Branding KBSD 6 | ||
Subchannels 6.1 CBS6.2 Always on Storm Team 12 Owner Gray Television(Gray Television Licensee, LLC) | ||
KBSD-DT, virtual and VHF digital channel 6, is a CBS-affiliated television station serving Dodge City, Kansas, United States that is licensed to Ensign. The station is owned by Gray Television. KBSD maintains offices located on Airport Road in northeastern Dodge City, and its transmitter is located east of K-23 in rural northwestern Gray County.
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KBSD is part of the Kansas Broadcasting System (KBS), a statewide network of four full-power stations that relay programming from Wichita CBS affiliate KWCH-DT central and western Kansas; KBSD incorporates local advertising and news inserts aimed at areas of southwestern Kansas within the Wichita-Hutchinson Plus television market as well as portions of the Oklahoma panhandle within the Amarillo market.
History
The station first signed on the air on July 24, 1957 as KTVC. In 1962, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled that central and western Kansas were part of the Wichita market. As a result, Des Moines-based Cowles Communications bought KTVC, KAYS-TV (now KBSH-DT) in Hays and KLOE-TV (now KBSL-DT) in Goodland and converted them into semi-satellites of KTVH. The three stations, which – along with flagship station KTVH – formed the Kansas Broadcasting System, relayed CBS programming throughout central and western Kansas.
In 1983, the Cowles family began selling off its vast media holdings. KTVH and its sister stations were sold to the Kansas Broadcasting System Corporation, owned by a pair of businessmen from Hays, Ross Beach and Bob Schmidt. In 1989, the Kansas Broadcasting System Corporation was purchased by Smith Broadcasting; after the sale was completed, the station changed its call letters to KBSD-TV, as part of an effort that saw KWCH's three semi-satellites change their call letters to help viewers think of the stations as part of one large network. Smith sold the station to Spartanburg, South Carolina-based Spartan Communications in 1994; Spartan merged with Media General in 2000. In 2005, KWCH began operating a digital automation system from its Wichita studio facility, which handled the scheduling of advertisements and master control operations for all four KBS stations.
On April 6, 2006, Media General announced that it would sell KWCH, its satellites, and four other stations as a result of its purchase of four former NBC owned-and-operated-stations (WVTM-TV in Birmingham, WCMH in Columbus, WNCN in Goldsboro, North Carolina and WJAR-TV in Providence). South Bend, Indiana-based Schurz eventually emerged as the winner and took ownership of the stations on September 25, at which time Schurz formed a new company known as "Sunflower Broadcasting, Inc.," which became the licensee for its Kansas broadcasting properties.
Schurz announced on September 14, 2015 that it would exit broadcasting and sell its television and radio stations, including KWCH-DT and its satellites, to Gray Television for $442.5 million. Gray already owns KAKE and its satellites (including KUPK channel 13); however, it will sell that station to Lockwood Broadcast Group and keep the KBS stations. The sale was completed on February 16, 2016.
Digital channels
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
Analog-to-digital conversion
KBSD shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 6, 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's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition VHF channel 5 to channel 6. The station modified its callsign to KBSD-DT two weeks later on June 25, 2009, in reflection of the transition.
The digital transition resulted in the loss of ability to listen to KBSD's audio feed over 87.7 FM; due to power outages caused by the storm and the fact that most radio stations in the area are automated during the overnight hours and on weekends, KBSD's audio rebroadcast of KWCH's severe weather coverage was one of few ways that Greensburg resident were able to receive information during and in the immediate aftermath of the EF5 tornado that struck the town on May 4, 2007. Television stations broadcasting on VHF channel 6 were audible over this frequency during the analog television era, although this is no longer possible due to the transition, even for stations that broadcast their digital signals on channel 6.
Newscasts
KTVC/KBSD produced a full local newscast for many years, in addition to simulcasting newscasts from KTVH/KWCH. News programming on the station in recent years has been downsized to reports contributed to KWCH's Wichita-based newscasts and web content supplied through KWCH's website.