KSNK (channel 8) is a
television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...
licensed to
McCook, Nebraska
McCook is a city in and the county seat of Red Willow County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 7,446 at the 2020 census.
History
McCook was platted in 1882 when the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad was extended to that point. I ...
, United States, affiliated with
NBC and
Telemundo
Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language Terrestrial television, terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Television and Streaming#NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a divi ...
. Owned by
Nexstar Media Group
Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarter offices in Irving, Texas; Midtown Manhattan; and Chicago, Illinois. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 te ...
, the station maintains an advertising sales office on
US 36
U.S. Route 36 (US 36) is an east–west United States highway that travels approximately from Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado to Uhrichsville, Ohio. The highway's western terminus is at Deer Ridge Junction, an intersection in ...
in northwestern
Oberlin, Kansas
Oberlin is a city in and the county seat of Decatur County, Kansas, Decatur County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 1,644.
History
Oberlin was platted in 1878. It was named after Oberl ...
, and its transmitter is located along U.S. 36 in rural northwestern
Decatur County Decatur County is the name of various past and present counties in the United States, all named for Stephen Decatur:
*Decatur County, Georgia
*Decatur County, Indiana
*Decatur County, Iowa
*Decatur County, Kansas
*Decatur County, Tennessee
*Decatur ...
.
KSNK is part of the Kansas State Network (KSN), a regional network of five stations relaying programming from
Wichita NBC affiliate
KSNW (channel 3) across central and western
Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...
, as well as bordering counties in
Nebraska
Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...
and
Oklahoma
Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...
; KSNK incorporates local advertising and news inserts aimed at areas of northwest Kansas and bordering counties in southwestern Nebraska within the Wichita–
Hutchinson Plus
television market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television and radio station offerings, and may also incl ...
. It is the only KSNW satellite to be licensed outside Kansas and also outside the Wichita market, although it covers the general Oberlin/
Colby/
Goodland area as well.
Although the station's city of license is in
Red Willow County, Nebraska
Red Willow County is a county located in the U.S. state of Nebraska. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 10,702. Its county seat is McCook.
In the Nebraska license plate system, Red Willow County is represented by the prefi ...
, which is in the
Lincoln–
Hastings
Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England,
east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...
–
Kearney market, its studio and transmitter are in Decatur County, Kansas, in the Wichita–Hutchinson market.
History
The station first signed on the air on November 28, 1959, as KOMC-TV (for Oberlin-McCook), a satellite of Great Bend's KCKT-TV, under the ownership of Central Kansas Television. KCKT, KOMC and KGLD-TV in Garden City formed the "Tri-Circle Network," the NBC affiliate for central and western Kansas. In 1962, after the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
(FCC) collapsed central and western Kansas into the Wichita market, Central Kansas Television purchased Wichita's KARD-TV and merged it with KOMC, KCKT and KGLD. The Tri-Circle Network changed its name to the "Kansas State Network" a few years later, with KARD serving as the flagship of the new four-station regional network.
The station changed its call letters to KSNK on August 16, 1982, as part of an effort to help viewers think of the four stations as part of one large network. Around this time, the station's city of license was relocated across the Kansas–Nebraska border from Oberlin to McCook, though the studios remained in Oberlin. In 1988, the KSN stations were acquired by
SJL Broadcast Management. The stations were then sold to
Lee Enterprises
Lee Enterprises, Inc. is a publicly traded American media company. It publishes 77 daily newspapers in 26 states, and more than 350 weekly, classified, and specialty publications. Lee Enterprises was founded in 1890 by Alfred Wilson Lee and is b ...
in 1995.
Emmis Communications bought most of Lee Enterprises' television properties in 2000. Montecito Broadcast Group, a newly formed partnership between SJL and the
private equity firm Blackstone Group, acquired the KSN stations from Emmis on January 27, 2006.
On July 24, 2007, Montecito announced the sale of its five stations (KSNW,
KHON-TV
KHON-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States, serving the Hawaiian Islands as an affiliate of Fox and The CW. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate KHII-TV (channel 9). Both stati ...
in
Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
,
KOIN in
Portland, Oregon
Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...
, and
KSNT in
Topeka, as well as
satellites
A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotop ...
of KSNW and KHON) to
New Vision Television
New Vision Television was a broadcast company based in Santa Monica, California. Throughout its two decade plus history, the company owned or managed over 60 television stations in large and medium-sized markets.
History
New Vision I
Formed by ...
; the sale was finalized on November 1, 2007. On May 7, 2012, the
LIN TV Corporation announced that it would acquire the New Vision Television station group, including KSNW and its four satellite stations, for $330.4 million and the assumption of $12 million in debt; the sale – which was approved by the FCC on October 2 and was completed 1½ weeks later on October 12 – marked a re-entry into Kansas for LIN, which briefly owned the license of KLBY (channel 4), a satellite of Wichita
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
affiliate
KAKE-TV
KAKE (channel 10) is a television station in Wichita, Kansas, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC and owned by Lockwood Broadcast Group. The station's studios are located on West Street in northwestern Wichita, and ...
(channel 10), in 2000, before selling them to
Benedek Broadcasting
Benedek Broadcasting was a television broadcasting company, who owned and operated 22 network-affiliated television stations throughout the United States, all affiliated with major television networks, serving mainly small and medium-size markets. ...
shortly after the purchase was finalized.
On March 21, 2014,
Media General announced that it would purchase LIN Media and its stations, including KSNW, in a $1.6 billion merger – giving the station its sixth owner since 2000. Like the earlier acquisition of KSNW by LIN, this deal marked Media General's re-entry to the market, as it previously owned
KBSL-TV (channel 10), a satellite of
KWCH-TV
KWCH-DT (channel 12) is a television station licensed to Hutchinson, Kansas, United States, serving the Wichita area as an affiliate of CBS. It is owned by Gray Television alongside CW affiliate KSCW-DT (channel 33), and maintains studios on 3 ...
(channel 12), from 2000 to 2006.
The merger was completed on December 19. On September 28, 2015,
Nexstar Broadcasting Group
Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarter offices in Irving, Texas; Midtown Manhattan; and Chicago, Illinois. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 te ...
announced it had offered to purchase Media General and its stations, including KSNW and its satellites. On January 27, 2016, Nexstar announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire Media General. The acquisition of KSNK and its other satellites by Nexstar reunited the stations with former satellite
KSNF, whose ownership was split from the rest of the Kansas State Network in 1986. The deal was approved by the FCC on January 11, 2017, and it was completed on January 17, marking Nexstar's first entry into the Wichita market.
Newscasts
Although KSNK originated its own newscasts for many years, the station's local operations were progressively cut back from the mid-1980s onward. By the start of the 21st century, local news had been reduced to inserts in KSNW's newscasts, and separate identifications had been largely eliminated.
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's digital signal is
multiplexed:
Analog-to-digital conversion
KSNK shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 8, on November 26, 2008. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 12.
[CDBS Print](_blank)
/ref> Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel
In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver's ...
as its former VHF analog channel 8.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ksnk
Television stations in Nebraska
NBC network affiliates
Telemundo network affiliates
Ion Television affiliates
True Crime Network affiliates
Television channels and stations established in 1959
Nexstar Media Group
1959 establishments in Nebraska