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KDLH (channel 3) is a
television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's s ...
in
Duluth, Minnesota Duluth ( ) is a Port, port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of St. Louis County, Minnesota, St. Louis County. Located on Lake Superior in Minnesota's Arrowhead Region, the city is a hub for cargo shipping. The population ...
, United States, affiliated with
The CW Plus The CW Plus is a secondary national broadcast television broadcast syndication, syndication service feed of The CW, whose controlling stake of 75% is owned by Nexstar Media Group, with Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery holding their ow ...
. It is owned by
Gray Media Gray Media, Inc., doing business as Gray Television, is an American publicly traded television broadcasting company based in Atlanta. Founded in 1946 by James Harrison Gray as Gray Communications Systems, the company owns or operates 180 statio ...
alongside
Superior, Wisconsin Superior (; ) is a city in Douglas County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. The population was 26,751 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located at the western end of Lake Superior in northwestern Wisconsin, the city l ...
–licensed dual
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
/
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
affiliate
KBJR-TV KBJR-TV (channel 6) is a television station licensed to Superior, Wisconsin, United States, serving the Duluth, Minnesota, area as an affiliate of NBC and CBS. It is owned by Gray Media alongside CW+ affiliate KDLH (channel 3). The two stations ...
, channel 6 (and its
Chisholm, Minnesota Chisholm is a city in St. Louis County, Minnesota, St. Louis County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 4,775 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The city has been called "The Heart of the Iron Range" due to its location i ...
–licensed
semi-satellite A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or trans ...
KRII, channel 11). The two stations share studios on South Lake Avenue in Canal Park, downtown Duluth; KDLH's transmitter is located west of downtown in Hilltop Park. Throughout most of the station's history, KDLH had long been the
Twin Ports The Duluth MN–WI Metropolitan Area, commonly called the Twin Ports, is a small metropolitan area centered around the cities of Duluth, Minnesota and Superior, Wisconsin. The Twin Ports are located at the western part of Lake Superior (the we ...
' CBS affiliate. In its latter years, it was operated by
Quincy Media Quincy Media, Inc., formerly known as Quincy Newspapers, Inc., was a family-owned media company that originated in the newspapers of Quincy, Illinois. The company's history can be traced back to 1835, when the ''Bounty Land Register'' was one of ...
through a
shared services Shared services is the provision of a service by one part of an organization or group where that service had previously been found in more than one part of the organization or group. Thus the funding and resourcing of the service is shared and the ...
agreement (SSA) with then-owner
SagamoreHill Broadcasting SagamoreHill Broadcasting LLC is a privately held American holding company that owns 13 television stations based in the Great Lakes and southern United States regions. The company is a joint venture of the investment firm Duff Ackerman & Goodric ...
, making it sister to KBJR and KRII. Following the end of KDLH's SSA on August 1, 2016 (resulting from the station's sale from Malara Broadcast Group, concurrent with the sale of KBJR by Granite Broadcasting), CBS programming was moved to KBJR-DT2 and KDLH switched exclusively to The CW.


History

KDLH began broadcasting on March 14, 1954, as KDAL-TV and aired an analog signal on VHF channel 3. It took its calls from the initials of its founder, Dalton Alexander LeMasurier, who owned the station along with KDAL radio (610 AM). It switched affiliations with WDSM-TV (now KBJR) in 1955 and joined CBS. It also aired some ABC programs in off-hours, splitting them with WDSM-TV, until WDIO-TV signed-on in 1966. The station's original studio facilities were located with KDAL Radio in the Bradley Building (demolished) moved to West Superior Street in downtown Duluth in the mid-1960s. During the late-1950s, KDAL was also briefly affiliated with the
NTA Film Network The NTA Film Network was an early American television network founded by Ely Landau in 1956 that operated on a part-time basis, broadcasting films and several first-run television programs from major Hollywood studios. Despite attracting more ...
. The LeMasurier family sold KDAL-AM-TV to what eventually became
Tribune Broadcasting Tribune Broadcasting Company, LLC was an American media company which operated as a subsidiary of Tribune Media, a media conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois. The group owned and operated television station, television and radio stations thro ...
in 1960. KDAL began broadcasting in color in 1965. In 1979, Tribune sold the station to Palmer Broadcasting, who changed the call letters to the current KDLH-TV on February 21. Palmer Broadcasting then sold KDLH to Benedek Broadcasting in 1985. The station dropped the "-TV" suffix in 1991. Benedek went
bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the de ...
in 2002, and most of the company merged with
Gray Television Gray Media, Inc., doing business as Gray Television, is an American publicly traded television broadcasting company based in Atlanta. Founded in 1946 by James Harrison Gray as Gray Communications Systems, the company owns or operates 180 statio ...
in 2001. However, KDLH was not included in the merger and was sold to Chelsey Broadcasting instead.
New Vision Television New Vision Television was a broadcast company based in Los Angeles, California. Throughout its two decade plus history, the company owned or managed over 50 television stations in large and medium-sized markets. History New Vision I Formed ...
bought the station in 2003. In March 2005, the Malara Broadcast Group purchased channel 3 from New Vision and outsourced most of the station's operations to longtime rival KBJR, who was owned by Granite Broadcasting. Under this agreement, KDLH laid off most of its staff. Filings with the
Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...
(FCC) showed Malara could operate KDLH with as few as two people on the payroll. KDLH's digital transmitter had been operating at reduced power with a substitute side-mounted antenna after a May 18, 2008, fire that severely damaged its main digital antenna. It returned to full power on UHF channel 33 by June of that year. In February 2009, Malara Broadcasting announced that KDLH would not make the switch to all digital later in the month due to the fire. With that announcement, the station was the only one in the area still broadcasting in analog after February 19 as KBJR, WDSE, WDIO, and
KQDS-TV KQDS-TV (channel 21) is a television station in Duluth, Minnesota, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. Owned by Coastal Television Broadcasting Company, the station has studios on London Road in Duluth (along I-35), and its transmit ...
all went digital-only on that date. On June 12 at around 7 p.m., KDLH ceased normal broadcasting operations on its analog signal. At that time, the analog station began a
nightlight A nightlight is a small light fixture, usually electrical, placed for comfort or convenience in dark areas or areas that may become dark at certain times, such as at night or during an emergency. Small long-burning candles serving a similar fun ...
signal consisting of a ten-minute digital television informational video on a constant loop. On June 26, two weeks after regular broadcasts had ended, the nightlight signal was terminated with the help of Bob Peterson (a former engineer at the station who helped launch KDLH in 1954) bringing an end to all full-power analog broadcasting in the area. In November 2009, the station re-branded from "CBS 3" to "KDLH 3". This brought a new logo to the station for the first time since it merged with KBJR. On February 11, 2014, it was announced that Quincy Newspapers would acquire KBJR-TV and KRII from Granite Broadcasting. Malara initially planned to concurrently sell KDLH to
SagamoreHill Broadcasting SagamoreHill Broadcasting LLC is a privately held American holding company that owns 13 television stations based in the Great Lakes and southern United States regions. The company is a joint venture of the investment firm Duff Ackerman & Goodric ...
; however, that November, the deal was reworked to remove SagamoreHill from the transaction, and as a result KDLH would remain with Malara. Quincy would continue to provide services to KDLH. In July 2015, the deal was reworked yet again; it returned to its previous structure, with SagamoreHill acquiring KDLH and being operated under an SSA by Quincy. However, the SSA was wound down on August 1, 2016: at this time, CBS programming was moved to a subchannel of KBJR, and KDLH began operating independently as a CW affiliate. The sale was completed on November 2. The move ended KDLH's 61-year association with the CBS network. On May 21, 2018, it was announced that Quincy Media would acquire KDLH outright for $792,557. While the FCC normally prohibits one company from owning two television licenses in the same market when both are among the top four rated stations, Quincy submitted a filing saying that during the November 2017 "sweeps" period, KBJR-TV was the top ranked station while KDLH placed fifth. The sale was completed on August 1. On February 1, 2021,
Gray Television Gray Media, Inc., doing business as Gray Television, is an American publicly traded television broadcasting company based in Atlanta. Founded in 1946 by James Harrison Gray as Gray Communications Systems, the company owns or operates 180 statio ...
announced its intent to purchase Quincy Media for $925 million. The acquisition was completed on August 2, making KBJR and KDLH
sisters A sister is a woman or a girl who shares parents or a parent with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to r ...
to Gray stations in nearby markets, including CBS/Fox affiliates KEYC-TV in
Mankato Mankato ( ) is a city in Blue Earth, Nicollet, and Le Sueur counties in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is the county seat of Blue Earth County, Minnesota. The population was 44,488 at the 2020 census, making it the 21st-largest city in Mi ...
and WSAW-TV/ WZAW-LD in Wausau, and NBC affiliates
WLUC-TV WLUC-TV (channel 6) is a television station licensed to Marquette, Michigan, United States, serving the Central and Western Upper Peninsula of Michigan as an affiliate of NBC and Fox. Owned by Gray Media, the station has studios on US 41/ M-28 ...
in Marquette and WEAU in
Eau Claire Eau Claire (French for "clear water", ''pl.'' ''eaux claires'') is the name of a number of locations and features in North America. The name is pronounced as if it were spelled "O'Clare". Place names (Canada) Communities *Eau Claire, Calgary, a n ...
, while separating from their former Wisconsin sister stations which were divested in order to complete the purchase.


News operation

While operating its own news department, KDLH was the last of the big three stations in Duluth to have a weekday 5 p.m. broadcast. It aired ''
Judge Judy ''Judge Judy'' is an American arbitration-based reality court show presided over by former Manhattan Family Court Judge Judith Sheindlin. The show featured Sheindlin as she adjudicated real-life small-claims disputes within a simulated court ...
'' in the time slot instead. In 2004, it debuted a 5 p.m. show that featured anchor Amy Rutledge and meteorologist Phil Johnson. This was replaced along with its 6 o'clock show with the current one at 5:30 when KDLH merged with KBJR in March 2005. ''
Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead g ...
'' has since reclaimed the 5 o'clock spot on channel 3 and the ''
CBS Evening News The ''CBS Evening News'' is the flagship evening News broadcasting#Television, television news program of CBS News, the news division of the CBS television network in the United States. The ''CBS Evening News'' is a daily evening broadcast featu ...
'' airs at 6. After the buyout, the station had its news department closed and merged with KBJR. To maintain a separate identity, there were some channel 6 personalities that were also seen on KDLH. However, due to KBJR's existing newscasts, not all of that station's personnel were seen on channel 3. KDLH's ''Northland's NewsCenter at 5:30'' had been anchored by Pat Kelly who was the only channel 3 news team member remaining after the KDLH sellout. Its weeknight 10 p.m. newscast, which continues to be a separate production, was known as ''Northland's NewsCenter Express'' and consisted of a ten-minute news "capsule". The other 25 minutes was a ''
Seinfeld ''Seinfeld'' ( ) is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, with a total of nine seasons consisting of List of Seinfeld episodes, 180 episodes. It ...
'' rerun. After thirteen months of mediocre ratings, KDLH changed the 10 o'clock show to the traditional 35 minutes and re-branded it to ''Northland's NewsCenter Tonight''. KDLH and KBJR began broadcasting their local newscasts in 16:9
widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratio (image), aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ...
on May 4, 2009. They were the first television stations in the market to do so. Although not true high definition, the format matches the ratio of HD televisions. As of November, this station has now begun to brand its separate weeknight shows as ''KDLH 3 News''. These broadcasts air from a secondary set. On January 11, 2010, KDLH began airing the area's only weeknight 6:30 newscast. In the fall of 2014, KDLH partnered with KDAL radio (now owned by
Midwest Communications Midwest Communications, Inc. is a Wausau, Wisconsin–based radio broadcasting company. It owns 82 radio stations located primarily within the Midwest United States, in Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Il ...
) to produce a unique simulcast broadcast airing KDAL's ''Cadigan and Kelly''. KDLH installed cameras and switching gear so each member of the KDAL team could be seen on air. KDLH's intellectual unit was re-located to KBJR-DT2 on August 1, 2016.


Notable former on-air staff

* E. D. Hill (currently at
CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...
)


Technical information


Subchannels

The station's signal is
multiplexed In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource— ...
:


Analog-to-digital conversion

KDLH ended regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 3, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.List of Digital Full-Power Stations
The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition
UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter ...
channel 33, using
virtual channel In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered as digits on a receiver's ...
3. As part of the SAFER Act, KDLH kept its analog signal on the air until June 26 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of
public service announcement A public service announcement (PSA) is a message in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge to raise public awareness and change behavior. Oftentimes these messages feature unsettling imagery, ideas or behaviors that are des ...
s from the
National Association of Broadcasters The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is a Industry trade group, trade association and lobbying, lobby group representing the interests of commercial and non-commercial over-the-air radio and television broadcasting, broadcasters in th ...
.


See also

* Channel 2 branded TV stations in the United States * Channel 3 virtual TV stations in the United States * Channel 33 digital TV stations in the United States


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kdlh 1954 establishments in Minnesota Court TV affiliates The CW affiliates Gray Media Ion Mystery affiliates Laff (TV network) affiliates Quest (American TV network) affiliates Television channels and stations established in 1954 Television stations in Duluth, Minnesota True Crime Network affiliates