KTVB: История телевидения Бойсе, Айдахо

TV station in Boise, Idaho

KTVB (channel 7) is a television station in Boise, Idaho, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. The station's studios are located on West Fairview Avenue (off I 184) in Boise, and its transmitter is located on Deer Point in unincorporated Boise County. It is rebroadcast by KTFT LD (channel 7) in Twin Falls, which airs KTVB programming with local advertising for the Magic Valley area from its transmitter on Flat Top Butte near Jerome, Idaho, and maintains a local sales office in Twin Falls. Channel 7 was the second television station to be built in Idaho, debuting on July 12, 1953, as KIDO TV. Though KFXD TV (channel 6) in Nampa beat KIDO TV to the air by a month, KIDO TV was by far the more organized operation with network and local programming, neither of which KFXD TV featured in its brief two month tenure on air. It was owned by Georgia Davidson alongside Boise radio station KIDO and a primary affiliate of NBC, though it also held affiliations with other networks in its early history. KIDO radio was separated from the TV station in 1958, and channel 7 changed its call sign to KTVB the next year. Davidson was for years the only female owner at NBC TV affiliate meetings. By the 1970s, KTVB had emerged as the news ratings leader in Boise, a position it has not yielded since. King Broadcasting acquired KTVB in 1979. The station continued to lead local news ratings in the market with long tenured personalities. In 1986, KTVB established K38AS (now KTFT LD), the first low power NBC affiliate. KTVB has been sold in larger transactions three times since 1990: to the Providence Journal Company, Belo Corporation, and Gannett, whose broadcast division split off as Tegna in 2015.

Boise radio station KIDO, owned by Georgia Davidson, filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in March 1952 seeking to build a television station on the city's allotted channel 7. The application arrived in anticipation of the end of the FCC's multi year freeze on TV station applications. The construction permit was granted on December 23, KIDO already had some equipment on hand; the month before, it conducted a closed circuit demonstration of television at its AM transmitter site. On an elevation behind the city, construction began in February on the transmitter site. The station signed for affiliation with the CBS, NBC, and DuMont networks; KIDO radio had maintained NBC affiliation since 1937. From studios on 700 Crestline Drive, KIDO TV began broadcasting on July 12, 1953; Philo Farnsworth, a television pioneer, was one of the guests of honor at the dedication. It was not the first television station to make its bow in Idaho, but under the circumstances, it was effectively the first serious station to set up. On June 18, KFXD TV (channel 6) in Nampa put out its first test pattern. Reliant exclusively on old movies with no studio facilities, it lasted less than two months before leaving the air. The lone missing national network, ABC, affiliated with KIDO TV in December. This replaced CBS, which had moved to new station KBOI TV (channel 2) the previous month. National live programming became a reality beginning with the 1955 World Series after a microwave transmission link between Boise and Salt Lake City was set up by the two stations. KIDO TV's tower was relocated to Deer Point in 1956, which together with an increased effective radiated power extended the station's coverage to a further 80,000 people. Davidson agreed to sell KIDO radio to the Mesabi Western Corp. in November 1958; the radio station retained its call sign, and channel 7 became KTVB on February 1, 1959. The sale alleviated cash issues for the television station, which struggled financially in its early years and particularly after Boise became a two station market; in a 1978 interview, Davidson noted that she "lived with the spectre of bankruptcy, a very embarrassing bankruptcy, day or night".

KTVB received a construction permit on December 18, 1963, to expand its reach with the construction of a satellite station channel 13 in La Grande, Oregon, northwest of Boise. KTVR began broadcasting on December 6, 1964. It initially offered local news and information for Eastern Oregon from studios in La Grande. In 1974, KTVB received an offer from the Oregon Educational and Public Broadcasting Service (OEPBS) to acquire KTVR for integration into its statewide public television network and serve large areas of Eastern Oregon. KTVB took KTVR out of service on March 7, 1975, while the deal was pending; it did not return to the air under OEPBS ownership until February 1977. It was the second time KTVB had provided facilities to public television; in Boise, KTVB aired Sesame Street when the show debuted in 1969, as Idaho did not have a public station at the time, and it provided its transmitter site and engineering resources to launch KAID TV (channel 4) in 1971.

Ground was broken for new studios at 5400 Fairview Avenue in 1970, and the facility formally opened the next year. The facility boasted the largest TV studio in Idaho. In 1974, KTVB lost ABC programming to a new station—KITC TV, soon renamed KIVI TV, on channel 6. Davidson—long the only female owner within the NBC television network among 125 men at annual meetings—announced the sale of KTVB to King Broadcasting in 1979. The sale was conceived by Davidson to ensure the continued existence of the station, as she feared a large estate tax burden for her family were she to die, diminishing KTVB's profits and ability to invest. King Broadcasting took over in April 1980, retaining senior management; it ceased carrying paid religious programming on Sunday mornings to conform with its new owners' policies.

King Broadcasting Company put itself up for sale in 1990, citing the age of its majority owners, Patsy Bullitt Collins and Harriet Stimson Bullitt, the daughters of the late Dorothy Bullitt. It accepted an offer from the Providence Journal Company in 1991; the transaction closed in 1992. Under Providence Journal, KTVB became a contributor to the new Northwest Cable News (NWCN) regional service when it launched in 1995, with one reporter dedicated to NWCN based in Boise. The Belo Corporation purchased Providence Journal in 1996. At the end of October 2003, KTVB launched 24/7 NewsChannel on its second digital subchannel and local cable, one of the first digital secondary subchannels in the nation. The subchannel's programming initially consisted of time shifted newscasts and feature programs, though plans called for original news programs and other local programming. By 2011, the station had rebranded its 24/7 NewsChannel as "Idaho's Very Own 24/7", and it aired a dedicated 6:30 p. m. newscast and 7 a. m. morning news extension. The subchannel more recently has served as an outlet for local sports coverage, including for the 2023 24 season a package of Boise State Broncos men's basketball games and Idaho Steelheads minor league hockey. On June 13, 2013, the Gannett Company announced that it would acquire Belo. The sale was completed on December 23. Gannett's TV stations and newspapers split into separate companies in 2015, the former being named Tegna.

Plans to extend channel 7 to Twin Falls had existed almost as long as the station. In 1955, then KIDO TV partnered with Twin Falls radio station KTFI to obtain a construction permit for channel 13 in that city, awarded as KHTV. The station grant was reinstated despite protests by KLIX TV (channel 11, now KMVT) that it would put the local outlet out of business; it was sold and dropped the proposal. Renewed interest in bringing KTVB over the air to Twin Falls began in 1981, when King Broadcasting filed for a construction permit for a low power TV station. This was later abandoned in favor of a channel 38 permit acquired from American Community Broadcasting, Inc., which already had another channel. The station debuted on July 1, 1986, as K38AS, the first low power station to be an NBC affiliate; KMVT ceased offering NBC programs leading up to its launch. Its programming consisted of KTVB with Twin Falls area commercials, sold from an advertising office in town. In December 1994, the station took a four letter call sign of KTFT LP (for "Twin Falls Television").

News coverage from channel 7 started with its first day on air. Vern Moore, a KIDO announcer, was the first voice heard on the new KIDO TV and the first TV news anchor in Idaho. However, the station was initially not very competitive against KBOI TV. When Robert Krueger—Georgia Davidson's son in law, who would serve in management for 40 years—started at then KIDO TV in 1956, he'd joke that "we ranked fifth in a two station town". Under Krueger, the station cemented itself as the news ratings leader in Boise, with such public affairs programming as Viewpoint. As early as 1978, it was the "undisputed ratings king" in the market, well ahead of KBCI and KIVI. KTVB was the first Boise station to present an hour of local early evening news when it debuted the 5 p. m. newscast Idaho at Five in 1984, first with weekend morning news in 1992, The dominance in news ratings has continued; for instance, in November 2010, each of KTVB's local newscasts had more viewers than their competition combined. During this time, the station became known for long tenured and popular local news personalities. Dee Sarton spent nearly 42 years with KTVB, most of that time anchoring Idaho at Five and other early evening newscasts; one of her co anchors, Carolyn Holly, worked at channel 7 for nearly 34 years. Anchor Mark Johnson spent 30 years with the station, retiring in 2021. Larry Gebert was the station's meteorologist for 30 years until his death in 2022. KTVB added a 4 p. m. news hour in 2013. In 2020, the station debuted a local lifestyle program, the midday Idaho Today, and reformatted its weeknight 5 p. m. news as the interactive The 208. As of 2024, the station aired 30 hours a week of news and public affairs programming.

KTVB began broadcasting a digital signal on UHF channel 26 on November 1, 2002. KTVB shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 7, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from channel 26 to channel 7 for post transition operations. To solve issues some viewers had receiving the station, KTVB was authorized to increase its effective radiated power weeks after the switch.

+ City of license Callsign Translating Channel ERP HAAT Facility ID Transmitter coordinates Owner Cambridge KTVB 17 0.51 kW 188131 King Broadcasting Company Cascade 29 0.49 kW 34884 Council 23 0.46 kW 11446 Garden Valley 34 0.0099 kW 23143 Garden Valley Translator District Glenns Ferry 16 0.43 kW 188132 King Broadcasting Company Hagerman KTFT LD 18 0.252 kW 188132 Hagerman Translator District McCallNew Meadows KTVB 15 0.47 kW 34869 King Broadcasting Company Terrace Lakes 10 0.047 kW 23148 Garden Valley Translator District Golconda, NV 35 0.19 kW 28088 Humboldt County McDermitt, NV 14 0.15 kW 54292 Quinn River TV Maintenance District Winnemucca, NV 19 0.11 kW 28093 Humboldt County Baker City, OR 18 1 kW 127789 Blue Mountain Translator District Baker Valley, OR 30 5944 La Grande, OR 21 0.4 kW 5953