The station was founded in 1955 by rancher D.W. Ingram, who gave the station his initials, KDWI-TV. It began broadcasting June 3, 1956. Shortly afterward, Ingram sold it to H. U. Garrett, who changed the station's call sign to KGUN on March 14, 1957. Garrett sold the station to Henry S. Hilberg in 1960, and Hilberg sold it to Gilmore Broadcasting in 1964. The station came under the ownership of May Broadcasting in 1968. May would sell its television holdings (KGUN and KMTV in Omaha, Nebraska) to Lee Enterprises in 1986, which, in turn, sold both stations to Emmis Communications in 2000. In 2005, Emmis liquidated all of its television properties, sending KGUN and control of KMTV to the Milwaukee based Journal Broadcast Group, which already owned four radio stations in Tucson. The sale was f