After initially being the market leader in local news, it was surpassed by KVOA in the 1970s and suffered particularly in the late 1980s and 1990s from corporate neglect and cost-cutting.

[10]) The main transmitter was moved to Mount Bigelow in 1961, simultaneously with KVOA-TV; KGUN-TV had been built on the mountain five years prior.

[11] In December 1968, Autry and Chauncey announced the sale of KOLD-TV, separate from the radio station, for $3.8 million to the Universal Communications Corporation, the broadcasting arm of the Detroit-based Evening News Association.

Gannett already owned the Tucson Citizen newspaper, and channel 13's signal slightly overlapped with Gannett-owned KPNX in Phoenix.

[32] On November 15, 2011, the Belo Corporation, then-owner of local Fox affiliate KMSB and MyNetworkTV affiliate KTTU, announced that it would enter into a shared services agreement (SSA) with Raycom Media beginning in February 2012, resulting in KOLD taking over the two stations' operations and moving their advertising sales department to the KOLD studios.

All remaining positions at KMSB and KTTU, including news, engineering and production, were eliminated, and master control operations moved from Belo's KTVK in Phoenix to KOLD.

Budget cuts meant outdated equipment that broke down,[29] while a series of anchors were fired and replaced with cheaper, entry-level talent.

[41] NPG fired sports anchor Kevin McCabe days before Christmas[28] in a dispute that led to a lawsuit over severance pay.

[42] Weatherman Pat Evans was told that there was a "big plan" for him, but when he asked, they would not reveal it; he declined to sign a new contract and took a new job in Sacramento, California.

[43][44] Despite these improvements, newscast ratings continued to languish far behind the other two major stations, with channel 13 drawing half as many news viewers, into the 2000s.

[45] In 2001, the station won a Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award, given to Chip Yost for a story about exploding fuel tanks in police cars.

[48] Not all were happy: anchor Randy Garsee was fired in 2006 after sending an email to all employees criticizing the news director for "micromanaging".

[57] The Tucson Mountains site was then converted to a digital replacement translator on channel 13 to provide service to the Catalina Foothills.