KXLF-TV

Early years

Ed Craney, owner of the regional Z-Bar Network of radio stations including KXLF (1370 AM) in Butte, announced plans for television stations in Butte, Great Falls, and Missoula in November 1951.[1] Television Montana filed its application with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on June 26, 1952, for channel 4 and changed to channel 6 on September 26. This was granted on February 25, 1953,[2]

Late on the night of August 14, 1953, KXLF-TV sent out its first test pattern. It was the first television signal broadcast in Montana.[3] Regular programming began August 31, with network programs from NBC and the DuMont Television Network; Butte's other station, KOPR-TV (channel 4), was affiliated with CBS and ABC;[4] that station lasted 13 months before going out of business in 1954.[5] In addition to network programming, in its early years KXLF-TV aired a number of local programs, all of which was produced live in the studio, including shows and commercials. Some of Butte's local shows in the 1950s were The Oldtimer, featuring John Diz, This Afternoon with You, hosted by Darien Carkeet, What's New? hosted by Ed Craney and KXLF the Clown, featuring Wes Haugen, and Shadow Stumpers where viewers called in to identify what object's shadow was on TV. When KXLF-TV signed on the air, it operated from studios on the upper floor of a Pay 'n Save food and drug store on Harrison Avenue.[6] In 1956, the Milwaukee Road railroad announced it would vacate its existing passenger depot for a site with more parking and less office space, selling the old depot to Craney.[7]

In July 1956, the station moved to channel 4 due to concerns that the concurrent operation of channel 6 stations in Butte and Pocatello, Idaho, would result in interference[8] Coinciding with the channel change, the station relocated its transmitter to a site along the Continental Divide. The new facility—soon known as XL Heights[9]—increased the station's coverage.[10] In January 1958, the Z-Bar Network put KXLJ-TV (channel 12) on the air in Helena, serving as a satellite station of KXLF-TV;[11][12] later that year, a translator was put in service to relay the KXLF-TV signal to Missoula.[13] That August, KXLF-TV and KXLJ-TV, in association with KFBB-TV in Great Falls, KOOK-TV in Billings, KID-TV in Idaho Falls, Idaho, and KLIX-TV in Twin Falls, Idaho, formed the Skyline Network,[14] and KXLF-TV became a secondary affiliate of CBS.[15] The Helena station struggled in a lengthy dispute with Helena's local cable television company, which imported the signals of the stations in Spokane, Washington.[16] As a direct result, KXLJ-TV was off the air from February 1[17] to August 6, 1959.[18]

Joe Sample ownership

Ed Craney sold the remainder of the Z-Bar Network in 1960 to Joe Sample, the owner of KOOK-TV, for more than $1 million; Sample kept KXLF radio and television, while KXLJ-AM-TV was immediately divested to Helena TV, Inc., the cable company there. The transaction marked the end of Craney's broadcast interests, which he had been progressively selling off.[19][20] After the change, KXLF-TV became a primary affiliate of CBS; this generated outcry in 1962 when the station refused to carry the World Series from NBC because the picture it could receive from KMSO-TV in Missoula was "not of broadcast quality".[21]

In December 1965, the FCC simultaneously authorized KXLF-TV to build a translator on channel 8 in Missoula and KGVO-TV—the former KMSO-TV—to build a translator on channel 6 in Butte.[22] The station further extended its signal to Helena in 1969 with the construction of a second translator.[23] In 1969, the Skyline Network dissolved after Sample acquired KRTV in Great Falls; affiliation and ownership changes at Skyline's outlets led to the network being dissolved on September 30, 1969.[24] This resulted in the establishment of the Montana Television Network (MTN) with KOOK-TV, KRTV, and KXLF-TV.[25]

Sample expanded his Montana network by building KPAX-TV in Missoula in 1970. The new station, which replaced the earlier translator, initially served as a full-time rebroadcaster of KXLF-TV. In 1977, KPAX opened separate studios in Missoula to produce local programming and news.[26][27] On September 1, 1976, KXLF-TV and KPAX-TV changed from primary affiliates of CBS and secondary affiliates to ABC to primary affiliates of ABC and secondary affiliates of CBS.[28]

SJL, Cordillera, and Scripps ownership

In 1984, Sample sold the MTN stations to SJL, Inc. for $20 million;[29][30] KXLF radio was concurrently sold to separate interests and changed call signs.[31][32] On June 3, KXLF-TV returned to a primary CBS affiliation as the entire MTN network standardized with CBS.[33]

SJL sold KXLF, KPAX-TV, and KRTV to the Evening Post Publishing Company, through its Cordillera Communications subsidiary, for $24 million in 1986.[34] While the stations were separated from KTVQ (the former KOOK-TV) in ownership, the Montana Television Network continued much the way it had, and the stations continued to share news segments and stories.[35]

During the early 2000s, KXLF-TV had a secondary affiliation with UPN;[36] the network shut down in 2006 as part of the formation of The CW, which is seen on a digital subchannel of KXLF and KBZK. After the DTV conversion on June 12, 2009, KXLF was one of more than 10 stations asking for a power increase because of the problems with VHF digital signals, particularly low-VHF frequencies.[37] Between 2003 and 2009, responsibility for the Helena repeater, by then KXLH-LP, was transferred from Butte to Great Falls.[38][39]

In 1993, Evening Post acquired Bozeman station KCTZ (channel 7), a separate ABC affiliate associated with KSVI of Billings, and made it a satellite of KXLF-TV;[40] two Cordillera-owned translators, K26DE (channel 26) in Bozeman and K43DU (channel 43) in Butte, then began carrying most of KSVI's programming (including ABC programming),[41] as well as local Bozeman newscasts produced by Cordillera.[42] After KWYB (channel 18) signed on in September 1996 and took the ABC affiliation in the Butte-Bozeman market, K43DU was taken off-the-air;[42] on October 31, after K26DE's ABC affiliation ended in advance of the launch of KWYB repeater K28FB (channel 28, now KWYB-LD), KCTZ became a Fox affiliate, and channel 26 became a repeater of KXLF.[43] During this time, channel 7 also took on a secondary affiliation with UPN.[44]

KCTZ dropped Fox on August 21, 2000, saying that the network usually generated lower ratings than the Big Three networks in smaller markets,[45] and once again became a satellite of KXLF-TV (though with separate advertising)[46] and changed its call letters to KBZK.[47]

Scripps acquired 15 of the 16 stations owned by Cordillera Communications (the former Evening Post station group), including all of MTN, in 2019.[48] In 2021, Scripps filed to switch all of the full-power MTN stations, including KRTV, from the VHF to the UHF band in order to improve reception; it requested and received channel 15 for KXLF-TV.[49][50] The changeover was completed in October 2025.[51]

Subchannels

KXLF-TV broadcasts from a transmitter site at XL Heights east of the city of Butte. The stations' signals are multiplexed:

Translators

KXLF-TV's signal is additionally rebroadcast over the following translators:[65]

• Basin: K09BG-D
• Boulder: K08KT-D
• Polaris: K07OC-D