PUEBLO, Colo. (KOAA) — 73 years ago, KOAA News5’s story began, only then the station had a different name: KCSJ. The station was named after the newspapers the local family owned the Chieftain and the Star Journal. If the letters sound familiar, it’s because there’s still a radio station bearing those call letters today.
Times were much different in 1953: meteorologists used chalkboards for weather forecasts, the set was simple, and programming extended beyond local newscasts out of the studio on Pueblo’s big hill: there were talk shows, cooking shows and a weekly barn dance broadcast every Saturday night.
"Pueblo is a real proud community and channel five, KOAA was the Pueblo station. We considered it growing up here all my life, it was our station," KOAA’s lead weather forecaster for 40 years Mike Daniels said. Daniels retired in Nov. 2023.
Born and raised in Pueblo, Daniels said that connection shaped everything about the station's trajectory.
"It's so amazing to think back when I first started doing weather, we didn't have computer graphics. So I had to come in back, the green screen was not there yet, I came in to prepare for my show, I would actually physically get a magic marker and draw cold fronts on a board, a blank board," Daniels said.
Rob Quirk, one of the station’s main anchors for 35 years echoed the impact of KOAA in Pueblo’s history:
"When I got here, I really found out how much the Pueblo influence was on our ratings, the stories we told, and I think it was the foundation for our success moving forward," Quirk said. “That was the foundation for channel five and we build everything from there."
The decades brought sweeping changes in how the station produces and presents the news.
"When I first got here, we transitioned from film to videotape, so the biggest change obviously was how we shoot, edit, and present news. Everything's changed from the basic days of tape to digital. So everything in between," Quirk said.
Both of these longtime members of the KOAA News5 team say the impact of the station extends beyond the operations that happen day to day in Colorado Springs and Pueblo.
"We've touched so many people's lives throughout the years and that's a good history to have. That's something that everybody at that station can still be proud of," Daniels said.
"If we celebrate 150 years in Colorado, if we don't celebrate what journalism, television, broadcasting has meant through those years. Obviously, from print to where we are now in broadcast, you can't tell a story of Colorado. We have made a huge impact on the lives of people who live here and those who have lived here and will in the future," Quirk said.
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