| KHGI: Kearney/Hastings/Grand Island, Nebraska KWNB: Hayes Center, Nebraska |
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|---|---|
| Branding | NTV |
| Slogan | Where Your News Comes First |
| Channels | Digital: KHGI: 13 (VHF) KWNB: 6 (VHF) |
| Subchannels | 13.1/6.1 ABC 13.2/6.2 Fox (KFXL) |
| Affiliations | ABC (since 1961) |
| Owner | Pappas Telecasting Companies (Pappas Telecasting of Central Nebraska, LP (A Delaware Limited Partnership)) |
| First air date | KHGI: December 24, 1953 KWNB: February 9, 1956 |
| Call letters' meaning | KHGI: Kearney Hastings Grand Island KWNB: Western NeBraska |
| Former callsigns | KHGI: KHOL-TV (1953–1974) KWNB: KHPL-TV (1956–1974) KHGI-CD: K13VO (1989–2005) WSWS-CA (2005–2009) KHGI-CA (2009–2010) KHGI-LD (2010–2011) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: KHGI: 13 (VHF, 1953–2009) KWNB: 6 (VHF, 1956–2009) |
| Former affiliations | CBS (1953-1961) DuMont (1953-1955/6) |
| Transmitter power | KHGI: 8 kW KWNB: 11.9 kW |
| Height | KHGI: 340 m KWNB: 221 m |
| Facility ID | KHGI: 21160 KWNB: 21162 |
| Transmitter coordinates | KHGI: KWNB: |
| Website | www.nebraska.tv |
KHGI-TV, channel 13, is the ABC-affiliated television station for most of central and western Nebraska with parts of northeastern Colorado, southeastern Wyoming and the northern third of Kansas. The station is licensed to the town of Kearney.
KHGI is owned and operated by Pappas Telecasting Companies. Its programming is also aired on KWNB-TV channel 6 in Hayes Center, which repeats the KHGI signal except for separate commercials. The two stations are known as the Nebraska Television Network (NTV), and operate out of studios in Axtell, just outside Kearney.
Under the Pappas ownership, they are also sister stations of Fox network affiliate KFXL-TV in Lincoln, which Pappas operates under a local marketing agreement.
The station is officially part of the Lincoln/Hastings/Kearney market, but this market has no basis in television reality and is only truly realized on the local satellite feeds. The market only shares two television stations, CBS affiliate KOLN in Lincoln (which operates a satellite, KGIN, in Grand Island) and Fox affiliate KFXL. NTV serves as the ABC affiliate for the western half of the market, while Lincoln and the eastern half of the market are served by a separate ABC affiliate, KLKN. A third ABC affiliate, KETV in Omaha, also has significant viewership in the eastern portion of the market, and all of the Omaha stations are available in Lincoln either over-the-air or on cable. Grand Island, Hastings and Kearney receive NBC from KHAS-TV in Hastings, while Lincoln receives it over-the-air and via cable from WOWT-TV in Omaha (which is owned by KOLN/KGIN's owner, Gray Television). Despite KFXL-TV broadcasting from Lincoln, Omaha's KPTM has long been considered Lincoln's primary Fox affiliate. The market has had no over-the-air CW affiliate since KFXL became a Fox affiliate in 2009. The eastern part of the market, including Lincoln, receives CW programming from Omaha's KXVO. The rest of the market can receive it from out-of-market CW affiliates on satellite packages. Also, until 2009, Pappas operated a cable-only CW affiliate with the fictitious call letters 'KWBL' in the western part of the market; this has since been replaced with the national CW100+ feed.
Recently, KHGI has made moves toward gaining cable coverage on the Lincoln side of the market though has not yet gained a spot on the local Time Warner Cable system in Lincoln. Both KHGI and KLKN are carried on the local DirecTV and Dish Network feeds.
Contents |
| KHGI-TV | KWNB | Name | Video | Aspect | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13.1 | 6.1 | KHGI-TV KWNB |
720p | 16:9 | Main KHGI/KWNB programming / ABC |
| 13.2 | 6.2 | KFXL-TV | HD simulcast of KFXL-TV |
KHGI signed on December 24, 1953 as KHOL-TV, a CBS and DuMont affiliate based in Holdrege.[1] DuMont would end network operations in 1956, and KHOL-TV briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network.[2]
A little more than two years after its sign-on, KHOL added a satellite in Hayes Center, KHPL-TV on February 9, 1956. After KGIN signed on from Grand Island as a satellite of Lincoln's KOLN in 1961, KHOL and KHPL became full ABC affiliates. In 1964, another satellite joined the network, KHQL-TV in Albion. KHTL-TV in Superior followed in 1965.
The station featured local programming, including The Bobby Mills Show on Saturday evenings from 9:30 until 10 p.m. The Bobby Mills Orchestra was the "house band" and hosted guest artists, though the bulk of the show was dedicated to the band and its soloists, similar to Lawrence Welk, who was on a syndicated network. Bobby's sons, Bobby Mills Jr. and Ron, were featured extensively on the program. Taping of the show was done once a month on a Friday night, after the station had signed off at Midnight. An average of 5 shows were done per taping, which typically ended at 4 a.m. The show ran during the late 1960s into the early 1970s.
On June 3, 1974, the call letters of all the stations were changed: KHOL became KHGI-TV, KHPL became KWNB-TV, KHQL became KCNA-TV and KHTL became KSNB-TV.[3] The on-air name changed from "NTN" to "NTV" in the early 1980s. KCNA was spun off from NTV on November 1, 1983 and became an independent station under the call letters KBGT-TV; it was sold in 1986 to Citadel Communications and became a satellite of Sioux City, Iowa station KCAU-TV. Citadel later moved the station to Lincoln, Nebraska as a stand-alone station, KLKN. KSNB became a Fox network affiliate in September 1996 as a satellite of Grand Island's KTVG.[4]
KHGI-CD in North Platte, Nebraska signed on in 1989 as translator station K13VO, becoming WSWS-CA on July 4, 2005 and KHGI-CA on June 12, 2009. The WSWS-CA call sign was unique, as it made it a station with a "W" call sign prefix was west of the Mississippi River. This was allowed due to the fact that "WSWS" was the former callsign of current Pappas station WLGA, and the calls were grandfathered to the former K13VO. In 2010, KHGI-CA switched to digital and became KHGI-LD. KHGI-LD is not a true repeater of KHGI-TV in that its digital television broadcast is identified as "KHGI-LD Digital Television" on compatible television receivers and appears as channel 27.1 rather than 13.1. KHGI-LD also does not rebroadcast KFXL on a digital subchannel as North Platte already receives Fox on K11TW. ABC programming on KHGI-LD is carried in high definition. When the analog KHGI-CA license was surrendered on September 1, 2011, KHGI-LD became KHGI-CD, inheriting the analog station's class A status.
In May 2006, NTV became one of the first television stations in the country to generate a community based news site. Community Correspondent allows registered users to post stories, photos, and videos to the site. Many of the postings are used on air in different stories.
Anchors/reporters
First Alert Weather
Sports team
Good Life
KHGI/NTV repeats its programming on five translators. Three of them (in bold) are owned by Pappas, one is government-owned and another is owned by a local Jaycees chapter.
Except for KHGI-CD and KHGP-LP, all translators directly repeat KWNB.
NTV was previously seen in McCook on KBVZ-LP channel 42; this was shut down in favor of KWNB-LD on March 19, 2010.[6]
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