Note from the Publisher: As Denver7 celebrates 7 decades of broadcasting, we salute the many talented journalists and other talent who entered those double doors at 123 Speer Blvd., including this grateful publisher, whose first job in media totaling 15 years holds special memories of co-workers, friends and yes celebrities at Denver7. Who can forget the network switch, from a CBS affiliate to a current ABC affiliate. Who can forget the glamour and glitz of meeting Rachael Welch, John Denver, Charleton Heston, Peter Jennings, Jose Feliciano, Cuba Gooding, Jr and more? Denver7 also won the hearts of the community with their 7Everyday Hero program and other similar community outreach programs, highlighting local volunteers who made a difference in their community and lending a helping hand to those in need. Who can forget Denver’s first Latina General Manager, Cindy Velasquez Pena and Latino journalists, Anne Trujillo, Lance Hernandez, the late Gary Cruz and more, who represented Latinos when representation in media was nearly non-existent. Thank you Denver7 for 70 years of making a meaningful impact.
It was November 1st, 1953, and KLZ television took to the airwaves in Denver. What? You say you don’t remember KLZ TV? Well, in 1953, it was a big deal. Television was the shiny new object back then. In fact, just having a television in 1953 was a pretty big deal.
Television made it possible to actually sit at home and watch a movie, one often interrupted at ten-minute intervals by commercials that by today’s standards could pass for parody. Production values would come along much later.
Back then, prime time, as it was, was owned by shows like ‘The Honeymooners,’ a kinescope production still playing somewhere on a high triple-digit cable channel. Joe Friday, a Los Angeles detective who delivered staccato homilies about crime and punishment was a hit in ‘Dragnet.’ And kids were running home from school to catch ‘Superman,’ television’s first superhero, one whose special effects were limited to leaps out of windows or clumsy tricks with a camera. But it was TV! And Channel 7, as it was then known, was there.
KLZ TV ultimately morphed into KMGH and for Denver and Colorado, it’s been a steady companion providing viewers with news and programming for 70 years. While it has provided network programming, both CBS and ABC, it’s also been a de facto historian for Denver and the region. From sign-on until today, Denver7 has covered thirteen presidential administrations and eleven of our state’s governors.
Television shows come and go, said Denver7 General Manager Brian Joyce, but it’s a station’s news product and its people that are remembered. “Good people,” said Joyce, “is what it comes down to. If you can build and sustain, you continue to thrive.”
In a competitive news market like Denver, he said, you have to provide good journalism. In that regard, Denver7 has distinguished itself locally and nationally, winning countless Emmys and multiple Peabody Awards, perhaps television news’ highest honor. Its corps of photographers has also been regularly and nationally recognized for their excellence.
While television news has evolved dramatically since Denver7 signed on to the air, going from black-and-white film and steamer trunk-like cameras to today when an iPhone or Android can deliver real-time, high-quality video, its news product continues to be the tie that binds a station to the community it serves.
For seven decades, in different formats, with different faces, in good times and bad, said Denver7 News Director Megan Jurgemeyer, the mission has remained singularly focused. “There is nothing more valuable than our viewers’ trust,” said Jurgemeyer. “If we pursue a story, it must benefit the audience.”
A story, she said, its words and pictures, must connect to viewers not in a sensational way, but with salience and sensitivity. Though, admittedly, on television there are stories that must be told even at the risk of seeming to be sensational. It is not always an easy call, the Denver7 news executive said. “When we’re using video of a traumatic event, it must have purpose.”
Since its birth, Denver has gone from a fly-over town to a major league city in almost every way. In 1953 when Denver7 was KLZ-TV, the entire Denver metro population was slightly less than 600,000. Today, nearly three million people populate the region.
As the city and region have grown, Denver7 has adapted almost seamlessly, keeping the same breakneck pace. For Joyce, who once worked on-air doing sports at NBC affiliate KUSA, the chance to return to the city and put his own imprimatur on a legacy franchise was akin to the proverbial offer simply ‘too good to refuse.’
His transition from on-air to the executive suite meant leaving Denver to learn other facets of the industry. But coming back, the Texas native said, was also coming home. “I love this area and am humbled by the opportunity.” Denver, he said, is a place where people want to live. In the industry, Denver7 is also place where people want to work.
But returning to his belief that it’s the people that have made Denver7 so special for the past seventy years, Joyce had special mention of Anne Trujillo, a foundational presence in the newsroom and community for 39 years. Trujillo signed off the anchor desk last Thursday night.
“Anne is amazing,” he said. Her role in telling ‘the Colorado story’ has been “a master class.” “She is a quiet leader, but you always know that she’s in the room. I am in awe. Most people don’t get that chance.”
The arc of seven decades has seen a town of modest proportion grow into a destination city and Denver7 has been a constant. It has kept pace by remaining an important and relevant part of the community fabric, adapting, changing with the times but always serving its audience.
In times of triumph and tumult, Denver7 has been there.
