KMNF-LD

Last updated

KMNF-LD
Channels
Branding
  • KEYC; KEYC CW (7.2)
  • KEYC News Now (newscasts)
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
KEYC-TV
History
First air date
  • March 2012;13 years ago (2012-03)
  • December 1, 2019;5 years ago (2019-12-01) (as a separate station)
Former call signs
  • K38MY-D (2011–2019)
  • K13AAR-D (CP/STA, 2018–2019)
  • K07AAH-D (CP, 2019)
Former channel number(s)
  • Digital: 38 (UHF, 2012–2018), 7 (VHF, 2018–2024)
  • Virtual: 12 (2012–2017)
  • CBS and Fox (as translator of KEYC-TV, 2012–2017)
  • Dark (2017–2019)
  • Circle (7.3, 2022–2023)
  • 365BLK (7.3, 2023–2025)
Call sign meaning
Mankato, New Ulm, and Fairmont [2]
Technical information [3]
Licensing authority
 FCC
Facility ID 183814
Class LD
ERP 3 kW
HAAT 292.7 m (960 ft)
Transmitter coordinates 43°56′12.3″N94°24′39″W / 43.936750°N 94.41083°W / 43.936750; -94.41083
Translator(s) K33MW-D Mankato
Links
Public license information
LMS

KMNF-LD (channel 7) is a low-power television station in Mankato, Minnesota, United States, affiliated with NBC and The CW Plus. It is owned by Gray Media alongside dual CBS and Fox affiliate KEYC-TV (channel 12). The two stations share studios on Lookout Drive in North Mankato; KMNF-LD's transmitter is located near Lewisville, Minnesota. [4]

Contents

History

The KMNF-LD license originated as K38MY-D in St. James, Minnesota, a translator for KEYC-TV (then owned by United Communications) on UHF channel 38 [5] that signed on in March 2012. [6] K38MY-D went off the air on December 21, 2017, after the expiration of its tower lease agreement with BENCO/CTV; KEYC had operated UHF translators from Cooperative TV's Godahl tower since 1993. [7]

On September 14, 2018, K38MY-D was granted a construction permit to move to channel 13 from KEYC-TV's tower as K13AAR-D; [8] the channel change was required following the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s spectrum incentive auction and the subsequent repacking of the television band. [9] To maintain its license, the station operated under special temporary authority at reduced power from this facility [9] from November 29 [10] to December 6, 2018. [11]

K13AAR-D was included in Gray Television's 2019 purchase of United Communications' television stations. [12]

On May 23, 2019, the station was granted a construction permit to move to channel 7 as K07AAH-D; [13] on June 3, 2019, the call letters were changed to KMNF-LD, a close match for those originally proposed for sister station KEYC-TV in 1958. [14]

On June 24, 2019, Gray announced that KMNF-LD would launch as early as September as an NBC affiliate, with The CW on its second subchannel. [4] [15] KEYC-TV itself had launched in 1960 as an NBC affiliate, switching to CBS in 1961. [4] For the next 58 years after that, NBC programming was not available over-the-air in the Mankato market. Since 1981, Minneapolis affiliate KARE and Rochester affiliate KTTC had served as the default NBC affiliates for southwestern Minnesota via cable. KMNF-LD's sign-on leaves ABC and PBS as the only networks to not have over-the-air affiliates in Mankato; ABC programming is carried on cable via KSTP-TV and KAAL, and PBS programming carried via KTCA-TV; with KSTP and KTCA being carried on CTV translators K30FN-D (KSTP) and K26CS-D (KTCA) in St. James. [16] [17] [18] [19]

Testing on KMNF-LD began on October 28, 2019. [20] The station officially signed on December 1, 2019. [21]

On January 17, 2023, KMNF-LD began broadcasting translator K33MW-D from the KEYC-TV studio tower. [22]

Newscasts

KMNF-LD began simulcasting some KEYC newscasts on December 2, 2019. Kato Mornings airs weekdays from 6 to 7 a.m. on both KEYC-TV and KMNF-LD. The stations also simulcast the 10 p.m. news on weeknights, with each station airing separate commercials during each simulcast.

On February 21, 2022, KMNF-LD began simulcasting KEYC's 6 p.m. newscast.

On September 3, 2023, KMNF-LD began airing a 5 p.m. newscast on Sunday evenings.

Subchannels

The station's signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of KMNF-LD [23]
Channel Res. Aspect Short nameProgramming
7.1 1080i 16:9 KMNFLD1 NBC
7.2 720p KMNFLD2 The CW Plus
7.3KMNFLD3

Notes

  1. ↑ Originally licensed to St. James, Minnesota, as a KEYC-TV translator; moved to Mankato in 2019.

References

  1. ↑ "Displacement Application of Licensed Digital Low Power Television Station" (PDF). fcc.gov. Retrieved December 16, 2023.
  2. ↑ Arola, Brian (June 24, 2019). "KEYC adding NBC programming in late 2019". Mankato Free Press . Retrieved June 25, 2019.
  3. ↑ "Facility Technical Data for KMNF-LD". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  4. 1 2 3 Keegan, Mitch (June 24, 2019). "KEYC-TV adding 2 more network affiliates this fall". KEYC-TV. Retrieved June 25, 2019.
  5. ↑ Ellis, Jon (June 24, 2019). "Gray TV To Add NBC, CW Affiliations in Mankato" . Retrieved June 25, 2019.
  6. ↑ "Application for a Low Power TV, TV Translator or TV Booston Station License". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. March 26, 2012. Retrieved June 25, 2019.
  7. ↑ Keegan, Mitch (December 21, 2017). "Translator Changes May Impact Some Over-the-Air Viewers of KEYC News 12". KEYC.com . Archived from the original on June 25, 2018. Retrieved June 25, 2019.
  8. ↑ "Displacement for LPTV Translator Application". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission. May 5, 2018. Retrieved June 25, 2019.
  9. 1 2 "LPTV Translator Engineering STA Application". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission. November 13, 2018. Retrieved June 25, 2019.
  10. ↑ "Resumption of Operations of a LPTV Translator Station Application". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission. November 29, 2018. Retrieved June 25, 2019.
  11. ↑ "Resumption of Operations of a LPTV Translator Station Application". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission. December 11, 2018. Retrieved June 25, 2019.
  12. ↑ Ellis, Jon (June 24, 2019). "Gray TV Buys Mankato Station, First in Minnesota" . Retrieved February 8, 2019.
  13. ↑ "Displacement for LPTV Translator Application". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission. April 22, 2019. Retrieved June 25, 2019.
  14. ↑ "Call Sign History (KMNF-LD)". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission . Retrieved June 25, 2019.
  15. ↑ "CW PLUS Market Clearance (as of September 1, 2019)" (PDF). © 2019 The CW Television Network. Retrieved July 30, 2018.
  16. ↑ "RabbitEars.Info". www.rabbitears.info.
  17. ↑ "RabbitEars.Info". www.rabbitears.info.
  18. ↑ "The Webpage of Cooperative TV (CTV)". Archived from the original on October 24, 2020. Retrieved July 17, 2019.
  19. ↑ "CTV Channel Listing via the Cooperative TV (CTV) Website" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 8, 2020. Retrieved July 17, 2019.
  20. ↑ Keegan, Mitch. "Testing underway on new NBC, CW affiliates". KEYC News 12. Archived from the original on October 30, 2019. Retrieved October 30, 2019.
  21. ↑ Keegan, Mitch. "Programming to start soon for NBC, CW". KEYC News 12. Retrieved November 15, 2019.
  22. ↑ Keegan, Mitch (January 13, 2023). "New translator added for KMNF in North Mankato". KEYC News Now. Gray Television . Retrieved January 17, 2023.
  23. ↑ "RabbitEars TV Query for KMNF". RabbitEars . Retrieved June 17, 2024.
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