KTGF
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (January 2007) |
| KTGF | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Great Falls, Montana | |
| Channels | Analog: 16 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | independent |
| Owner | Destiny Communications, LLC (Destiny Licenses, LLC) |
| First air date | September 21, 1986 |
| Call letters’ meaning | Television Great Falls |
| Former affiliations | NBC (1986-2005) Fox (2005-2007) |
| Transmitter Power | 2040 kW (analog) 175 kW (digital) |
| Height | 319 m (analog) 289 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 13792 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.ktgf.com |
KTGF is an independent television station in Great Falls, Montana. KTGF started broadcasting on September 21, 1986, originally owned by Continental Television. The station immediately became the city's first full time affiliate of the NBC television network. From its inception, the station was far behind KRTV and KFBB in the ratings. Due to weak ratings the station scrapped its local news department in the mid 1990s.
Contents |
[edit] Big Sky News
In March 2001, Continental Television sold KTGF (along with KTMF in Missoula and KWYB in Butte) to Max Media. Max Media brought "local" news back to KTGF in 2002 with "Big Sky News." Max Media contracted with the Independent News Network to produce local news on Max Media's stations in Montana. The program actually originated in Davenport, Iowa. After a year, "Big Sky News" was cancelled.
[edit] Max Media Sale
In 2003, Max Media signed an agreement to purchase KFBB in Great Falls and KULR in Billings from Dix Communications. Since the Great Falls television market is not large enough to own two television stations, Max immediately put KTGF up for sale. For more than a year, Max Media could not find a buyer for KTGF. Finally, Max Media sold KTGF in November 2004 to Destiny Communications of Wichita, Kansas.
[edit] Affiliation Switch
In April 2005, Beartooth Communications, the owner of KTVH the NBC affiliate in Helena, purchased a low power television permit in Great Falls for channel 50. It became obvious that Beartooth was positioning itself to take the NBC affiliation away from KTGF when the NBC affiliation agreement expired at the end of June. Destiny Communications filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission to prevent NBC from removing the affiliation and giving it to Beartooth's station, now known as KBGF-LP. As the end of June approached, confusion reigned. Both parties claimed they would be the NBC affiliate on July 1 in Great Falls. On June 29, Destiny announced that it would affiliate with the Fox network beginning July 1. This created another confusing situation because another television station in Great Falls, KLMN, was already the Fox affiliate (although the local cable system did not carry the station). On July 1, 2005, NBC moved from KTGF to KBGF, and both KTGF and KLMN became Fox affiliates. Eventually, KLMN dropped Fox programming for UPN and in September 2006 became an affiliate of My Network TV.
In May 2007, Fox programming abruptly returned to KLMN and KTGF became an independent station, as a result of Destiny entering a Joint Sales Agreement (JSA) with KLMN's parent company, Equity Media Holdings ([1]). After being offline for several weeks, KTGF unveiled an updated website with a revised logo.
[edit] News Operation
For many years after the lack of success with Big Sky News the station broadcasted no news, but recently they hired a woman by the name of Karen Wolf to anchor. KTGF currently broadcasts short news updates and a 10:00 Newscast called News Watch.
[edit] Repeaters
- Big Sandy — K07IP
- Loring — K65AH
- Sweetgrass — K65DK
- Toole — K42DD
- Turner — K64BQ
[edit] Television tower
The KTGF television tower is a 244 meter high guyed TV mast at Great Falls, Montana, USA ( ). KTGF's tower was built in 1986 and is the tallest structure of Montana.
[edit] External links
- Official site
- KTGF Television Tower in the Structurae database
- Listing 1051225 in the FCC Antenna Structure Registration database
- Query the FCC's TV station database for KTGF
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KTGF-TV
|
|||||
