KCDO-TV

KCDO-TV, virtual channel 3 (UHF digital channel 23), is a Independent television station located in Sterling, Colorado, United States. The station is owned by Channel 3 TV Company LLC. KCDO maintains studio facilities located on South Jamaica Court in Aurora, and its transmitter is located in rural southwestern Morgan County, east of Frederick.

On cable, KCDO is available on Comcast Xfinity channel 3 and in high definition on digital channel 649 in the Denver market and is carried on cable providers in other cities across Northern Colorado. The station also operates two digital fill-in translator stations on UHF channel 23 in Kimball, Nebraska and on UHF channel 34 in Sidney, Nebraska; its signal is also relayed on three other translator stations, K39KL-D (channel 39) in Akron, K22JL-D (channel 22) in Peetz and KLPD-LD (channel 28.3) in Denver.

History

Prior history of VHF channel 3 in Northern Colorado

The VHF channel 3 allocation in northern Colorado was originally assigned to Pueblo and occupied by KDZA-TV, which signed on the air in 1955 as an affiliate of the DuMont Television Network. Co-owned with KDZA radio (1230 AM, now KKPC), the station received its programming from Denver via microwave relay, employing a relay transmitter located in Black Forest. After only a few months, KDZA's relay transmitter was destroyed in a windstorm, forcing the station to shut down due to the lack of available resources to replace the transmitter or to provide local programming.