History
After the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) lifted its freeze on television station grants in 1952, Meyer Broadcasting Company filed for channel 5 in Bismarck on November 28, 1952.[2] Also filing for channel 5 was M. B. Rudman, an oilman from Minot.[3] In February 1953, Rudman changed his application to specify the other VHF channel in the city, channel 12,[4] clearing the way for both groups to be granted construction permits on March 4.[5]
From a temporary transmission facility atop the North Dakota State Capitol,[7] KFYR-TV began broadcasting on December 19, 1953.[8] It held affiliations with NBC and CBS;[9] KFYR's relationship with NBC in radio dated to 1931.[10] The State Capitol transmitter, said to be the only one of its kind in the country, was replaced in 1954 by the permanent facility, a more typical 503 ft mast 11 mi east of Bismarck.[11] A second television station came to Bismarck in 1955, KBMB-TV (channel 12, later changed to KXMB-TV), which was a CBS affiliate and served as an extension of KXJB-TV in Valley City and KCJB-TV in Minot.[12] Earlier that year, KFYR-TV began broadcasting live network programming to Bismarck.[13] KFYR-TV would continue to air some ABC programming until a full-time ABC service, KBMY, began broadcasting in 1985.[14]
Meyer Broadcasting expanded its reach with the construction of two new stations in 1957 and 1958. The first application to be granted was that for channel 10 in Minot (KMOT-TV), in October 1955,[15] and Meyer was unopposed in its bid for channel 8 at Williston (KUMV-TV), which was approved in 1956.[16] Dickinson would have to wait much longer for its full-power station, KQCD, to begin in 1980. Local news inserts from Dickinson ended on December 31, 1991, with the station turning to rebroadcasting KFYR's Bismarck news.[17] In 1995, Meyer acquired KTHI-TV in Fargo, which it renamed KVLY-TV.[18]
When Meyer opted to exit broadcasting in 1998, KFYR-TV and its associated stations were sold to Sunrise Television Corporation for $63.75 million; at that time, KFYR-TV accounted for 57 percent of all broadcast TV viewing in Bismarck.[19] The sale separated KFYR radio and television, which at the time shared several on-air personalities and a news director.[20] It was the first of several sales for KFYR-TV. In 2002, North Dakota Television LLC, a consortium of private equity firms The Wicks Group of Companies, JP Morgan Partners, and Halyard Capital acquired the KFYR system as well as KVLY-TV in Fargo.[21] Hoak Media of Dallas acquired these stations, as well as KSFY-TV in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and its satellites in 2006.[22]
The NBC North Dakota network picked up MeTV in April 2013, with an official launch date of May 1, 2013.[23]
On November 20, 2013, Gray Television announced it would purchase Hoak Media in a $335 million deal. Gray initially planned, through Excalibur Broadcasting, to also acquire Fox affiliate KNDX/KXND for $7.5 million and operate them under a local marketing agreement.[24] On March 25, 2014, Prime Cities Broadcasting, owner of KNDX/KXND, requested that the FCC dismiss the sale of that station to Excalibur.[25] Gray would instead acquire the stations' non-license assets;[26] upon the closure of the Hoak purchases on June 13, 2014, KNDX/KXND were shuttered and their Fox programs moved to subchannels of KFYR and its satellites.[27]
