Branding Local 2 (general)
Local 2 News (newscasts) Slogan Basin Trusted, Basin Proud Channels Digital: 26 (UHF)
Virtual: 2 (PSIP) Subchannels 2.1 ABC
2.2 Grit
2.3 Laff
2.4 Escape Affiliations ABC (secondary 1953–1958; primary since 1981) Owner Nexstar Media Group
(Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc.) | ||
KMID is the ABC affiliated television station in Midland-Odessa, Texas, owned and operated by Nexstar Media Group, which is headquartered in Irving, Texas. KMID was acquired by Nexstar in 2000. Syndicated programming on KMID includes: The Rachael Ray Show, Judge Judy, Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune and Extra. KMID's studios are located in Ector County at the KPEJ studios. The station's transmission tower is in Andrews and Midland County.
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History
KMID-TV went on the air on December 18, 1953; making it the longest running station in the Midland/Odessa market. It carried programming from all four networks, but was a primary NBC affiliate. It lost CBS to KOSA-TV in 1956 and lost ABC to KWES-TV then known as KVKM) in 1958. In 1981, KMID became an ABC affiliate when it swapped its NBC affiliation with channel 9 (KTPX at the time). Lorimar-Telepictures sold KMID plus two of its sister stations, KSPR in Springfield, Missouri and KCPM-TV (now KNVN) in Chico/Redding, California, to Goltrin Communications in 1987. In 1988, Goltrin sold all three stations to Davis Goldfarb Communications. Cottonwood Communications bought the station in 1995. KMID including KSPR and KCPM (KNVN) was purchased by GOCOM Communications in 1997. KMID was acquired by current owner Nexstar Broadcasting in 2000.
For many years, KMID was known as "Big 2", but adopted the "ABC2" moniker in early 2004. However, in part because many Permian Basin residents still called the station "Big 2," that nickname was revived in 2009, only to be scrapped once more on December 12, 2015, in favor of "Local 2".
Back in 2003, KMID dropped weekend evening newscasts, making it the third-watched newscast in the Permian Basin. Though in late 2006, Sunday night news broadcasts were reinstated.
On April 24, 2013, Communications Corporation of America announced the sale of its entire group to Nexstar. KPEJ was to be sold to Mission Broadcasting. However on June 6, 2014, Nexstar announced that it would instead sell KPEJ-TV to a new minority-owned company, Marshall Broadcasting (marking the company's first television station acquisitions), for $58.5 million. Nexstar would operate KPEJ under a shared services agreement, forming a duopoly with KMID. The sale was completed on January 1, 2015.
Digital channels
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
Analog-to-digital conversion
KMID shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 2, 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 remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 26. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 2.