NTV comes to Superior
In 1960, Bi-States Company, owner of KHOL-TV in Kearney and KHPL-TV in Hayes Center, proposed the addition of channel 4 as an allotment to Superior, to the southeast of Kearney.[2] In November 1962, the FCC affirmed the assignment of channel 4, as well as channel 8 in Albion.[3][4] Formal applications were then made for Superior and Albion in November 1963,[5] with construction permits issued in February 1964 for both stations.[6] Albion was built first, signing on as KHQL-TV on December 3, 1964.[7][8] KHTL-TV in Superior followed on October 1, 1965.[9] The four stations then began branding as the Nebraska Television Network.[10]
In 1974, Bi-States sold the stations to NTV Enterprises for $1.9 million.[11] On June 3, the new owners changed channel 4's call letters to KSNB-TV, as its signal reached parts of Kansas in addition to Nebraska.[1][12]
Joseph Amaturo bought the NTV stations in 1979 in an $8.5 million deal funded by the sale of KQTV in St. Joseph, Missouri.[13] KCNA, the former KHQL-TV, was split off from NTV on November 1, 1983, to become an independent station under the call letters KBGT-TV.[14] Amaturo Group sold KSNB-TV, KHGI-TV, and KWNB-TV to Gordon Broadcasting for $10 million in 1985;[15] the sale separated the NTV stations from KBGT, which was sold separately a year later to Citadel Communications and became KCAN, a satellite of Sioux City, Iowa's KCAU-TV. Citadel later moved KCAN to Lincoln as a stand-alone station, KLKN.[16][17][18]
Gordon Broadcasting planned to sell the NTV stations to Sterling Communications for $11 million in 1989.[19] However, the Sterling sale was not completed, and in May, ownership reverted to Joseph Amaturo under a court-appointed receivership.[20][21] The next month, Chicago-based Heller Financial sued Gordon Broadcasting; Gordon had borrowed $7 million from Heller to purchase the stations and still owed the entire principal and $1.6 million in interest on the loan.[22] Joseph Girard was appointed successor receiver in 1991.[23] During this time, NTV was put on the market; a bid by Pappas Telecasting in 1990 received court approval, but the company failed to obtain financing,[24][25] while television meteorologist
On April 1, 1994, Fant took over the operations of Hill Broadcasting Company's KTVG (channel 17), an upstart independent station in Grand Island in the process of joining Fox, under a local marketing agreement (LMA).[29] KTVG then became a Fox affiliate; the NTV ABC stations took on a secondary Fox affiliation to carry the network's NFL coverage.[30][31]
In July 1995, Fant announced a deal to sell KHGI, KWNB, and KSNB to Blackstar, LLC, a minority-controlled company in which nonvoting equity interests were held by Fox Television Stations and Silver King Communications, for $13 million.[32][33][34] Blackstar was a vehicle for acquiring stations in medium- to small markets and switching them from their existing network affiliations to Fox, and the company stated its intent to switch the NTV stations to Fox if the deal were approved.[32] However, the deal hit a snag for other reasons. Fant Broadcasting had applied for a newly allocated channel 18 at Albion. That allocation had been made because Citadel Communications was in the process of moving KCAN to Lincoln, where it would become a standalone ABC affiliate; a replacement TV station needed to be established at Albion if channel 8 were to be moved to Lincoln, and Citadel had also filed for that channel. When the Blackstar sale agreement was filed with the FCC, Citadel lodged a protest, feeling that Fant Broadcasting had attempted to block its Lincoln proposal by applying for Albion; company president Anthony Fant denied this, noting that his main goal for seeking the Albion channel was to restore the coverage lost a decade prior and "try to put that part of the NTV puzzle back together".[37]
KSNB-TV gained two translators, as part of NTV expansion plans first floated in the late 1980s, at Beatrice and Lincoln.[40] Channel 22 in Lincoln, K22CX,[41] began broadcasting in 1994.[42] This service fulfilled a longstanding ambition of the network to expand to Lincoln and Lancaster County, which had nearly twice as many TV households as the Tri-Cities area.[43] However, the Lincoln translator attracted little interest locally and NTV was not added on cable there.[44]
From ABC to Fox
In July 1996, Fant agreed to sell KSNB-TV, KHGI-TV, and KWNB-TV to Pappas Telecasting for $12.75 million.[45] Pappas immediately assumed control of the NTV stations through a local marketing agreement that began on July 1 and, that September, switched KSNB, as well as the Lincoln and Beatrice translators, to rebroadcasting KTVG and Fox; KHGI and KWNB remained with ABC.[29][46] In 1997, Pappas sold its right to acquire KSNB to Colins Broadcasting Company for $10, with Colins paying $333,333 to Fant, as channel 4's signal overlapped with Pappas's Omaha station, KPTM. Pappas also entered into an LMA with Colins to continue operating KSNB.[47][48] The sales of KHGI and KWNB to Pappas and KSNB to Colins were approved by the FCC on February 17, 1999, and completed on May 24.[49]
Between Fox and Gray
On June 12, 2009, Pappas converted KCWL-TV, an affiliate of The CW it managed in Lincoln, to Fox Nebraska as KFXL-TV.[56] This fulfilled an ambition of Pappas that dated to the late 1990s.[57] Additionally, Fox Nebraska was added to subchannels of the NTV stations at Kearney and Hayes Center.[58] This came months after a web page briefly indicated that the Fox affiliation would move to subchannels of KOLN and KGIN, a page labeled by a station official as a "leftover piece of an experimental project".[59] That same day, KSNB-TV converted to exclusively digital broadcasting on the national transition date, returning from ultra high frequency (UHF) channel 34 to channel 4.[60]
Sale to Gray Television and MyNetworkTV affiliation
On November 21, 2012, Gray Television, the owner of KOLN/KGIN, announced it would acquire KSNB-TV and its translators in Lincoln for $1.25 million. The Lincoln–Hastings–Kearney market has only five full-power stations (KOLN/KGIN and KHGI/KWNB are both counted as single stations for ratings and regulatory purposes), which was not enough to legally permit a duopoly under FCC rules of the time. Colins and Gray sought a failing station waiver to allow the acquisition to move forward.[67] The station deal included Lincoln translators K18CD and KWAZ-LP. After the FCC granted the assignment of the license to Gray, the sale was officially completed on February 25.[69]
On April 1, 2013, the station took the MyNetworkTV affiliation previously held by the second digital subchannels of both KOLN and KGIN under the moniker "10/11 Central Nebraska", a brand extension of KOLN/KGIN.[70][71] 10/11 Central Nebraska also offered 5:30 and 9 p.m. newscasts from KOLN/KGIN and several local programs.[72]
NBC affiliation
On June 11, 2014, Hastings-based KHAS-TV (channel 5), the longtime NBC affiliate for the Tri-Cities portion of the market, announced on its website and Facebook page that it would leave the air at midnight on June 13. KHAS's owner, Hoak Media, had recently merged with Gray, and original plans called for it to be sold to Excalibur Broadcasting to satisfy duopoly rules; had this occurred, Gray would have operated the station under an LMA. However, increased FCC scrutiny of LMAs prompted Gray to shut down KHAS-TV instead. Its NBC affiliation, syndicated programming, and news department moved to KSNB-TV and the second subchannels of KOLN and KGIN. KSNB's MyNetworkTV and MeTV programming moved to its second subchannel as well as a third digital channel on KOLN and KGIN, with all channels being broadcast in high definition.[74][75]
In August 2014, KSNB replaced Gray-owned WOWT in Omaha, long the default NBC affiliate for Lincoln and the eastern portion of the market, on Time Warner Cable's channel 6 position;[77] in 2016, the remaining standard-definition channel slot for WOWT was removed.[78]
Move to York
In January 2020, the KOLN tower near Beaver Crossing collapsed in an ice storm.[81] That August, Gray sought approval to make major upgrades to KSNB-TV's transmitter. In filings with the FCC, Gray called the old channel 4 facility "grossly inadequate" and "unsuitable for digital broadcasting when it was installed"; Gray noted that Colins had limited resources and had used older equipment that failed to meet signal coverage expectations. It also proposed to change KSNB-TV's city of license from Superior to York and switch the station from low-VHF channel 4 to ultra high frequency (UHF) channel 24, with the new transmitter being co-sited at KOLN's rebuilt tower.[82] The FCC approved the channel and city of license on August 23, 2021.[83] KSNB-TV began broadcasting from the new Beaver Crossing tower when it was activated in March 2022.[84]
