NBC North Dakota is a network of four television stations that serve most of central and western North Dakota, along with parts of South Dakota and Montana. All four stations are dual NBC/Fox affiliates, and the flagship station is KFYR-TV in Bismarck. All four are owned by Gray Media. Sister station KVLY-TV in Fargo/Grand Forks is also considered a member of the network covering eastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota, but originates its own programming and newscasts. Fox programming is also not shown on KVLY-TV. KVLY's sister station CBS affiliate KXJB-LD is not available outside of the KVLY viewing area. In 2023 as part of a rebranding, all four stations rebranded under their respective call letters.
Stations
The network consists of four stations in the Bismarck/Minot market and one in the Fargo/Grand Forks market:
The four Bismarck/Minot/Dickinson/Williston market stations all identify as separate stations in their own right, but KMOT and KQCD are reckoned as semi-satellites of KFYR, and KUMV is a semi-satellite of KMOT. They all air the same syndicated programming, but also air separate commercials for their respective cities. KVLY-TV originates its own programming and newscasts, as it is located in the separate Fargo/Grand Forks media market.
KMOT and KUMV air separate weeknight newscasts, and simulcast KFYR's other newscasts. The first 10 minutes of KUMV's newscasts simulcast KMOT, while KUMV fills the remaining 20 minutes. KQCD airs a time-shifted feed of KFYR in Mountain Time for most of the day, apart from station identifications and commercials.
The network was founded by the Meyer family of Bismarck, which signed on KFYR radio in 1925. KFYR-TV, North Dakota's second television station, signed on in 1953. Two years later, the Federal Communications Commission collapsed central and western North Dakota into one giant television market. The Meyers then signed on Williston's KUMV in 1957, having bought it from the local owners who had won the license. The two stations formed the "Meyer Television Network," with KFYR-TV as the flagship station. KMOT followed in 1958. KQCD was brought online in 1980, replacing a low-powered translator of KFYR-TV that had served Dickinson since the late 1960s.
The stations have always been NBC affiliates, though they all carried some ABC programming in off-hours until KBMY/KMCY