KVOA (channel 4) is a television station in Tucson, Arizona, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Allen Media Group.

The station was an NBC affiliate from the start; early owners included KTAR in Phoenix, Clinton D. McKinnon, and the Pulitzer Publishing Company.

Pulitzer had to divest the television station to purchase the Arizona Daily Star newspaper; this transaction was prolonged by issues with the potential buyer at the Federal Communications Commission.

[3] From October 1948 to April 1952, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) imposed a freeze on the award of new television stations to revise technical standards.

The Arizona Broadcasting Company, owner of KVOA (1290 AM), filed for channel 4 without opposition on February 7, 1952, and was granted a construction permit to build on November 12.

[9] KVOA-TV had set a September 15 start date for launch, and construction proceeded uneventfully, but it opted to wait because it would be nearly two weeks after that when network coaxial cable service would be available in Tucson for the first time.

[10] The station began broadcasting September 27, 1953,[11] and its initial offering was the first TV program piped in to Tucson by coaxial cable.

[16] McKinnon sold the radio station to Sherwood Gordon in 1958,[17] keeping KVOA-TV and merging it with Alvarado Television, owner of KOAT-TV in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the next year.

[18] The transmitter was moved to Mount Bigelow in 1961, concurrently with KOLD-TV (channel 13); the change put all three commercial stations on the mountaintop site.

KVOA-TV and KOAT-TV were sold to Steinman Stations of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, headed by Clair McCollough, for $3.5 million,[20] with FCC approval coming in January 1963.

[6] In late June, a consortium of two Tucsonans—Don Diamond and Don Pitt—and California investor Richard L. Bloch filed to buy KVOA-TV.

[34] The FCC approved in November 1972, and the new owners, incorporated as Channel 4-TV, took over in January 1973,[6] making KVOA-TV the only locally owned television station in Tucson.

[41][42] Ruby remained as general manager, and the station continued its leadership, being first to introduce stereo broadcasting and closed captioning in Tucson.

[49] On February 4, 2011, Frank Tanori Gonzalez was arrested by the Tucson Police and the FBI after suspicion of computer tampering connected with the sudden incident.

[68][69] A round of job cuts by Allen Media Group in 2024 led to the dismissals of nine employees, including the sports director and a 58-year station veteran who had been its first news photographer.

[81] The Casas Adobes translator atop Tumamoc Hill in the Tucson Mountains, K04QP-D, was established as a result of the move to Mount Bigelow in 1961.