History
KXMC was the first television station in North Dakota, going on the air as KCJB-TV in April 1953. Minot businessman Chester Reiten and Fargo businessman John Boler bought the station in 1958. The duo already owned KXMB-TV in Bismarck, and renamed the station KXMC-TV to reflect this.
KXMD signed on in November 1969. Previously Williston viewers had to pick up CBS programming on cable from KOOK-TV in Billings, Montana (now KTVQ), although KUMV had not been above breaking away from the KFYR/KMOT feed when CBS had something very important to present.
Boler sold his interest in the stations to Reiten in 1971. Tim Reiten, Chester's son, still owns the stations today (including KXMA-TV in Dickinson, which he bought in 1985).
The KX stations formerly had a secondary affiliation with ABC before full-time ABC affiliate KMCY signed on in 1986. During the late 1950s, the stations were also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network.
Until 1986, KXMD was carried by cable systems across neighboring Saskatchewan, even operating a sales office in Saskatoon, as did KUMV and Great Falls ABC station KFBB-TV. These arrangements ended in 1986 when the Canadian cable companies were granted permission to replace the North Dakota signals with network affiliates from Detroit and Toledo, Ohio.
KXJB-TV in Fargo was co-owned with the KX stations (though programmed separately) until Boler sold his interest in 1971. The stations still occasionally share stories. After an ice storm on April 6, 1997 caused the KXJB-TV mast to collapse, some cable systems replaced KXJB with KXMC, 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 6 state region.
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.
On June 23, 2011, Shaun Sipma received a phone call from Minot native, Josh Duhamel who was in Moscow, Russia at the time to pledge his support when his hometown got flooded during KXMC's 24 hour flood coverage.
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