KTVB

Construction and early years

Boise radio station KIDO, owned by Georgia Davidson, filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in March 1952 seeking to build a television station on the city's allotted channel 7. The application arrived in anticipation of the end of the FCC's multi-year freeze on TV station applications.[1] The construction permit was granted on December 23,[2] KIDO already had some equipment on hand; the month before, it conducted a closed-circuit demonstration of television at its AM transmitter site.[3] On an elevation behind the city, construction began in February on the transmitter site.[4] The station picked up affiliations with the CBS, NBC, and DuMont networks;[5] KIDO radio had maintained NBC affiliation since 1937.[6]

From studios on 700 Crestline Drive, KIDO-TV began broadcasting on July 12, 1953; Philo Farnsworth, a television pioneer, was one of the guests of honor at the dedication.[7] A month earlier, on June 18, KFXD-TV (channel 6) in Nampa put out Idaho's first television test pattern,[8] initiating regular programming under special temporary authority 11 days later.[9] While KIDO-TV was the second television station to sign on in Idaho, it was the first to be fully licensed. It was also effectively the first serious station to begin operations in the state. While KIDO-TV had studios and network affiliations, KFXD-TV had neither. Channel 6 subsisted on a schedule of old movies and operated with the bare minimum of personnel, lasting less than two months before leaving the air.[12] The lone missing national network, ABC, affiliated with KIDO-TV in December.[13] This replaced CBS, which had moved to new station KBOI-TV (channel 2) the previous month.[14]

National live programming became a reality beginning with the 1955 World Series after a microwave transmission link between Boise and Salt Lake City was set up by KIDO-TV and KBOI-TV. KIDO-TV's tower was relocated to Deer Point in 1956, which together with an increased effective radiated power extended the station's coverage to a further 80,000 people.[15] Davidson agreed to sell KIDO radio to the Mesabi Western Corp. in November 1958; the radio station retained its call sign,[16] and channel 7 became KTVB on February 1, 1959.[17] The sale alleviated cash issues for the television station, which struggled financially in its early years and particularly after Boise became a two-station market;[18] in a 1978 interview, Davidson noted that she "lived with the spectre of bankruptcy, a very embarrassing bankruptcy, day or night".[19]

KTVB in La Grande, Oregon: KTVR

KTVB received a construction permit on December 18, 1963, to expand its reach with the construction of a satellite station on channel 13 in La Grande, Oregon, northwest of Boise.[20] KTVR began broadcasting on December 6, 1964.[21] It initially offered local news and information for Eastern Oregon from studios in La Grande.[22] In 1967, KTVB closed the local operation in La Grande and converted KTVR into a full-time rebroadcaster of the Boise station.[23]

In 1974, KTVB received an offer from the Oregon Educational and Public Broadcasting Service (OEPBS) to acquire KTVR for integration into its statewide public television network and serve large areas of Eastern Oregon.[24] Citing a lack of local viewership and the availability of NBC stations from Spokane and Portland,[25] KTVB took KTVR out of service on March 7, 1975, while the deal was pending;[26] it did not return to the air under OEPBS ownership until February 1977.[27] It was the second time KTVB had provided facilities to public television; in Boise, KTVB aired Sesame Street when the show debuted in 1969, as Idaho did not have a public station at the time,[28] and it provided its transmitter site and engineering resources to launch KAID-TV (channel 4) in 1971.[29]

Growth and new studios

Ground was broken for new studios at 5400 Fairview Avenue in 1970,[30] and the facility formally opened the next year. The 20000 ft2 facility boasted the largest TV studio in Idaho.[31] In 1974, KTVB lost ABC programming to a new station—KITC-TV, soon renamed KIVI-TV, on channel 6.

Davidson—long the only female owner among 125 men at annual NBC affiliate meetings—announced the sale of KTVB to King Broadcasting of Seattle in 1979.[32] While the sale left Boise without any locally owned television stations, Davidson believed she had to sell KTVB in order to keep the station on the air. She feared saddling her family with a large estate tax burden upon her death, diminishing KTVB's profits and ability to invest.[33] King Broadcasting took over in April 1980. While the new owners retained senior management,[34] they dropped paid religious programming on Sunday mornings to conform with longstanding company policy.[35]

Providence Journal, Belo, Gannett/Tegna, and Nexstar ownership

King Broadcasting Company put itself up for sale in 1990, citing the age of its majority owners, Patsy Bullitt Collins and Harriet Stimson Bullitt, the daughters of the late company matriarch, Dorothy Bullitt.[36] It accepted an offer from the Providence Journal Company in 1991;[37] the transaction closed in 1992.[38] Under Providence Journal, KTVB became a contributor to the new Northwest Cable News (NWCN) regional cable channel when it launched in 1995, with one reporter dedicated to NWCN based in Boise.[39] The Belo Corporation purchased Providence Journal in 1996.[42] At the end of October 2003, KTVB launched 24/7 NewsChannel on its second digital subchannel and local cable, one of the first digital secondary subchannels in the nation. The subchannel's programming initially consisted of time-shifted newscasts and feature programs, though plans called for original news programs and other local programming.[43][44] By 2011, the station had rebranded its 24/7 NewsChannel as "Idaho's Very Own 24/7", and it aired a dedicated 6:30 p.m. newscast and 7 a.m. morning news extension.[45] The subchannel more recently has served as an outlet for local sports coverage, including for the 2023-24 season a package of Boise State Broncos men's basketball games[46] and Idaho Steelheads minor league hockey.[47]

On June 13, 2013, the Gannett Company announced that it would acquire Belo.[48] The sale was completed on December 23.[49] Gannett's TV stations and newspapers split into separate companies in 2015, the former being named Tegna.[50]

Nexstar Media Group acquired Tegna in a deal announced in August 2025[51] and completed in March 2026.[52]

Notable former-on air staff

• Trace Gallagher – reporter and weekend news anchor, 1990–1992[75][76]
• Michael Jenkins – weekend sports anchor, 1998[77]
• Eric Johnson – weekend sports anchor, 1984–1986[78][79]
• David Kerley – anchor, early 1980s[80]
• Christi Paul – weekend morning anchor, 1990s[81]
• Wayne Walker – host of outdoors show Incredible Idaho, 1994–1999[82][83]

Analog-to-digital conversion

KTVB began broadcasting a digital signal on UHF channel 26 on November 1, 2002.[86] The station shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 7, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from channel 26 to channel 7 for post-transition operations.[87][88] To solve issues some viewers had receiving the station, KTVB was authorized to increase its effective radiated power weeks after the switch.[89]

Translators