Early years as KXWY-TV
Channel 20 began broadcasting October 31, 1984, as KXWY-TV; transmitter delays pushed back its planned launch.[1] The station carried partial affiliations with both NBC and ABC. The primary carrier for ABC and some NBC shows was KTWO-TV, which held first-call rights to NBC programming but did not air all of it; the new channel 20 would carry The Today Show, soap operas and game shows from NBC, among others. KXWY-TV was owned by Channel 20 Casper, Inc., whose main investor was A. J. Stanton of Orlando, Florida.[2] The new station immediately made plans to go regional, merging with affiliated Hi Ho Broadcasting, owners of KFWY-TV (channel 10, previously KTNW) in Riverton and Thermopolis, and planning to start up a new satellite station at Rawlins. KTNW had previously opened a channel 20 translator in Casper in August 1980, which launched the same day as KCWY-TV (channel 14, not to be confused with the current KCWY-DT); both were Casper's first UHF television services.[3][4] The station offered little local news at the outset, producing and airing an insert into the Independent Network News.
The new station faced financial headwinds from the start. By June 1985, it had endured the disconnection of its telephones and was in the middle of a stock ownership dispute that left it undercapitalized.[5] In September, less than a year after starting up, KXWY-TV announced that it would be sold, along with KFWY-TV and the under-construction station at Rawlins (KRWY-TV), to a new company, First National Broadcasting. First National was a subsidiary of First National Entertainment, a movie and television production company.[6]
While the sale itself would languish for years, First National's hand in management and resources immediately became apparent in a series of major changes that took place in 1986. Significant events started just after the new year: that January, the station relocated from its original Salt Creek Highway studio base to Skyview Drive and upgraded its Casper Mountain transmitter from 19,000 to 68,000 watts.[7][8] The power increase was vital, as it allowed KXWY-TV to reach two-thirds as many homes as KCWY-TV. That meant it qualified under the 1971 "Raleigh rule" of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for an exclusive network affiliation.[9] KTWO-TV, which was affiliated with both ABC and NBC, chose the stronger NBC network, leaving ABC to hook up with channel 20.[10] In May, KXWY-TV began its first full-fledged local news service, replacing the INN cut-ins, which were reliant on video news releases, with 30-minute news programs seen at 6 and 10 p.m. weeknights and produced by a staff of four.[11] The next month, it announced plans for a second transmitter power upgrade to 1.35 million watts and the addition of low-power translators in Douglas and Gillette.[12]
The long, abortive First National sale
Trouble arose again in May 1987, when 26 station employees threatened to walk out on the job; the general manager attributed the payroll issues to the lengthy close of the sale to First National.[14] Only three, however, made good and left the station.[15] An agreement in principle on the sale was finally reached in June; at that time, the local news was temporarily suspended.[16]
However, channel 20 still had not actually been sold by 1988, when the Wyoming Division of Unemployment Insurance began a proceeding to obtain $66,000 in unpaid back taxes from KFNB. Early that year, Mark Nalbone became the new general manager; by that time, First National had been paying all of KFNB's expenses for more than two years to keep the station afloat.[17] However, the sale continued to be delayed. Events came to a head when the station went dark on April 18, 1989; while KFNB officials claimed transmitter trouble, a reporter for the station announced it had laid off all of its staff.[18]
Under Wyomedia management, KFNB returned to the air nine months later on January 23, 1990, continuing as the local ABC affiliate.[21] Wyomedia then applied to receive the licenses from Nalbone in his capacity as receiver; the Division of Unemployment filed a petition to deny, which the FCC dismissed alongside a petition by other creditors of First National in December 1991. Although KFNB and its satellites now had stable ownership and were free of the debt accumulated during the abortive First National sale, they did not offer any local news. First National ended up with new licenses to replace those held by Stanton's interests for KFNE and KFNR; Wyomedia acquired the pair in 2007 for $30,000 in total debt forgiveness.[22]
KFNB became a secondary affiliate of Fox in 1994, airing prime time programming in off hours and its Sunday football games.[23] Three years later, Wyomedia acquired low-power TV station K26ES and relaunched it as "KWYF", branded as "Wyoming's Fox TV"; however, channel 20 continued to maintain a secondary affiliation with Fox.[24]
Sale attempt and completed sale
Wyomedia Corporation agreed to sell its stations to Legacy Broadcasting on February 8, 2018. The deal would have created a duopoly between KFNB and KTWO-TV, which Legacy would have concurrently acquired from Silverton Broadcasting Company; in its filing with the FCC, Legacy stated that the duopoly was permissible because KFNB was the fifth-ranked station in the Casper–Riverton market, trailing sister station KWYF-LD as well as KTWO, KCWY-DT, and KGWC-TV.[31] The sale was canceled on October 2, 2018.[32]
On October 8, 2019, Wyomedia announced that it would sell its stations to Front Range Television, a subsidiary of Coastal Television Broadcasting Company (run by Bill Fielder); the sale was concurrent with Big Horn Television's purchase of KGWC-TV and Vision Alaska's purchase of KTWO-TV.[33] Coastal Television and Vision Alaska (run by Stephen Brissette) already jointly operated stations in Alaska.[34] The sale was completed on June 1, 2020.[35]
