KQDS-TV - History

History

The station signed-on as KNLD on September 20, 1994 airing an analog signal on UHF channel 21. However, very few people knew the station was actually on-the-air at this time as it aired at low power with an extremely limited schedule of usually only a few hours in the morning to meet minimum Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requirements for keeping its license. The station was Duluth's first independent station, and although its lineup once included Big Ten college football, most of the schedule was filled with the Shop at Home Network by the late-1990s.

In 1998, Red River Broadcasting (via sister company KQDS Acquisition Corporation) purchased KNLD and several area radio stations, and later changed the TV station's call sign to KQDS-TV. The new owners found some controversy as they tried to upgrade the station. It was attempting to construct a new tower to replace its old one adjacent to Duluth Central High School but some school and city officials expressed concern about the danger of ice falling from the tower onto the school parking lot. Although the new tower had already been approved by city officials, KQDS agreed to build it further from the parking lot than initially planned.

On September 1, 1999, it became the area's first-ever Fox affiliate while also increasing its transmitting power and adding eight translator stations. Previously, area cable systems had provided Fox programming through either Foxnet or Twin Cities stations--KMSP-TV from 1986 to 1988 and WFTC from 1988 onward. On February 1, 2009, this station ceased analog transmissions and now broadcasts only in digital.