The McCracken family, owners of CBS affiliate KFBC-TV (channel 5, now KGWN-TV) in Cheyenne, Wyoming, applied for a construction permit in February 1962 to build a television station on channel 3 in Sterling. The permit was granted a year later, and channel 3 came to air on December 28, 1963,[3] as KTVS, operating it as a satellite station of KFBC.
In September 1999, Newsweb Corporation, operating under the licensee Channel 20 TV Company (CTTC), acquired KTVS from Benedek Broadcasting, then-owners of KGWN, with the intent of making KTVS a satellite of Newsweb's Denver station KTVD (channel 20, after which the Channel 20 TV Company received its name). It became one of very few satellite stations in the United States that predated the existence of the television station that its signal relayed, as KTVD had signed on in April 1988. On January 8, 2002, Channel 20 TV Company changed the station's call letters to KUPN, to reflect the UPN affiliation held by its parent station at the time.[4] CTTC sold KTVD to the Gannett Company in June 2006, but retained ownership of KUPN, converting it into an affiliate of America One.
On July 21, 2008, Channel 20 TV Company changed the station's call letters to KCDO.[4] To increase its signal coverage to reach a wider range of viewers, the station applied to build a new transmitter facility located southwest of Fort Morgan. The new location and increased transmitter power added most of the Denver metro area as well as Fort Collins, Greeley, Longmont and Loveland to the station's service area.[5] Construction on the new tower was completed in January 2010.[6] On December 31, 2008, satellite provider Dish Network began carrying KCDO on its lineup for subscribers in the Denver market.[citation needed]DirecTV also added the channel on January 28, 2009.
KCDO affiliated with the Retro Television Network in 2009.[7] The network was previously seen in Denver on KQDK-CA, before RTV severed its ties with Equity Media Holdings. For a time, the station also simulcast KGWN-TV's newscasts for the Colorado side of the Cheyenne market (carried by that station's second digital subchannel), branded as Northern Colorado 5 News, which was co-produced by KGWN and the Independent News Network.[6]
On November 1, 2010, KCDO dropped its affiliation with the Retro Television Network, in favor of converting into an independent station with a focus on locally produced programming.[8]
KCDO-TV may air ABC network programming should it be preempted by KMGH-TV for long-form breaking news or severe weather coverage or other special programming.[11] The station also acts as a full-power relay of KMGH's main channel via its dedicated subchannel, to provide fuller coverage of the station throughout northeastern Colorado and portions of western Nebraska through KCDO's translator network.
KCDO-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 3, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 23,[13] using virtual channel 3.
(*) – indicates station is in one of Colorado's primary TV markets (**) – indicates station is in an out-of-state TV market, but reaches a small portion of Colorado
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state of Nebraska
