page_title: KTUU-TV
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: KTUU-TV / History
caption_attribution_description: English: At right, holding the microphone, is Steve MacDonald. He worked as a television reporter and anchor in Anchorage, Alaska from 1982 until his retirement in December 2016, at first at KTVA but mostly at KTUU. He is standing by, waiting for his cue that he's live on the air, with Frank Robert "Bob" Bell. Bell is a businessman, engineer and politician, who has also written several humor-tinged books on the Alaskan outdoors. Bell represented south Anchorage on the Anchorage Assembly, the community's borough assembly/city council, and on this occasion was challenging Hollis French for a seat in the Alaska Senate.
context_page_description: KTUU-TV, virtual channel 2, is an NBC-affiliated television station licensed to Anchorage, Alaska, United States. The station is owned by Gray Television, as part of a duopoly with CBS affiliate KYES-TV. The two stations share studios on East 40th Avenue in Anchorage; KTUU-TV's transmitter is located in Knik, Alaska.
  On cable, KTUU-TV is available on GCI channel 2 and in high definition on digital channel 652. It is also carried on DirecTV and Dish Network in the Anchorage television market. Some of KTUU-TV's programming is broadcast to rural communities via low-power translators through the Alaska Rural Communications Service.
context_section_description: KTUU is one of the first two TV stations to sign on in Alaska (the other being CBS affiliate KTVA, channel 11), signing on October 16, 1953, as KFIA.  It became KENI-TV in 1955, and then KTUU on June 10, 1981.
  On September 19, 1966, channel 2 became the first station in Alaska to transmit in color when it aired the premiere episode of the ABC sitcom That Girl (entitled "Don't Just Do Something, Stand There!"). The station had joint primary affiliation with NBC and ABC (with KTVA picking up some of the slack) until October 1, 1967, when it switched to ABC primary and NBC secondary, primarily because ABC had more programs on film. Channel 2 became a full-time ABC affiliate in 1970 when KHAR (channel 13, now KYUR) took the NBC affiliation.  The two stations switched networks in October 1971, at which time KHAR became KIMO. Channel 2 also carried a few PBS programs (particularly The Electric Company) until KAKM signed on in 1975. Until KTVF in Fairbanks switched networks from CBS to NBC in April 1996, KTUU was the only full-time NBC affiliate in Alaska, clearing every network program.
  In August 2010, KTUU became the third Schurz-owned television station (after KWCH-DT and KSCW-DT in Wichita, Kansas and WDBJ in Roanoke, Virginia) to relaunch its website through a new partnership with the Tribune Company's Tribune Interactive division. Previously, the Web address was operated by the local media division of World Now. The other Schurz television station websites, which were operated by Broadcast Interactive Media, also followed after their CMS contract with BIM ran out.
  KTUU has been the top-rated station in the Anchorage market for decades; its ratings for their newscasts helped make them one of the strongest NBC affiliates in the country. The Channel 2 News team routinely wins regional and national awards and in 1999, became the first television station in Alaska with their own satellite uplink truck (NewsStar 2). The National Press Photographers Association named KTUU the Small Market Television News Photography Station of the Year in 2006, 2008 and 2010. In 2013, KTUU was also the first in Alaska to broadcast their news in high definition.
  On November 9, 2013, KTUU-TV was dropped by GCI in 22 rural communities, after the two sides were unable to come to a new retransmission agreement, though GCI still carries some KTUU and NBC programming in some of these areas through the Alaska Rural Communications Service. The dispute does not involve areas (including Anchorage) where GCI carries KTUU through must-carry. The move followed the sale of rival KTVA to a subsidiary of GCI a week earlier, which KTUU had opposed over concerns that this move could be made. KTUU's channel slot on most of the affected systems was filled by Starz Kids & Family. Despite this dispute, KTUU extended its newscast carriage agreement with KATH-LD in Juneau and KSCT-LP in Sitka (which were also acquired by GCI at the same time it acquired KTVA) through November 22; that agreement was subsequently extended through December 6 as negotiations continued toward a long-term deal, but talks ultimately broke down, and by December 7 KATH/KSCT no longer aired KTUU programming. A deal between GCI and KTUU was finally reached on February 6, 2014; this allowed the station to return to GCI's rural systems (as well as separately-owned cable systems that receive KTUU through GCI) in time for NBC's broadcast of the 2014 Winter Olympics, as well as the eventual restoration of KTUU's newscasts to KATH/KSCT.
  Schurz announced on September 14, 2015 that it would exit broadcasting and sell its television and radio stations, including KTUU-TV, to Gray Television for $442.5 million. Associated with the purchase, on October 1, 2015, it was announced that Gray would buy MyNetworkTV-affiliated KYES-TV for $500.000. The acquisition of KYES created the first legal duopoly on the area (KTBY and KYUR operate as a virtual duopoly). The FCC approved the Schurz sale on February 12, 2016; and the sale was completed on February 16. The KYES acquisition was completed on June 27, 2016; it had 
caption: Steve MacDonald, anchor and reporter from 1996 to 2016, prior to a live interview with Alaska Senate candidate Bob Bell at the Dena'ina Center in August 2012.
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