KRDK-TV

KRDK-TV

Valley City–Fargo– Grand Forks, North Dakota United States
City	Valley City, North Dakota
Channels	Digital:24 (UHF) Virtual:4
Branding	KRDK 4
Programming
Affiliations	4.1:Cozi TV/MyNetworkTV for others, see§ Subchannels
Ownership
Owner	Major Market Broadcasting (Parker Broadcasting of Dakota License,LLC)
History
First air date	July 12, 1954(1954-07-12)
Former call signs	KXJB-TV (1954–2014) KNDF-TV (2014–2015)
Former channel number(s)	Analog:4 (VHF,1954–2009) Digital:38 (UHF, until 2019)
Former affiliations	CBS(1954–2014) ABC(secondary, 1954–1959) Dark(2014–2015) Heroes & Icons(April−September 2015)
Call signmeaning	Ravi D. Kapur, Major Market Broadcasting president or "Regional Dakota"
Technical information
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	49134
ERP	285 kW
HAAT	573 m (1,880 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	47°16′45″N97°20′26″W
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS

KRDK-TV(channel 4) is atelevision stationlicensed toValley City, North Dakota,United States, serving theFargo–Grand Forksmarket.Owned by Major Market Broadcasting, it is affiliated with multiple networks on variousdigital subchannels,withCozi TVandMyNetworkTVon its main channel. KRDK-TV's offices are located on Winter Show Road in Valley City.

KRDK-TV'stransmitter tower,located nearGalesburg, North Dakota,stands at 2,060 feet (628 m). It was thesecond tallest man-made structureon Earth when it was built in 1966. It is currently the seventh tallest structure in the world. In the United States, it is second only to thePetronius oil platformin theGulf of Mexicoand is still the tallest broadcasting tower in theWestern Hemisphere.

The station launched in December 1954 asKXJB-TV,theCBSaffiliate for the market. KXJB consolidated withNBCaffiliateKVLY-TVin 2003 under alocal marketing agreement.In 2014, the station's non-license assets were acquired by KVLY's new ownerGray Television;due to increasing scrutiny by theFederal Communications Commission(FCC) surrounding local marketing agreements and similar arrangements, Gray decided against having the station acquired by an affiliated third party to maintain the LMA. Its CBS programming was moved to KVLY's second digital subchannel in December 2014 andKXJB-LDin 2016, and KXJB's license was sold to the minority-owned Major Market Broadcasting, who re-christened the station KRDK-TV. The station returned to the air during January 2015 carrying several digital television networks.

History

As KXJB-TV

KXJB-TV broadcasting from the West Acres Shopping Center with Sally Hilleboe and Jim Adelson.

KXJB-TV logo for part of the 1970s and 1980s.

Channel 4 signed on July 1, 1954, as KXJB-TV, owned by John Boler, with studios in Valley City and a 1,085-foot (331 m) tall transmitter tower nearPillsbury(15 miles (24 km) northeast of Valley City). KXJB was co-owned with theKX Televisionnetwork in western North Dakota until 1971. KXJB moved its main studios to Fargo in 1963, and completed construction of its current 2,060-foot (630 m) talltower sitenear Galesburg in 1966. The station was a CBS affiliate, and up until its sale in 2014 was the only major station in Fargo that has never changed its primary affiliation, although it sharedABCprogramming withWDAY-TV(channel 6) until KXGO-TV (channel 11, later KTHI-TV and nowKVLY-TV) signed on in 1959. It was also an affiliate of theNTA Film Network.WhenWest Acres Shopping Centeropened in 1972, KXJB-TV had a studio in the mall, located roughly where the food court is today. The station broadcast its daytime local-origination programs from the mall and also its early evening newscast. The West Acres studio was closed in less than two years.

KXJB was one of only four CBS stations not to carry theLate Show with David Lettermanwhen it premiered; the program aired instead onFoxaffiliateKVRR(channel 15).Sioux City, IowaaffiliateKMEGalso declined to alter its syndicated lineup, along with lame duck CBS affiliatesWITIinMilwaukee(which would switch to Fox a year after) andWBAL-TVinBaltimore(which switched to NBC 1½ years later due to the deal between CBS and Group W).This led Sioux City to become known as the "home office" onLate Show;both KXJB and KMEG began airing the show in 1994.

KXJC-LP

Defunctsemi-satelliteof KXJB-TV
Grand Forks, North Dakota United States
Channels	Analog:35 (UHF)
Branding	CBS 35
Programming
Affiliations	CBS (2000–2003)
Ownership
Owner	Catamount Broadcasting (Catamount Broadcasting of Fargo, LLC)
Sister stations	KXJB-TV
History
First air date	November 13, 2000(2000-11-13)
Last air date	April 30, 2003(2003-04-30) (2 years, 168 days)
Call signmeaning	disambiguation of KXJB
Technical information
Class	LPTV

KXJC (CBS 35) Grand Forks

KXJB-TV's tower location (along with KVLY) was intended to provide a strong over-the-air signal to both the Fargo–Moorheadand Grand Forks metro areas. All of eastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota is considered one giant television market. The other three network affiliates (WDAY,KFME,and KVRR) do not have the reach of KVLY or KXJB/KRDK, and use full-powersatellite stationsto provide both their signal to the market and advertising specific to Grand Forks.

In July 2000, Catamount Broadcasting purchased theconstruction permitfor KXJC-LP,channel 35, from Central Plains Media. KXJC signed on for the first time on November 13, 2000, as a locally focused CBS affiliate for Grand Forks. The station was known as "CBS 35" and was carried on Midcontinent cable channel 21 in Grand Forks. KXJB was still carried on Midcontinent cable channel 4 in Grand Forks while KXJC was on the air. Although the main KXJB signal covered Grand Forks very well (city-grade), KXJC was launched to compete against Grand Forks ABC affiliateWDAZ-TV(channel 8), a semi-satellite of WDAY-TV (channel 6) inFargo.WDAZ had long been the only station airing a full schedule of local news for the Grand Forks area. The combination of WDAY-TV and WDAZ had long been the market's ratings leader.

Although KXJC was considered a separate station in its own right, it was asemi-satelliteof KXJB. It simulcast most of KXJB's network and syndicated programming (although it had some shows not seen on KXJB such asJerry SpringerandJenny Jones), but produced separate weeknight newscasts and aired its own commercials and station identifications. KXJC also had an FCC construction permit to increase power from 10,000 watts to 60,000 watts, which would have expanded the coverage area for its over-the-air signal to reachGrafton, North DakotaandThief River Falls, Minnesota.

On April 30, 2003, KXJC wentsilent;its license was canceled that July. The move came several months after an agreement forNBCaffiliate KVLY-TV to manage KXJB was announced.

KXJB's LMA with KVLY

Former KXJB logo from 2004 until 2014.

In 2003, Catamount entered into alocal marketing agreementwith KVLY-TV's then owner, Wicks Group. In 2004, the station was consolidated into KVLY's facilities. In November 2005, KXJB became the second major network affiliate in Fargo (after KVLY-TV) to broadcast inhigh definition.In 2006, KXJB and KVLY were each sold to different owners: KXJB to Parker Broadcasting and KVLY-TV toHoak Media.Hoak's acquisition of KVLY was approved by the FCC on November 17, 2006, while the sale of KXJB was approved in January 2007. In April 2007, KVLY-TV and KXJB-TV begansimulcastingweekend newscasts, and in November, the stations began simulcasting news during weekdays under the nameValley News Live.

Sale to Major Market Broadcasting and relaunch as KRDK

On November 20, 2013, Parker Broadcasting announced the sale of its stations, including KXJB-TV, to Excalibur Broadcasting. The deal was concurrent with the sale of most Hoak Media stations (including KVLY-TV) toGray Television;Excalibur's other stations are operated by Gray under local marketing agreements.However, in response to heightened scrutiny by the FCC over LMAs and similar agreements, Gray announced that it would acquire the non-license assets of six stations from the Hoak and Parker deal, including KXJB, move their programming to digital subchannels of existing Gray stations in the affected markets (in this case, KVLY) and divest their licenses to minority-owned broadcasters who would operate them independently and not enter into any LMAs or similar agreements with Gray.

The station was eventually sold to Major Market Broadcasting (MMB), a minority-owned company whose operations includeSan Francisco Bay AreastationKAXT-CDand theSouth Asiantelevision network Diya TV.On November 12, 2014, a simulcast of KXJB's programming was added to KVLY-DT2; on November 30, 2014, at 11:05 p.m.CTduring its 10 p.m. newscast (which wasdelayedalong with CBS' prime time schedule due to a long-runningNFLgame), KXJB went dark, with its CBS programming continuing on the KVLY subchannel.The purchase by Major Market Broadcasting was completed on December 18, 2014.

On December 24, MMB changed the station's call letters to KNDF-TV; a few weeks later, on January 13, 2015, the call letters became KRDK-TV.The station began carryingCozi TV,GritandEscapenetworks upon returning to the air in January 2015.The main channel carriedpaid programmingand requiredpublic affairsandE/Iprogramming in the interim. KRDK rearranged its channel lineup and addedMovies!andDecadesnetworks to new subchannels in March 2015. In April 2015, KRDK-TV addedHeroes & Iconsto subchannel 4.1 and the comedy-orientedLaffto subchannel 4.8. The station officially launched on September 25, 2015, rearranged its channel lineup, and added Bek Sports (area high school sports in collaboration withKNDBchannel 26 inBismarckandKNDMchannel 24 inMinot),Comet,andBuzzrto its channel lineup. H&I, Decades, and Movies! were removed in August 2016, and replaced byBounce TV.

KRDK took theMyNetworkTVschedule as a late-night 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. offering in May 2021.In August of that year, the station picked up rights to preseason games of theGreen Bay Packers.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal ismultiplexed:

Subchannels of KRDK-TV

Channel	Res.	Aspect	Short name	Programming
4.1	720p	16:9	KRDK-TV	Cozi TV(1 a.m.–11 p.m.) MyNetworkTV(11 p.m.–1 a.m.)
4.2	480i		BEK24/7	BEK Sports
4.3			Grit	Grit
4.4			Mystery	Ion Mystery
4.5			Bounce	Bounce TV
4.6			Laff	Laff
4.7			Comet	OAN Plus
4.8			CourtTV	AWE Plus
4.9			Quest	Quest
4.10			GET TV	get
4.11			NEWSY	Scripps News
4.12			TWIST	Jewelry TV

Analog-to-digital conversion

KRDK-TV (as KXJB-TV) shut down its analog signal, overVHFchannel 4, on February 16, 2009, the day prior to the original date on which full-power television stations in the United States were set totransition from analog to digital broadcastsunder federal mandate (which was later rescheduled for June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transitionUHFchannel 38.On August 15, 2020, the FCC licensed and approved the completion of the spectrum repack putting the station on digital channel 24, usingvirtual channel4.

Cable carriage

From 1968 until the mid-1980s, KXJB was carried bycable systemsacross neighboringManitobaand northwestOntario.This includedWinnipeg,which is several times larger than the station's entire American coverage area. These arrangements ended in 1986, when the Canadian cable companies were granted permission to replace most of the North Dakota stations with network affiliates fromDetroitdue to complaints about poor reception.

After an ice storm on April 6, 1997, caused the KXJB-TV mast to collapse, some cable systems replaced KXJB withKXMBfrom Bismarck,KXMCfrom Minot,KDLOfromWatertown, South Dakota,KCNCfromDenver,KCCOfromAlexandria, Minnesota,KCCW fromWalker, Minnesota,orKDLHfromDuluth(depending on location) either temporarily or permanently, to maintain CBS service.

KRDK's 4.1 channel began being carried on most cable television systems starting in October 2016 due tomust-carry.This resulted in movingKXJB(the previous occupant of the channel 4 license) to channel 9 onMidcoandSparklightto make room for KRDK on channel 4.

See also

• Channel 4 virtual TV stations in the United States
• Channel 24 digital TV stations in the United States
• KRDK-TV mast
• Valley News Live