KTVZ went on-the-air November 6, 1977. It was started by former owners Ray Johnson of KMED-AM-TV (now KTVL) in Medford and C. Howard Lane from KOIN-TVinPortland who formed Ponderosa Broadcasting, Inc. The station has always been an NBC affiliate but also began to carry CBS programming on a secondary basis. Efforts to carve out Deschutes County from the Portland television market began in 1980. By fall 1981, Nielsen formed the newly created Bend DMA. Sierra Cascade Communications sold the station to Stainless Broadcasting Company in 1986 which later became known as Northwest Broadcasting in 1997 based in Spokane, Washington.
By 1997, KTVZ discontinued CBS programming since KOIN in Portland (now seen through semi-satelliteKBNZ-LD, channel 7) already had full translator and cable coverage in the Bend area. Later in 2002, Northwest Broadcasting sold KTVZ to the News-Press & Gazette Company. By 2006, they added more network affiliations to the growing Central Oregon area when The CW was added as a second digital channel. In late 2006, it was announced that Meredith would sell KFXO to the News-Press & Gazette Company which occurred on May 24, 2007. BendBroadband filed a petition with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to block the proposed sale but it still went through. KQRE-LP was originally a repeater of KTVZ. In January 2007, that station completed a transmitter move that brought it closer to Bend making the rebroadcast redundant. The station then began airing Telemundo's schedule.
On June 22, 2007, KFXO's own prime time news at 10 p.m. was replaced by one produced by KTVZ. In September of that year, this station began to air its newscasts in 16:9widescreen format. It broadcasts five hours of local news every weekday. It produces a two-hour weekday morning show and nightly hour-long newscast for KFXO.
KTVZ shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 21, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 18 to channel 21.[3]
