KVRR
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|
kW | |
| HAAT | 379 m (1,243 ft) |
|---|---|
| Transmitter coordinates | 46°40′29″N 96°13′40″W / 46.67472°N 96.22778°W |
| Translator(s) | see § Satellite stations and § Translators |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
KVRR (channel 15) is a television station in Fargo, North Dakota, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. Owned by Coastal Television Broadcasting Company, the station maintains studios on South 40th Street and South 9th Avenue in Fargo, and its transmitter is located near Tansem, Minnesota. KVRR also handles master control and some internal operations for sister station and fellow Fox affiliate KQDS-TV in Duluth, Minnesota.
KVRR's programming is simulcast on three full-power
KVRR was the flagship television property of previous owner Red River Broadcasting, which owned the station from its inception until its sale to Coastal in 2024.
History
The station first signed on the air on February 14, 1983, under the callsign KVNJ-TV. It was the first independent station in the Dakotas, as well as the first new standalone full-power commercial station to sign on in the Fargo–Grand Forks market in 29 years. WDAZ-TV (channel 8) in Grand Forks had signed on in 1967, but is co-owned with Fargo's WDAY-TV (channel 6).
The station changed its call letters to KVRR in 1985; that year, KBRR signed on from Thief River Falls as a satellite station serving Grand Forks. Satellite station KNRR signed on from Pembina in 1986, with intentions to target Winnipeg and southern Manitoba. Shortly afterward, on October 6, 1986, the three-station network became a charter affiliate of the upstart Fox network. However, like most early Fox affiliates, the stations still programmed themselves as independents, since Fox carried only one program at the time (
In December 1988, KVRR partnered with three other independent stations serving Minnesota—KTMA (now
—to create a new regional television network called the Minnesota Independent Network (MIN). Despite good intentions, the network never got off the ground.The stations also carried programming from the United Paramount Network (UPN) on a tape delay from the network's debut on January 16, 1995, until its programming was dropped in 1998, due to the presence of Minneapolis UPN affiliate KMSP-TV on cable providers in most of KVRR's viewing area (when KMSP became a Fox owned-and-operated station in September 2002, KCPM in Grand Forks signed on as a full-time UPN station in 2003).
From the mid-1990s until March 2015, KVRR did not include any regional, channel, or call letter branding on-air outside of
In the summer of 2015, Red River Broadcasting announced that
On November 30, 2021,
KNRR and the old KCND
KNRR (channel 12) operates on a channel frequency previously occupied by
The coverage area of KNRR's analog signal included Winnipeg, which has almost double the population of KVRR's entire primary service area in North Dakota and western Minnesota. However, the
Even during the analog television era, when the northern fringe of KNRR's grade B signal contour encompassed Winnipeg, KNRR was all but impossible to receive in the River Heights and North End neighborhoods of the city, and was also subject to interference from hydro lines and telephone relay stations.[10] Over time, KNRR's transmitter degraded and was not replaced, further reducing the signal quality.[11]
KNRR shut down its signal on June 12, 2009, when the
Although it can be received in several rural counties in North Dakota and Minnesota, the station's largest potential audience lies in the urban centers of southern Manitoba, including Altona, Morden and Winkler, and fringe coverage of Winnipeg.[15]
News operation
KVRR presently broadcasts 9+1⁄2 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 1+1⁄2 hours each weekday and one hour each on Saturdays and Sundays). As with most programming, the station's newscasts are simulcast on satellite stations KJRR, KBRR and KNRR, with separate Grand Forks area commercials occasionally inserted on KBRR/KNRR.
KVRR launched its news department in July 2000, when it debuted a half-hour nightly newscast at 9 p.m., becoming the first prime time newscast in the Fargo market. In 2009, the station debuted a half-hour weeknight-only newscast at 6 p.m. On September 19, 2011, the 9 p.m. newscast was expanded from 35 minutes to one hour. On February 5, 2014, KVRR became the third and last television news operation in the Fargo–Grand Forks market (after KXJB-TV 4/KVLY 11 and WDAY 6/WDAZ 8) to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition.[16]
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's signal is
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15.1 | 720p | 16:9 |
KVRR-DT | Fox |
| 15.2 | 480i | 4:3 |
ANTENNA | Antenna TV[18] |
Analog-to-digital conversion
In the early 2000s[when?], KVRR became the first commercial television station (the first being Prairie Public Television member stations KFME (channel 13), KGFE in Grand Forks and KCGE-DT in Crookston, Minnesota) in eastern North Dakota to transmit a digital signal.
KVRR shut down its analog signal, over
KVRR and KJRR were the only stations in KVRR's regional network to broadcast programming in
Satellite stations
KVRR operates three full-power satellite stations: KJRR, KBRR, and KNRR. These stations fully simulcast KVRR, but KBRR and KNRR occasionally air separate commercials for Grand Forks and the northern portion of the viewing area. Aside from their transmitters, the satellite stations do not maintain any physical presence in their cities of license.
| Station | City of license (other locations served) |
Channel | First air date | Second letter of callsign meaning | ERP | HAAT
|
Facility ID | Transmitter coordinates | Public license information |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KJRR | Jamestown (Valley City) |
VHF) : 7
Virtual |
February 8, 1988 | Jamestown, North Dakota | 21.3 kW | 135 m (443 ft) | 55364 | 46°55′25.5″N 98°46′20.2″W / 46.923750°N 98.772278°W | |
| KBRR | Grand Forks )
|
Digital: 10 (VHF) Virtual: 10 |
September 1985 | Red River Broadcasting Company | 9.3 kW | 198.1 m (650 ft) | 55370 | 47°58′38″N 96°36′18″W / 47.97722°N 96.60500°W | |
| KNRR | Pembina (Southern Manitoba/Winnipeg) |
Digital: 12 (VHF) Virtual: 12 |
January 1, 1986 | Northern North Dakota | 4.4 kW | 427 m (1,401 ft) | 55362 | 48°59′44″N 97°24′28″W / 48.99556°N 97.40778°W |
Translators
KVRR serves its large coverage area with three translators. All are owned by local municipalities and relay satellite station KBRR.
KVRR and its satellite stations originally relayed its programming on a large network of translators throughout eastern North Dakota and west-central Minnesota. However, only one remains relaying KBRR and two more relaying KBRR in
K61BJ in Donnelly, Minnesota, K54AT in Brainerd, Minnesota, K33HB in Devils Lake, North Dakota (relaying KNRR), and K05IV in Park Rapids, Minnesota, are no longer actively used as translators of KVRR. K61BJ was thought to be in operation by KVRR, but due to lack of communication it was found that the translator was damaged beyond repair by a lightning strike in 2005. K54AT was taken off the air in mid-April 2008, never to return. This was due to several reasons, the most significant being that the Brainerd was already served by a translator of Twin Cities Fox O&O KMSP-TV. K33HB, which relayed KNRR, was knocked off-the-air due to a tower collapse. K05IV's license was surrendered to the FCC on June 12, 2013.
KVRR originally maintained translators in north-central
References
- ^ a b "Coastal Television reaches agreement to acquire Red River Broadcast". KVRR.com. December 1, 2023. Retrieved December 2, 2023.
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for KVRR". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
- ^ Ellis, Jon (November 30, 2021). "Forum Buys Fargo, Duluth FOX Affiliates". Northpine.com. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
- ^ Ellis, Jon (January 22, 2022). "Forum Seeks Waiver for Purchase of Fargo, Duluth FOX Stations". Northpine.com. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
- ^ Evanella, Thomas (June 6, 2023). "Forum Communications' planned purchase of KVRR-TV in Fargo, KQDS-TV in Duluth falls through". Inforum.com. Retrieved June 7, 2023.
- ^ "Notification of Consummation". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission. April 5, 2024. Retrieved April 8, 2024.
- ^ Ellis, Jon (April 8, 2024). "FCC Monitor: Duluth, Fargo TV Sale Closes; Two New LPFM's OK'd". Northpine.com. Retrieved April 8, 2024.
- ^ ARCHIVED – Decision CRTC 86-1006
- ^ ARCHIVED – Decision CRTC 94-793
- ^ Prokosh, Kevin (January 10, 1986). "KNRR reception depends on where viewers live". Winnipeg Free Press.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on March 26, 2014. Retrieved April 4, 2013.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Application For Extension Of Time To Construct A Digital Television Broadcast Station". fcc.gov. August 6, 2009. Retrieved November 8, 2019.
- ^ "Resurrected Pembina station to provide Winnipeg's first over-the-air digital signal". The View from Seven. October 15, 2009. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
- ^ "June 2009". Northpine.com. Retrieved November 8, 2019.
- ^ RabbitEars coverage map for KNRR
- Forum News Service. February 6, 2014. Archived from the originalon September 24, 2015.
- ^ RabbitEars TV Query for KVRR
- ^ "Antenna TV". KVRR. Retrieved December 24, 2015.
- ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
- ^ http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/197301/group/homepage/[permanent dead link]