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KGUN-TV
KGUN-TV (channel 9) is a television station in Tucson, Arizona, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Sierra Vista–licensed independent station KWBA-TV (channel 58). The two stations share studios on East Rosewood Street in east Tucson; KGUN-TV's transmitter is located atop Mount Bigelow, northeast of the city.
KGUN-TV went on the air as KDWI-TV, Tucson's third commercial station, in 1956. Within a year, it was sold by its founding owner and took its present call sign and ABC affiliation. The station has generally run second or third in local news throughout its history.
The construction permit that was built as KDWI-TV was not the first the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had awarded for channel 9 in Tucson. Radio station KCNA (580 AM) received a construction permit in December 1952 to set up a station; when it relocated its transmitter facility in 1951, it installed a television "saddle" to support a future antenna on one of its towers. As late as April 1953, KCNA reported it was buying television equipment with an aim to sign on in December. However, the proposed station was scuttled by ownership turnover within KCNA. When the firm abandoned its plans to build the station in late August, it cited concerns that Tucson would not be a viable market for three commercial TV stations—KOPO-TV and KVOA having been constructed in the intervening months—and that it could not offer "minimum worthwhile public service to the viewers".
D. W. "Doc" Ingram, a Tucson lumber dealer, and his wife Kathleen, trading as the Tucson Television Company, applied for channel 9 on March 31, 1955, and received a permit just 20 days later on April 19. By February 1956, construction had been finished on an antenna atop Mount Bigelow, which made it the first Tucson station sited on a mountaintop; the other two commercial stations would relocate to Mount Bigelow in 1961. KDWI-TV began telecasting June 3, 1956, from studios on North 6th Avenue; it originally lacked network affiliation, subsisting entirely on movies. The studios were outfitted with a car lift, which Ingram had installed to allow the building to be used as a garage should the television venture fail.
In November, Ingram sold KDWI-TV to the Tucson Television Company, an unrelated concern led by Hugh U. Garrett, an oilman from Longview, Texas, and two other East Texas men; the $533,000 sale was accompanied by a 15-year lease of the studios. The call letters were changed to KGUN-TV on March 14, when the station joined ABC, bringing the full network lineup to southern Arizona for the first time. With the change from an all-film lineup, local programming was added; the children's show "Marshal KGUN" debuted at that time and ran until 1968. Other remembered programs from this period in station history include the local Romper Room franchise as well as Mexican Theater, which aired Mexican television fare, and the Chiller Saturday night horror movie (hosted by KGUN program director Jack Jacobson). For more than 30 years, KGUN covered the Fiesta de los Vaqueros rodeo parade, the world's longest non-mechanized parade; it dropped coverage after the 2004 edition because it lost money despite good ratings.
Garrett sold the station in 1961 to a group headed by Cincinnati meatpacker Henry S. Hilberg and Edwin G. Richter of Evansville, Indiana, who owned WEHT in that city. Hilberg and Richter sold both stations to Gilmore Broadcasting in 1964; Richter stayed on as manager of KGUN-TV. Gilmore then sold KGUN-TV to May Broadcasting for $2.9 million in 1968.
May would sell KGUN and KMTV in Omaha, Nebraska, along with two Omaha radio properties, to Lee Enterprises in December 1986. Two years later, Lee began construction of a $4 million studio complex in the Gateway Center complex on Tucson's east side. Lee in turn sold all of its stations to Emmis Communications in 2000. Emmis was credited with a focus on capital expenditures, which had been less of a priority for Lee Enterprises in its later years.
In 2005, Emmis began the liquidation of its television properties, selling KGUN to the Milwaukee-based Journal Broadcast Group, which already owned four radio stations in Tucson; the transfer was part of a $235 million transaction which included KMTV and WFTX-TV in Fort Myers, Florida.
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KGUN-TV
KGUN-TV (channel 9) is a television station in Tucson, Arizona, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Sierra Vista–licensed independent station KWBA-TV (channel 58). The two stations share studios on East Rosewood Street in east Tucson; KGUN-TV's transmitter is located atop Mount Bigelow, northeast of the city.
KGUN-TV went on the air as KDWI-TV, Tucson's third commercial station, in 1956. Within a year, it was sold by its founding owner and took its present call sign and ABC affiliation. The station has generally run second or third in local news throughout its history.
The construction permit that was built as KDWI-TV was not the first the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had awarded for channel 9 in Tucson. Radio station KCNA (580 AM) received a construction permit in December 1952 to set up a station; when it relocated its transmitter facility in 1951, it installed a television "saddle" to support a future antenna on one of its towers. As late as April 1953, KCNA reported it was buying television equipment with an aim to sign on in December. However, the proposed station was scuttled by ownership turnover within KCNA. When the firm abandoned its plans to build the station in late August, it cited concerns that Tucson would not be a viable market for three commercial TV stations—KOPO-TV and KVOA having been constructed in the intervening months—and that it could not offer "minimum worthwhile public service to the viewers".
D. W. "Doc" Ingram, a Tucson lumber dealer, and his wife Kathleen, trading as the Tucson Television Company, applied for channel 9 on March 31, 1955, and received a permit just 20 days later on April 19. By February 1956, construction had been finished on an antenna atop Mount Bigelow, which made it the first Tucson station sited on a mountaintop; the other two commercial stations would relocate to Mount Bigelow in 1961. KDWI-TV began telecasting June 3, 1956, from studios on North 6th Avenue; it originally lacked network affiliation, subsisting entirely on movies. The studios were outfitted with a car lift, which Ingram had installed to allow the building to be used as a garage should the television venture fail.
In November, Ingram sold KDWI-TV to the Tucson Television Company, an unrelated concern led by Hugh U. Garrett, an oilman from Longview, Texas, and two other East Texas men; the $533,000 sale was accompanied by a 15-year lease of the studios. The call letters were changed to KGUN-TV on March 14, when the station joined ABC, bringing the full network lineup to southern Arizona for the first time. With the change from an all-film lineup, local programming was added; the children's show "Marshal KGUN" debuted at that time and ran until 1968. Other remembered programs from this period in station history include the local Romper Room franchise as well as Mexican Theater, which aired Mexican television fare, and the Chiller Saturday night horror movie (hosted by KGUN program director Jack Jacobson). For more than 30 years, KGUN covered the Fiesta de los Vaqueros rodeo parade, the world's longest non-mechanized parade; it dropped coverage after the 2004 edition because it lost money despite good ratings.
Garrett sold the station in 1961 to a group headed by Cincinnati meatpacker Henry S. Hilberg and Edwin G. Richter of Evansville, Indiana, who owned WEHT in that city. Hilberg and Richter sold both stations to Gilmore Broadcasting in 1964; Richter stayed on as manager of KGUN-TV. Gilmore then sold KGUN-TV to May Broadcasting for $2.9 million in 1968.
May would sell KGUN and KMTV in Omaha, Nebraska, along with two Omaha radio properties, to Lee Enterprises in December 1986. Two years later, Lee began construction of a $4 million studio complex in the Gateway Center complex on Tucson's east side. Lee in turn sold all of its stations to Emmis Communications in 2000. Emmis was credited with a focus on capital expenditures, which had been less of a priority for Lee Enterprises in its later years.
In 2005, Emmis began the liquidation of its television properties, selling KGUN to the Milwaukee-based Journal Broadcast Group, which already owned four radio stations in Tucson; the transfer was part of a $235 million transaction which included KMTV and WFTX-TV in Fort Myers, Florida.