KDLT-TV

KDLT-TV and KDLV-TV
Channels for KDLT-TV
Channels for KDLV-TV
Branding
  • KDLT; Dakota News Now
  • Fox Sioux Falls
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
KSFY-TV, KPRY-TV
History
First air date
June 12, 1960 (1960-06-12)
Former call signs
  • KDLT-TV:
    • KORN-TV (1960–1973)
    • KXON-TV (1973–1982)
Former channel numbers
  • KDLT-TV:
    • Analog: 5 (VHF, 1960–1998); 46 (UHF, 1998–2009)
    • Digital: 47 (UHF, until 2018)
  • KDLV-TV: Analog: 5 (VHF, 1998–2009)
  • KDLT-TV:
    • NBC (1960–1969)
    • ABC (1969–1983)
  • KDLV-TV:
    • 13.2: CW+ (until 2020)
    • 13.3: MeTV (until 2020)
Call sign meaning
  • KDLT-TV: Dakotaland Television, former owners
Technical information
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID
  • KDLT-TV: 55379
  • KDLV-TV: 55375
ERP
  • KDLT-TV: 589 kW
  • KDLV-TV: 1,000 kW
HAAT
  • KDLT-TV: 608 m (1,995 ft)
  • KDLV-TV: 315 m (1,033 ft)
Transmitter coordinates
Links
Public license information
Websitewww.dakotanewsnow.com

KDLT-TV (channel 46) and KDLV-TV (channel 5) are television stations licensed respectively to Sioux Falls and Mitchell, South Dakota, United States, affiliated with NBC and Fox. They are owned by Gray Media alongside ABC affiliate KSFY-TV (channel 13). The stations share studios in Courthouse Square on 1st Avenue South in Sioux Falls. KDLT-TV's transmitter is located near Rowena, while KDLV's tower is in Plankinton.

KDLV operates as a full-time satellite of KDLT; its existence is only acknowledged in station identifications. Aside from the transmitter, KDLV has no physical presence in Mitchell. Both of KDLT's subchannels also air on KPRY-TV in Pierre, a semi-satellite of sister station KSFY-TV.

KDLT-TV got its start as KORN-TV, an NBC affiliate on channel 5 in Mitchell, in 1960. It did not begin broadcasting to the Sioux Falls area until 1969, when it switched to ABC. The station changed its call letters to KXON-TV in 1973 when channel 5 was split from KORN radio. The station was sold again in 1982 to become KDLT-TV; it lost its ABC affiliation when the network opted to move to KSFY-TV the next year, picking up NBC instead. For the better part of its history, it suffered from low ratings and the perception that it was a Mitchell station rather than a Sioux Falls station. In 1987, most operations, including news production, moved to Sioux Falls. In 1998, as part of an effort to improve the station's coverage, a new transmitter on channel 46 in Sioux Falls became the main station, while channel 5 was repurposed as a full-time satellite for the market's western portion. Even after these changes, the station has spent the better part of its history as the lowest-rated Big Three station in the market.

In 2019, Gray Television, owner of KSFY, sought and was granted Federal Communications Commission approval to buy KDLT in hopes of creating a stronger challenge to long-dominant KELO-TV. This brought KDLT and KSFY under one roof, with a merged news operation known as Dakota News Now. Gray then bought the market's Fox affiliation, resulting in the migration of Fox from KTTW to a subchannel of KDLT-TV and the two stations' satellites.