KVOA

In the wake of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) lifting its freeze on the award of new television stations, three Tucson radio stations applied for three channels. The Arizona Broadcasting Company, owner of KVOA (1290 AM), filed for channel 4 without opposition on February 7 and was granted a construction permit to build on November 12.[3][4] KVOA, Tucson's NBC radio station, selected channel 4 because it was preferred by RCA and because NBC-owned stations in major cities, including New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., were on channel 4.[5]

By the start of 1953, KVOA had announced its television plans. At the station's radio transmitter site at Lee Street and 10th Avenue, work would begin on studios, and the AM radio tower would be rebuilt to accommodate a television antenna.[6] KVOA-TV had set a September 15 start date for launch, and construction proceeded uneventfully, but it opted to wait because it would be nearly two weeks after that when network coaxial service would be available in Tucson for the first time.[7] The station began broadcasting September 27, 1953,[8] and its initial offering was the first TV program piped in to Tucson by coaxial cable.[9] In addition to NBC programs, it carried a secondary affiliation with ABC; ABC's radio affiliate in Tucson, KCNA, had planned a station but bowed out.[8]

Arizona Broadcasting Company, a subsidiary of KTAR radio and KVAR television in Phoenix, opted to exit Tucson broadcasting in 1955 and sold KVOA radio and television to Clinton D. McKinnon of San Diego for $515,000.[10] Under McKinnon, KVOA-TV was the first to broadcast in color in Tucson, in November 1956.[11] ABC programs moved off of channel 4 in March 1957, when a third station, KDWI-TV, was sold and became KGUN-TV, acquiring the ABC affiliation;[12] in part, some of this program void was filled by the NTA Film Network, for which KVOA-TV had signed up at its launch the year before.[13] McKinnon sold the radio station to Sherwood Gordon in 1958,[14] keeping KVOA-TV and merging it with his ownership of KOAT-TV in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the next year.[15] The transmitter was moved to Mount Bigelow in 1961, concurrently with KOLD-TV (channel 13); the change put all three commercial stations on the mountaintop site.[16]

Several of the partners in Alvarado, in ill health and wishing to liquidate their holdings, pushed McKinnon to sell Alvarado Television in 1962. KVOA-TV and KOAT-TV were sold to Steinman Stations of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, headed by Clair McCollough, for $3.5 million,[17] with FCC approval coming in January 1963.[18] Steinman owned the Tucson station for five years before selling it in 1968 to the Pulitzer Publishing Company, publishers of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and owners of KSD radio and television in that city, for $3 million.[19][20]

An antitrust lawsuit involving the two daily newspapers in Tucson would have an impact on KVOA-TV. In 1971, a six-year antitrust lawsuit brought by the United States Department of Justice concluded in the sale of the morning Arizona Daily Star—which had been owned by the publisher of Tucson's afternoon daily, the Tucson Daily Citizen—to Pulitzer; negotiations for Pulitzer to purchase the newspaper had been ongoing for months, but while an agreement had been reached, final details relating to KVOA-TV's fate remained uncertain. To acquire the Daily Star, the Department of Justice required Pulitzer to sell KVOA-TV within a year.[21][22]

In mid-May, the sale of the television station to Donrey Media Group of Arkansas, whose holdings included television stations in Arkansas and Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada, was announced.[23] However, Donrey would be embroiled in a series of issues at the FCC that held up consideration of the KVOA-TV transfer. By January 1972, the Donrey TV stations were being investigated for a practice called "clipping", in which network credits or commercials would be clipped out of broadcast and replaced with local commercials.[24] KORK-TV, the Donrey station in Las Vegas, was facing a license renewal challenge.[25] By May, per a report in Broadcasting magazine, FCC staff were recommending hearings be convened to analyze revocation of Donrey's television station licenses and would likely require a hearing to approve the Tucson TV station purchase.[26] This threatened to prolong any sale attempt to Donrey at a time when Pulitzer was under a court order to find a buyer. In April, Pulitzer asked the Department of Justice for more time to sell KVOA-TV,[27] after which it was granted another extension in June;[28] however, if it could not sell the station by April 1973, Pulitzer would have to sell the Star, and the television station would be placed in trusteeship.[29] Meanwhile, the commission's actions were putting the nails in the coffin of a Donrey sale, as the Las Vegas station's license renewal was designated for hearing later in June,[30] and Pulitzer called off the Donrey deal on June 8, 1972.[3]

In late June, a consortium of two Tucsonans—Don Diamond and Don Pitt—and California investor Richard L. Bloch filed to buy KVOA-TV.[31] The FCC approved in November 1972, and the new owners, incorporated as Channel 4-TV, took over in January 1973,[3] making KVOA-TV the only locally owned television station in Tucson.[32]

A year and a half later, Jon Ruby left the general sales manager post at WLS-TV in Chicago to take the job of general manager at KVOA-TV.[33] He would remain in the position for 28 years and lead the station's transformation in the area of news, driving it from the lowest-rated news outlet in town to a golden age that would last from November 1976, when KVOA passed KOLD-TV in news ratings,[34] to 2004.[35][36] The transformation was particularly remarkable given that KVOA was able to buck a declining NBC network's fortunes as that network slumped into third place under the leadership of Fred Silverman. Despite its network being in third place, from 1976 to 1977, KVOA-TV increased its prime time audience by 32 percent.[37]

The KVOA logo used from 1979 to 2000, covering much of the station's period as Tucson's market leader

The station was acquired by H&C Communications—owned by the Hobby family of Houston, publishers of the Houston Post—in 1982, after the Diamond consortium opted to sell; the Hobby family was the only prospective buyer contacted, spending $30 million to purchase KVOA-TV.[38][39] Ruby remained as general manager, and the station continued its leadership, being first to introduce stereo broadcasting and closed captioning in Tucson.[40] When the Post was sold a year later, the Hobby family reorganized its broadcasting interests as H&C Communications. H&C began to liquidate its television stations in 1992. A deal was reached to sell KVOA and four of its sister stations (KPRC-TV in Houston, KSAT-TV in San Antonio, WESH in Orlando, and KCCI-TV in Des Moines) to Young Broadcasting that year, but it was cancelled due to lack of financing for Young to proceed with the purchase.[41][42] The following year, KVOA was sold to the Evening Post Publishing Company (through its Cordillera Communications subsidiary).[43] It became the largest television property owned by Cordillera.[44]

During Super Bowl XLIII in 2009, Comcast's standard-definition transmission of the station was interrupted for approximately 20 seconds replacing KVOA's broadcast of the game with hard-core porn, affecting Comcast's analog subscribers in portions of the Tucson area. This incident allowed KVOA to join Chicago stations WGN-TV and WTTW and the cable channel HBO (all of which had similar incidents) as victims of broadcast signal intervention.[45] The substitution appears to have been made at Comcast, not at KVOA, leaving KVOA's over-the-air, satellite and other cable providers viewers unaffected. Also, Comcast's high-definition transmission of KVOA was not affected.[46]

On October 29, 2018, Cordillera announced the sale of its entire station group to the E. W. Scripps Company. Scripps could not acquire KVOA, since it already owned KGUN-TV and KWBA-TV; as a result, KVOA was sold to Quincy Media in a secondary deal for $70 million.[47][48][49] The transaction was approved by the FCC on April 5, 2019,[50] and was completed on May 1 of that year.[51]

On February 1, 2021, less than two years after KVOA was acquired by Quincy, Gray Television announced it had purchased Quincy Media for $925 million. As Gray already owned KOLD-TV and both stations rank among the top four in ratings in the Tucson market, KVOA was put up for sale;[52] on April 29, 2021, it was announced that Allen Media Group, a subsidiary of Los Angeles-based Entertainment Studios, would acquire KVOA and the remaining Quincy stations not being acquired by Gray Television for $380 million.[53][54] The sale was completed on August 2.[55]

The logo of Southern Arizona News Network

KVOA formerly operated Southern Arizona News Network (SANN), a regional cable news channel that premiered on June 7, 2007. The network was a partnership between Cox cable, and KVOA.[66] SANN broadcast KVOA newscasts and weather reports live as well as replays of earlier broadcasts. SANN was broadcast on channel 3 on most Cox cable systems in southeastern Arizona and was not available over the air or on any other cable system. On March 31, 2010, the partnership agreement was terminated, and SANN was removed from the Cox cable lineup.[67]

• Sean Mooney – anchor[68]

• Christine Devine – morning news anchor (1988–1990); now at KTTV in Los Angeles[69]
• Savannah Guthrie – current co-anchor of The Today Show[70]
• Dan Hicks – NBC sportscaster[71]
• Mary Kim Titla – ran for Congress in 2008; publishes Native Youth Magazine[72]
• Lou Waters – joined CNN when launched in 1980[73]

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

In September 2003, KVOA began broadcasting a digital signal from a common facility shared with KOLD, KMSB, and KTTU-TV on Mount Bigelow.[75] KVOA discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 4, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television, continuing to broadcast in digital on its pre-transition UHF channel 23.[76] Simultaneously, the Casas Adobes translator converted from analog to digital on channel 4 as K04QP-D; it could not begin digital service prior to then because it reused VHF channel 4.[77]

The Casas Adobes translator atop Tumamoc Hill in the Tucson Mountains, K04QP-D, was established as a result of the move to Mount Bigelow in 1961. As areas of the Catalina Foothills are shaded from Mount Bigelow transmitters by terrain, some 12,000 people were left unserved by the relocation of the KVOA-TV and KOLD-TV transmitters.[78] A one-watt VHF installation on channel 11 was initially used.[79] However, when KZAZ-TV signed on in 1967, the translator was converted to the UHF band on channel 74,[80] later moving to channel 64 in 1985.[81]

In addition, KVOA owns a second translator in Sierra Vista, K28OY-D.[82]