Channel 9 prior to KGUN 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".
Construction and early years 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.
Lee, Emmis, Journal, and Scripps ownership 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. On March 18, 2008, Journal announced plans to buy
CW affiliate
KWBA-TV from
Cascade Broadcasting Group on undisclosed terms, creating a
duopoly with KGUN-TV. To make the purchase, Journal had to apply for a failing station waiver; even though Tucson had too few commercial station owners to normally permit another duopoly, it presented financial statements showing it had lost money for three years straight, a situation exacerbated by the loss of
Arizona Diamondbacks baseball rights, and pledged to start a local newscast from KGUN-TV for air on KWBA-TV. The FCC permitted the acquisition in June. On July 30, 2014, it was announced that the
E. W. Scripps Company would acquire Journal Communications in an all-stock transaction. The combined firm would retain its broadcast properties, including KGUN, and spin off the print assets as Journal Media Group. The deal made KGUN a sister station to
Phoenix's ABC affiliate,
KNXV-TV. The FCC approved the deal on December 12, 2014, and shareholders followed suit on March 11, 2015; the merger was completed on April 1. Scripps then sold off its radio properties in 2018, including the Tucson stations, which were purchased by
Lotus Communications. On October 5, 2023, the
Arizona Coyotes announced their departure from the troubled
regional sports network Bally Sports Arizona as during
its parent company's bankruptcy, the network rejected the Coyotes' contract. That same day, the team and
Scripps Sports announced a new contract. As part of the deal, games will be broadcast by KGUN-TV in Tucson. Because of network programming commitments, most games will air on KGUN's second subchannel, which usually carries
Laff, though the station will carry surrounding Coyotes team content on its main channel. The games will also air on a subchannel of KNXV in the Phoenix market and outside of Arizona via the league's
out-of-market sports package deal with
ESPN+. ==Local programming==