Early years
On September 28, 1955, Moritz Zenoff, owner of radio station KBMI in nearby Henderson as well as the Boulder City News and Henderson Home News, was granted a construction permit to build channel 13 in Las Vegas.[5] Zenoff built the station and signed on KSHO-TV on May 4, 1956. It was an independent station with a 24-hour schedule—possibly the only one at that time—consisting of four rotating six-hour movie blocks, interrupted in the evening for brief five-minute news breaks that were the station's only local programming.[6] The studios were located in the Fremont Hotel and Casino, from which the station broadcast with a mere 250 watts of power; low-budget advertisements were a major draw, as was a classified advertising feature aired throughout the day.[7] KSHO-TV was built for $70,000, a fraction of the cost of most new-build TV stations, and run by just two technical employees per shift, but its low-cost programming made the small operation profitable.[8]
Zenoff sold the station and KBMI radio to the Television Company of America (TCA) in September 1956, four months after putting it on the air. TCA was owned by a number of TV and radio investors in the western United States, including Albert Zugsmith.[9] It was the second attempt to sell the station that year after a previous application to sell the outlet to Wilbur Clark, developer and owner of the Desert Inn, was withdrawn.[10] Stock in Television Company of America changed hands multiple times in the late 1950s. In March 1957, Morton Sidley and Ira Laufer, both radio executives in Los Angeles, bought stock in TCA,[11] as did Nathan and Merv Adelson and Irwin Molasky.
That fall, the station relocated to El Rancho Vegas and applied to increase its power,[12] and on December 15, it became an ABC affiliate, the 81st primary outlet of the network nationally.[13] However, financial trouble and continued ownership turnover remained as hallmarks. In February 1959, the sale of the station to Rube Jolley, the founder of KLAS-TV, was announced.[14] The FCC granted the $137,500 purchase of TCA stock by Jolley's company, the Nevada Broadcasters Fund, in November.[15] Jolley was president but did not own any of the stock; among the notable stockholders was Howard D. Johnson, owner of radio and television interests in Idaho and Utah.[16] The Television Company of America, meanwhile, had to obtain a court order to prevent it from being evicted from El Rancho Vegas.[17]
License revocation and re-award
Television Company of America filed for bankruptcy protection in May 1961, and it asked for permission to transfer the license to a court-appointed receiver.[18] However, in March 1963, the FCC instead designated its license renewal as well as a proposed transfer of the license to Arthur Powell Williams, a businessman from Los Angeles, for hearing. The commission ordered the hearings over complications in ownership.[19] The FCC alleged that, over two years of what Variety called "financial gamesmanship", ownership had passed from Television Company of America to Nevada Broadcasters' Fund to a company controlled by Johnson, who advanced funds to keep the station in business; that there was an unauthorized contract for a transfer of control to Johnson; and that Nevada Broadcasters' Fund had disclosed in stock sales that it acquired control of KSHO-TV before even filing the application with the FCC, which must approve all transfers of control of radio and television stations.[20] Hearings were held in Las Vegas before an FCC examiner over the various unauthorized transfers and attempts to solicit public investment.[21] KSHO-TV's weakened position also was revealed by testimony in a concurrent FCC battle over the licensing of channel 4 in Boulder City, wherein applicants for that station—including KSHO-TV's station manager—were found to have discussed how to seek a network affiliation and "what part Channel 13 would play if it became dead".
Talmac and Williams ownership
On June 9, 1967, KSHO-TV's operating authority expired; the same day, the FCC granted interim operating authority to a group consisting of five of the seven applicants seeking to operate the station on a permanent basis.[29] Channel 13 of Las Vegas, Inc., consisted of five of the groups: Williams, Desert Broadcasting Corporation, Ettlinger Broadcasting, Clark County Communications, and Talmac, Inc. The other two, not part of the interim operator, were Lotus Television of Las Vegas and Diller Broadcasting Corporation, owned by Phyllis Diller.[30]
The application of Talmac, Inc., attracted the most immediate attention because it had ripple effects in Carson City. Alan Abner, one of Talmac's principals, sat on the Nevada Gaming Control Board, and conflict-of-interest questions prompted him to tender his resignation.[31] Two gamblers—whose business Abner regulated on the Gaming Control Board—were stakeholders in competing applicant Clark County Communications, thus the issue.[32] Even during the interim operation period, KSHO-TV moved into its present Valley View Drive studios in 1968 and simultaneously began high-power broadcasting for the first time in its history.
Journal and Scripps ownership
In 1979, The Journal Company purchased KSHO-TV from Williams, adding its first television station outside of its home state of Wisconsin.[36] The move came at a time when The Journal Company wanted to diversify in order to relieve antitrust pressures on its Milwaukee combination of the Milwaukee Journal, WTMJ-TV, AM and FM.[37] A total overhaul was necessary at channel 13, which had become the fourth-rated station locally even though it was affiliated with ABC, then the top network nationally. The general manager of KLAS-TV noted that the syndicated early evening offerings of independent KVVU-TV had provided stiffer competition for their newscasts than KSHO-TV's news offerings.[38] The result was a total image overhaul, including new KTNV-TV call letters on March 2, 1980.[39] Journal also invested in new live mobile reporting equipment and moved the transmitter to
