KSFY-TV

KSFY-TV (channel 13) is a television station in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, United States, affiliated with ABC and The CW Plus. It is owned by Gray Television alongside dual NBC/Fox affiliate KDLT-TV (channel 46). Both stations share studios in Courthouse Square on 1st Avenue South in Sioux Falls,[2] while KSFY-TV's transmitter is located near Rowena, South Dakota.

KSFY-TV

Channels
Branding
  • KSFY (general)
  • Dakota News Now (newscasts)
  • Sioux Falls CW 13.2 (on DT2)
  • MeTV Sioux Falls (on DT3)
Programming
Subchannels
Ownership
Owner
KDLT, KDLV
History
First air date
July 31, 1960 (1960-07-31)
Former call signs
KSOO-TV (1960–1974)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog: 13 (VHF, 1960–2009)
  • Digital: 29 (UHF, until 2009)
  • NBC (1960–1983)
  • ABC (secondary 1960–1969)
Call sign meaning
Sioux Falls, disambiguation of last call letter for former owner Forum's flagship station WDAY
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID48658
ERP22.7 kW
HAAT610 m (2,001 ft)
Transmitter coordinates43°31′7″N 96°32′5.7″W
Links
Public license information
Websitewww.dakotanewsnow.com

History

The station debuted on July 31, 1960, as KSOO-TV, the second station in Sioux Falls. It was owned by the South Dakota Broadcasting Company along with KSOO radio and was an NBC affiliate with a secondary ABC affiliation. From 1960 to 1969, it operated as the flagship of a regional network with separately-owned KORN-TV in Mitchell (channel 5, now KDLT-TV on channel 46). KSOO-TV served the eastern portion of the market, while KORN-TV served the western portion. In 1969, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) forced the breakup of this network, and KSOO-TV became the sole NBC affiliate. In 1970, it bought KXAB-TV in Aberdeen to boost its coverage in northeastern South Dakota. As part of the sale, KXAB's calls changed to KCOO-TV.

South Dakota Broadcasting was liquidated in 1973; the television stations had not shown a profit since 1968.[3] The television stations were bought by Forum Publishing Company of Fargo, North Dakota in 1974 and switched their call letters respectively to the current KSFY and KABY. KPRY-TV in Pierre was added a year later in 1976. In September 1983, KSFY swapped affiliations with channel 5, then recently renamed KDLT and became an ABC affiliate. ABC was the top-rated network at the time and wanted to be on a stronger station. Additionally, KSFY had three full-power transmitters to KDLT's one, and Forum's flagship stations WDAY and WDAZ in the eastern part of North Dakota were also converting to ABC affiliations at the same time.

Forum sold the KSFY stations to AFLAC in 1985. In 1996, AFLAC sold its broadcasting division to Retirement Systems of Alabama, who merged it with Ellis Communications to form Raycom Media. In 2004, Raycom sold the KSFY stations to The Wicks Group of Companies.

Hoak Media bought KSFY and its satellite stations in July 2006, as well as KVLY-TV and KXJB-TV (LMA with Catamount Broadcasting) of Fargo and KFYR-TV of Bismarck, North Dakota and its satellite stations. The sale was approved by the FCC on November 17, 2006. On November 20, 2013, Hoak announced the sale of most of its stations, including KSFY and its satellites to Gray Television.[4] The sale was completed on June 13, 2014.[5]

On May 1, 2018; Gray announced it had agreed to buy KDLT from owner Red River Broadcasting for $32.5 million. The combined operation would be based at KSFY's studios; in its announcement of the KDLT purchase, Gray noted that the KSFY studio has enough space to house a second station's news and sales department.[6] Gray needed to obtain a waiver in order to complete the deal, since the FCC normally does not allow one person to own two of the four highest-rated stations in a market. However, in its filing requesting such a waiver, Gray argued that KDLT would be in a stronger position to compete in the market if its resources were combined with those of KSFY. Gray contended that a KSFY/KDLT duopoly would fulfill "a dire need for an effective competitor" in the Sioux Falls market, where KELO-TV has been the far-and-away leader for as long as records have been kept.[7] The sale was approved by the FCC on September 24, 2019,[8] and was completed the following day.[9][10] Soon afterward, on January 13, 2020, KDLT moved its studios from South Westport Avenue to KSFY's studios on Courthouse Square.

In 2020, Gray acquired the non-license assets of area Fox affiliate KTTW and placed Fox programming on KDLT's second subchannel. This resulted in all of the network affiliations in eastern South Dakota being controlled by just two companies, Gray and KELO-TV owner Nexstar Media Group.

News operation
KSFY logo, used from 2008 to 2011.
News logo used until Fox affiliation with KDLT-TV started in 2020.

Currently, KSFY broadcasts a total of 19½ hours of local newscasts each week with 3½ hours on weekdays and one hour each on Saturdays and Sundays. KSFY has been nominated for numerous Midwest Emmy Awards.

On August 1, 2011, KSFY became the first television station in the Sioux Falls market and in the state of South Dakota to begin producing its local newscasts in high definition from their studio only and not from the field; the station unveiled a new HD-ready set, dropped Action News from its newscast and station branding, and renamed its newscasts as KSFY News (which the station used from 2004 to 2008).

With the purchase of KDLT, KSFY and KDLT merged their news operations on January 13, 2020, rebranding as Dakota News Now.[11]

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of KSFY-TV[12]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
13.1 720p16:9KSFY-TVABC
13.2 CWThe CW Plus
13.3 480iMeTVMeTV
13.4 T-CrimeTrue Crime Network
13.5 GrioTheGrio

On September 10, 2012, KSFY-TV added programming from The CW on a new second digital subchannel.[13] It is part of The CW Plus,[14] and replaced KWSD as Sioux Falls' CW affiliate. As of September 2015, MeTV moved to 13.3, which also moved from KWSD.

Analog-to-digital conversion

KSFY-TV shut down its analog signal over VHF channel 13 on February 17, 2009, the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 29 to VHF channel 13 for post-transition operations.[15]

Translators

Satellite stations

KSFY is rebroadcast on a satellite station in central South Dakota:

Station City of license Channels
TV (RF)		 First air date Call letters' meaning ERP HAAT Facility ID Transmitter coordinates Public license information
KPRY-TV Pierre 4
19 (UHF)		 January 30, 1976 (1976-01-30) Pierre 311 kW 347 m (1,138 ft) 48660 44°3′7.2″N 100°5′4.2″W Public file
LMS

KSFY was previously rebroadcast on a satellite station in northeastern South Dakota:

Station City of license
(other cities served)		 Channels
TV (RF)		 First air date Last air date Call letters' meaning ERP HAAT Facility ID Transmitter coordinates
KABY-TV 1 Aberdeen
(Watertown)		 9
9 (VHF)		 November 27, 1958 (1958-11-27) January 12, 2017 (2017-01-12)
(License canceled on April 6, 2018[16])		 Aberdeen 19.4 kW 427 m (1,401 ft) 48659 45°6′22.9″N 97°53′58″W

Notes:

  • 1 KABY-TV used the callsign KXAB-TV from its 1958 sign-on to 1970 and then KCOO-TV from 1970 to 1975. The station went silent on January 5, 2016, when its tower was taken down after failing an inspection, and again on January 12, 2017, after briefly broadcasting from a low-power facility.[17] KABY's license was returned to the FCC for cancellation on April 6, 2018;[16] its call sign was transferred to a Gray-owned low-power station in Sioux Falls.

Translators

KSFY is rebroadcast on the following translator stations:

Until 2013, programming from KSFY was also rebroadcast on translator K07QL in Mitchell.

Out-of-market cable coverage

Some cable systems like CSI Cable in Jamestown, North Dakota discontinued carrying the service after January 1, 2009, due to duplication of networks already carried.

References
  1. "Facility Technical Data for KSFY-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. KSFY's new building construction begins. Archived April 22, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, ksfy.com.
  3. "TV License OK'd For Fargo Company". Bismarck Tribune. Associated Press. November 27, 1973. p. 11. Retrieved July 5, 2020.
  4. "Gray Buying Hoak, Prime Stations For $342.5M". TVNewsCheck. November 20, 2013. Retrieved November 20, 2013.
  5. Gray closes Hoak deal; completes refinancing., rbr.com, Retrieved June 13, 2014.
  6. "Press release announcing Gray's purchase of KDLT" (PDF).
  7. Request for FCC waiver
  8. "Memorandum Opinion and Order", Federal Communications Commission, September 24, 2019, Retrieved September 25, 2019.
  9. "Gray Television completes purchase of KDLT-TV". KSFY.com. Gray Television. September 25, 2019. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
  10. "Owner of KSFY-TV finalizes purchase of KDLT-TV", Argus Leader, September 25, 2019, Retrieved September 25, 2019.
  11. Anderson, Patrick. "KSFY, KDLT to become Dakota News Now". Argus Leader. Retrieved January 13, 2020.
  12. "RabbitEars.Info". rabbitears.info.
  13. KSFY Sioux Falls Adding CW On Subchannel, TVNewsCheck, June 4, 2012.
  14. "RabbitEars.Info".
  15. "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
  16. "Licensing and Management System". enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov.
  17. "Broadcasting News-January 2017". www.northpine.com.
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