KMMF
Encyclopedia
KMMF was a full-service television station
in Missoula, Montana
, broadcasting locally in analog on UHF
channel 17 as an affiliate of Fox
. Founded April 25, 2000, the station was owned by Equity Broadcasting
. The station's signal was repeated in Kalispell, Montana
on KMMF-LP channel 34.
KMMF added MyNetworkTV
as a secondary affiliation in September 2006.
KMMF was fed from Equity's hub in Little Rock, Arkansas
by March 2008. Technical issues dramatically increased in number after this was implemented.
At auction on April 16, 2009, Max Media
bought KMMF and the rest of Equity's Montana Fox station system.
after the FCC
finalized the DTV
allotment plan on April 21, 1997 , the station did not receive a companion channel for a digital television station
. Instead, at the end of the digital TV conversion period for full-service stations, KMMF would have been required to turn off its analog signal
and turn on its digital signal
(called a "flash-cut
").
, this station was scheduled to go dark
in 2009
. According to the station's DTV status report, "On December 8, 2008, the licensee's parent corporation filed a petition for bankruptcy
relief under chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy
code... This station must obtain post-petition financing and court approval before digital facilities
may be constructed. The station will cease analogue broadcasting on February 17, 2009
, regardless of whether digital facilities
are operational by that date. The station will file authority to remain silent
if so required by the FCC
."
While the DTV Delay Act extended this deadline to June 12, 2009, Equity had applied for an extension of the digital construction permit
in order to retain the broadcast license
after the station goes dark.
On July 1, 2009, Max Media established a new Fox affiliate on the digital subchannel
of its ABC
affiliates, KTMF
in Missoula and KTMF-LD in Kalispell. KMMF was shut down on June 12, 2009 when analog broadcasting ended; both KMMF and KMMF-LP's callsigns have since been canceled by the FCC.
Earlier, it had been reported that only cable subscribers could watch Fox broadcasts in western Montana. It is unclear from the story what Fox affiliate they received. At the time, there was only one operating Fox station in the state, KHMT in the Billings
area (licensed to Hardin
). The network could have exported the signal from another city, possibly Denver (KDVR
) or Salt Lake City (KSTU
); additionally, at least in Great Falls
, Equity arranged for KLMN
, which shut down for similar reasons to KMMF, to remain on cable as that market's Max Media station, KFBB-TV
, prepared to launch its Fox subchannel.
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 Missoula, Montana
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...
, broadcasting locally in analog on 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...
channel 17 as an affiliate of 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...
. Founded April 25, 2000, the station was owned by Equity Broadcasting
Equity Broadcasting
Equity Media Holdings was a broadcasting company based in Little Rock, Arkansas that owned and operated television stations across the United States. Prior to March 30, 2007, the company was known as Equity Broadcasting, which is now used for its broadcast station subisdary...
. The station's signal was repeated in Kalispell, Montana
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...
on KMMF-LP channel 34.
KMMF added MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
as a secondary affiliation in September 2006.
KMMF was fed from Equity's hub in Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...
by March 2008. Technical issues dramatically increased in number after this was implemented.
At auction on April 16, 2009, 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...
bought KMMF and the rest of Equity's Montana Fox station system.
Demise
Because it was granted an original construction permitConstruction permit
A construction permit or building permit is a permit required in most jurisdictions for new construction, or adding on to pre-existing structures, and in some cases for major renovations. Generally, the new construction must be inspected during construction and after completion to ensure compliance...
after the FCC
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...
finalized the DTV
Digital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
allotment plan on April 21, 1997 , the station did not receive a companion channel for a digital 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...
. Instead, at the end of the digital TV conversion period for full-service stations, KMMF would have been required to turn off its analog signal
Analog signal
An analog or analogue signal is any continuous signal for which the time varying feature of the signal is a representation of some other time varying quantity, i.e., analogous to another time varying signal. It differs from a digital signal in terms of small fluctuations in the signal which are...
and turn on its digital signal
Digital signal
A digital signal is a physical signal that is a representation of a sequence of discrete values , for example of an arbitrary bit stream, or of a digitized analog signal...
(called a "flash-cut
Flash-cut
A flash-cut, also called flash-cutover, is an immediate change in a complex system, with no phase-in period.Some telephone area codes were split immediately, rather than being phased in with a permissive dialing period. An example is telephone area code 213, which was split into 213 and 714 all at...
").
, this station was scheduled to go dark
Dark (broadcasting)
In the broadcasting industry, dark is a term used to describe a radio station or television station that has gone off-the-air for an indefinite period of time, or as defined by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission , a "silent" station...
in 2009
DTV transition in the United States
The DTV transition in the United States was the switchover from analog to exclusively digital broadcasting of free over-the-air television programming...
. According to the station's DTV status report, "On December 8, 2008, the licensee's parent corporation filed a petition for bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
relief under chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy
Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure
The Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure are a set of rules promulgated by the Supreme Court of the United States under the Rules Enabling Act, directing procedures in the United States bankruptcy courts...
code... This station must obtain post-petition financing and court approval before digital facilities
ATSC
ATSC standards are a set of standards developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee for digital television transmission over terrestrial, cable, and satellite networks....
may be constructed. The station will cease analogue broadcasting on February 17, 2009
DTV transition in the United States
The DTV transition in the United States was the switchover from analog to exclusively digital broadcasting of free over-the-air television programming...
, regardless of whether digital facilities
Digital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
are operational by that date. The station will file authority to remain silent
Dark (broadcasting)
In the broadcasting industry, dark is a term used to describe a radio station or television station that has gone off-the-air for an indefinite period of time, or as defined by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission , a "silent" station...
if so required by the FCC
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...
."
While the DTV Delay Act extended this deadline to June 12, 2009, Equity had applied for an extension of the digital construction permit
Construction permit
A construction permit or building permit is a permit required in most jurisdictions for new construction, or adding on to pre-existing structures, and in some cases for major renovations. Generally, the new construction must be inspected during construction and after completion to ensure compliance...
in order to retain the broadcast license
Broadcast license
A broadcast license or broadcast license is a specific type of spectrum license that grants the licensee the privilege to use a portion of the radio frequency spectrum in a given geographical area for broadcasting purposes. The licenses are generally straddled with additional restrictions that...
after the station goes dark.
On July 1, 2009, Max Media established a new Fox affiliate on the digital subchannel
Digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a means to transmit more than one independent program at the same time from the same digital radio or digital television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compression techniques to reduce the size of each individual...
of its 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...
affiliates, 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 and KTMF-LD in Kalispell. KMMF was shut down on June 12, 2009 when analog broadcasting ended; both KMMF and KMMF-LP's callsigns have since been canceled by the FCC.
Earlier, it had been reported that only cable subscribers could watch Fox broadcasts in western Montana. It is unclear from the story what Fox affiliate they received. At the time, there was only one operating Fox station in the state, KHMT in the Billings
Billings, Montana
Billings is the largest city in the U.S. state of Montana, and is the principal city of the Billings Metropolitan Area, the largest metropolitan area in over...
area (licensed to Hardin
Hardin, Montana
Hardin is a city in and the county seat of Big Horn County, Montana, United States. The population was 3,384 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Hardin is located at ....
). The network could have exported the signal from another city, possibly Denver (KDVR
KDVR
KDVR, , is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the Denver, Colorado designated market area. The station is owned by Local TV LLC, the media arm of private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, under a local marketing agreement with Tribune-owned CW affiliate KWGN . Its transmitter is...
) or Salt Lake City (KSTU
KSTU
KSTU, channel 13, is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the Salt Lake City designated market area. The station is owned by Local TV LLC, the media arm of private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, and its transmitter located on Farnsworth Peak, southwest of Salt Lake City...
); additionally, at least in Great Falls
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...
, Equity arranged for 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 :...
, which shut down for similar reasons to KMMF, to remain on cable as that market's Max Media station, KFBB-TV
KFBB-TV
KFBB-TV is a full-service television station in Great Falls, Montana, broadcasting locally on digital VHF channel 8 as an affiliate of ABC. Founded March 21, 1954, the station is owned by Max Media. KFBB-TV also operates a semi-satellite for the Helena area, KHBB-LD channel 21...
, prepared to launch its Fox subchannel.