KUTV

KUTV (channel 2) is a television station in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside independent station KJZZ-TV (channel 14) and St. George–licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate KMYU (channel 12 or 2.2). KUTV's studios are located on Main Street in the Wells Fargo Center in downtown Salt Lake City, with transmitter on Farnsworth Peak in the Oquirrh Mountains, southwest of Salt Lake City, and a large network of translators throughout Utah and in portions of Idaho, Nevada, and Wyoming.

KUTV was the third commercial TV station to start in Salt Lake City, beginning broadcasting in September 1954. It was owned by a consortium of the Carman, Wrathall, and Kearns families, who merged their competing bids to start the station, but the main ownership mainstay for the first four decades of its history was the family of George C. Hatch, who bought a minority stake in the station in 1956 and full ownership in 1971. Originally an ABC affiliate, it switched to NBC in 1960. The station became a solid runner-up in Utah's local news race behind KSL-TV, buoyed by popular on-air personnel such as meteorologist Mark Eubank and anchor Terry Wood. In 1979, the station left downtown Salt Lake City for studios in what became West Valley City.

After the Hatch family bought out other partners in the Ogden Standard-Examiner—which they owned—in 1989, their financial capacity became strained by debt service. KUTV lost Eubank to KSL-TV, and the Hatches sold 88 percent of the station to an investment group led by Veronis Suhler & Associates (VS&A). VS&A put the station on the market in 1994, ultimately selling its controlling interest to NBC, making it the second station in Utah to be owned and operated by a major network. Within months, it was traded to a joint venture of Westinghouse Broadcasting and CBS as part of a multi-city trade, leaving KUTV to switch to CBS in September 1995. It became a CBS owned-and-operated station after Westinghouse and CBS merged that November. News ratings briefly swooned after the switch, but KUTV recovered to reclaim its previous position as a strong runner-up to KSL-TV. KUTV returned downtown in 2003 to its present studio location.

CBS sold its smaller-market stations in 2007 to Cerberus Capital Management, which formed Four Points Media Group to hold its television interests. In spite of the Great Recession and cutbacks in equipment and personnel, KUTV surpassed KSL-TV to become the market's news leader. During this time, KUSG, a rebroadcaster of KUTV in St. George, became a separate station and is today's KMYU, with broadcast coverage from KUTV's transmitters in the rest of the state. Sinclair Broadcast Group acquired Four Points in 2011 and expanded its Utah operation with its 2016 purchase of KJZZ-TV.