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KLKN (channel 8) 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
Lincoln, Nebraska Lincoln is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska. The city covers and had a population of 291,082 as of the 2020 census. It is the state's List of cities in Nebraska, second-most populous city a ...
, United States, affiliated with ABC. Owned by
Standard Media Standard Media Group is an American broadcast and digital media company based in Nashville, Tennessee. Standard Media was founded in 2018 by Deborah A. McDermott, who serves as the company's CEO. Previously, McDermott was the chief operating offi ...
, the station maintains studios on 10th Street south of downtown Lincoln and broadcasts from a transmitter located near Utica, Nebraska. Channel 8 in central Nebraska was originally allocated to
Albion Albion is an alternative name for Great Britain. The oldest attestation of the toponym comes from the Greek language. It is sometimes used poetically and generally to refer to the island, but is less common than "Britain" today. The name for Scot ...
and signed on in December 1964 as KHQL-TV, part of the ABC-affiliated Nebraska Television Network (NTV); the call letters changed to KCNA-TV in 1974. NTV's owners, the Amaturo Group, upgraded the KCNA-TV transmitter facility and split it from the network in 1984 as KBGT-TV "Big 8", the first
independent station An independent station is a broadcast station, usually a television station, not affiliated with a larger broadcast television network, network. As such, it only broadcasts broadcast syndication, syndicated programs it has purchased; brokered pr ...
in the state of Nebraska. This lasted two years before
Citadel Communications Citadel Communications Ltd. was an American private broadcasting company. It was based in Bronxville, New York and most recently owned 1 low-power television station on which it operated a regional 24-hour cable news channel. The company wa ...
acquired the station and converted it at the end of 1986 into KCAN, which rebroadcast ABC affiliate
KCAU-TV KCAU-TV (channel 9) is a television station in Sioux City, Iowa, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC and owned by Nexstar Media Group. The station's studios are located on Gordon Drive in Sioux City, and its trans ...
in
Sioux City, Iowa Sioux City () is a city in Woodbury County, Iowa, Woodbury and Plymouth County, Iowa, Plymouth counties in the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 85,797 in the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Iowa, fo ...
. Beginning in 1991, Citadel campaigned to move KCAN from Albion to Lincoln, where it would give the capital city two commercial television stations for the first time since the 1950s. The move began on April 1, 1996, when KLKN began broadcasting from Lincoln. The station also began producing its own local newscasts covering the Lincoln area. Even though Lincoln, Kearney, and
Hastings Hastings ( ) is a seaside town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to th ...
are defined as one media market, KLKN and NTV generally focus on separate areas, serving Lincoln and the Tri-Cities, respectively. Satellite television providers
Dish Network DISH Network L.L.C., often referred to as DISH, an abbreviation for Digital Sky Highway, is an American provider of satellite television and IPTV services and wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation. The company was originally establ ...
and
DirecTV DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...
provide both stations across the entire market.


History


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 An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or sovereign state, states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an a ...
, channel 8 at Albion, channel 3 at Bassett, channel 4 at Kearney, and channel 9 at North Platte. KHOL-TV, an ABC affiliate in Kearney, also expressed interest in the allocation at Albion, northwest of Lincoln, and began to survey the area as part of plans to locate a
satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...
of its station in Albion. The matter became entangled in several other channel allocation proceedings, but in November 1962, 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) 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. 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. 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. In 1974, NTV Enterprises acquired the network; 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 Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...
, and Albion). Joseph Amaturo bought the NTV stations in 1979 in a deal funded by the sale of KQTV in
St. Joseph, Missouri St. Joseph is a city in and county seat of Buchanan County, Missouri, Buchanan County, Missouri, United States. A small portion of the city extends north into Andrew County, Missouri, Andrew County. Located on the Missouri River, it is the princ ...
.


Big 8

Amaturo Group announced in September 1983 that it would split KCNA-TV from the NTV network to become an
independent station An independent station is a broadcast station, usually a television station, not affiliated with a larger broadcast television network, network. As such, it only broadcasts broadcast syndication, syndicated programs it has purchased; brokered pr ...
, move its transmitter to
Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...
in Nance County to increase coverage, and rebrand it as KBGT-TV "Big 8" on November 1. (The name was a nod to the
Big Eight Conference The Big Eight Conference was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored American football, football. It was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate ...
, of which the
University of Nebraska A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
was a member.) The November 1 date was missed when construction problems caused delays in constructing the Genoa tower before the project shut down for the winter, and Big 8 began on June 16, 1984, as the first independent station in Nebraska and with a 24-hour program schedule. Despite offering a typical schedule for an independent of its era, including syndicated programs, movies, sports, and national news coverage, Big 8 failed to catch on. The delayed construction process gave rise to a lawsuit filed by NTV in July 1984 against the contractor, seeking $1.4 million over what were described as substantial financial losses. The station's decision to briefly air unedited films, including nudity and strong language, in May 1986 led to boycotts and the loss of half of its local and national advertisers, and the depressed regional farm economy further weighed on the business. Meanwhile, the Amaturo Group sold all of its other holdings during 1985. Three major-market FM stations were acquired by Keymarket Communications for $60 million, and NTV—but not KBGT-TV—was purchased by Gordon Broadcasting for $10 million. Amaturo later stated that, over the life of Big 8, the venture lost nearly $5 million (equivalent to $ in dollars).


KCAN

In July 1986, Amaturo filed to sell KBGT-TV to
Citadel Communications Citadel Communications Ltd. was an American private broadcasting company. It was based in Bronxville, New York and most recently owned 1 low-power television station on which it operated a regional 24-hour cable news channel. The company wa ...
for $3 million. The sale contract excluded KBGT-TV's syndicated programming and film inventories. The FCC approved the sale in November, earlier than expected, and Citadel announced its plan for the station: to rebroadcast
KCAU-TV KCAU-TV (channel 9) is a television station in Sioux City, Iowa, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC and owned by Nexstar Media Group. The station's studios are located on Gordon Drive in Sioux City, and its trans ...
, its ABC affiliate in
Sioux City, Iowa Sioux City () is a city in Woodbury County, Iowa, Woodbury and Plymouth County, Iowa, Plymouth counties in the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 85,797 in the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Iowa, fo ...
. This restored ABC service to some households in and around Albion that were not covered by KCAU-TV itself, KETV in
Omaha Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...
, or NTV. It also led to the station being removed from cable systems from Lincoln to Kearney. In January 1987, the call letters were changed to KCAN. This designation also represented Columbus, Albion and Norfolk, in addition to tying the station more closely to KCAU-TV.


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. 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 KFOR-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside KAUT-TV (channel 43), an owned-and-operated station of The CW. The two stations share stu ...
and moved to its channel 10 in 1954; channel 12 was then donated to the University of Nebraska and became KUON-TV. 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. The move was formally protested by KOLN as well as KPTM, the Fox affiliate in Omaha; KOLN's rebuttal cited concerns about signal overlap and loss of service in Albion, while KPTM objected on technical grounds. The FCC gave initial approval to the city of license change in 1993, and final approval was awarded in June 1995, after which construction immediately began on a new transmitter site at Utica and work began to secure studio space in downtown Lincoln. Another factor that had delayed approval was that when the FCC assigned UHF channel 18 to Albion in place of channel 8, Fant Broadcasting—owners of NTV at the time—and Citadel both applied for it, with Citadel instead receiving channel 24, which was also added to Albion by the commission. Citadel then protested a proposed sale of NTV to Blackstar Communications in 1995, feeling that Fant Broadcasting had attempted to block its own Lincoln proposal; company president Anthony Fant denied this, noting that his main goal for seeking the Albion channel was to restore the coverage lost a decade prior and "try to put that part of the NTV puzzle back together". The search for a studio location continued into November as the company sought an existing site with appropriate satellite visibility to receive programming; new KLKN call letters were given to channel 8, and the Albion replacement facility on channel 24 received the call letters KLKE (as it was located near Elgin). The launch was further delayed when it was discovered that a section, intended to be installed at the level, was skipped—when the tower had already been built up to . KLKN began broadcasting on March 30, 1996. On April 1, cable subscribers in Lincoln began viewing KLKN on the Lincoln Cablevision system, but it was not until May 20 that the transmitter facility was activated. The station expanded news production modestly in the ensuing years. When it began in 1996, it produced 6 and 10 p.m. news programs with a newsroom staff of 16. By 2000, the staff had grown to 21, and KLKN was airing additional early evening, morning, and midday newscasts. While ratings comparisons with KOLN/KGIN were difficult given that the latter station serves a much larger area (which for ABC programs is split between NTV and KLKN), within a year, it had achieved 10 percent of the news audience in Lincoln, comparable to the Omaha stations and increasing the share of Lincoln TV viewers watching local news programs originating in Lincoln. KLKN's digital signal signed on August 31, 2002, operating on UHF channel 31 until the end of the station's analog broadcasts on June 12, 2009. It was the first digital television station in Nebraska. However, KLKE was shuttered by Citadel on March 2, 2003, with the company citing the high costs of digital television conversion for the Albion facility. After the digital transition, KLKN opted to continue broadcasting on channel 8.


Standard Media ownership

After Citadel attempted to sell its television properties in 2000, and after the 2014 sale of three of the five major Citadel properties to Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Citadel sold its last two ABC affiliates—KLKN and
WLNE-TV WLNE-TV (channel 6) is a television station licensed to New Bedford, Massachusetts, United States, serving as the ABC affiliate for the Providence, Rhode Island, area. The station is owned by Standard Media, and maintains studios in the Orms ...
, serving
Providence, Rhode Island Providence () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Rhode Island, most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. The county seat of Providence County, Rhode Island, Providence County, it is o ...
—to Standard Media for $83 million. Its leader, former
Young Broadcasting Young Broadcasting, LLC was an American media company that owned or operated 12 television stations in 10 markets with a total U.S. television household coverage of 5.9%. The company was formerly known as Young Broadcasting Inc. and was the out ...
and
Media General Media General, Inc. was an American media company based in Richmond, Virginia. The company's origins can be traced back to 1887 when Richmond attorney Joseph Bryan acquired ''The Richmond Daily Times'', which later became ''The Richmond Times-D ...
executive Deb McDermott, had begun her career in Lincoln at KOLN. The sale was completed on September 5. In February 2022, Standard Media's owner,
Standard General Standard General L.P. is an American hedge fund headquartered in New York City. It was founded in 2007 by Soohyung "Soo" Kim and Nicholas Singer with seed capital from Reservoir Capital Group. Since 2013, Soo Kim has been the Managing Partner and ...
, announced that KLKN would be sold to
Cox Media Group CMG Media Corporation (doing business as Cox Media Group) is an American media conglomerate principally owned by Apollo Global Management in conjunction with Cox Enterprises, which maintains a 29% minority stake in the company. The company p ...
as part of a transaction that would allow Standard General to purchase broadcast group
Tegna Tegna Inc. (stylized in all caps as TEGNA) is an American publicly traded broadcast, digital media and marketing services company headquartered in Tysons, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into two publi ...
. The deal never received FCC approval and was terminated on May 22, 2023.


Notable former on-air staff

* Thomas Roberts — reporter, 1997–1998


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— ...
:


Notes


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Klkn 1964 establishments in Nebraska American Broadcasting Company affiliates Bounce TV affiliates Grit (TV network) affiliates Ion Mystery affiliates Ion Plus affiliates Laff (TV network) affiliates Television channels and stations established in 1964 LKN