The station was started by Chambers Communications and signed-on as a digital-only station on September 9, 2006; it never broadcast a full-power analog signal prior to the June 12, 2009 analog shutdown for broadcast television stations. KOHD is the first primary digital station to carry a major network affiliation. The station replaced co-owned KEZI in Eugene as well as KATU from Portland on area cable systems. For its first year on-the-air, KOHD simulcasted weeknight newscasts from KEZI while building their own local news department. Chambers Communications completed their facility at Brinson Business Park on the north side of Bend in August 2007. KOHD originally had an in-city translator, K53JV, from a transmitter on Awbrey Butte. It had a construction permit to air a low-powered digital signal on channel 18 from the same location. The FCC cancelled the translator's license on February 15, 2013. On July 26, 2013, Chambers sold KOHD to Zolo Media, owners of KBNZ-LD, the CBS affiliate. Zolo is a division of BendBroadband. BendBroadband in turn announced on May 1, 2014 that the company, including Zolo Media, would be purchased by TDS for $261 million, a company mainly involved in local telephone and broadband services. On June 24, 2015, KOHD-DT relocated the station's primary over-the-air broadcast channel, from channel 51 to channel 18. The FCC licensed the station to operate on channel 18 on July 6, 2015.
On December 10, 2010, KOHD announced that their owners Chambers Communications and Dish Network could not come to a long-term agreement to keep the station on the air in the Medford market and were in danger of losing local ABC programming as a result. Viewers were encouraged to read a special Q&A page regarding this matter. Despite their best efforts, their previous agreement expired on December 15 and the stations were removed from the Dish Network local line-ups. Chambers and Dish finally came to an agreement to resume service and as of December 30, 2010 the stations returned on Dish Network.
Digital television
Digital channel
Programming
programming on KOHD includes Inside Edition, Entertainment Tonight, and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
News operation
On September 26, 2007, KOHD began airing local newscasts from 5:30 to 7 a.m. as well as 5, 6, 6:30, and 11 p.m. Weekend newscasts were canceled in July 2009, replaced by House on Saturday nights at 11 and Inside Edition Weekend on Sunday nights at 5 and 11. Following the March 5, 2010 11 p.m. show, KOHD's news operation was scaled back to three reporters and fourteen staffers were laid off. Long form newscasts were canceled with news and weather updates replacing them. In September 2010, half-hour newscasts returned to KOHD at 6 and 11 p.m. Monday-Friday. In September 2011, KOHD began simulcasting all of KEZI's weekday newscasts as well as the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. on weekends. As of August 2015, KOHD has stopped simulcasting KEZI's newscasts. Most time slots have since been replaced by syndicated programming, though KOHD has only one locally produced program left: myWindow, seen weeknights at 6 p.m.. Before the discontinuation of simulcasts, KOHD was last simulcasting the weekday 6 a.m. hour, the weeknight 5 and 11pm newscasts from KEZI, as well as weekends at 5 and 11, plus Saturday newscasts at 6 and 6:30 p.m. In April, 2016, Zolo Media announced the debut of a local news program to air starting on May 2, 2016 on both KOHD and KBNZ called Central Oregon Daily. KOHD currently airs newscasts weeknights at 5 PM and 11 PM, Saturdays at 11 PM, and Sundays at 9 AM and 11 PM.
