Construction and early years
Boise radio station KIDO, owned by Georgia Davidson, filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in March 1952 seeking to build a television station on the city's allotted channel 7. The application arrived in anticipation of the end of the FCC's multi-year freeze on TV station applications.[1] The construction permit was granted on December 23,[2] KIDO already had some equipment on hand; the month before, it conducted a closed-circuit demonstration of television at its AM transmitter site.[3] On an elevation behind the city, construction began in February on the transmitter site.[4] The station picked up affiliations with the CBS, NBC, and DuMont networks;[5] KIDO radio had maintained NBC affiliation since 1937.[6]
From studios on 700 Crestline Drive, KIDO-TV began broadcasting on July 12, 1953; Philo Farnsworth, a television pioneer, was one of the guests of honor at the dedication.[7] A month earlier, on June 18, KFXD-TV (channel 6) in Nampa put out Idaho's first television test pattern,[8] initiating regular programming under special temporary authority 11 days later.[9] While KIDO-TV was the second television station to sign on in Idaho, it was the first to be fully licensed. It was also effectively the first serious station to begin operations in the state. While KIDO-TV had studios and network affiliations, KFXD-TV had neither. Channel 6 subsisted on a schedule of old movies and operated with the bare minimum of personnel, lasting less than two months before leaving the air.[12] The lone missing national network, ABC, affiliated with KIDO-TV in December.[13] This replaced CBS, which had moved to new station KBOI-TV
National live programming became a reality beginning with the 1955 World Series after a microwave transmission link between Boise and Salt Lake City was set up by KIDO-TV and KBOI-TV. KIDO-TV's tower was relocated to Deer Point in 1956, which together with an increased effective radiated power extended the station's coverage to a further 80,000 people.[15] Davidson agreed to sell KIDO radio to the Mesabi Western Corp. in November 1958; the radio station retained its call sign,[16] and channel 7 became KTVB on February 1, 1959.[17] The sale alleviated cash issues for the television station, which struggled financially in its early years and particularly after Boise became a two-station market;[18] in a 1978 interview, Davidson noted that she "lived with the spectre of bankruptcy, a very embarrassing bankruptcy, day or night".[19]
KTVB in La Grande, Oregon: KTVR
KTVB received a construction permit on December 18, 1963, to expand its reach with the construction of a satellite station on channel 13 in La Grande, Oregon, northwest of Boise.[20] KTVR began broadcasting on December 6, 1964.[21] It initially offered local news and information for Eastern Oregon from studios in La Grande.[22] In 1967, KTVB closed the local operation in La Grande and converted KTVR into a full-time rebroadcaster of the Boise station.[23]
In 1974, KTVB received an offer from the Oregon Educational and Public Broadcasting Service (OEPBS) to acquire KTVR for integration into its statewide public television network and serve large areas of Eastern Oregon.[24] Citing a lack of local viewership and the availability of NBC stations from
Growth and new studios
Ground was broken for new studios at 5400 Fairview Avenue in 1970,[30] and the facility formally opened the next year. The 20000 ft2 facility boasted the largest TV studio in Idaho.[31] In 1974, KTVB lost ABC programming to a new station—KITC-TV, soon renamed KIVI-TV, on channel 6.
Davidson—long the only female owner among 125 men at annual NBC affiliate meetings—announced the sale of KTVB to King Broadcasting of Seattle in 1979.[32] While the sale left Boise without any locally owned television stations, Davidson believed she had to sell KTVB in order to keep the station on the air. She feared saddling her family with a large estate tax burden upon her death, diminishing KTVB's profits and ability to invest.[33] King Broadcasting took over in April 1980. While the new owners retained senior management,[34]
Providence Journal, Belo, Gannett/Tegna, and Nexstar ownership
King Broadcasting Company put itself up for sale in 1990, citing the age of its majority owners, Patsy Bullitt Collins and Harriet Stimson Bullitt, the daughters of the late company matriarch, Dorothy Bullitt.[36] It accepted an offer from the Providence Journal Company in 1991;[37] the transaction closed in 1992.[38] Under Providence Journal, KTVB became a contributor to the new Northwest Cable News (NWCN) regional cable channel when it launched in 1995, with one reporter dedicated to NWCN based in Boise.[39] The Belo Corporation purchased Providence Journal in 1996.[42] At the end of October 2003, KTVB launched 24/7 NewsChannel on its second
