KBJR-TV

KBJR-TV / KRII
KBJR: Superior, Wisconsin/
Duluth, Minnesota
KRII: Chisholm, Minnesota
United States
Branding KBJR 6 & Range 11 (general)
KBJR 6 & Range 11 News (newscasts)
My 9 (on DT2)
Slogan In Touch.
Channels Digital:
KBJR: 19 (UHF)
Virtual: 6 (PSIP)
KRII: 11 (VHF)
Virtual: 11 (PSIP)
Subchannels KBJR subchannels
6.1 NBC
6.2 MyNetworkTV
KRII subchannels
11.1 NBC
11.2 The CW
11.3 CBS
11.9 MyNetworkTV
Translators see article
Affiliations NBC (1955–present)
Owner Quincy Newspapers
(KBJR License, LLC)
First air date KBJR: March 1, 1954 (1954-03-01)
KRII: November 27, 2002 (2002-11-27)
Call letters' meaning KBJR: K Bob, John, Rich (Former station owner / RJR Communications)
KRII: Range II (11)
Sister station(s) KDLH
Former callsigns WDSM-TV (1954–1974)
Former channel number(s) Analog:
6 (VHF, 1954–2009)
Former affiliations Primary:
CBS (1954–1955)
Secondary:
ABC (1954–1966)
DT3:
NBC WX+
Transmitter power KBJR: 384 kW
KRII: 63 kW
Height KBJR: 311.9 m
KRII: 200.4 m
Facility ID KBJR: 33658
KRII: 82698
Transmitter coordinates KBJR: 46°47′21.1″N 92°6′51.4″W / 46.789194°N 92.114278°W / 46.789194; -92.114278
KRII: 47°51′39″N 92°56′46″W / 47.86083°N 92.94611°W / 47.86083; -92.94611 (KRII)
Licensing authority FCC
Public license information: / KRII Profile
/ KRII CDBS
Website www.northlandsnewscenter.com

KBJR-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station for Northeastern Minnesota and Northwestern Wisconsin that is licensed to Superior, Wisconsin. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 19 from a transmitter west of Downtown Duluth in Hilltop Park. Its studios are located on South Lake Avenue in Canal Park, downtown Duluth.

Owned by Quincy Newspapers, the station operates CBS affiliate KDLH (owned by SagamoreHill Broadcasting) through a shared services agreement. Syndicated programing on KBJR includes: Wheel of Fortune, Inside Edition, Judge Judy and Dr. Phil.

KRII (Range 11), ATSC channel 11 in Chisholm operates as a semi-satellite and has a bureau on East Howard Street in Hibbing. KRII serves the northern portion of the market, including the Iron Range area, Grand Rapids and International Falls. Although it identifies as a station in its own right, it is considered a semi-satellite of sister station KBJR in Duluth. This station simulcasts KBJR except during commercials and station identifications. Master control and internal operations of KRII are based at KBJR's facilities on South Lake Avenue in Duluth. It also acts as a full-power translator station of all of the various channels and subchannels of KBJR and KDLH. In terms of coverage, KRII serves the northern portion of the Duluth market while KBJR serves the southern.

It operates the area's MyNetworkTV station on a second digital subchannel of KBJR. Known on-air as My 9, it is carried on Charter cable channel 9 (hence the branding). This can also be seen on KRII's ninth digital subchannel from a transmitter in Meadow Brook.

History

The station began on March 1, 1954 known as WDSM-TV and was affiliated with CBS. It was owned by Ridder Newspapers, owner of the Duluth Herald (now part of the Duluth News Tribune), along with WDSM-AM 710. WDSM was the first VHF television station in Duluth, signing on days before KDAL-TV (now KDLH). In October 1955, the station switched affiliations with KDAL and became an NBC affiliate. It began local color broadcasts in November 1965. It also aired some ABC programs, sharing them with KDAL, until WDIO-TV signed-on in 1966.

Ridder merged with Knight Newspapers in 1974 to form Knight Ridder. However, the merged company was not allowed to keep the WDSM stations. It was grandfathered under Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules forbidding common ownership of newspapers and broadcasting outlets. The FCC considered the Knight-Ridder merger to be an ownership change, and as a result, the WDSM stations lost their grandfathered protection. The television station was spun off to RJR Communications in the fall of that year. On December 6, the call letters were changed to the current "KBJR-TV". Channel 6 is one of the few stations in the country whose call sign begins with "K" despite being licensed to a city east of the Mississippi River. However, its studios have long been located in Duluth.

Granite Broadcasting acquired KBJR at the end of October 1988 making it one of the company's earliest acquisitions. In March 2005, the Malara Broadcast Group purchased KDLH from New Vision Television and outsourced most of that station's functions to KBJR.

Under this agreement, KDLH laid off most of its staff, and KBJR began to handle nearly all of channel 3's operations. Filings with the FCC showed Malara could operate KDLH with as few as two people on the payroll.

On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced that they would cease broadcasting and merge. The new combined network would be called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of its corporate parents, CBS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner. On February 22, News Corporation announced that it would start up another new broadcast television network called MyNetworkTV. This new network, which would be sister to Fox, would be operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division Twentieth Television. MyNetworkTV was created to give UPN and WB stations, not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates, another option besides becoming independent. It was also created to compete with that network. KDLH operated the area's cable-only WB affiliate, "KWBD", which was part of The WB 100+. Area access to UPN was offered in two ways. KBJR operated an affiliate known on-air as "Northland's UPN" and later "UPN 9" (based on its Charter channel location) on its second digital subchannel. This was also available over-the-air in Ashland, Wisconsin on WAST-LP which was an over-the-air, low-powered semi-satellite of the digital subchannel. WAST was owned by a separate entity from KBJR.

At some point in time, it was announced that KDLH would carry The CW on a new second digital subchannel as part of The CW Plus which would be simulcasted on "KWBD". That service would be a similar operation to The WB 100+. It was later announced that "UPN 9" would become an independent station known as "Northland's 9" complete with new logo and graphics. In March 2006, it was made public that KBJR-DT2 would become an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. In July ahead of the launch of the network, "Northland 9" became known as "My 9" while WAST was shut down in August. MyNetworkTV began broadcasting on September 5 while "KWBD" began broadcasting The CW on September 18. On that date, that station officially started using the KDLH-DT2 call sign.

On April 5, 2010, KBJR and KRII re-branded their look introducing new graphics and a new logo combining the branding with "Range 11". The stations also reverted to their pre-NewsCenter slogan, "In Touch". The stylized 6 was phased out after twenty years.

On February 11, 2014, Quincy Newspapers announced that it would purchase KBJR-TV and its satellite KRII, along with WEEK-TV in Peoria, Illinois and WBNG-TV in Binghamton, New York, from Granite (the deal at the time also included the outright purchase of WPTA in Fort Wayne, Indiana from the Malara Broadcast Group). The license for Malara-owned KDLH was originally planned to sold to SagamoreHill Broadcasting, with KBJR continuing to operate KDLH through a shared services agreement;[1] that November, SagamoreHill was dropped from the deal, and KDLH will remain with Malara, though Quincy and KBJR will continue to provide services.[2]

In July 2015, the deal was reworked yet again; it returned to its previous structure, with SagamoreHill acquiring KDLH and being operated under an SSA by Quincy. However, the SSA will be wound down within nine months of the deal's closure, after which CBS programming will be moved to KBJR, and KDLH will operate independently of KBJR and solely carry CW programming.[3] In this form, the deal was completed on November 2, 2015.[4]

KRII history

KRII signed-on for the first time on November 27, 2002[5] as a semi-satellite of KBJR. It was originally licensed to International Falls but was changed to Chisholm, which is closer to Duluth, before signing on. It was granted an original construction permit after the Federal Communications Commission finalized the DTV allotment plan on April 21, 1997. As a result, it did not receive a companion channel for a digital television station. Instead on January 6, 2009 over a month before the end of the digital television conversion period for full-service stations, KRII turned off its analog signal and turned on its digital signal (an action called a "flash-cut"). After shutting off analog broadcasts, KRII began multi-casting programming on digital subchannels. Its bureau is home to a reporter who contributes Iron Range coverage to the KBJR and KDLH news broadcasts.

1997 studio fire

On December 14, 1997, KBJR's studios were destroyed in a fire late that evening. It left the air temporarily but managed to get back on-the-air the next morning cobbling together a makeshift workspace at its transmitter building. Two days later, the news operation moved in with PBS affiliate WDSE and sales and business operations moved to open office space at the U.S. Bank building in Downtown Duluth while master control remained at the transmitter. In June 1999, it relocated to its current location in Canal Park.

Winter transmitter and production difficulties

In April 1999, a spring ice storm swept through Duluth. The heavy accumulation of ice severely damaged KBJR's transmitting tower and, as the melting ice started falling off the tower, large ice chunks broke through the roof of the transmitter building flooding it with water and damaging much of the equipment inside. Master control operations were moved again using a temporary transmitter on WDIO's tower while KBJR's own tower and transmitter were replaced.

On April 11, 2008, a blizzard swept through the area. Winds over 50 miles per hour, and heavy, wet snow caused power outages in Duluth which caused KBJR, KDLH, and WDIO to lose their signals at times. Weekday morning anchor Dan Hanger was on the air live from 5 until 9. At times, he and meteorologist Shannon Murphy were in the dark but were able to broadcast audio. By late morning when KBJR returned to the air, Barbara Reyelts and George Kessler anchored nonstop using a newsroom setup with one microphone and one camera. By Noon, KDLH anchor Pat Kelly was reporting from outside the studios. Also, any phone interviews were done through a cell phone by holding a microphone up to the speaker of the cell phone.

Christmas City of the North Parade

Each November on the Friday before Thanksgiving, KBJR 6 and Range 11 puts on a parade in downtown Duluth called the "Christmas City of the North Parade". It is broadcast live on KBJR and streamed live on its website. In recent years, the parade also has been replayed numerous times in the weeks and days before Christmas. According to this station, the parade dates back to 1958 when KBJR (then WDSM) started the event as a way to kick off the holiday shopping season in the area.

It has been held every year since except in 1963 when the event was canceled following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In the early 1960s, the station commissioned Merv Griffin to produce a song especially for the parade. The "Christmas City Song" has been used for the parade every year and also has been the closing music for all KBJR 6 and Range 11 newscasts from Thanksgiving until Christmas.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[6]
6.1 1080i 16:9 KBJR-DT Main KBJR-TV programming / NBC
6.2 480i My9 MyNetworkTV

Analog-to-digital conversion

KBJR-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 6, on February 17, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television (which Congress had moved the previous month to June 12).[7] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 19, using PSIP to display KBJR-TV's virtual channel as 6 on digital television receivers.

News operation

KBJR 6 & Range 11 News open at 10.

While operating its own news department, KDLH was the last of the big three stations in Duluth to have a weeknight 5 o'clock broadcast. It aired Judge Judy in the time slot instead. In 2004, it debuted a 5 p.m. show that featured anchor Amy Rutledge and meteorologist Phil Johnson. This was replaced along with its 6 o'clock show with the current one at 5:30 when KDLH merged with KBJR in March 2005. Jeopardy has since reclaimed the 5 o'clock spot on that channel and the CBS Evening News airs at 6. After the KDLH buyout, that station had its news department closed and merged with KBJR. To maintain a separate identity, there were some personalities on this channel that were also seen on KDLH. However, due to KBJR's existing newscasts not all of this station's personnel were seen on that station. More recently, the news teams of both stations have been downsized.

KDLH's Northland's NewsCenter at 5:30 had been anchored by Pat Kelly who was the only news team member remaining after the KDLH sellout. Its weeknight 10 o'clock newscast, which continues to be a separate production, was known as Northland's NewsCenter Express and consisted of a ten-minute news "capsule". The other 25 minutes was a Seinfeld rerun. After thirteen months of mediocre ratings, KDLH changed its 10 o'clock show to the traditional 35 minutes and re-branded it to Northland's NewsCenter Tonight.


Until its shut down in late-December 2008, KBJR offered NBC Weather Plus with local inserts on a third digital subchannel and Charter digital channel 391. When the national service ended, KBJR-DT3 became part of NBC Plus which featured a computer-updated loop of regional satellite/radar images, current weather conditions and temperatures, and daily forecasts. A new fourth digital subchannel was created featuring news and weather updated and the "L-Bar" that is a remnant of the former NBC Weather Plus service. This was known on-air as "Northand's NewsCenter Now."

KBJR, KRII, and KDLH began broadcasting their local newscasts in 16x9 widescreen on May 4, 2009. They were the first television stations in the market to do so. Although not true high definition, the format matches the ratio of HD television screens. As of November, KDLH began to brand its separate weeknight shows as KDLH 3 News which air from a secondary set. On January 11, 2010, KDLH starting airing the area's only weeknight 6:30 newscast.

On March 14, 2013, longtime sports anchor Tom Hansen announced his retirement from the station after 28 years. Hansen came to KBJR in 1989 from WDSM as the weekend weather reporter and became sports director in 1991. He cited family as his main reason for the departure and announced that he had accepted a new job at his alma mater University of Wisconsin Superior. His last report is scheduled for March 29.

Outlying repeaters

In addition to the main signal, KBJR or KRII can be seen on several translators in northern Minnesota. All broadcast in digital.

Call sign Channel City of license Licensee Transmitter location
K18JM-D 18 Northome Koochiching County south of Orth
K23KZ-D 23 Bigfork / Marcell EZ-TV, Inc. south of Bigfork along MN 38
K27LL-D 27 Big Falls Koochiching County east of the city
K34LJ-D 34 Kabetogama Koochiching County between Koochiching County line and U.S. 53 in Saint Louis County
K38MJ-D 38 Max EZ-TV, Inc. southwest of town
K42KV-D 42 Birchdale Koochiching County southwest of Loman
K47NW-D 47 International Falls Koochiching County southeast of city
K51LN-D 51 Red Lake Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians southwest of city along MN 89

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Quincy Buying Stations From Granite, Malara". TVNewsCheck. February 11, 2014. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  2. ↑ "Amendment to Agreements and Description of Transaction (KBJR-TV)" (PDF). CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. November 24, 2014. Retrieved November 25, 2014.
  3. ↑ "Amended Description of Agreements, Description of Transaction, and Request for Temporary Waiver". Quincy Newspapers, Inc. Retrieved 1 August 2015.
  4. ↑ Wilson, Doug (November 2, 2015). "Quincy Newspapers Inc. acquires four TV stations". Quincy Herald-Whig. Retrieved November 3, 2015.
  5. ↑ "FCC 398 Children's Television Programming Report". KidVid Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. November 15, 2005. Retrieved February 26, 2014.
  6. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for KBJR
  7. ↑ List of Digital Full-Power Stations

External links

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