KFBB-TV
Encyclopedia
KFBB-TV is a full-service television station
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...

 in Great Falls, Montana
Great Falls, Montana
Great Falls is a city in and the county seat of Cascade County, Montana, United States. The population was 58,505 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Great Falls, Montana Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Cascade County...

, broadcasting locally on digital VHF
Very high frequency
Very high frequency is the radio frequency range from 30 MHz to 300 MHz. Frequencies immediately below VHF are denoted High frequency , and the next higher frequencies are known as Ultra high frequency...

 channel 8 as an affiliate of ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

. Founded March 21, 1954, the station is owned by Max Media
Max Media
Max Media is a company that owns radio and television stations throughout the United States. It is based out of Virginia Beach, Virginia.-History:Max Media was founded in 2001...

. KFBB-TV also operates a semi-satellite for the Helena
Helena, Montana
Helena is the capital city of the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Lewis and Clark County. The 2010 census put the population at 28,180. The local daily newspaper is the Independent Record. The Helena Brewers minor league baseball and Helena Bighorns minor league hockey team call the...

 area, KHBB-LD channel 21 (UHF
Ultra high frequency
Ultra-High Frequency designates the ITU Radio frequency range of electromagnetic waves between 300 MHz and 3 GHz , also known as the decimetre band or decimetre wave as the wavelengths range from one to ten decimetres...

). Both stations offer Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

 via their digital subchannels (until 2009, only KHBB did so, as Fox programming in Great Falls was seen on KLMN
KLMN
KLMN was a television station in Great Falls, Montana, broadcasting locally on channel 26 as an affiliate of Fox. Founded on December 19, 2000, the station was owned by Equity Media Holdings.- History :...

) KFBB-TV is also repeated on several translators.

History

KFBB-TV began broadcasting on March 21, 1954. As the first television station in Great Falls, KFBB-TV was affiliated with all four major networks, and would broadcast programming from all three until KRTV
KRTV
KRTV is a television station in Great Falls, Montana, broadcasting on digital channel 7 as an affiliate of CBS. The station is owned by Evening Post Publishing Company. The station is part of the Evening Post's Montana Television Network, a network of Montana CBS stations.-History:KRTV began...

 signed on and took the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 affiliation in October 1958. KFBB-TV continued to air CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 and ABC programming as a member of the Skyline Network (as the Montana Television Network
Montana Television Network
The Montana Television Network is a network of CBS affiliates in Montana, all but one owned by the Evening Post Publishing Company.MTN was founded by Montana broadcasting pioneer Joseph S. "Joe" Sample. He signed on KOOK-TV in Billings, Montana's second television station, in 1953. He bought...

 was then called).

At first KFBB-TV was owned by Wilkins Broadcasting along with KFBB radio (1310 AM, now KEIN
KEIN
KEIN is a radio station broadcasting a Adult Standards/MOR format. Licensed to Great Falls, Montana, USA, the station serves the Great Falls area. The station is currently owned by Community Communications and features programing from Westwood One, CBS Radio and Music Of Your Life....

), of which The Anaconda Company owned a 27.5% share. Anaconda, through its Fairmount division, controlled most of the major newspapers in Montana (although not the Great Falls Tribune
Great Falls Tribune
The Great Falls Tribune is a daily morning newspaper printed in Great Falls, Montana. Its Sunday circulation is 36,763, with 33,434 on weekdays...

) and was notorious for manipulating the state's political visions for its own needs. Then in 1959, Anaconda sold its media holdings to Lee Enterprises
Lee Enterprises
Lee Enterprises is a publicly traded American media company. It publishes 54 daily newspapers in 23 states, and more than 300 weekly, classified, and specialty publications. Lee Enterprises was founded in 1890 by A.W. Lee and is based in Davenport, Iowa....

 of Davenport, Iowa
Davenport, Iowa
Davenport is a city located along the Mississippi River in Scott County, Iowa, United States. Davenport is the county seat of and largest city in Scott County. Davenport was founded on May 14, 1836 by Antoine LeClaire and was named for his friend, George Davenport, a colonel during the Black Hawk...

. Because of anti-trust concerns, Lee decided to sell KFBB. The station was sold in 1962 to Harriscope Broadcasting, which in 1965 scored a deal for a primary ABC affiliation - Montana's first. The new affiliation took effect on February 1, 1966. Harriscope severed KFBB's links with the Skyline Network (which signed up with KRTV), and sold off KFBB radio in February 1969, but continued to run KFBB-TV, eventually selling it to Donald P. Nathanson in 1977. After affiliating primarily with ABC, the station continued secondary affiliation with CBS until that network switched to KRTV in 1969, and then started running NBC on a per program basis as late as December 1986, when KTGF
KTGF
KTGF, digital channel 45, was a television station in Great Falls, Montana. The station was owned by Destiny Communications, and was last affiliated with JCTV.-History:...

 signed on and took over the NBC affiliation. KFBB also carried Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...

for several years, before Montana had a PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

 service of its own.

KFBB's ABC affiliation allowed it to be carried on cable television
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...

 systems in both Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

 and Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....

; it even maintained a sales office in Saskatoon, as did Williston
Williston, North Dakota
-Demographics:Preliminary data from a 2010 housing study indicates that population has grown by nearly 22 percent over the past decade; the actual increase might be much higher. Williston is in western North Dakota's booming oil patch, and adequate, affordable housing has become a concern. The...

 stations KUMV-TV
KMOT
KMOT, channel 10, is an NBC affiliate located in Minot, North Dakota. The station serves the northern half of the Western North Dakota television market...

 and KXMD-TV
KXMC-TV
KXMC-TV, channel 13, is the CBS affiliated television station for Minot, North Dakota. The station serves the northern half of the Western North Dakota television market...

. This arrangement continued until 1986, when KFBB was largely replaced by a satellite signal from WXYZ-TV
WXYZ-TV
WXYZ-TV, channel 7, is an ABC-affiliated television station in Detroit, Michigan, USA. WXYZ-TV is owned by the E.W. Scripps Company, and is the media company's largest-market TV station property...

, the ABC affiliate in Detroit.

An April 1981 application with the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...

 (FCC) requested transfer of control of the licensee corporation from owner Donald P. Nathanson to his estate, following his death. In early 1982, the station saw a flurry of transfers that saw KFBB-TV moved, first from the Nathanson estate to Advance TV of California, then from Advance TV to Wooster Republican Printing Company of Ohio, which would operate the station through various holding companies (e.g., KFBB Corporation, KFBB LLC, Dix Communications).

In June 2003, Wooster Republican Printing made deep cuts in local news production, ending morning, noon and weekend newscasts. It retained KFBB until November 2004, when it was sold to Max Media of Montana. Max Media already owned KTGF in the market, and was forced to sell it in order to purchase KFBB-TV, as the Great Falls market was too small to allow a broadcast duopoly
Duopoly (broadcasting)
In United States broadcast television and radio, duopoly is a term used to describe a single company which owns two or more stations in the same city or community....

. In February 2005, Max Media instituted a regional newscast, branded as Montana News Network, which was produced at KFBB. The regional newscast didn't last long. KFBB was then rebranded NewsChannel 5, with a focus on "Live, Local, Late-Breaking Coverage." In addition to the morning weather cut-ins and its weeknight newscasts at 5:30 and 10:00 p.m. newscasts, the station soon added weekend newscasts back to the lineup.

In 2009, KFBB added staff to become the largest news team in central Montana. The newscasts took on a new slogan, "NewsChannel 5 is Everywhere", to capitalize on its reporting strength in Great Falls and its three bureaus. The weather segments took on the identity of "Pinpoint Weather", showcasing the station's award-winning customized forecasts for central and northern Montana. The station also increased its news production on the weekend, adding a 5:30 p.m. newscast, as well as the 10:00 p.m. weekend news already running.

On September 21, 2009, KFBB expanded further, adding a 5:00 p.m. newscast and moving the 5:30 newscast to 6:00 p.m., swapping with ABC World News.

A full page ad in Signature Montana magazine in April 2010 highlighted the fact that KFBB has the most TV newscasts in the evening in the market. KFBB also provides weather updates for the Fisher Communications radio stations in Great Falls (Q106, Star 98.3, The Wolf 104.9, and SAM 107.3).

Current on-air staff

Anchors
  • Andrea Fisher - 5:00 and 6:00 Anchor
  • Corrina Pysa - 10:00 Anchor and Reporter
  • Stephanie Tyrpak - Weekend Anchor/Reporter


Reporters
  • Kacey Drescher - Helena Bureau Reporter
  • A.J. Donatoni - Bozeman Bureau Reporter
  • Brad Hehmeyer - Missoula Bureau Reporter
  • Zac Glover - 10@10 Anchor/Reporter
  • Charlie Keegan- Reporter
  • Rachel Ousley - Reporter


Weather team
  • Adam Koslen - Chief Meteorologist
  • Nichole Langley - Morning Meteorologist
  • Steve Newton - Weekend Meteorologist/Reporter


Sports team
  • Lindsey Thiry - Weekday Sports Anchor/Reporter
  • Tom Wylie - Weekend Sports Anchor/Reporter
  • Dominic Shelden - Helena Bureau Sports Reporter

Notable News Personalities

  • Julie Lovell:A news anchor/reporter/producer that moved to KCEN-TV
    KCEN-TV
    KCEN-TV, virtual channel 6, is the NBC affiliate for Waco, Killeen and Temple, Texas. Licensed to nearby Temple, it is owned by London Broadcasting. It was founded in 1953 by Frank W. Mayborn, publisher of the nearby Temple Daily Telegram newspaper...


Newscast titles

  • News 5 (1970s-1997)
  • NewsChannel 5 (1997–2002)
  • ABC 5 News (2002–2005)
  • Montana News Network (2005–2006)
  • NewsChannel 5 (2006–present)

Station slogans

  • NewsChannel 5 is Everywhere (February–September 2009)
  • NewsChannel 5, In-Depth, Investigative (2009–present)


Digital television

The station received its digital television (DTV) allocation from the FCC in April 1997. Originally, KFBB-DT was to be on channel 39, but in June 2001, the FCC agreed to change the allocation to channel 8, and granted the permit to construct digital facilities on March 14, 2002. By the end of April 2002, the station was already on the air and was licensed on November 1, 2002. KFBB-DT has elected to remain on channel 8 once the full-service station transition to DTV is complete in June 2009.

On August 9, 2006, the FCC granted "flash-cut" authorization to KHBB-LD, meaning that on or before August 9, 2009, analog station KHBB-LP would shut down and digital station KHBB-LD would commence broadcasting on channel 21. On November 27, 2008, KHBB closed its analog signal and began broadcasting in digital, with ABC programming on 21.1, and Fox programming on 21.2. Both subchannels are broadcasting at 720P High Definition.
Digital channels>
Channel Programming
5.1 / 21.1 main KFBB programming / ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

5.2 / 21.2 Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...


MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...

 (9-11 p.m. Monday - Friday)
Jewelry Television
Jewelry Television
Jewelry Television is an American television network, similar to the Home Shopping Network. It was formerly called "America's Collectibles Network" . The privately-held company was founded in 1993 and broadcasts high definition programming 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to over 80 million unique...

 (overnights)

Programming

As an ABC affiliate, KFBB-TV airs most of the network schedule, including ABC Daytime
ABC Daytime
ABC Daytime is a programming block on the ABC Network which has historically encompassed soap operas, game shows and talk shows.-Schedule:...

 and ABC primetime programs during the weekdays. Overnights are split between local programming, World News Now
World News Now
World News Now is an American overnight news program broadcast on American Broadcasting Company's television network. Its tone is often lighthearted, irreverent and humorous...

and America This Morning. KFBB-TV airs Nightline immediately following the late local news.

In 2008, the station began using an on-air logo identical to the former logos of ABC affiliate WEWS-TV
WEWS-TV
WEWS-TV, virtual channel 5 , is a television station in Cleveland, Ohio. WEWS has been owned by the E. W. Scripps Company since its inception, and is an affiliate of the ABC television network...

 in Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...

 and CBS affiliate KREX-TV
KREX-TV
KREX-TV, digital channel 2 , is the CBS affiliate for most of western Colorado, USA. Based in Grand Junction and owned by Hoak Media Corporation, it operates digitally on VHF channel 2.-History:...

 in Grand Junction, Colorado
Grand Junction, Colorado
The City of Grand Junction is the largest city in western Colorado. It is a city with a council–manager government form that is the county seat and the most populous city of Mesa County, Colorado, United States. Grand Junction is situated west-southwest of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. As...

 — neither station is related to KFBB.



Of the three full-service television stations in Montana owned by Max Media, only KFBB-TV offers a significant schedule of local news. There are two half-hour local newscasts at 5:00 and 6:00 PM and a 35-minute newscast at 10:00 PM each weeknight, plus half-hour newscasts at 5:00 and 10:00 PM on the weekends.

KFBB also produces a ten minute nightly newscast for Max Media's other ABC Montana stations, KTMF
KTMF
KTMF is a full-service television station in Missoula, Montana, broadcasting locally in digital on UHF channel 23 as an affiliate of ABC. Founded April 12, 1989, the station is owned by Max Media of Montana...

 in Missoula
Missoula, Montana
Missoula is a city located in western Montana and is the county seat of Missoula County. The 2010 Census put the population of Missoula at 66,788 and the population of Missoula County at 109,299. Missoula is the principal city of the Missoula Metropolitan Area...

 and Kalispell
Kalispell, Montana
Kalispell is a city in and the county seat of Flathead County, Montana, United States. The 2010 census put Kalispell's population at 19,927 up 5,704 over 2000. At 40.1% this is the largest percentage of growth of any incorporated city in Montana. Kalispell is the largest city and commercial center...

 and KWYB
KWYB
KWYB is a full-service television station in Butte, Montana, broadcasting locally in digital on UHF channel 19 as an affiliate of ABC. The station's signal is rebroadcast on KWYB-LD UHF channel 28 in Bozeman...

 in Butte
Butte, Montana
Butte is a city in Montana and the county seat of Silver Bow County, United States. In 1977, the city and county governments consolidated to form the sole entity of Butte-Silver Bow. As of the 2010 census, Butte's population was 34,200...

 and Bozeman
Bozeman, Montana
Bozeman is a city in and the county seat of Gallatin County, Montana, United States, in the southwestern part of the state. The 2010 census put Bozeman's population at 37,280 making it the fourth largest city in the state. It is the principal city of the Bozeman micropolitan area, which consists...

. The newscast is called 10@10, and focuses on Montana sports and weather in the first ten minutes.

Translators

KFBB-TV is rebroadcast on several translator stations throughout Montana:
  • K10BK Big Sandy
    Big Sandy, Montana
    Big Sandy is a town in Chouteau County, Montana, United States. The population was 703 at the 2000 census. Big Sandy, Montana, is where the Big Bud 747, the largest farm tractor in the world, is located. The Lewis and Clark Trail, following U.S...

  • K63AR Chinook
    Chinook, Montana
    Chinook is a city in and the county seat of Blaine County, Montana, United States. The population was 1,386 at the 2000 census. Points of interest are the Bear Paw Battlefield Museum located in the small town's center and the Bear Paw Battlefield, located just twenty miles south of...

  • K06KY Circle, Etc.
    Circle, Montana
    Circle is a town in and the county seat of McCone County, Montana, United States. The population was 644 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Circle is located at ....

  • K16GP Circle
    Circle, Montana
    Circle is a town in and the county seat of McCone County, Montana, United States. The population was 644 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Circle is located at ....

  • K12GP Dodson
    Dodson, Montana
    Dodson is a town in Phillips County, Montana, United States. The population was 122 at the 2000 census.-History:Dodson was named after a merchant who operated a trading post and saloon there before the Great Northern Railway came through...

     / Wagner
    Wagner, Montana
    Wagner is a small, unincorporated village in Phillips County, Montana, USA. The town lies along the Hi-Line of the Great Northern Railway....

  • K13JO Hinsdale / N. Rural
  • K09CB Horse Ranch / Roy
    Roy, Montana
    Roy is an unincorporated community in Fergus County, Montana, United States. The community is located along U.S. Highway 191 in northeastern Fergus County. Although it is unincorporated, Roy has a post office, with the ZIP code of 59471....

  • K54AM Joplin
    Joplin, Montana
    Joplin is a census-designated place in Liberty County, Montana, United States. The population was 157 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Joplin is located at ....

  • K07VA Jordan, Etc.
    Jordan, Montana
    Jordan is a town in and the county seat of Garfield County, Montana, United States. The population was 364 at the 2000 census.-History:Originally settled in 1896, Jordan received a post office on July 11, 1899...

  • K43DC Lewistown
    Lewistown, Montana
    Lewistown is a city in and the county seat of Fergus County, Montana, United States. The population was 5,813 at the 2000 census. Lewistown is located in central Montana, the geographic center of the state, southeast of Great Falls...

  • K11AD Loma
    Loma, Montana
    Loma is a census-designated place in Chouteau County, Montana, United States. The population was 92 at the 2000 census.-Geography and climate:Loma is located at ....

  • K07IC Malta, Etc.
    Malta, Montana
    Malta is a city in and the county seat of Phillips County, Montana, United States, located at the intersection of U.S. Routes 2 and 191. The population was 2,120 at the 2000 census.-History:...

  • K53CP Phillips County
    Phillips County, Montana
    -National protected areas:* Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge* Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge * Hewitt Lake National Wildlife Refuge* UL Bend National Wildlife Refuge* Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument -Demographics:...

  • K46GS Plentywood
    Plentywood, Montana
    As of the census of 2000, there were 2,061 people, 857 households, and 522 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,756.1 people per square mile . There were 1,020 housing units at an average density of 869.1 per square mile...

  • K13PZ Poplar
    Poplar, Montana
    As of the census of 2000, there were 911 people, 325 households, and 206 families residing in the town. The population density was 3,406.0 people per square mile . There were 350 housing units at an average density of 1,308.5 per square mile...

  • K09BX Saco, Etc.
    Saco, Montana
    Saco is a town in Phillips County, Montana, United States. The population was 224 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Saco is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , all of it land....

  • K63AQ Sweetgrass, Etc.
    Sweetgrass, Montana
    Sweet Grass is an unincorporated community in Toole County, Montana, United States, on the Canada-US border. It is the northern terminus of Interstate 15, an important route connecting western Canada, the western United States, and Mexico.In 2004, a joint border facility opened at the Sweetgrass...

  • K25HO Wolf Point
    Wolf Point, Montana
    Wolf Point is a city in and the county seat of Roosevelt County, Montana, United States. The population was 2,621 at the 2010 census. It is the largest community on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. Wolf Point is the home of the annual Wild Horse Stampede, held every year during the second weekend...

  • K13DU Wynot

External links

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