KBSL-DT

KBSL-DT, virtual and VHF digital channel 10, is a CBS-affiliated television station located in Goodland, Kansas, United States. The station is owned by Schurz Communications. KBSL maintains news bureau and advertising sales offices located on West 31st Street in southwestern Goodland, and its transmitter is located east of K-27 in rural northeastern Sherman County.

KBSL is part of the Kansas Broadcasting System (KBS), a statewide network of four full-power stations that relay programming from Wichita CBS affiliate KWCH-DT central and western Kansas; KBSL incorporates local advertising and news inserts aimed at areas of northwestern Kansas and southwestern Nebraska within the Wichita-Hutchinson Plus television market (including Colby), as well as portions of east-central Colorado.

Because the station's signal lies between the Central and Mountain Time Zones (its transmitter is located on the Mountain Time Zone side of the state), CBS primetime programming in the western part of the station's viewing area airs Monday through Saturdays from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. and Sundays from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m.; however, since it operates as a satellite station of Wichita-based KWCH, the station runs on a Central Time Zone schedule.

History

The station first signed on the air on April 28, 1959 as KLOE-TV. It was founded by Hays businessman Ross Beach, owner of radio station KLOE (730 AM); the station's studio facility West 31st Street, known as "Broadcast Plaza," was originally only large enough to house the radio station; as a result, Beach added on a half-story to the facility, raising the building's ceiling to accommodate television lighting. The station has been a CBS affiliate since its sign-on, however it originally maintained a secondary affiliation with ABC until the 1970s.

In 1962, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled that central and western Kansas were part of the Wichita market. As a result, Des Moines-based Cowles Communications bought KLOE-TV, KTVC (now KBSD-DT) in Dodge City and KAYS-TV (now KBSH-DT) in Hays, and converted them into semi-satellites of KTVH. The three stations, which – along with flagship station KTVH – formed the Kansas Broadcasting System, relayed CBS programming throughout central and western Kansas.^[2]

In 1983, the Cowles family began selling off its vast media holdings. KLOE-TV, KTVH and their sister stations were sold to the Kansas Broadcasting System Corporation, owned by Beach and Bob Schmidt; the sale separated KLOE-TV from its radio sister, however KLOE radio (as well as its sister radio stations) continues to operate from KBSL's facility on 31st Street. In 1989, the Kansas Broadcasting System Corporation was purchased by Smith Broadcasting; after the sale was completed, the station changed its call letters to KBSL-TV, as part of an effort that saw KWCH's three semi-satellites change their call letters to help viewers think of the stations as part of one large network. Smith sold the station to Spartanburg, South Carolina-based Spartan Communications in 1994; Spartan merged with Media General in 2000. In 2005, KWCH began operating a digital automation system from its Wichita studio facility, which handled the scheduling of advertisements and master control operations for all four KBS stations.

On April 6, 2006, Media General announced that it would sell KWCH, its satellites, and four other stations as a result of its purchase of four former NBC owned-and-operated-stations (WVTM-TV in Birmingham, WCMH in Columbus, WNCN in Goldsboro, North Carolina and WJAR-TV in Providence). South Bend, Indiana-based Schurz eventually emerged as the winner and took ownership of the stations on September 25, at which time Schurz formed a new company known as "Sunflower Broadcasting, Inc.," which became the licensee for its Kansas broadcasting properties.^[3][4][5]

Schurz announced on September 14, 2015 that it would exit broadcasting and sell its television and radio stations, including KWCH-DT and its satellites, to Gray Television for $442.5 million. Gray already owns KAKE and its satellites (including KLBY channel 4); however, it will sell that station to Lockwood Broadcast Group and keep the KBS stations.^[6][7][8]

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Analog-to-digital conversion

KBSL shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 10, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 14 to VHF channel 10.^[10] Two weeks later on June 25, 2009, the station's call letters were modified to KBSL-DT to reflect the change.

Newscasts

The station produced separate local newscasts for many years; however due to the smaller size of its studio facility, the news department was based out a tiny studio on the west edge of the city. The station's "Tri-State Report" was a local news staple for many years. It was claimed that KLOE was once the smallest television station in the United States that produced its own local newscasts^[11] In the 1970s, most of the station's operations were moved to KBSH-TV's studios in Hays, and the news department was reduced to a single reporter/photographer. Daily news stories are fed via microwave relay to KWCH's facility in Wichita, which produces local news content for KBSL.

References

External links

• KWCH-DT official website (follow links for KBSL 10)
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KBSL-DT
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KBSL-TV