KBMY

KBMY / KMCY

KBMY: Bismarck, North Dakota KMCY: Minot, North Dakota United States
Branding	KBMY 17/KMCY 14 (general) WDAY/WDAZ News (newscasts)
Slogan	Your News Leader
Channels	Digital: KBMY: 17 (UHF) KMCY: 14 (UHF) Virtual: KBMY: 17 (PSIP) KMCY: 14 (PSIP)
Subchannels	xx.1 ABC xx.2 Justice Network xx.3 WDAY'Z Xtra
Affiliations	ABC
Owner	Forum Communications (KBMY-KMCY, LLC)
First air date	KBMY: March 31, 1985 (1985-03-31) KMCY: June 1985 (1985-06)[1]
Call letters' meaning	KBMY: Bismarck/Mandan Y KMCY: Magic CitY (nickname of Minot)
Sister station(s)	WDAY-AM, WDAY-TV, WDAZ-TV
Former channel number(s)	Analog: KBMY: 17 (UHF, 1985–2009) KMCY: 14 (UHF, 1985–2009)
Transmitter power	KBMY: 94.5 kW KMCY: 40 kW
Height	KBMY: 290 m KMCY: 217 m
Facility ID	KBMY: 22121 KMCY: 22127
Transmitter coordinates	KBMY: 46°35′15″N 100°48′20″W / 46.58750°N 100.80556°W / 46.58750; -100.80556 (KBMY) KMCY: 48°3′11″N 101°23′5″W / 48.05306°N 101.38472°W / 48.05306; -101.38472 (KMCY)
Licensing authority	FCC
Public license information:	/ KMCY Profile / KMCY CDBS

KBMY, channel 17, is the ABC-affiliated television station for Bismarck, North Dakota. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 17 (or virtual channel 17.1 via PSIP) from a transmitter near St. Anthony. The station can also be seen on Midcontinent cable channel 8 in Bismarck/Mandan, Midcontinent cable channel 17 in Dickinson, Consolidated Telcom cable channel 3 in Dickinson and varied cable channels in surrounding areas.

There is a high definition feed provided on Midcontinent digital channel 608 in Bismarck/Mandan, digital channel 617 in Dickinson and Consolidated Telcom digital channel 303 in Dickinson. Owned by Forum Communications of Fargo, KBMY's master control and internal operations are based at the facilities of fellow ABC affiliate WDAY-TV in Fargo. Forum owns all four ABC stations in North Dakota – flagship station WDAY-TV in Fargo, WDAZ-TV in Grand Forks, KBMY and KMCY.

KMCY, channel 14, in Minot, North Dakota operates as a semi-satellite of KBMY for the northern portion of the Bismarck/Minot market. KMCY simulcasts all network and syndicated programming from KBMY, but airs separate commercials and station identifications. This outlet broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 14 (or virtual channel 14.1 via PSIP) from a transmitter southwest of Minot. Master control and most internal operations are based at WDAY-TV in Fargo. The station can also be seen on Midcontinent cable channel 9 in Minot and surrounding areas, Midcontinent cable channel 7 in Williston, SRT cable channel 11 and varied cable channels in surrounding areas. There is a high definition feed provided on Midcontinent digital channel 609 (607 in Williston) and SRT digital channel 511.

History

KBMY signed on for the first time on March 31, 1985; bringing the full ABC schedule to western North Dakota and eastern Montana for the first time ever. Before 1985, this area had been one of the last in the United States without full network service. ABC was limited to off-hours clearances on KX Television (KXMC/KXMD/KXMB/KXMA) and Meyer Television (KFYR/KQCD/KMOT/KUMV). Some rural cable subscribers in western North Dakota received ABC programming from KULR-TV (now NBC) from Billings, KFBB-TV from Great Falls, KOTA-TV from Rapid City or KUSA-TV in Denver. The eastern half of the market was served by WDAY-TV and its Grand Forks semi-satellite, WDAZ-TV. Cable systems in Bismarck piped in WDAY-TV, while cable systems in Minot piped in WDAZ.

On paper, western North Dakota had been large enough to support three full network affiliates since at least the late 1960s. However, this region is one of the largest geographic markets in the nation, spilling across large slices of North Dakota, Montana, and South Dakota. It is so vast that KX Television and Meyer Television both needed four full-power stations to adequately cover it. However, the market was not fully realized until Meyer signed on a station in Dickinson in 1980 and Dickinson's original station, KDIX-TV (now KXMA) became a separately-owned satellite of KX Television. Additionally, the only available commercial allocations were on the UHF band; UHF stations have never covered large areas very well. By the early 1980s, cable television--a must for acceptable television in much of this vast market--had gained enough penetration for a third network affiliate to be viable.

In the early 2000s, KBMY signed on two low-powered translators to serve the smaller cities in the market, K44HR in Williston and K42FY in Dickinson. Prior to K44HR's inception, cable television subscribers in the Williston area received Denver's ABC affiliate—KUSA-TV prior to 1995 and KMGH-TV after 1995—for ABC programming. Dickinson, located in the Mountain Time Zone, also received KMGH until K42FY signed on. The Dickinson station directly repeated KBMY, while the Williston station repeated KMCY.

Former logo as "ABC West".

From the 1990s until 2007, KBMY and KMCY were known collectively as "ABC West". That year, the stations changed their monikers in favor of the station identities for their area. From 2002 until 2008, KBMY/KMCY was operated by Prime Cities Broadcasting, owner of western North Dakota's Fox affiliate, KNDX/KXND, in a local marketing agreement. The LMA allowed KBMY/KMCY to share the facilities, staff, and some equipment of KNDX/KXND.

The LMA with KNDX/KXND ended in 2008, with Forum opting to partner with Reiten Television in KBMY/KMCY's local operations via a joint sales agreement. While some local advertising staffers were based at KXMB-TV in Bismarck and KXMC-TV in Minot, most operations have been consolidated at WDAY-TV's studios in Fargo. KBMY and KMCY's programming is transported from WDAY-TV's studios to Bismarck via leased microwave relay bandwidth furnished by Prairie Public Broadcasting's statewide digital terrestrial microwave network (the only permanent full-time video link from Fargo to Bismarck for television broadcasting). The signal is then sent to KXMB from Prairie Public via fiberoptic line, where it then is exported via a studio to transmitter link (STL) from KXMB's studios to KBMY and KMCY's transmitters.

As part of the JSA with Reiten, KBMY/KMCY were picked up on the digital subchannels of KX Television satellites KXMA-TV in Dickinson and KXMD-TV in Williston starting in May 2009. The translators serving Dickinson and Williston went off-air. The JSA was terminated following the acquisition of the KX stations by Nexstar Broadcasting Group on February 2, 2016. At the same time, the ABC subchannels of KXMA and KXMD were replaced with The CW Plus.^[2][3][4]

Digital television

Digital channels

Both stations' digital signals are multiplexed:

WDAY'Z Xtra is a digital subchannel carried on WDAY 6.3 in Fargo, WDAZ 8.3 in Grand Forks, KBMY 17.3, and KMCY 14.3. This subchannel airs Doppler weather radar and WDAY/WDAZ "Storm Tracker" weather loop with the audio of Fargo's WDAY radio, but also broadcasts area high school sports. It is offered on Midcontinent cable channel 594. KBMY and KMCY began carrying this subchannel in 2013.

Analog-to-digital conversion

KBMY shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 17, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station "flash-cut" its digital signal into operation on UHF channel 17.^[7][8]

KMCY shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 14, on February 10, 2009, and "flash-cut" its digital signal into operation on UHF channel 14.

News and Programming

For most of their history, the stations have been run on a very low budget. They do not produce much local content, serving mainly as "pass-throughs" for automated programming.

Upon KBMY/KMCY's debut in 1985, they originated and aired a local newscast with on-location ENG and studio news coverage for the Bismarck and Minot areas. However, despite Forum's resources and legacy in North Dakota, KBMY/KMCY made almost no headway against Meyer Television and KX Television. It going up against two newscasts that had been on the air for over 30 years and served the entire market, one of which--Meyer Television--was one of the highest-rated newscasts in the nation. This first attempt at a local newscast was canceled around 1988, due to low ratings and company-wide budget cuts.

For the next two decades, the stations were among the few Big Three affiliates in the nation with no longform newscasts at all. In the early 2000s, KBMY/KMCY aired Good Morning West Dakota, a 30-minute morning show produced and simulcast by Bismarck radio station KBMR. It was the only local newscast of any sort on the stations at the time, and went off the air in 2014.

In February 2014, KBMY/KMCY began simulcasting WDAY-TV's Sunday 5:30 p.m. (Central Time) newscast.^[9] First News broadcasts during weekday mornings from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. (Central Time) debuted in April 2014, and the stations began airing WDAY's 5:00 p.m. (Central Time) weekday newscast in August 2014. Local cut-ins during Good Morning America are broadcast from WDAY-TV's studios.

KBMY and KMCY sign off in the overnight hours; as a result, ABC's overnight news program, World News Now, is not broadcast. The stations also pre-empt the network's NBA pre-game show NBA Countdown to carry paid programming.

Syndicated programming on KBMY/KMCY includes America's Funniest Home Videos, Extra, Friends, Judge Judy, The Simpsons, among others.

References

External links

• WDAY.com – Official WDAY-TV Website
• WDAZ.com – Official WDAZ-TV Website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KBMY
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KMCY
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KBMY-TV
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KMCY-TV