KTMF (channel 23) 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 ea ...
in
Missoula, Montana
Missoula ( ; fla, label= Séliš, Nłʔay, lit=Place of the Small Bull Trout, script=Latn; kut, Tuhuⱡnana, script=Latn) is a city in the U.S. state of Montana; it is the county seat of Missoula County. It is located along the Clark Fork ...
, United States, affiliated with
ABC and
Fox. Owned by the
Cowles Company
The Cowles Company is a diversified media company in Spokane, Washington, in the US. The company owns and operates '' The Spokesman-Review'' in Spokane, founded in 1894, and owned the '' Spokane Daily Chronicle'' until it was shut down in 1992 ...
, the station has studios on Stephens Avenue in Missoula, and its transmitter is located on TV Mountain north of the city.
KTMF-LD (channel 42) in
Kalispell, Montana
Kalispell (, Montana Salish: Ql̓ispé, Kutenai language: kqayaqawakⱡuʔnam) is a city in, and the county seat of, Flathead County, Montana, United States. The 2020 census put Kalispell's population at 24,558. In Montana's northwest region ...
operates as a
semi-satellite
A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tran ...
of KTMF. As such, it
simulcast
Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simul ...
s all network and
syndicated programming as provided through KTMF, but airs separate commercial inserts and
legal identifications. KTMF-LD's transmitter is located on Kookoosint Trail in
Lone Pine State Park
Lone Pine State Park is a public recreation area on the southwest side of Kalispell, Montana, United States. The day-use state park's include of trails for hiking, mountain biking, snowshoeing, and horseback riding.
History
The park's origi ...
southwest of Kalispell.
KTMF's signal is rebroadcast on several other
low-power translator stations
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...
in the
Flathead Lake
Flathead Lake ( fla, člq̓etkʷ, label= Salish, kut, yawuʔnik̓ ʔa·kuq̓nuk) is a large natural lake in northwest Montana.
The lake is a remnant of the ancient, massive glacial dammed lake, Lake Missoula of the era of the last interglacia ...
area of northwestern Montana.
History
On April 12, 1989, 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 jurisdicti ...
(FCC) granted an original
construction permit
Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...
to Continental Television Network (CTN) for a full-service station on channel 23 to serve Missoula. The station soon took the call letters KLFV, but before the station went on air, had changed call signs again, this time to KTMF. The station went on the air on November 16, 1990.
This made Missoula one of the last cities in the nation to get full service from all
three major networks. Previously, ABC had been relegated to limited clearances on
KECI-TV
NBC Montana is a regional network of three television stations in western Montana, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group. Cities served include Missoula, Kalispell, Butte, and Bozeman. Most station oper ...
(channel 13) and
KPAX-TV
KPAX-TV (channel 8) is a television station in Missoula, Montana, United States, affiliated with CBS and The CW Plus. Owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, it is part of the Montana Television Network, a statewide network of CBS-affiliated stati ...
(channel 8), or via cable from
KXLY-TV
KXLY-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Spokane, Washington, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Morgan Murphy Media. Its studios are located on West Boone Avenue in Spokane, and its transmitter is located on Mount Spokane. ...
in
Spokane
Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Ca ...
. KECI had dropped ABC programming in 1989 to become a full-time NBC affiliate.
The studios on Stephens Avenue once housed Carousel, a former bar. Fox programming was added to KTMF's lineup in 1994.
In February 2001, CTN sold KTMF, along with the then-KTMF-LP in Kalispell,
KWYB
KWYB (channel 18) is a television station in Butte, Montana, United States, affiliated with ABC and Fox. Owned by the Cowles Company, the station has studios on Dewey Boulevard in Butte, and its transmitter is located on XL Heights east of the ...
in
Butte
__NOTOC__
In geomorphology, a butte () is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from a French word me ...
,
KWYB-LP in
Bozeman and
KTGF in
Great Falls, to
Max Media of Montana. They were the first television station acquisitions in Montana for Max Media.
On July 13, 2009, KTMF's second subchannel was launched to carry
Fox, after
Equity's
KMMF
KMMF, Ultra high frequency, UHF analog television, analog channel 17, was a Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox-network affiliate, affiliated television station city of license, licensed to Missoula, Montana, United States. Founded on April 25, 2000, t ...
(channel 17) and Kalispell repeater KMMF-LP (channel 34) were taken silent on the June 12, 2009, digital switchover date due to Equity's bankruptcy and KMMF having no digital facilities to transition to. Fox's secondary network
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV (unofficially abbreviated MyTV, MyNet, MNT or MNTV, and sometimes referred to as My Network) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its ...
is seen in a
delayed manner on the subchannel from 10:05 p.m. to 12:05 a.m., and is carried unpromoted in any way outside of network promotions.
On September 30, 2013, the
Cowles Company
The Cowles Company is a diversified media company in Spokane, Washington, in the US. The company owns and operates '' The Spokesman-Review'' in Spokane, founded in 1894, and owned the '' Spokane Daily Chronicle'' until it was shut down in 1992 ...
acquired Max Media's Montana television station cluster (which, in addition to KTMF and KWYB, also included
KFBB-TV
KFBB-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Great Falls, Montana, United States, affiliated with ABC, Fox and MyNetworkTV. Owned by the Cowles Company, the station maintains studios and transmitter facilities on Old Havre Highway in Black ...
in Great Falls,
KHBB-LD in
Helena, and
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
affiliate
KULR-TV
KULR-TV (channel 8) is a television station in Billings, Montana, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by the Cowles Company. The station's studios are located on Overland Avenue in the Homestead Business Park section of Billings, and it ...
in
Billings
Billings is the largest city in the U.S. state of Montana, with a population of 117,116 as of the 2020 census. Located in the south-central portion of the state, it is the seat of Yellowstone County and the principal city of the Billings Met ...
) for $18 million. The sale was completed on November 29.
KTMF-LD history
On January 6, 1992, the FCC granted an original construction permit to CTN for a low-power station on channel 59 to serve Kalispell. The station was given call sign K59EQ, and after an expired construction permit and a couple of extensions of the new permit, K59EQ was licensed on July 11, 1995. The station changed its call sign to KTMF-LP later in the same year.
In February 2001, CTN sold the station to Max Media of Montana as part of the same transaction as KTMF. KTMF-LP was granted a permit to move to channel 42 in October 2003 and as of August 2006, the station had completed the move, but had not applied for a license to operate on the new channel.
On May 27, 2010, KTMF-LP was granted a construction permit to flash-cut from analog to digital on channel 42. On January 4, 2013, the station changed its call sign to KTMF-LD.
KTMF-LD was included in Cowles' 2013 purchase of Max Media's Montana stations. The station was licensed to move its digital broadcast to channel 36 effective December 26, 2018.
News operation
KTMF's first local news service came under Max Media ownership in September 2002, when Max contracted
Independent News Network
News HUB (formerly known as Independent News Network) is a production company based in Little Rock, Arkansas, which syndicates "localized" news programs for broadcast television stations in the United States, that have budgets limiting their ...
of
Davenport, Iowa, to produce a regional newscast for KWYB, KTMF, and KTGF, all third-to-air stations in their markets with no local news at the time. Six reporters, one each in the five areas serviced by the Max Montana stations and another in Helena, contributed reports to ''Big Sky News'' at 5 and 10 p.m., which was presented from Iowa.
The early newscast was dropped at the start of 2004.
In 2005, Max Media acquired KFBB-TV in Great Falls, selling KTGF. Unlike KTGF, KFBB-TV produced its own local news. At that time, Big Sky News was replaced with a 10 p.m. newscast branded ''Montana News Network'', produced from Great Falls and servicing all of the company's Montana stations except KULR-TV in Billings.
This newscast was subsequently discontinued, and for several years the only local newscast on the station was a ten-minute late newscast, ''10@10''.
KTMF started its own news operation in August 2012 in preparation for the launch of a 9 p.m. newscast on its Fox subchannel a month later.
Technical information
Subchannels
The stations' digital signals are
multiplexed
In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...
:
On September 26, 2001, the FCC granted a construction permit to build KTMF-DT on
UHF channel 36. The station received Special Temporary Authority (STA) on April 22, 2001 to broadcast at reduced power. KTMF elected to move its digital signal to channel 23 following the completion of the digital television transition, switching over on the original target date of February 17, 2009.
Translators
References
External links
Official website*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ktmf
ABC network affiliates
Fox network affiliates
MyNetworkTV affiliates
Cowles Company
Television channels and stations established in 1990
TMF
1990 establishments in Montana