KTVH-DT

KTVH-DT (channel 12) is a television station in Helena, Montana, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside CBS affiliate KXLH-LD (channel 9). The two stations share studios on West Lyndale Avenue in Helena; KTVH-DT's transmitter is located on Hogback Mountain. KTVH-DT operates low-power translator KTGF-LD (channel 50) in Great Falls, where Scripps also owns CBS affiliate KRTV.

The only full-service commercial TV station serving Montana's capital city for most of its history, channel 12 came to air in 1958 as KXLJ-TV and struggled through a fight with a competing local cable company, during which it shut down for six months before eventually being purchased by the firm. In the late 1960s and 1970s, channel 12 was owned by former Montana governor Tim Babcock before being sold to two owners who each struggled with financial issues. In 1997, a possible threat of disaffiliation from NBC opened the door for Sunbelt Communications Company, later changed to Intermountain West Communications Company (IWCC), to purchase the station. Under IWCC, the station expanded geographically and secured the NBC affiliation in the larger Great Falls market. Before IWCC owner Jim Rogers died, the station was sold twice to larger station groups before being acquired by Scripps.

It is the only NBC affiliate in the Montana Television Network, with separate programming from the group of mostly CBS affiliates and separate newscasts from KXLH.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allotted two VHF channels to Helena. Helena TV filed for channel 10, while Peoples Forum of the Air, owner of radio station KXLJ (1240 AM) and part of the statewide Z-Bar Network, also applied for channel 10 on April 14, 1956. After the latter amended its application to specify channel 12, both parties were granted construction permits on February 13, 1957; the FCC also rejected a proposal to reallocate channel 12 from Helena to Bozeman. The application from Peoples Forum of the Air specified the station to operate as a satellite service to KXLF-TV in Butte. Peoples Forum of the Air transferred the permit to Capital City Television, Inc., in September 1957, and the first broadcast—the Rose Bowl—went out on January 1, 1958. However, the station was not yet ready in terms of equipment to begin full-time program service on that date; viewers would have to wait until January 30 to see a full slate of programs from the new station. As with its Butte parent, the stations were affiliated with NBC and ABC, NBC being the affiliation across the Z-Bar network. Studios and transmitter were located at the southwest corner of Cherry Street and Montana Avenue, and the station broadcast with an effective radiated power of just 973 watts.

The early years of channel 12 in Helena were marked by turbulence and a dispute that pitted the local television station versus a cable system importing out-of-market signals, which Helena TV also owned. In January 1959, arguments were heard in a lawsuit by Z-Bar versus Helena TV, with KXLJ-TV's counsel arguing that the cable firm had "used our property for gain without our consent". The manager of KXLJ-TV warned that the station might have no choice but to close unless an appeals court granted an injunction against the cable company bringing stations from Spokane, Washington, to Helena viewers; he predicted that cable systems and an FCC decision negatively impacting the use of over-the-air VHF boosters to retransmit stations' signals could ultimately force every television station in Montana out of business. On February 1, 1959, KXLJ-TV ceased broadcasting.

The plight of KXLJ-TV attracted significant political attention. The four-member Montana delegation to Congress wrote to the FCC, asking for an investigation. FCC chair John C. Doerfer planned to visit Montana, but he was called to present the commission's budget to the House of Representatives and could not make the trip. Helena TV, which had abandoned its application for channel 10, made a new request to build a station. The appeals court ordered the FCC to give Capital City Television a hearing in May.

KXLJ-TV won a favorable order from the FCC ordering the removal of the Spokane channels from the Helena cable system in July 1959; when an appeals court placed a 30-day temporary injunction on the order, the station waited to resume operations. When the injunction was vacated and the Spokane stations removed at 3:45 p.m. on August 6, channel 12 returned at 6:50 p.m. that night. The cable firm won out in the long run: a Helena district judge ruled in 1960 that the cable company's rebroadcast of other Montana stations, particularly KFBB-TV from Great Falls, did not violate Z-Bar's rights.

In October 1960, Ed Craney—owner of the Z-Bar Network—announced that Joe Sample would acquire his remaining broadcasting holdings and would sell KXLJ radio and television in Helena to Helena TV, the cable firm with which channel 12 had been dueling for almost all of its brief history. The $300,000 purchase was not only significant in separating KXLJ-TV from KXLF-TV; it also meant that the TV station would drop its longstanding opposition to supplementing the area with Spokane stations, allowing the cable company to reinstate the Spokane stations to its lineup. After the FCC approved of the sale, the stations became KBLL radio and television formally on March 29 and began using the designation on April 10; that same day, Spokane's KREM and KHQ-TV returned to the cable lineup after 20 months. This was a major economic relief for the company, which in a January 1960 open letter had noted the decision had a material impact on its income. The new KBLL-TV also added programming from CBS to its lineup.