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KRTV
KRTV (channel 3) is a television station in Great Falls, Montana, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside KTGF-LD (channel 50), the local NBC affiliate, and is part of the Montana Television Network (MTN), a statewide network of CBS-affiliated stations. KRTV's studios and transmitter are located on Old Havre Highway in Black Eagle, just outside Great Falls.
In Helena, Montana, KRTV is repeated on a low-power semi-satellite, KXLH-LD (channel 9), which airs the same network and syndicated programming but with Helena-specific commercials and evening newscasts. KXLH-LD has studios on West Lyndale Avenue in Helena, shared with that city's NBC affiliate, KTVH-DT (channel 12). Master control and some internal operations of KXLH-LD are handled by KRTV in Great Falls.
KRTV was the second television station to sign on in Great Falls, doing so in 1958. Its purchase by Joe Sample in 1969 led to the foundation of MTN. From 1971 to 1984, the station was MTN's hub and produced statewide newscasts for air across the state. Since the 1990s, the station has generally been the Great Falls market leader for local news.
After the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) opened applications for new television stations in 1952, it received three in Great Falls, two of them for channel 3 (and a third for channel 5, which became KFBB-TV). However, neither channel 3 proposal came to fruition. The Z-Bar Network filed for four stations across the state but abandoned its channel 3 application for Great Falls, while the competing applicant, Montana Farmer (owner of station KMON), withdrew its proposal in January 1954.
Interest in the second VHF channel for Great Falls returned on April 25, 1956, when the Cascade Broadcasting Company, owned by Robert and Francis Laird of San Luis Obispo, California, filed for channel 3. The Lairds were granted a construction permit on May 29, 1957. Dan Snyder was named manager, and construction began on the station's studios and transmitter facility on a hill overlooking Black Eagle. Plans were announced to go on the air as an independent station using local and filmed programs.
KRTV began broadcasting on June 27, 1958, at 6 p.m. The station would have an inauspicious start. A film projector failed, and once it was replaced, bigger trouble emerged. A storm with reported wind gusts of up to 70 miles per hour (110 km/h) moved through Great Falls that night and severely damaged the station's antenna. It became apparent that viewers would have to wait a while for KRTV to get the antenna repaired at the factory and reinstalled. The station placed a "short, short story" in the Great Falls Tribune about its plight, noting "We shall return! (P.S. Don't ask us when!)" While the station was silent, the Lairds filed to sell the station outright to Snyder. The station returned to the air on the afternoon of October 5. That day, an ad in the Tribune declared they'd be on the air "if the wind doesn't topple our tower again".
Two years later, Paul Crain, owner of KUDI (1450 AM), bought a 26 percent stake in KRTV. It secured a full-time network affiliation with NBC later that year; the month before, in time for the World Series, Western Microwave completed a second microwave path to carry network programs from Salt Lake City to Great Falls.
In 1962, an addition to the studio building was completed that replaced the old studio with a new, larger space and reutilized the old one to house a new color-capable transmitter, permitting the station to increase its effective radiated power from 600 to 30,000 watts and air network programs in color; local color productions began five years later, making KRTV the state's first "full color" station. Crain died of a heart attack in 1964.
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KRTV
KRTV (channel 3) is a television station in Great Falls, Montana, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside KTGF-LD (channel 50), the local NBC affiliate, and is part of the Montana Television Network (MTN), a statewide network of CBS-affiliated stations. KRTV's studios and transmitter are located on Old Havre Highway in Black Eagle, just outside Great Falls.
In Helena, Montana, KRTV is repeated on a low-power semi-satellite, KXLH-LD (channel 9), which airs the same network and syndicated programming but with Helena-specific commercials and evening newscasts. KXLH-LD has studios on West Lyndale Avenue in Helena, shared with that city's NBC affiliate, KTVH-DT (channel 12). Master control and some internal operations of KXLH-LD are handled by KRTV in Great Falls.
KRTV was the second television station to sign on in Great Falls, doing so in 1958. Its purchase by Joe Sample in 1969 led to the foundation of MTN. From 1971 to 1984, the station was MTN's hub and produced statewide newscasts for air across the state. Since the 1990s, the station has generally been the Great Falls market leader for local news.
After the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) opened applications for new television stations in 1952, it received three in Great Falls, two of them for channel 3 (and a third for channel 5, which became KFBB-TV). However, neither channel 3 proposal came to fruition. The Z-Bar Network filed for four stations across the state but abandoned its channel 3 application for Great Falls, while the competing applicant, Montana Farmer (owner of station KMON), withdrew its proposal in January 1954.
Interest in the second VHF channel for Great Falls returned on April 25, 1956, when the Cascade Broadcasting Company, owned by Robert and Francis Laird of San Luis Obispo, California, filed for channel 3. The Lairds were granted a construction permit on May 29, 1957. Dan Snyder was named manager, and construction began on the station's studios and transmitter facility on a hill overlooking Black Eagle. Plans were announced to go on the air as an independent station using local and filmed programs.
KRTV began broadcasting on June 27, 1958, at 6 p.m. The station would have an inauspicious start. A film projector failed, and once it was replaced, bigger trouble emerged. A storm with reported wind gusts of up to 70 miles per hour (110 km/h) moved through Great Falls that night and severely damaged the station's antenna. It became apparent that viewers would have to wait a while for KRTV to get the antenna repaired at the factory and reinstalled. The station placed a "short, short story" in the Great Falls Tribune about its plight, noting "We shall return! (P.S. Don't ask us when!)" While the station was silent, the Lairds filed to sell the station outright to Snyder. The station returned to the air on the afternoon of October 5. That day, an ad in the Tribune declared they'd be on the air "if the wind doesn't topple our tower again".
Two years later, Paul Crain, owner of KUDI (1450 AM), bought a 26 percent stake in KRTV. It secured a full-time network affiliation with NBC later that year; the month before, in time for the World Series, Western Microwave completed a second microwave path to carry network programs from Salt Lake City to Great Falls.
In 1962, an addition to the studio building was completed that replaced the old studio with a new, larger space and reutilized the old one to house a new color-capable transmitter, permitting the station to increase its effective radiated power from 600 to 30,000 watts and air network programs in color; local color productions began five years later, making KRTV the state's first "full color" station. Crain died of a heart attack in 1964.