It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group[2] alongside La Grande–licensed independent station KUNP, channel 16 (which KATU simulcasts on its second digital subchannel).

[3] KPTV later withdrew, and KPOJ dropped its application in March,[4] but it was not until the end of 1959 that a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) hearing examiner recommended Fisher over the Tribune Publishing Company for the channel 2 construction permit.

[7] KATU began broadcasting on March 15, 1962, originally operating as an independent station; Portland native and actress Jane Powell was the master of ceremonies.

[10] The station's transmitter was originally located atop Livingston Mountain, about 7 miles (11 km) north-northeast of Camas, Washington; this northerly site had been required to maintain minimum spacing to the unbuilt channel 3 (the future KVDO-TV) at Salem.

[11] While it was the 25th independent in the United States, from the moment it went on air, speculation swirled that KATU might look to poach a network affiliation from one of the three other commercial stations in Portland.

[12] Rumors intensified in June 1963 as KATU began construction of a transmitter in Portland's West Hills, which would improve its signal coverage and co-site channel 2 with the other major stations.

[13] The news came in early December when ABC announced it would drop KPTV, Oregon's oldest television station, and move to KATU on March 1, 1964.

In November 1970, reporter Paul Linnman, who worked at KATU from 1967 to 1972 before returning to the station in 1984[30] and retiring from TV news in 2004,[31] traveled to Florence, Oregon, where a sperm whale washed ashore; its carcass was exploded unsuccessfully.

The station continued to receive requests for footage years after the event and has since commemorated anniversaries of the exploding whale, including a news special in 1995[32] and a remaster of the original newsfilm in 2020.

[42] O'Reilly's time with the station was marked by remarks about Portland being a "vacation" compared to his previous job in Boston, which displeased management, and an incident in which he left his paycheck in a copy machine, unwittingly divulging a six-figure salary that irked underpaid colleagues.

[44] KATU had worked its way up to having the top-rated newscasts in Portland by 1997,[45] but ratings were starting to decline before Gianola's departure for KOIN, which was responsible for leading a resurgence at that station.