The original construction permit for channel 12 was granted on May 23, 1988, and the station was assigned the call letters KUSG (for KUTV in St. George) on September 11, 1989, however a license was not granted by the Federal Communications Commission until January 24, 2000. When KUSG first signed on the air on August 21, 1999, it was operated as a satellite station of KUTV, at that time a CBS owned-and-operated station. CBS sold KUTV and KUSG (along with five other smaller-market stations) to Four Points Media Group, a broadcast holding company operated by private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, on January 10, 2008 (in a deal first announced on February 7, 2007).