KBMY

KBMY / KMCY

KBMY: Bismarck, North Dakota KMCY: Minot, North Dakota
Branding	KBMY 17 KMCY 14
Channels	Digital: KBMY: 17 (UHF) / KXMA-DT 19.4 KMCY: 14 / KXMD-DT 14.4 (UHF) Virtual: KBMY: 17 (PSIP) / KXMA-DT 2.2 (PSIP) KMCY: 14 (PSIP) / KXMD-DT 11.2 (PSIP)
Subchannels	17.1 / 14.1 ABC
Affiliations	ABC
Owner	Forum Communications (JSA with Reiten Television) (KBMY-KMCY, LLC)
First air date	KBMY: March 31, 1985 KMCY: June 1985[1]
Call letters' meaning	KBMY: Bismarck/Mandan Y KMCY: 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: 46°35′15″N 100°48′20″W / 46.58750°N 100.80556°W / 46.58750; -100.80556 (KBMY) KMCY: 48°3′11″N 101°23′5″W / 48.05306°N 101.38472°W / 48.05306; -101.38472 (KMCY)
Website	www.abc17.tv (KBMY) www.abc14.tv (KMCY)

KBMY, channel 17, is the ABC-affiliated television station for Bismarck, North Dakota. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 17 (or virtual channel 17.1 via PSIP) from a transmitter near St. Anthony. The station can also be seen on Midcontinent cable channel 8 in Bismarck/Mandan, Consolidated Telcom cable channel 3 in Dickinson and varied cable channels in surrounding areas.

There is a high definition feed provided on Midcontinent digital channel 608 in Bismarck/Mandan and Consolidated Telcom digital channel 303 in Dickinson. Owned by Forum Communications of Fargo and under a joint sales agreement with Reiten Television, KBMY/KMCY's master control and internal operations are based at the facilities of fellow ABC affiliate WDAY-TV in Fargo, while sales are handled by CBS affiliate KXMB-TV at its studios on North 15th Street in Bismarck.

KMCY, channel 14, in Minot, North Dakota operates as a semi-satellite of KBMY for the northern portion of the Bismarck/Minot market. KMCY simulcasts all network and syndicated programming from KBMY, but airs separate commercials and station identifications. This outlet broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 14 (or virtual channel 14.1 via PSIP) from a transmitter southwest of Minot. The station's sales are handled by CBS affiliate KXMC-TV at their studios on the intersection of 2nd Street SE and 18th Avenue SE in Minot. The station can also be seen on MIdcontinent cable channel 9 in Minot, Midcontinent cable channel 7 in Williston, SRT cable channel 11 and varied cable channels in surrounding areas. There is a high definition feed provided on Midcontinent digital channel 609 (607 in Williston) and SRT digital channel 511.

KBMY is simulcast on KXMA-TV's subchannel 2.2 in Dickinson and KMCY is simulcast on KXMD-TV's subchannel 11.2 in Williston. Forum Communications owns all four ABC stations in North Dakota - flagship station WDAY-TV in Fargo, WDAZ-TV in Grand Forks, KBMY and KMCY.

Syndicated programming on KBMY/KMCY includes America's Funniest Home Videos, Extra, Friends, Judge Judy, The Simpsons, among others.

Digital television

KMCY flash-cut to digital on February 10, 2009. KBMY's broadcasts went digital-only on June 12, 2009.^[2]

History

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, making this area one of the last in the nation with full network service. KMCY followed on June 19. Before 1985, ABC was limited to off-hours clearances on the KX Television and Meyer Television. Some rural cable subscribers in western North Dakota received ABC programming from KULR-TV (now NBC) from Billings, KFBB-TV from Great Falls or KOTA-TV from Rapid City. Cable subscribers in areas east of Minot received WDAZ-TV from Grand Forks, and areas east of Bismarck received WDAY-TV from Fargo, for the full ABC programming lineup.

Later in the decade, KBMY signed on two low-powered translators to serve the smaller cities in the market, K44HR in Williston and K42FY in Dickinson. 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 Dickinson station directly repeated KBMY, while the Williston station repeated KMCY.

Former logo as "ABC West".

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. From 2002 until 2008, KBMY/KMCY was operated by Prime Cities Broadcasting, owner of western North Dakota's Fox affiliate, KNDX/KXND, in a local marketing agreement. The LMA allowed KBMY/KMCY to share the facilities, staff, and some equipment of KNDX/KXND.

The LMA with KNDX/KXND ended in 2008, with Forum opting to partner with Reiten Television in KBMY/KMCY's local operations via a joint sales agreement. 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 television 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.

As part of the JSA with Reiten, KBMY/KMCY were picked up on the digital subchannels of KX Television satellites KXMA and KXMD in Dickinson and Williston, respectively, starting in May 2009. The translators serving Dickinson and Williston went off-air.

Programming

The stations do not produce much local content, serving mainly as "pass-throughs" for automated programming.

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 NBA Countdown to carry paid programming.

References

External links

• ABC17.tv - Official KBMY-TV Website
• ABC14.tv - Official KMCY-TV Website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KBMY
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KMCY
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KBMY-TV
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KMCY-TV