, New Mexico in August. KCSJ-TV filed a competing claim in October.
Fuerst won the construction permit for Alamosa in 1961, with the new station to be called KOUL-TV, but it lapsed on December 19, 1961, and Fuerst didn't apply to have it reinstated. The FCC deleted the station in May 1962. Fuerst then proposed moving the allocation back to Pueblo.
From a business standpoint, one wonders why all this action centered on Pueblo. After November 4, 1959, when KRDO-TV became a primary ABC affiliate, the Pueblo-Colorado Springs market (by then combined) had a full complement of network affiliates. It would be hard for an independent station in a smaller market to make a go of it. In addition, Denver's KOA-TV bought KCSJ-TV in 1962, renaming it KOAA-TV. It still has those calls today, while its former parent station in Denver has since changed call letters and network affiliation. (KRDO-TV affiliation switch in Broadcasting, September 21, 1959.)
In any event, channel 3 had, by that time, been allocated to Sterling, in northeastern Colorado. The FCC found that a channel 3 allocation in Pueblo would be short-spaced to Sterling.
Alamosa was not what one would consider a desirable community to try to run a TV station. So the allocation sat vacant for years.
In 1979, a newly formed company, Western Slope Communications, petitioned the FCC to make several allocation changes in Colorado and Utah. The idea was to put a station on channel 3 in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. The existing Alamosa allocation and two for channel 3 in Price and Vernal, Utah were in the way. Western Slope proposed to change the Utah allocations to channel 6, and delete the Alamosa allocation, reassigning it to Glenwood Springs. The FCC approved the shift in January 1980 (Broadcasting, February 11, 1980).
That's where Pueblo's channel 3 went: all the way on the other side of the state. Technically speaking, it didn't move; it was deleted (after being moved to Alamosa) and then re-created in Glenwood Springs.
KCWS-TV went on the air in January 1984 as an independent station, promoting the fact that it was "the first full-power television station based in the Colorado mountain regions servicing the state's mountain communities". (Broadcasting, December 19, 1983) After an apparent attempt to get an NBC affiliation, which didn't succeed, and a bankruptcy (see Broadcasting, March 31, 1986) and several sales, the station is now KREG-TV.
Acknowledgements go to worldradiohistory.com and its collection of Broadcasting magazines and the weekly Television Digest newsletter. Television Digest, in particular, is extremely valuable in tracing the activities of TV stations in the 1950s, and in providing context for what was going on in TV that decade.
