KHGI-TV

KHGI-TV / KWNB-TV

KHGI: Kearney/Hastings/Grand Island, Nebraska KWNB: Hayes Center, Nebraska
Branding	NTV
Slogan	Where Your News Comes First
Channels	Digital: KHGI: 13 (VHF) KWNB: 6 (VHF)
Subchannels	13.1/6.1 ABC 13.2/6.2 Fox (KFXL)
Affiliations	ABC (since 1961)
Owner	Pappas Telecasting Companies (Pappas Telecasting of Central Nebraska, LP (A Delaware Limited Partnership))
First air date	KHGI: December 24, 1953 KWNB: February 9, 1956
Call letters' meaning	KHGI: Kearney Hastings Grand Island KWNB: Western NeBraska
Former callsigns	KHGI: KHOL-TV (1953–1974) KWNB: KHPL-TV (1956–1974) KHGI-CD: K13VO (1989–2005) WSWS-CA (2005–2009) KHGI-CA (2009–2010) KHGI-LD (2010–2011)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: KHGI: 13 (VHF, 1953–2009) KWNB: 6 (VHF, 1956–2009)
Former affiliations	CBS (1953-1961) DuMont (1953-1955/6)
Transmitter power	KHGI: 8 kW KWNB: 11.9 kW
Height	KHGI: 340 m KWNB: 221 m
Facility ID	KHGI: 21160 KWNB: 21162
Transmitter coordinates	KHGI: 40°39′28″N 98°52′4″W KWNB: 40°37′32″N 101°1′45″W
Website	www.nebraska.tv

KHGI-TV, channel 13, is the ABC-affiliated television station for most of central and western Nebraska with parts of northeastern Colorado, southeastern Wyoming and the northern third of Kansas. The station is licensed to the town of Kearney.

KHGI is owned and operated by Pappas Telecasting Companies. Its programming is also aired on KWNB-TV channel 6 in Hayes Center, which repeats the KHGI signal except for separate commercials. The two stations are known as the Nebraska Television Network (NTV), and operate out of studios in Axtell, just outside Kearney.

Under the Pappas ownership, they are also sister stations of Fox network affiliate KFXL-TV in Lincoln, which Pappas operates under a local marketing agreement.

The station is officially part of the Lincoln/Hastings/Kearney market, but this market has no basis in television reality and is only truly realized on the local satellite feeds. The market only shares two television stations, CBS affiliate KOLN in Lincoln (which operates a satellite, KGIN, in Grand Island) and Fox affiliate KFXL. NTV serves as the ABC affiliate for the western half of the market, while Lincoln and the eastern half of the market are served by a separate ABC affiliate, KLKN. A third ABC affiliate, KETV in Omaha, also has significant viewership in the eastern portion of the market, and all of the Omaha stations are available in Lincoln either over-the-air or on cable. Grand Island, Hastings and Kearney receive NBC from KHAS-TV in Hastings, while Lincoln receives it over-the-air and via cable from WOWT-TV in Omaha (which is owned by KOLN/KGIN's owner, Gray Television). Despite KFXL-TV broadcasting from Lincoln, Omaha's KPTM has long been considered Lincoln's primary Fox affiliate. The market has had no over-the-air CW affiliate since KFXL became a Fox affiliate in 2009. The eastern part of the market, including Lincoln, receives CW programming from Omaha's KXVO. The rest of the market can receive it from out-of-market CW affiliates on satellite packages. Also, until 2009, Pappas operated a cable-only CW affiliate with the fictitious call letters 'KWBL' in the western part of the market; this has since been replaced with the national CW100+ feed.

Recently, KHGI has made moves toward gaining cable coverage on the Lincoln side of the market though has not yet gained a spot on the local Time Warner Cable system in Lincoln. Both KHGI and KLKN are carried on the local DirecTV and Dish Network feeds.

Digital programming

KHGI-TV	KWNB	Name	Video	Aspect	Programming
13.1	6.1	KHGI-TV KWNB	720p	16:9	Main KHGI/KWNB programming / ABC
13.2	6.2	KFXL-TV			HD simulcast of KFXL-TV

History

KHGI signed on December 24, 1953 as KHOL-TV, a CBS and DuMont affiliate based in Holdrege. DuMont would end network operations in 1956, and KHOL-TV briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network.

A little more than two years after its sign-on, KHOL added a satellite in Hayes Center, KHPL-TV on February 9, 1956. After KGIN signed on from Grand Island as a satellite of Lincoln's KOLN in 1961, KHOL and KHPL became full ABC affiliates. In 1964, another satellite joined the network, KHQL-TV in Albion. KHTL-TV in Superior followed in 1965.

The station featured local programming, including The Bobby Mills Show on Saturday evenings from 9:30 until 10 p.m. The Bobby Mills Orchestra was the "house band" and hosted guest artists, though the bulk of the show was dedicated to the band and its soloists, similar to Lawrence Welk, who was on a syndicated network. Bobby's sons, Bobby Mills Jr. and Ron, were featured extensively on the program. Taping of the show was done once a month on a Friday night, after the station had signed off at Midnight. An average of 5 shows were done per taping, which typically ended at 4 a.m. The show ran during the late 1960s into the early 1970s.

On June 3, 1974, the call letters of all the stations were changed: KHOL became KHGI-TV, KHPL became KWNB-TV, KHQL became KCNA-TV and KHTL became KSNB-TV. The on-air name changed from "NTN" to "NTV" in the early 1980s. KCNA was spun off from NTV on November 1, 1983 and became an independent station under the call letters KBGT-TV; it was sold in 1986 to Citadel Communications and became a satellite of Sioux City, Iowa station KCAU-TV. Citadel later moved the station to Lincoln, Nebraska as a stand-alone station, KLKN. KSNB became a Fox network affiliate in September 1996 as a satellite of Grand Island's KTVG.

KHGI-CD in North Platte, Nebraska signed on in 1989 as translator station K13VO, becoming WSWS-CA on July 4, 2005 and KHGI-CA on June 12, 2009. The WSWS-CA call sign was unique, as it made it a station with a "W" call sign prefix was west of the Mississippi River. This was allowed due to the fact that "WSWS" was the former callsign of current Pappas station WLGA, and the calls were grandfathered to the former K13VO. In 2010, KHGI-CA switched to digital and became KHGI-LD. KHGI-LD is not a true repeater of KHGI-TV in that its digital television broadcast is identified as "KHGI-LD Digital Television" on compatible television receivers and appears as channel 27.1 rather than 13.1. KHGI-LD also does not rebroadcast KFXL on a digital subchannel as North Platte already receives Fox on K11TW. ABC programming on KHGI-LD is carried in high definition. When the analog KHGI-CA license was surrendered on September 1, 2011, KHGI-LD became KHGI-CD, inheriting the analog station's class A status.

News operation

In May 2006, NTV became one of the first television stations in the country to generate a community based news site. Community Correspondent allows registered users to post stories, photos, and videos to the site. Many of the postings are used on air in different stories.

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

• NTV News (1980s–present)

Station slogans

• Central Nebraska's News Leader (early 1990s–2004)
• Where Your News Comes First (2004–present)

This film, television or video-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it with reliably sourced additions.

Logos

• 

  NTV News in the 1980s.

• 

  NTV for ABC's "America's Watching" campaign in 1991.

• 

  NTV website header

News team

Anchors/reporters

• Annie Andrews - weekends at 5:30 and 10 p.m.; also weeknight reporter
• Marylyn Barnett - weekday mornings Good Morning Nebraska
• Seth Denney - weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
• Andrea Hay - weekends at 5:30 and 10 p.m.; also weeknight reporter
• Colleen Williams - weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
• Steve White - Grand Island bureau chief

First Alert Weather

• Kent Boughton - chief weather anchor; weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
• Tim Reith (AMS Seal of Approval) - weekday mornings Good Morning Nebraska
• Sean McMullen - weather anchor; weekends at 5:30 and 10 p.m., also weeknight reporter
• Mark Reid - weather anchor; fill-in

Sports team

• Dave Griek - sports director; weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.
• Spencer Schubert - sports anchor; weekends at 5:30 and 10 p.m., also sports reporter

Good Life

• Roni Lewis - co-host of Good Life
• Zach Richie - Good Life correspondent
• Carol Staab - co-host of Good Life

Former on-air staff

• Josh Fosbrink - meteorologist (now at WBOY in Clarksburg, WV)
• Marg Helgenberger - weather anchor (1980–1981; now an actress, known for playing Catherine Willows on CSI)
• Andy Hirsch - reporter (now at WBNS-TV in Columbus, OH)
• Rob McCartney - reporter (now at KETV in Omaha)
• John Mason - anchor (now at KSTP in Minneapolis)
• Tracy Madden - anchor (now at WOWT in Omaha)
• Doug Ohlemeier, Reporter 1985-86
• Matt Schick - sports anchor (now at KETV in Omaha)
• Sean Bilodeau - sports director

Translators

KHGI/NTV repeats its programming on five translators. Three of them (in bold) are owned by Pappas, one is government-owned and another is owned by a local Jaycees chapter.

• McCook: KWNB-LD, digital channel 29 (HD; NTV and KFXL)
• North Platte: KHGI-CD, digital channel 27 (HD; does not rebroadcast KFXL)
• O'Neill: KHGI-LD, channel 27 (digital standard definition; NTV and KFXL)
• Broken Bow: K06EY, channel 6 (owned by the Broken Bow Jaycees)
• Stapleton: K11KW, channel 11 (defunct; was owned by municipal government)

Except for KHGI-CD and KHGI-LD, all translators directly repeat KWNB.

NTV was previously seen in McCook on KBVZ-LP channel 42; this was shut down in favor of KWNB-LD on March 19, 2010.

External links

• Official website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KHGI
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KWNB
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KHGI-CD
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KWNB-LD
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KHGI-LD
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KHGI-TV
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KWNB-TV