rapid city south dakota khsd tv lead south dakota united states branding kota territory general kota territory news newscasts slogan coverage you can count on channels digital kota tv 7 vhf khsd tv 5 vhf virtual kota tv 3 psip khsd tv 11 psip subchannels x. 1 abc affiliations abc 1976 1984 2016 present owner gray television gray television licensee llc first air date kota tv january 21 1958 ; 58 years ago 1958 01 21 khsd tv january 1960 ; 56 years ago 1960 01 current licenses for both stations date from july 11 1976 call letters meaning kota tv dakota sister station s kevn ld ksfy tv former callsigns kota tv krsd tv 1959 1976 kevn tv 1976 2016 khsd kdsj tv 1960 1976 kivv tv 1976 2016 former channel number s analog kota tv 7 vhf 1959 2009 khsd tv 5 vhf 1960 2009 digital kota tv 18 uhf khsd tv 29 uhf former affiliations nbc 1959 1970 1984 1996 cbs 1970 1976 fox 1996 2016 transmitter power kota tv 43.5 kw khsd tv 9.2 kw height kota tv 204 m khsd tv 561 m facility id kota tv 34347 khsd tv 34348 transmitter coordinates kota tv 44 4 0 n 103 15 1 w 44.06667 n 103.25028 w 44.06667 ; 103.25028 khsd 44 19 30 n 103 50 14 w 44.32500 n 103.83722 w 44.32500 ; 103.83722 kivv tv licensing authority fcc public license information khsd tv profile khsd tv cdbs website www.kotatv.com kota tv virtual channel 3 vhf digital rf channel 7 is an abc affiliated television station affiliate based in rapid city south dakota usa . owned by gray television the station is sister to low powered fox affiliate kevn ld and the two outlets have a co located studio office and transmitter facility located on skyline drive in rapid city . kota tv also operates a full power satellite in lead south dakota khsd tv virtual channel 11 which can also be seen over the air in rapid city . khsd s transmitter is located near spearfish south dakota . kota serves a large area in western south dakota eastern montana eastern wyoming and the nebraska panhandle . it calls its vast coverage area kota territory . contents 1 history 1.1 kota tv intellectual unit 1.2 channel 7 license 2 digital television 2.1 digital channel 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 rebroadcasters 4 news operation 5 references 6 external links history edit kota tv intellectual unit edit see also khme until 2016 the kota tv call sign along with the virtual channel 3 assignment and the abc affiliation were associated with the station now known as khme channel 23 . kota tv had gone on the air in 1955 as a cbs affiliate owned by helen duhamel along with kota radio 1380 am . the station also had secondary affiliations with nbc until 1958 and abc ; it took on a joint primary affiliation with both cbs and abc in 1965 dropped cbs for nbc in 1970 lost abc in 1976 and carried a secondary cbs affiliation from 1976 until 1981 . kota became an abc affiliate in 1984 and also carried some fox programming from 1994 to 1996 . the khsd tv call letters and virtual channel 11 were previously associated with the station now known as kqme channel 5 which had been a kota tv satellite since 1966 . channel 7 license edit channel 7 debuted as krsd tv on january 21 1958 . it was owned by heart of the black hills broadcasters a company controlled by john eli and henry daniels along with krsd radio 1340 am now ktoq . the station was a primary nbc affiliate sharing abc with the original kota tv . 1 two years later in january 1960 krsd tv started a satellite station on channel 5 in lead kdsj tv ; the daniels brothers already operated kdsj radio 980 am in nearby deadwood . 2 but nbc was apparently unhappy with the stations technical operations and on september 13 1970 krsd tv was forced to join cbs while kota tv launched a new joint primary affiliation with both abc and nbc . 3 the federal communications commission denied the license renewals for krsd tv and kdsj tv in november 1971 due to the stations unsatisfactory technical operation . in a unanimous decision the fcc found that krsd tv had been out of compliance with fcc technical standards since at least 1961 . as a result its signal had deteriorated to the point of unacceptability as early as 1965 and was so poor that it could not be carried on cable which then as now was all but essential for acceptable television in much of western south dakota . while a handful of radio stations had been ordered off the air for technical violations it was the first time that the fcc had shuttered a television station due to technical issues . 4 though the fcc originally ordered the stations to shut down on december 31 4 heart of the black hills fought the decision ; 5 however the denial was reaffirmed in july 1972 . 6 nonetheless krsd and kdsj continued to operate under special temporary authority for another four years afterward . 7 new construction permits for channel 7 in rapid city and the lead satellite on channel 5 were granted to dakota broadcasting company owned by a group of rapid city businessmen in april 1975 ; 8 that november the stations were assigned the call signs kevn tv and kivv tv . 9 dakota broadcasting soon announced a planned july 6 1976 debut ; meanwhile heart of the black hills finally shut krsd tv and kdsj tv down for good on february 29 1976 leaving the black hills region without a local cbs affiliate . 10 however area cable systems already carried sioux falls cbs affiliate kelo tv which had been trying to get into rapid city for some time . after a four month hiatus kevn and kivv came on the air july 11 as full time abc affiliates . 11 kota which in fact had been joint primary between abc and nbc 12 switched to nbc primary cbs secondary 13 until 1981 when k15ac channel 15 a translator of kplo tv from reliance itself a satellite of kelo tv was authorized 14 k15ac was upgraded to full power operations in 1988 as kclo tv a semi satellite of kelo . on june 24 1984 nbc moved its programming to kevn ; 15 that network was fed up with the pre emption practices of kota tv 16 which took the abc affiliation . 15 the swap brought kevn in line with sioux falls sister station kdlt tv ; 15 that station had been purchased by kevn s owners in 1982 and made its own move from abc to nbc in 1983 . in 1985 dakota broadcasting sold kevn kivv and kdlt to heritage communications for nearly 20 million . 17 in 1987 following tele communications inc. s purchase of a majority interest in heritage communications the company spun off its television and radio stations to heritage s management under the heritage media banner . 18 19 heritage media announced in september 1995 that it would sell kevn tv and kivv tv to blackstar llc a minority controlled company in which nonvoting equity interests were held by fox television stations and silver king communications for 14 million ; 20 21 the deal was completed on february 7 1996 . 22 blackstar immediately announced that kevn would drop nbc and join fox . 20 the affiliation change happened in july 1996 . 23 prior to that cable systems piped in the national foxnet service or fox s denver affiliate kdvr although kota tv had had a secondary affiliation with fox since 1994 mainly for nfl games . the move left the black hills without an nbc affiliate 20 and the region did not get another nbc affiliate until rapid signed on knbn channel 21 in may 2000 . in the interim cable systems in the market piped in nbc s denver affiliate kusa tv . usa networks the former silver king communications through its usa broadcasting subsidiary acquired blackstar llc outright in 1998 as part of a larger deal between usa and paxson communications that saw usa take control of atlanta s wngm tv from paxson and paxson buying portland s kbsp tv from blackstar . 24 usa mainly acquired blackstar in order to incorporate its orlando station wbsf into its planned cityvision group of independent stations and soon sold kevn tv and kivv tv to mission tv llc an independent private company led by california attorney william reyner who at that time held partial stakes in fellow fox affiliates kkfx lp in santa barbara california and smith broadcasting owned wfff tv in burlington vermont . 25 mission tv was not related to mission broadcasting a holding company whose stations are controlled by nexstar broadcasting group . kevn filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on november 20 2003 to prevent finova capital corp. the station s largest creditor from taking legal action to acquire control of the station ; kevn s programming and operations were not affected by this move 26 and the station emerged from bankruptcy in july 2005 . 27 in january 2007 after having been branded as kevn fox 7 for its first 11 years as a fox affiliate the station changed its branding to black hills fox removing the over the air channel number from kevn s brand identity . on december 18 2013 it was announced that mission tv llc would sell kevn tv and kivv tv to gray television for 7.75 million . 28 upob the completion of the sale on may 1 2014 kevn was gray s first standalone full power fox affiliate . 29 30 on september 14 2015 gray announced that it would purchase the television and radio stations owned by schurz communications including kota tv and its satellites and the rushmore media company group of radio stations for 442.5 million . gray intends to consolidate kota s operations with those of kevn ; 31 32 in announcing the sale of most of kota tv s assets to legacy broadcasting on october 1 gray announced that kevn tv would inherit kota s abc affiliation following the deal s completion . 33 on february 1 2016 kevn tv changed its callsign to kota tv ; while satellite station kivv changed its calls to khsd tv . the station moved its virtual channel to 3 while continuing to transmit on rf channel 7 as the abc affiliation was moved to the new kota and the fox affiliation has moved to kevn ld virtual channel 7 . the former kota has changed its call sign to khme and broadcasts metv and this tv subchannels on virtual channel 23 using kota s former rf channel 2 . digital television edit digital channel edit channel video aspect psip short name programming 34 35 3.1 720p 16 9 kota dt main programming abc 11.1 khsd dt analog to digital conversion edit four months before the official date of the analog television shutdown and digital conversion on february 17 2009 both stations shut down their analog signals 36 kota tv as kevn tv shut down its analog signal over vhf channel 7 ; the station s digital signal relocated from its pre transition uhf channel 18 to vhf channel 7 for post transition operations . khsd tv as kivv tv shut down its analog signal over vhf channel 5 ; the station s digital signal relocated from its pre transition uhf channel 29 to vhf channel 5 for post transition operations . mission tv submitted an application to the fcc in 2007 asking to defer further construction of the station s digital transmitter which was not yet operating at full power due to financial problems until the end of the digital