KXLY-TV - History

History

Although KHQ and KXLY were both granted authorization by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to build television stations on July 11, 1952, KXLY was second to sign on, going on the air with broadcast tests on January 16, 1953, with regular programming beginning on February 22. KXLY had initially hoped to have its television station on the air by Christmas of 1952, but adverse weather conditions on Mount Spokane delayed the launch.

KXLY was a primary CBS affiliate, sharing ABC with KHQ-TV. Channel 4 also carried some programming from DuMont up until as late as April 1955. ABC programming, along with partial DuMont shows that KXLY-TV did not carry, moved to KREM when it signed on in 1954.

At first, KXLY, whose AM sister was also affiliated with the CBS Radio Network at the time, enjoyed a good partnership with CBS. The national affiliate worked well with early KXLY executives Dick Jones, Bob Struble, and James Agostino to help the station become a dominant player in the Spokane television market in the 1950s and 1960s.

However, the station's relationship with CBS faltered in later years when it started airing several network shows out of pattern. On February 19, 1976, CBS sent KXLY a "notice of termination," with CBS spokesman Barry Richardson stating that the network was ending their 23-year arrangement with KXLY-TV "because we made a business judgment that we could get wider exposure for our programs with another station." This would become a rare first in which a major television network would strip a station of its affiliation without first announcing a new affiliate. On August 8, the affiliation switch went into effect, with CBS programming moving to KREM (KREM wanted to wait until ABC finished airing the network's broadcast of the 1976 Summer Olympics to make the switch). KXLY then picked up KREM's old ABC affiliation, although it began the transition in February 1976 when it started airing Good Morning America while airing CBS shows throughout the day. Ironically at this time, ABC jumped to number one in the ratings for the next several years. This meant KXLY ended up broadcasting the highest-rated networks (first CBS, then ABC) throughout the 1970s.

KXLY is the only station in the Spokane market to broadcast from Mount Spokane, to the northeast of the city. The site (located in a state park) was originally developed with the expectation that Spokane's other TV stations would want to follow suit. When this did not occur, KXLY built a translator (K09FZ on channel 9, later becoming K11VT channel 11, then KUUP-LP) to serve non-antenna-rotator-equipped households from the mountain ridge south of Spokane used by the other stations. On May 24, 2006, it became KXMN-LP and from September 5, 2006 until the national DTV transition in February 2009, it broadcast MyNetworkTV programming. From the digital transition date forward the South Hill transmitter rebroadcast KXLY ABC - both in analog on channel 11 and as 4.1 (ABC HD) and 4.2 (MyNetworkTV) over a Channel 9 translator.