KTVZ is a television station in Bend, Oregon, broadcasting locally on channel 21 as an affiliate of NBC. With two digital sub channels of The CW and Telemundo. The station is currently owned by the News-Press & Gazette Company of St. Joseph, Missouri.
KTVZ went on the air November 6, 1977. It was started by former owners Ray Johnson of KMED-AM-TV (now KTVL) in Medford, Oregon and C. Howard Lane from KOIN in Portland, Oregon. They formed Ponderosa Broadcasting, Inc.
The station has always been an NBC affiliate but also began to carry CBS programming on secondary basis. Efforts to carve out Deschutes County from the Portland television market all began in 1980. By the fall of 1981 Nielsen formed the newly created Bend DMA.
In 1986 the station was first sold to Stainless Broadcasting Company, which later became known as Northwest Broadcasting, Inc. based in Spokane, Washington. By 1997 KTVZ discontinued CBS programing since CBS affiliate KOIN in Portland already had full...
