KUMV-TV


KUMV-TV, virtual and VHF digital channel 8, is a dual NBC/Fox-affiliated television station licensed to Williston, North Dakota, United States. The station is owned by Gray Television. KUMV-TV's news studio and advertising sales office are located at the intersection of Main Street and 6th Street East in Williston, and its transmitter is located west of the city near the North Dakota–Montana border. On cable, the station is available on Midcontinent Communications channel 5 in Williston, and channel 8 in most other areas. There is a high definition feed provided on Midco digital channel 605.
KUMV is part of the four-station NBC North Dakota regional network of NBC affiliates in central and western North Dakota, originating from flagship station KFYR-TV in Bismarck. The NBC North Dakota network relays NBC network and other programming from KFYR across central and western North Dakota, as well as bordering counties in Montana and South Dakota. The four stations along with fellow NBC affiliate KVLY-TV in Fargo often share news stories. Master control and some internal operations of KUMV are based at KFYR's facilities on North 4th Street and East Broadway Avenue in downtown Bismarck. The four stations are counted as a single unit for ratings purposes.
KUMV operates as a semi-satellite of KMOT in Minot. KMOT is itself a semi-satellite of KFYR-TV in Bismarck, which also has semi-satellite KQCD-TV in Dickinson. KUMV identifies itself as a station in its own right, but clears all network and syndicated programming as provided through KMOT. However, KUMV airs local news inserts into KMOT's weeknight newscasts, as well as separate commercial inserts and legal identifications. The Montana viewing portion of KUMV's coverage area is within the Mountain Time Zone, and the station's prime time schedule starts at 6 p.m. rather than the usual 7 p.m. for the time zone.
The over-the-air signal of KUMV reaches portions of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, but is no longer available on any cable systems there. KUMV is also carried in the Glendive, Montana market through cable television; and until 2013, it operated a translator, K13PL in that city. CBS affiliate KXGN-TV in Glendive also has a digital subchannel carrying NBC programming, but it is not associated with KUMV and airs separate programming that includes newscasts from Billings NBC affiliate KULR-TV.
KUMV's Fox-affiliated second digital subchannel can be seen on Midco cable channel 3 in Williston. There is a high definition feed provided on Midco digital channel 603. The cable channels previously carried KXND until their programming moved to the NBC North Dakota network's subchannels.

History

KUMV signed on February 6, 1957. The Upper Missouri Valley Television Corporation won the initial license in 1955, but soon afterward the Federal Communications Commission collapsed all of central and western North Dakota into one giant television market. Accordingly, the station was sold to the Meyer family of Bismarck, owners of KFYR-TV, just before it signed on. It was a semi-satellite of KFYR for a year. KMOT signed on January 23, 1958 as the third station in the Meyer group, and KUMV became a semi-satellite of KMOT.
Until KBMY/KMCY signed on in 1986, the Meyer stations carried a secondary affiliation with ABC. Until KXMD-TV signed on in 1969, KUMV carried CBS on a per-program basis.
In the late 1970s, KUMV became one of the first stations to be transmitted via terrestrial cable television into most of Saskatchewan; it even maintained a sales office in Saskatoon, as did KXMD and ABC affiliate KFBB-TV of Great Falls, Montana. This arrangement continued until 1986 when the signal was replaced by a satellite signal from WDIV-TV, the NBC affiliate in Detroit.
The Meyers sold off their broadcast holdings in 1997, with the television stations going to Sunrise Television Corporation. Sunrise sold them to The Wicks Group of Companies of New York City in 2002.
Hoak Media bought KFYR-TV, KMOT, KUMV, and KQCD in July 2006, as well as KVLY-TV in Fargo and KSFY in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and its satellite stations. On November 17, 2006, the sale was approved by the FCC.
KUMV began broadcasting digital-only on February 16, 2009.
KUMV picked up MeTV in April 2013, with an official launch date of May 1, 2013.
On November 20, 2013, Hoak announced the sale of most of its stations, including KUMV-TV, to Gray Television. Gray initially planned, through Excalibur Broadcasting, to also acquire Fox affiliate KXND and its Williston translator from Prime Cities Broadcasting and operate it under a shared services agreement, which would have made it a sister station to KUMV. On March 25, 2014, Prime Cities Broadcasting requested that the FCC dismiss the sale of KXND to Excalibur; Gray would instead acquire the non-license assets of KXND, as well as the license of Williston repeater KXND-LP. The sale of the Hoak stations was completed on June 13; at that time, Gray shut down KXND's full-power signal and moved Fox programming to the second digital subchannel of KUMV.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP Short NameProgramming
8.11080iKUMV-DTMain KUMV-TV programming / NBC
8.2720pWD FOXFox
8.3480iMeTV NDMeTV

KUMV-TV's second digital subchannel is also simulcast on KXND-LD in Williston.

Analog-to-digital conversion

KUMV-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 8, on February 16, 2009, the day prior to the original date in which full-power television stations in the United States were set to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 52, which was among the high band UHF channels that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to its analog-era VHF channel 8 for post-transition operations.

Programming

programming on KUMV includes Live with Kelly and Ryan, The Dr. Oz Show, The Doctors, Jeopardy!, and Wheel of Fortune, among others.

Newscasts

KUMV airs its own newscasts from Monday through Friday at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. The first 10 minutes originate at KMOT. KUMV has its own news and sports anchor who fill the remaining 20 minutes. Weekend newscasts are simulcast from KFYR.
From 2002 to 2007, KMOT was forced to cut its newscasts to 20 minutes while simulcasting the first 10 minutes of KFYR-TV's 6 pm and 10 pm newscasts, much as KUMV does now. In January 2007, KMOT began broadcasting a full half-hour of news at 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m once again. It also added a weatherman and photographer/reporter to the staff.
The stations occasionally share stories with co-owned KVLY-TV. The five stations simulcast key North Dakota sporting events under the NBC North Dakota brand name and share certain equipment, such as remote broadcasting vehicles.
NBC North Dakota has long dominated the ratings in western North Dakota as a whole; the main stations and their semi-satellites count as one station for ratings and regulatory purposes. However, KMOT has spent most of its history as a distant runner-up to KXMC-TV in the northern half of the market.
The Fox-affiliated subchannel debuted West Dakota Fox News at Nine during October 2014, originating from KFYR's studios in Bismarck.