KXMB-TV - History

History

KXMB first went on the air on November 19, 1955 as KBMB-TV, owned by Fargo businessman John Boler and his North Dakota Broadcasting Company. The station had a primary affiliation with CBS, but carried other networks as well. During the late 1950s, the station was briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network. In 1958, it moved to its current location. In 1960, it changed its call sign to the current KXMB-TV.

In 1959, Boler sold a part-interest in the North Dakota Broadcasting Company to Chester Reiten of Minot. The two men teamed up to buy that city's CBS station, KCJB-TV, and changed the calls to KXMC-TV. They would put KXMD-TV in Williston on in 1969.

KXJB-TV in Fargo was co-owned with the KX stations (though programmed separately) until Boler sold his interest in the partnership to Reiten in 1971. Reiten retained the western North Dakota stations. His son Tim owns the stations today. The KX stations formerly had a secondary affiliation with ABC shared with KFYR-TV before full-time ABC affiliate KBMY signed on.

KXMA signed on in 1956 as KDIX-TV, and was owned by the Dickinson Radio and TV Corporation along with KDIX radio. Although the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had combined all of western and central North Dakota into a single market in the mid-1950s, this wouldn't be fully realized for another three decades, mainly because Dickinson is in the Mountain Time Zone. For most of its first decade on the air, KDIX-TV picked up what CBS programs it could under CBS' Extended Market Plan, which served as a go-between for non-interconnected stations. It also aired a few ABC and NBC shows out of pattern.

Then, in 1966, KOTA-TV in Rapid City planned to sign on KHSD-TV (channel 11), a satellite station in Lead, South Dakota; to extend its coverage into northeastern Wyoming and southeastern Montana. At the time, KOTA-TV held a joint affiliation with CBS and ABC, but slightly favored CBS. Stanley Deck, KDIX's general manager at the time, discovered that Dickinson was close enough to Lead that his engineers could easily get an acceptable signal from KHSD whenever CBS and ABC programming aired. He arranged with the Duhamel family, owners of KOTA, to provide network programming for KHSD. In addition, Deck purchased virtually all the stock in the Dickinson Radio and TV Corporation. The deal took effect when KHSD opened on November 2, 1966. Thus, for nearly a decade, KDIX was practically a separately-owned satellite of KOTA. Then on July 11, 1976; KEVN-TV opened in Rapid City and took the CBS affiliation away from KOTA. KDIX-TV still picked up ABC programming from KOTA, and was also able to pick up NBC as well since KOTA took on a secondary NBC affiliation when KEVN opened. However, its engineers now had to switch to KXMB's signal for CBS shows.

In 1983, Deck sold KDIX-TV to the Northern Prairies Broadcasting Company, which owned KOUS-TV (now KHMT) in Billings, and the calls were changed to KNDX. The new owners severed the station's ties with KOTA. Northern Prairies paid so little attention to KNDX that the station's signal quickly deteriorated to the point of unacceptability. With the station on the verge of closing down, the Reitens had to come to KNDX's rescue; they bought the station early in 1985 and changed the calls to KXMA-TV. (It would have been KXME, but Prairie Public Television objected.) Since then, KXMA has been a semi-satellite of KXMB.

After an ice storm on April 6, 1997 caused the KXJB-TV mast to collapse, some cable systems replaced KXJB with KXMB, either temporarily or permanently, to maintain CBS service.

In 2006, the stations began a web portal-like website called KX Net, with each station's website displaying a localized front page. The stations continue to be branded as "KX Television" and as "KX News" on the air, but also use the "KX Net" monkier on the air also. KXNet.com combined the previous domains kxma.com, kxmb.com, kxmc.com and kxmd.com under one umbrella. The original domains are still active. KXNet.com won the 2007 Teddy Award for Best Website and the 2007 Eric Severaid Award for best website small market television in a six state region.

In July 2008, Reiten Television began a joint agreement to sell television commercial slots on both KXMB and KBMY, Bismarck's ABC affiliate owned by Forum Communications Company. KXMB houses sales and engineering personnel solely for KBMY's operations. A consequence of this agreement has enabled KBMY-DT to begin broadcasting in July 2008 directly from KXMB's station, bringing a digital ABC television signal to Bismarck.

In October 2007, KXNet.com along with Midkota Solutions launched DakotaPolitics.com, a web site focusing on North Dakota political news coverage. DakotaPolitics featured profile information, voting records and some analysis. DakotaPolitics also launched weekly tracking polls for the 2008 elections. In 2008, KXNet.com became the first web site in North Dakota to deliver a live news broadcast over the Internet when they streamed a 1-hour special coverage of the 2008 Presidential Caucuses from Bismarck.