There goes the TV station neighborhood!

KMGH premiered its first newscast from its new RiNo location at 5 pm Tuesday. That left former neighbors Fox 31 and 9News, who are within blocks of each other near Speer Boulevard and Lincoln Street, as the sole television stations remaining in the area.

For more than half a century, the brutalist concrete TV news station erected on the spot of an auto dealership was considered a state-of-the-art communications center. Fifty-five years and millions of news stories later, the soul of KMGH has moved from 123 Speer Blvd. to 2323 Delgany St. in Denver’s River North neighborhood (RiNo).

The station had its first newscast from the new 88,000 square-foot building Tuesday at 5 pm. 

Today, a small crew still inhabits the silo-looking building at 123 Speer, but it’s mostly empty and is set for demotion sometime this fall, according to KMGH Vice-President and General Manager Brian Joyce.

“Have you ever thought about moving into an 88,000 square foot house that’s brand new? It means moving technology and people and getting situated into a new space. It’s awesome but also challenging,” he said. “It’s the future of television. It is in my mind the best TV station in the country in terms of technology and the space and setting us up for the future of our business.”

The old eight-sided five-level building at 6th and Speer was larger in terms of space because it had a basement. Efforts to have the building preserved as a landmark failed in 2021. 

New York-based developer Property Markets Group (PMG) and Greybrook Realty Partners, a Toronto -based private equity and asset management firm, bought the site for $35 million and plan a 12-story, 600-apartment development called Society Denver.

The old building, which for years greeted motorists coming into downtown via Lincoln Street, will be demolished to make room.

A Love Story

After nearly 40 years of commuting to the octagonal tower, longtime former anchor Anne Trujillo could have driven there with her eyes closed. 

Trujillo’s dad loaned her his baby blue ’63 Corvette for her first day reporting in the big city. 

It was 1984, and her station profile photo shows a smiling young woman with not a strand of thick black hair out of place. 

Forty years ago, Denver was a male-dominated and fiercely competitive top-20 television market. She was intimidated by the size of the building, it’s offices, and the constant buzz of ideas from people who knew what they were doing.

Either an astute assignment editor or destiny entrusted her to a photographer from Flint, Michigan named Mike Kalush — known for his easy manner.

“He was one of the few kind faces. People were probably wondering ‘How did she get here?’” remembered Trujillo. “Mike was one of the nicest people in the newsroom.”

“Yeah, but was I hot?” asked Mike Kalush, her husband of 37 years.

Trujillo and Kalush only worked together for a year before he left KMGH for a successful career with CBS national news, but he claimed that Trujillo fell for him in that very building.

Their conversation about their 123 Speer romance went like this:

Denver Gazette – Was it love at first sight?

Kalush – She loved me right away.

Trujillo – Here we go.

Kalush – The videographers had a makeshift photo lounge. It was like a fort for kids. Anne would walk through there all the time and look for me.

Trujillo – He’s exaggerating.

Kalush – I still have a photo on my desk to remind myself of who she used to be.

Trujillo – Oh my God.

Perhaps it was an omen that in 1984, when Kalush and Trujillo met, KMGH’s promotional news slogan was “We’ve got the touch.”

Trujillo – I don’t remember that.

Kalush – We had to do things in Georgetown so that no one knew we were dating. 

Helicopters and fire escapes

Among the couple’s favorite memories revolved around the news helicopter which had a flight pad on the roof of the building. The only way to get to it was through a door on the fourth floor that led to a fire escape ladder.

“We would go to Cheyenne to cover Frontier Days. I remember doing a feature on a teacher every month and we would fly to a school and land in the playground to present a plaque to a teacher. You’d see all those little faces come running out,” said Trujillo.

The chopper pad is still on the roof, but KMGH lost its Bell Jet Ranger helicopter in part because of the expense and also due to the fact that when it landed over everyone’s heads — including the live news set — it caused “a low rumble to the building,” said Kalush. 

Though Kalush left for the national CBS gig, for a time he was still based in the basement of 123 Speer while he traveled the country reporting with correspondent Bob McNamara.

Trujillo retired in November after almost 40 years at the same station.

They have two granddaughters and a grandson and credit the building where they first met as the setting for their family.

A funny thing happened last week, when Trujillo had lunch with a couple of good friends and walked out of the building for the last time.

Nothing.

“Everything had been moved out,” she said. “I no longer had an emotional attachment to it.” 

Kalush finished her thought.

“We were two young kids in our 20’s who were fighting for a good career and we did it in that building and also were able to start a family. It was our little neighborhood.”

Denver Gazette City Editor Dennis Huspeni contributed to this story.