The two stations share studios on East 40th Avenue in midtown Anchorage; KTUU-TV's transmitter is located in Knik, Alaska.

[3] The permit took the call sign KFIA ("First in Anchorage") and then began construction, with an antenna being placed atop the Westward Hotel at Third Avenue and F Street.

Two days later, on the October 17, the first television test pattern in Alaska was broadcast, but the station missed its announced November 1 start date.

On September 19, 1966, channel 2 became the first station in Alaska to transmit in color when it aired the premiere episode of the ABC sitcom That Girl (entitled "Don't Just Do Something, Stand There!").

The other Schurz television station websites, which were operated by Broadcast Interactive Media, also followed after their CMS contract with BIM ran out.

Despite this dispute, KTUU extended its newscast carriage agreement with KATH-LD in Juneau and KSCT-LP in Sitka (which were also acquired by GCI at the same time it acquired KTVA) through November 22;[5][6][7] that agreement was subsequently extended through December 6 as negotiations continued toward a long-term deal,[8] but talks ultimately broke down, and by December 7 KATH/KSCT no longer aired KTUU programming.

[20] The KTUU news team routinely wins regional and national awards and in 1999, became the first television station in Alaska with their own satellite uplink truck (NewsStar 2).

The National Press Photographers Association named KTUU the Small Market Television News Photography Station of the Year in 2006, 2008 and 2010.

The station's digital signal is multiplexed: KTUU-TV ended regular programming over its analog signal, over VHF channel 2, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate.

[24] As part of the SAFER Act, KTUU-TV kept its analog signal on the air until July 12 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcements from the National Association of Broadcasters.