| KBMY: Bismarck, North Dakota KMCY: Minot, North Dakota |
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| Branding | KBMY 17 KMCY 14 |
| Channels | Digital: KBMY: 17 (UHF) Virtual: 17 (PSIP) Digital: KMCY: 14 (UHF) Virtual: 14 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels | 17.1 / 14.1 ABC (Also seen on KXMA 2.2 Dickinson and KXMD 11.2 Williston) |
| Affiliations | ABC |
| Owner | Forum Communications (operated by Reiten Television) (KBMY-KMCY, LLC) |
| First air date | KBMY: March 31, 1985 KMCY: June 1985[1] |
| Call letters' meaning |
KBMY: Magic CitY (nickname of Minot) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: KBMY: 17 (UHF, 1985-2009) KMCY: 14 (UHF, 1985-2009) |
| Transmitter power | KBMY: 94.5 kW KMCY: 40 kW |
| Height | KBMY: 290 m KMCY: 217 m |
| Facility ID | KBMY: 22121 KMCY: 22127 |
| Transmitter coordinates | KBMY: KMCY: |
| Website | KMCY |
KBMY digital channel 17 (virtual channel 17) is the ABC affiliate for western North Dakota. It is owned by Forum Communications, owners of eastern North Dakota's ABC affiliates, WDAY-TV in Fargo and WDAZ-TV in Grand Forks. However, it is operated by Reiten Television, owners of the KX Television network of CBS affiliates. Operations are housed at KXMB-TV in Bismarck.
The station operates a semi-satellite, KMCY, channel 14 in Minot. In the market's other two major cities, Williston and Dickinson, KBMY is carried on a digital subchannel of KXMA and KMCY is carried on a digital subchannel of KXMD, respectively. Prior to the digital television switchover of 2009, Dickinson and Williston were served by two separate analog translators, K42FY on channel 42 (rebroadcasting KBMY), and K44HR on channel 44 (rebroadcasting KMCY), respectively. Master control and some internal operations of KBMY and KMCY are based at the facilities of sister station and fellow ABC affiliate WDAY-TV in Fargo, North Dakota.
KMCY flash-cut to digital on February 10, 2009. KBMY's broadcasts went digital-only on June 12, 2009.[2]
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KBMY signed on for the first time on March 31, 1985; bringing the full ABC schedule to western North Dakota and eastern Montana for the first time ever. KMCY followed on June 19. Before 1985, portions of ABC programming were carried by the KX Television and Meyer Television groups. Prior to K44HR's inception, cable television subscribers in the Williston area received Denver's KMGH-TV on cable for ABC programming. Dickinson, located in the Mountain Time Zone, also received KMGH until K42FY signed on.
The stations do not produce much local content, serving mainly as "pass-throughs" for automated programming. This is somewhat surprising, since they are sister stations to WDAY-TV/WDAZ-TV, one of the strongest ABC affiliates in the nation. KMCY largely simulcasts KBMY, aside from local commercials. The Dickinson station directly repeated KBMY, while the Williston station repeated KMCY.
The only local newscast on the station is "Good Morning West Dakota," a 30-minute morning show produced by Bismarck radio station KBMR. There are no local cut-ins during Good Morning America. The station also pre-empts the network's NBA pre-game show to carry paid programming.
From the 1990s until 2007, KBMY and KMCY were known collectively as ABC West. That year, the stations changed their monikers in favor of the station identities for their area.
In May 2009, KBMY/KMCY were picked up on the digital subchannels of KX Television sateelites KXMA and KXMD in Dickinson and Williston, respectively, and the low-power translators of KBMY/KMCY serving Dickinson and Williston went off-air.\
From 2002 until 2008, KBMY/KMCY was in a Local Marketing Agreement, or LMA, with western North Dakota's Fox affiliate, KNDX/KXND. The LMA allowed KBMY/KMCY to share the facilities, staff, and some equipment of KNDX/KXND.
The LMA ended in 2008, with Forum opting to partner with Reiten Television in KBMY/KMCY's local operations. Most operations have been consolidated at Forum's flagship station, WDAY-TV in Fargo. Forum still has some advertising sales and engineering staff for KBMY/KMCY in Bismarck, but they are now housed at KXMB's studios.
KBMY and KMCY's programming (except for "Good Morning West Dakota") is transported from WDAY-TV's studios to Bismarck via leased microwave relay bandwidth furnished by Prairie Public Broadcasting's statewide digital terrestrial microwave network (the only permanent full-time video link from Fargo to Bismarck for TV broadcasting). The signal is then sent to KXMB, where it then is exported via a studio to transmitter link (STL) from KXMB's studios to KBMY and KMCY's transmitters.
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