KTGF
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| KTGF | |
|---|---|
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| Great Falls, Montana | |
| Channels | |
| Affiliations | independent |
| Owner | Destiny Communications, LLC (Destiny Licenses, LLC) |
| First air date | September 21, 1986 |
| Call letters’ meaning | Television Great Falls |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 16 (1986-2009) |
| Former affiliations | NBC (1986-2005) Fox (2005-2007) |
| Transmitter Power | 175 kW (digital) |
| Height | 289 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 13792 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | 47°36′24.7″N 111°21′33.2″W / 47.606861°N 111.359222°W |
| Website | www.ktgf.com |
KTGF, digital channel 45, is an independent television station in Great Falls, Montana. The station is currently owned by Destiny Communications.
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[edit] History
KTGF started broadcasting on September 21, 1986 under the ownership of Continental Television. The station immediately became the city's first full time affiliate of the NBC television network. From its inception, the station was far behind KRTV and KFBB-TV in the ratings. In March 2001, Continental Television sold KTGF (along with KTMF in Missoula and KWYB in Butte) to Max Media.
In 2003, Max Media signed an agreement to purchase KFBB, as well as KULR-TV in Billings, from Dix Communications. Since the Great Falls television market is not large enough to own two television stations, Max immediately put KTGF up for sale. For more than a year, Max Media could not find a buyer for the station. Finally, Max Media sold KTGF in November 2004 to Destiny Communications of Wichita, Kansas.
In April 2005, Beartooth Communications, the owner of KTVH (the NBC affiliate in Helena), purchased a low power television permit in Great Falls for channel 50. It became obvious that Beartooth was positioning itself to take the NBC affiliation away from KTGF when the NBC affiliation agreement expired at the end of June. Destiny Communications filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission to prevent NBC from removing the affiliation and giving it to Beartooth's station, now known as KBGF-LP. As the end of June approached, confusion reigned. Both parties claimed they would be the NBC affiliate on July 1 in Great Falls. On June 29, Destiny announced that it would affiliate with the Fox network beginning July 1. This created another confusing situation because another television station in Great Falls, KLMN, was already the Fox affiliate (although the local cable system did not carry the station). On July 1, 2005, NBC moved from KTGF to KBGF, and both KTGF and KLMN became Fox affiliates. Eventually, KLMN dropped Fox programming for UPN, and in September 2006 became an affiliate of MyNetworkTV.
In May 2007, Destiny signed a Joint Sales Agreement (JSA) with KLMN's parent company, Equity Media Holdings ([1]). As a result, Fox programming moved back to KLMN, and KTGF became an independent station. After being offline for several weeks, KTGF unveiled an updated website with a revised logo.
[edit] Newscasts
In KTGF's early years, the station produced a local newscast. However, due to weak ratings, the station ended its local news department in the mid 1990s.
Max Media brought "local" news back to KTGF in 2002 with Big Sky News. Max Media contracted with the Independent News Network to produce local news on Max Media's stations in Montana. The program actually originated in Davenport, Iowa. After a year, Big Sky News was cancelled.
KTGF currently broadcasts short news updates and a 10:00 newscast called News Watch, anchored by Karen Wolf.
[edit] Repeaters
- Big Sandy — K07IP
- Loring — K65AH
- Sweetgrass — K65DK
- Toole — K42DD
- Turner — K64BQ
[edit] Television tower
The KTGF television tower is a 244 meter high guyed TV mast at Great Falls, Montana, USA ( 47°36′24.7″N 111°21′33.2″W / 47.606861°N 111.359222°W ). KTGF's tower was built in 1986 and is the tallest structure of Montana.
[edit] External links
- Official site
- KTGF Television Tower in the Structurae database
- Listing 1051225 in the FCC Antenna Structure Registration database
- Query the FCC's TV station database for KTGF
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KTGF-TV
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