CBS Colorado
U.S. center-left
Background
The station launched on December 24, 1953 as KOA-TV, an NBC affiliate in Denver, initially co-owned by entertainer Bob Hope. General Electric purchased it in 1968 for $10 million and renamed it KCNC-TV (short for 'Colorado's News Channel') to comply with FCC ownership rules. GE's 1986 acquisition of NBC briefly made KCNC an NBC owned-and-operated station, the first major-network O&O in Colorado. In 1995, NBC swapped KCNC to CBS as part of a three-way corporate realignment; Westinghouse Electric (which simultaneously acquired CBS) took ownership, making it a CBS O&O. The station rebranded from 'CBS4 Denver' to 'CBS Colorado' in March 2023 as part of a company-wide push by CBS to present its local stations as statewide outlets rather than city brands. Paramount Global — by then KCNC's parent — completed a merger with Skydance Media in August 2025 after receiving FCC approval, a process complicated by the Trump administration's ongoing legal dispute with CBS News. As a condition of that approval, CBS agreed to create an internal news ombudsman, and new CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, appointed in October 2025, implemented editorial changes widely seen as moving the network toward the political center or right at the national level. KCNC's local news operation is rated center-left by Media Bias/Fact Check, with high marks for factual accuracy, and its day-to-day coverage of Colorado politics and public affairs is considered mainstream commercial local journalism.
Sources
- KCNC-TV – Wikipedia
- CBS Denver switches to statewide branding – NewscastStudio
- Merger of Skydance Media and Paramount Global – Wikipedia
- FCC approves Paramount-Skydance merger – CBS News
- New CBS owner Ellison takes steps to appease Trump – NPR
- KCNC-TV CBS Denver – Bias and Credibility – Media Bias/Fact Check
- The History Of CBS4 Denver – CBS Colorado
- CBS Media Ventures – Wikipedia
Profile compiled 2026-07-05; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.