The two stations share studios on South Valley View Boulevard in the nearby unincorporated community of Paradise (though with a Las Vegas mailing address); KTNV-TV's transmitter is located atop Mount Arden in Henderson.

Amid financial difficulties, multiple stock sales and ownership transfers occurred from 1957 until 1961, when the licensee, Television Company of America, declared bankruptcy, and a receiver was appointed.

In 1963, the Federal Communications Commission opened an investigation into an unauthorized transfer of control of the station, which resulted in a decision to deny renewal of its broadcast license.

KSHO-TV continued to operate on an interim basis while seven applicants fought for the permanent license; Talmac, Inc., owned the station from then until 1972, followed by Arthur Powell Williams.

[9][11][10] KSHO-TV was built for $70,000, a fraction of the cost of most new-build TV stations, and run by just two technical employees per shift, but its low-cost programming made the small operation profitable.

In March 1957, Morton Sidley and Ira Laufer, both radio executives in Los Angeles, bought stock in TCA,[14] as did Nathan and Merv Adelson and Irwin Molasky.

[15] That fall, the station relocated to El Rancho Vegas and applied to increase its power,[16] and on December 15, it became an ABC affiliate, the 81st primary outlet of the network nationally.

[19] Jolley was president but did not own any of the stock; among the notable stockholders was Howard D. Johnson, owner of radio and television interests in Idaho and Utah.

[25] FCC hearing examiner Millard French handed down an initial decision in November 1964 against the license renewal and proposed transfers of control to Williams, citing Nevada Broadcasters' Fund's "misrepresentations and statements that were calculated to deceive", that stakeholders were selling stock they no longer owned, and that Johnson's company, KBLI Inc., attempted to raise stock only to be told by the securities commissioner in Idaho that it could not invest any of the money it raised outside the state.

[27] It represented the first time the commission had denied renewal of a television license at hearing; even though the FCC held that some innocent creditors and others would be punished, it rebuked the "most incredibly lax manner" in which KSHO-TV was operated and noted that concealing the Johnson ownership interest was "outstanding and willful".

Alan Abner, one of Talmac's principals, sat on the Nevada Gaming Control Board, and conflict-of-interest questions prompted him to tender his resignation.

[35] Even during the interim operation period, KSHO-TV moved into its present Valley View Drive studios in 1968 and simultaneously began high-power broadcasting for the first time in its history.

[37] Arthur Powell Williams—the same man who was to have bought the station a decade earlier—filed to acquire KSHO-TV from Talmac in April 1971, a transaction approved by the FCC in January 1972.

[2] Journal also invested in new live mobile reporting equipment and moved the transmitter to Black Mountain;[41] in 1985, KTNV was the first Las Vegas-area station to broadcast in stereo.

When Journal took over, the main early evening newscast was moved from 6 to 5:30 p.m. to avoid direct competition with KLAS-TV, which commanded half of all TV viewership at the 6 p.m. hour in February 1980.

[48][49] The station was lifted into second place for a time but had sunk back down to third by 1989; in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Ken White described the newsroom as having "more news directors hired and fired the last few years than managers for the New York Yankees".