Channel 8 at Albion: The NTV years
In January 1961, a plan was released proposing the use of five additional very high frequency (VHF) channels for educational use in the state of Nebraska to expand the coverage of KUON-TV in Lincoln to 90 percent of the state population: channel 13 at Alliance, channel 8 at Albion, channel 3 at Bassett, channel 4 at Kearney, and channel 9 at North Platte.[3] KHOL-TV, an ABC affiliate in Kearney, also expressed interest in the allocation at Albion, 90 mi northwest of Lincoln, and began to survey the area as part of plans to locate a satellite of its station in Albion.[4] The matter became entangled in several other channel allocation proceedings,[5] but in November 1962, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved most of the educational television plan—except it protected channel 8 as a commercial station and assigned a UHF channel for educational use in Albion.[6]
In the wake of the decision, the Bi-States Company, owner of KHOL-TV, applied for stations in Albion and Superior to repeat the Kearney outlet, which the FCC approved in February 1964.[7] With the call sign KHQL-TV—matching KHOL-TV and its satellite KHPL-TV—the station was constructed and began telecasting on December 3, 1964.[8][9]
In 1974, NTV Enterprises acquired the network;[10] on June 4, concurrent with changes at all of the NTV stations, KHQL-TV became KCNA-TV (for the largest towns in its service area, Columbus, Norfolk, and Albion).[11][12] Joseph Amaturo bought the NTV stations in 1979 in a deal funded by the sale of KQTV in St. Joseph, Missouri.[13]
Big 8
Amaturo Group announced in September 1983 that it would split KCNA-TV from the NTV network to become an independent station, move its transmitter to Genoa in Nance County to increase coverage, and rebrand it as KBGT-TV "Big 8" on November 1.[14] (The name was a nod to the Big Eight Conference, of which the University of Nebraska–Lincoln was a member.[15]) The November 1 date was missed when construction problems caused delays in constructing the Genoa tower before the project shut down for the winter,[16][17] and Big 8 began on June 16, 1984, as the first independent station in Nebraska and with a 24-hour program schedule.[18][19]
KCAN
In July 1986, Amaturo filed to sell KBGT-TV to Citadel Communications for $3 million.[24] The sale contract excluded KBGT-TV's syndicated programming and film inventories.[25] The FCC approved the sale in November, earlier than expected, and Citadel announced its plan for the station: to rebroadcast KCAU-TV, its ABC affiliate in Sioux City, Iowa. This restored ABC service to some households in and around Albion that were not covered by KCAU-TV itself, KETV in Omaha, or NTV.[26] It also led to the station being removed from cable systems from Lincoln to Kearney.[27]
In January 1987, the call letters were changed to KCAN.[28]
Move to Lincoln
Citadel filed in 1991 to move KCAN from Albion to Lincoln, proposing to build a satellite station on channel 18 to serve the Albion area in order to meet an FCC requirement.[30] Citadel contended that Lincoln was the most underserved city of its size in the United States and among the most underserved state capitals for television service. This was mostly due to a historical quirk. While Lincoln had been allocated two VHF channels and briefly had two commercial stations, that number became one when KOLN, originally on channel 12, bought the assets and physical plant of KFOR-TV and moved to its channel 10 in 1954; channel 12 was then donated to the University of Nebraska and became KUON-TV.[31] Besides KOLN, Lincoln viewers generally watched the Omaha network affiliates, including ABC affiliate KETV, which was cited as the most direct competition for a relocated KCAN.[32][33][34]
Standard and Rincon ownership
After Citadel attempted to sell its television properties in 2000,[51] and after the 2014 sale of three of the five major Citadel properties to Nexstar Broadcasting Group,[52] Citadel sold its last two ABC affiliates—KLKN and WLNE-TV, serving Providence, Rhode Island—to Standard Media for $83 million. Its leader, former Young Broadcasting and Media General executive Deb McDermott, had begun her career in Lincoln at KOLN.[53][54][55] The sale was completed on September 5.[56]
