KEVN-TV

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

KEVN-TV / KIVV-TV
Image:KEVN2007.png
KEVN: Rapid City, South Dakota
KIVV: Lead, South Dakota
Branding Black Hills Fox
Slogan Real People. Real News.
Channels Analog:
KEVN: 7 (VHF)
KIVV: 5 (VHF)

Digital:
KEVN: 18 (UHF)
KIVV: 29 (UHF)

Affiliations Fox
Owner Mission TV, LLC
(KEVN, Inc.)
First air date Both stations:
July 11, 1976
Call letters’ meaning KEVN: SEVeN
KIVV: FIVe
Former affiliations Primary:
CBS (1976-1988)
NBC (1988-1995)
Secondary:
NBC (1976-1988)
Transmitter Power KEVN:
263 kW (analog)
120 kW (digital)
KIVV:
100 kW (analog)
123 kW (digital)
Height KEVN:
204 m (analog)
181 m (digital)
KIVV:
564 m (analog)
538 m (digital)
Facility ID KEVN: 34347
KIVV: 34348
Transmitter Coordinates KEVN:
44°3′59.7″N, 103°15′3.4″W
KIVV:
44°19′29.8″N, 103°50′16.3″W
Website www.blackhillsfox.com

KEVN-TV, channel 7, is a Fox affiliate based in Rapid City, South Dakota. It also operates a satellite in Lead, South Dakota, KIVV-TV (channel 5), which can also be seen over the air in Rapid City. Both stations are owned by Mission TV (an independent private company led by California attorney William Reyner, unrelated to the holding company of the same name that is controlled by Nexstar Broadcasting Group). KEVN's transmitter is located in Rapid City.

KEVN's current slogan is "Real People. Real News."

[edit] History

Channel 7 in Rapid City was originally the home of KRSD-TV, which was not associated in any way with KEVN. KRSD operated from 1958 until 1971.

KEVN arose out of the FCC's concern over duplication of CBS service in the Scottsbluff, Nebraska area, which is considered part of the Cheyenne, Wyoming market. KOTA-TV operates a satellite station in Scottsbluff, KDUH. Cheyenne's KYCU-TV (now KGWN-TV) had its own satellite in Scottsbluff, KSTF. KYCU and KSTF were primarily CBS affiliates, while KOTA and KDUH held an unusual "joint primary" affiliation with both ABC and CBS. Needless to say, this was causing a lot of confusion in Scottsbluff, especially when both satellites were carrying the same CBS program and the only other choice non-cable viewers had was KTNE on the Nebraska ETV network.

So when the FCC awarded the license to KEVN, it was on condition that the station not open a satellite in western Nebraska. KEVN started operations on July 11, 1976, as did KIVV. Both were primary CBS affiliates that also carried secondary affiliations with NBC, which had been without a station in Rapid City since KRSD left the air.

In 1988, KELO-TV in Sioux Falls signed on a Rapid City satellite, KCLO-TV, which took the CBS affiliation. KEVN then became a sole NBC affiliate. In 1995 KEVN dropped NBC to join Fox, leaving the Black Hills with no full-power NBC affiliate until KNBN signed on in 2000. During that period, KUSA-TV in Denver was piped in on cable.

The station was known as "KEVN Fox 7" in its first 12 years as a Fox affiliate, becoming "Black Hills FOX" in early 2007. This rebranding removed the channel number from KEVN's identity.

KEVN and KIVV are among a handful of stations that still sign-off, doing so at 2:00 each morning.

As of 2007, KEVN-DT's digital television transmitter was not yet operating at full power due to financial problems; in submissions to the FCC the station's owners indicated that KEVN-DT Rapid City was the subject of a current bankruptcy proceeding and to expend the funds necessary to complete construction of its full power DTV facility "could be fatal." The station asked to defer further DTV construction until the end of the DTV transition. [1]

[edit] External links