KDVR

KDVR (channel 31) is a television station in Denver, Colorado, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is simulcast full-time over satellite station KFCT (channel 22) in Fort Collins. KDVR and KFCT are owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside CW station KWGN-TV (channel 2); Nexstar's Tegna subsidiary owns KUSA (channel 9), an NBC affiliate, and KTVD (channel 20), an independent station with MyNetworkTV. KDVR and KWGN-TV share studios on East Speer Boulevard in Denver's Speer neighborhood. KDVR's transmitter is located atop Lookout Mountain, near Golden, while KFCT's transmitter lies atop Horsetooth Mountain just outside Fort Collins, covering Northern Colorado. Channel 31 went on the air on August 10, 1983, as the first new commercial TV station in Denver in 30 years and the first full-service station on the ultra high frequency (UHF) band. The original permittee had intended to make channel 31 a Spanish-language station, but when census figures revealed fewer Hispanics lived in Denver than estimated, the group sold the permit. Centennial Broadcasting built the station as Denver's second English-language independent station. KDVR affiliated with Fox at its launch in 1986 and became competitive with longtime independent KWGN-TV. The station was sold twice in the early 1990s, to Chase Broadcasting in 1989 and to Renaissance Communications in 1992. These two groups obtained the permit for and built KFCT in Fort Collins in 1994. Fox Television Stations, the owned-and-operated stations division of the Fox network, acquired KDVR in 1995 as part of a trade. It moved the station out of cramped facilities and into its present studios in 2000, allowing for the long-awaited debut of a local 9 p.m. newscast. KDVR's news ultimately expanded into mornings and displaced KWGN-TV in the ratings. After Fox spun out KDVR and other stations to Local TV LLC in 2007, Local TV and...