Tiny Station Gets Major Carriage

By Michael Malone -- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/3/2010 12:01:00 AM

Diminutive Denver outlet KCDO gets a huge boost this week, as it begins airing on Comcast. Licensed out of Sterling, Colo., and running on Channel 3, KCDO adds around 550,000 Comcast households May 4, and another 100,000 or so in the coming weeks.

Denver broadcasting vet Greg Armstrong runs KCDO; he launched it after a long stint atop former UPN affi liate KTVD, which Gannett bought in 2006. He and his staff of three wear multiple hats. “It’s a nice little, I hate to say it, mom-and-pop operation,” Armstrong says.

KCDO airs a mix of AgDay farmer fare, RTV classics and paid programming during the day, and a 10 p.m. news focused on northern Colorado and produced by KGWN Cheyenne’s Fort Collins bureau. KCDO has had distribution with satellite and smaller cable providers for more than a year, but the Comcast deal marks a mammoth boost.

“It gives us a little more credibility when we go talk to advertisers,” Armstrong says. “Hopefully, the whole thing feeds off itself.”