History
KXMC was the first television station in North Dakota, going on the air in April 1953 as KCJB-TV, sister station to KCJB (910 AM). Minot businessman Chester Reiten and Fargo businessman John Boler, owners of KBMB-TV in Bismarck (now KXMB), bought the station in 1958 and changed KCJB's call letters to the current KXMC-TV.[1]
Boler sold his interest in the KX stations to Reiten in 1971. Reiten retired in the 1990s and turned over his interest to his five children: Steve Reiten, Dave Reiten, Kathleen Reiten Hruby, Tim Reiten, and Melanie Reiten Shonkwiler. Tim served as company president.
The KX stations formerly had a secondary affiliation with ABC before full-time ABC affiliate KMCY signed on in 1986. During the late 1950s, the stations were also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network.[2]
Until 1986, KXMD was carried by cable systems across neighboring Saskatchewan, even operating a sales office in Saskatoon, as did KUMV and Great Falls ABC station KFBB-TV. These arrangements ended in 1986 when the Canadian cable companies were granted permission to replace the North Dakota signals with network affiliates from Detroit and Toledo, Ohio.
KXJB-TV in Fargo was co-owned with the KX stations (though programmed separately) until Boler sold his interest in 1971. The stations still occasionally share stories. After an ice storm on April 6, 1997, caused the KXJB-TV mast to collapse, some cable systems replaced KXJB with KXMC, either temporarily or permanently, to maintain CBS service.
In 2006, the stations began a web portal-like website called KX Net, with each station's website displaying a localized front page. The stations continue to be branded as "KX Television" and as "KX News" on the air, but also use the "KX Net" moniker on the air. KXNet.com combined the previous domains kxma.com, kxmb.com, kxmc.com and kxmd.com under one umbrella. The original domains are still active. KXNet.com won the 2007 Teddy Award for Best Website and the 2007 Eric Severaid Award for best website small market television in a 6 state region.
In October 2007, KXNet.com along with Midkota Solutions launched DakotaPolitics.com, a web site focusing on North Dakota political news coverage. DakotaPolitics featured profile information, voting records and some analysis. DakotaPolitics also launched weekly tracking polls for the 2008 elections. In 2008 KXNet.com became the first web site in North Dakota to deliver a live news broadcast over the Internet when they streamed a 1-hour special coverage of the 2008 Presidential Caucuses from Bismarck.
In July 2008, Reiten Television began a joint agreement to sell television commercial slots on both KXMC and KMCY, Minot's ABC affiliate owned by Forum Communications Company. KXMC houses sales and engineering personnel solely for KMCY's operations.
On June 23, 2011, then anchorman/reporter Shaun Sipma received a phone call from Minot native Josh Duhamel who was in Moscow, Russia, at the time to pledge his support when his hometown got flooded during KXMC's 24-hour flood coverage.[3]
Nexstar Broadcasting Group announced its $44 million purchase of the Reiten Television stations, including KXMC-TV, on September 17, 2015.[4] The sale was completed on February 2, 2016.[5] As result of the acquisition, Nexstar terminated the joint sales agreement with KMCY.[6]
