KLAS initially broadcast on July 8, 1953, and was owned by Las Vegas Television Inc., which was operated by Hank Greenspun, the owner of the Las Vegas Sun. Channel 8 was Nevada's first television station to go on the air (beating KOLO-TV in Reno to the air by two months and five days). It was always a CBS affiliate, but it also had a secondary affiliation with ABC, which it shared with KLRJ/KORK-TV (channel 3, now KSNV-DT) from the station's premiere in January 1955 until the introduction of KSHO-TV (channel 13, now KTNV-TV) in May 1956. Greenspun sold the station to aviation mogul Howard Hughes' Summa Corporation in 1968, apparently because the businessman was dissatisfied with the station's lack of late-night programming. Following Hughes' death in 1976, the station was kept in an outside trust for two years until being sold to Landmark Communications in 1978. (Landmark Communications renamed itself to Landmark Media Enterprises in September 2008).