CKND-DT - History

History

The station's history can be traced back to 1959, where the establishment of its predecessor, KCND-TV, was announced on February 20. It went on the air in Pembina, North Dakota on channel 12 in November 1960. However, the station depended almost entirely on advertising from Winnipeg.

In February 1973, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced that it had received two applications to start a new television station in Winnipeg. One application had been submitted by Western Manitoba Broadcasters Ltd., the parent company of CKX-TV in Brandon, Man. The other application had been received from Continental Communications Ltd. of Vancouver, represented by Ray Peters, the president of Vancouver CTV affiliate CHAN-TV.

Subsequently, Peter Liba, who was then the executive assistant to Manitoba Liberal Party leader Izzy Asper, spotted the advertisement from the CRTC soliciting competing applications for the new Winnipeg television licence. Liba suggested that he and Asper make a bid. Asper flew to Texas and back many times over the next few months to convince KCND's owner, Gordon McLendon, to sell the station's assets. He finally convinced McLendon that a new Winnipeg station would likely hurt KCND, since Winnipeg advertisers would probably no longer be allowed to deduct their American advertising costs from their taxes for much longer.

McLendon sold the station's facilities and equipment to Canwest Broadcasting, established by Asper and partners Paul Morton and Seymour Epstein, for $780,000, contingent on Canwest securing a broadcasting licence. At the CRTC's public hearings in Winnipeg in May 1974, Canwest noted that the acquisition of KCND would give their new Winnipeg station a $2 million advertising base and would save $1.5 million in capital and start-up costs compared to the alternative of launching a completely new station.

At the same hearing, competing applications were presented by Communications Winnipeg Co-Op, which proposed a member-supported non-commercial station, and Western Manitoba Broadcasters Ltd. which, like Canwest, proposed an independent commercial station. (Continental Communications had withdrawn its application prior to the public hearings.) John Boler, the owner of Valley City-Fargo, N.D. CBS affiliate KXJB-TV and future owner of KVRR/KNRR, also used the occasion to announce his intention to launch a new Pembina-based station on channel 12.

In September 1974, the CRTC awarded the Winnipeg Channel 9 licence to Canwest, which formally took possession and assumed day-to-day management of KCND-TV effective March 31, 1975. (Due to foreign ownership restrictions, the McLendon Corporation remained the official licensee of KCND until it surrendered the station's broadcasting licence to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission later that same year.) The same month, Canwest confirmed that the new station would operate from a former supermarket at 603 St. Mary's Road in Winnipeg and use an antenna mounted on the CBWT tower at Starbuck, Man. to avoid having to dismantle KCND's tower during the transition. In May 1975, Canwest announced that KCND's 17 Winnipeg-based employees had all accepted offers of employment at the new station, but that there was little interest among the station's 22 Pembina-based employees.

During Labour Day weekend, on August 31, 1975, CKND signed on channel 9 (broadcast) and channel 12 (cable), both shown prominently in the station's logo. Both CKND and KCND simulcasted the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon until 5:30 p.m. on September 1, 1975, after which KCND permanently left the air.

The former KCND tower was later moved to Minnedosa, a small town 46 km north of Brandon, to serve western Manitoba. Together, the two transmitters reach 91% of Manitoba's population. CKND's first program that night was Introducing CKND at 9 PM, followed by the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon at 9:30 PM. Its first regularly scheduled program following the telethon was The Hollywood Squares at 5:30PM.

In 1981, KCND became the call letters for KCND-FM, the first Prairie Public Radio (now North Dakota Public Radio) station in Bismarck, North Dakota. The same year, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission issued a construction permit for a new station to serve Pembina, N.D. on channel 12. The station's launch, however, would remain delayed until 1986.

On January 1, 1986, channel 12 returned in Pembina, North Dakota, as KNRR, a satellite of independent station KVRR channel 15 in Fargo. Canadian cable operators were prohibited from distributing the signal, however, by an October 1986 CRTC decision in response to broadcaster concerns about the "potentially damaging effect of this station by providing Canadian advertisers with access to large amounts of commercial airtime at rates substantially lower than those they would be obliged to pay Canadian television licensees in order to reach the same potential audience." As the satellite station was never profitable due to its location, as well as its difficulties in being able to reach the Winnipeg audience, KNRR went off the air from June to October 2009 as the station did not upgrade to a digital signal.

Along with the other Canwest-owned stations, CKND was rebranded as Global in the fall of 1997. CKND's studios also produce Fox Soccer Report, which airs throughout the world on Fox Sports World Canada, Fox Soccer Channel, and Fox Sports Middle East. On September 1, 2008, CKND moved its operations downtown to Canwest Place. On August 28, 2011, CKND ceased broadcasting over the air in analog.