KIFI-TV (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 ...

licensed to

Idaho Falls, Idaho Idaho Falls is the fourth most populous city in Idaho and the county seat of Bonneville County. It is the state's most populous city outside the Boise metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the population of Idaho Falls was 64,818.2020 Cen ...

, United States, serving the Idaho Falls–

Pocatello Pocatello () is the county seat of and the largest city in Bannock County, with a small portion on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation in neighboring Power County, containing the city's airport. It is the principal city of the Pocatello metro ...

market as an affiliate of

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

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 ...

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 ...

, and

Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast. It provides content ...

. The station is owned by the

News-Press & Gazette Company The News-Press & Gazette Company (NPG) is an American media company based in St. Joseph, Missouri, wholly owned and operated by the Bradley family. It is presided by Brian Bradley and David R. Bradley, with Hank Bradley (retired), Eric Bradley, ...

(NPG), which provides certain services to Idaho Falls–based

KIDK KIDK (channel 3) is a television station licensed to Idaho Falls, Idaho, United States, serving the Idaho Falls–Pocatello media market, market as an affiliate of Dabl, Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox, and MyNetworkTV. It is owned by VistaWest M ...

(channel 3) under 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 VistaWest Media,

LLC A limited liability company (LLC) is the United States-specific form of a private limited company. It is a business structure that can combine the pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited liability of a ...

. The two stations share studios on North Yellowstone Highway/

US 26 U.S. Highway 26 (US 26) is an east–west United States Numbered Highway that runs from Seaside, Oregon, to Ogallala, Nebraska. When the U.S. Numbered Highway System was first defined, it was limited to Nebraska and Wyoming Wyoming ...

in Idaho Falls; KIFI-TV's transmitter is located on East Butte in unincorporated northern Bingham County along the

Idaho National Laboratory Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is one of the national laboratories of the United States Department of Energy and is managed by the Battelle Energy Alliance. Historically, the lab has been involved with nuclear research, although the labora ...

border. KIFI-TV began broadcasting on January 23, 1961, as the second station in Idaho Falls. It was the

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 ...

affiliate for eastern Idaho at start-up, the network having decided to move to the new station from KTLE (channel 6) in Pocatello. KIFI-TV was owned for the first 44 years of its existence by the Brady family, publishers of '' The Post Register'' newspaper in Idaho Falls. In 1996, KIFI-TV switched from NBC to ABC. NPG acquired KIFI-TV in 2005; in 2010, operations of KIDK were assumed by KIFI-TV, with the CBS subchannel moving over on January 1, 2021.

History

On February 26, 1953, 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) simultaneously issued construction permits to the owners of radio station KID for channel 3 and KIFI for channel 8. It intended at that time to broadcast its signal from the KIFI radio studio and transmitter site on North Yellowstone Highway. However, KIFI's ownership at the time consisted of multiple people: Frank C. Carman, Grant R. Wrathall, and Edna O. Powers. Each had an interest in five TV outlets, but together they owned seven—more than allowed by FCC regulations introduced in late 1953. In October 1954, the permit for what had been designated as KIFT—along with those of co-owned stations in

Boise Boise ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho. As of the 2020 census, there were 235,685 people residing in the city. Located on the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and nor ...

and

—was surrendered to the FCC on economic grounds. In 1955, the J. Robb Brady Trust, owner of '' The Post Register'' newspaper, acquired KIFI and co-owned KWIK in Pocatello from the Carman–Wrathall–Powers group, which at the same time sold some of its other stations to newspapers in Utah. Less than two years later, the new KIFI ownership made a move to establish a TV station. On August 9, 1957, the Eastern Idaho Broadcasting and Television Company, the licensee of KIFI, applied for channel 8. Sam Bennion became a competing applicant in February 1959, but an FCC examiner dismissed his bid that December for failure to prosecute and granted the

construction permit Planning permission or building permit refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. House building permits, for example, are subject to bu ...

to KIFI. KIFI-TV began broadcasting on January 23, 1961. The station was an affiliate of

, having signed for network affiliation in November 1960. In making a deal with channel 8, NBC cut off the second television station to start in Eastern Idaho, KTLE (channel 6) in Pocatello. It was claimed that KIFI offered a better, higher-power signal to Eastern Idaho than KTLE. NBC also alleged that Idaho Falls was an easier sell than Pocatello to network sponsors; KTLE executive director L. John Miner noted that Pocatello had not been a city with a station until channel 6 signed on, compared to Idaho Falls, which already had KID-TV (channel 3). KTLE attempted to obtain ABC affiliation in a final effort to keep the station viable, but ABC was already affiliated with KID-TV. KTLE shut down on January 23, 1961, when KIFI-TV came to air. In 1962, KIFI aired the first live remote basketball telecast in Idaho, from Reed Gym at

Idaho State University Idaho State University (ISU) is a Public university, public research university in Pocatello, Idaho, United States. Founded in 1901 as the Academy of Idaho, Idaho State offers more than 250 programs at its main campus in Pocatello and locations ...

in Pocatello. The station was first locally with color cameras, computerized election returns, and

stereo sound Stereophonic sound, commonly shortened to stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configurat ...

. From 1971 to 1977 and again from 1980 to 1981, Lloyd Lindsay Young worked as KIFI-TV's weather presenter. The former DJ, known for his unconventional presentation of local weather, caught his big break when the manager of a San Francisco station watched his forecasts while skiing at Sun Valley. On September 21, 1995, KIFI announced its plan to switch network affiliation to ABC in January 1996. General manager Rickie Orchin Brady cited ABC's higher network news ratings as the impetus for the switch. By this time, KIFI had the number-one local newscasts in the market.

News-Press & Gazette Company ownership and consolidation with KIDK

The Brady family sold KIFI-TV to the

(NPG) in 2005. In announcing the $2.5 million transaction, Orchin Brady noted that the increasing consolidation of the TV station industry had increased the cost of equipment and programming beyond what a standalone station could pay. In 2009, the station acquired

The CW The CW Network, LLC (commonly referred to as The CW or simply CW) is an American commercial broadcast television network which is controlled by Nexstar Media Group through a 75% ownership interest. The network's name is derived from the firs ...

affiliation for the Idaho Falls–Pocatello market. NPG entered into a

shared services agreement In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or time ...

to operate KIDK, then owned by

Fisher Communications Fisher Communications, Inc. was a media company in the United States. Based in Seattle, Washington, the company primarily owned a number of radio and television stations in the Western United States. It was the last company in the Seattle area ...

, in December 2010. Operations of the two stations were combined, with 27 of 43 KIDK employees being laid off and another 14 joining KIFI. When the agreement took effect in January 2011, KIDK's news offerings were reorganized to reduce overlap with KIFI. In 2013, KIDK was sold to VistaWest Media, a company whose principal had previously worked for NPG; the CBS affiliation and programming moved to a subchannel of KIFI on January 1, 2021.

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

KIFI-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 8, on June 12, 2009, the official

digital television transition The digital television transition, also called the digital switchover (DSO), the analogue switch/sign-off (ASO), the digital migration, or the analogue shutdown, is the process in which older analogue television broadcasting technology is con ...

date. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition VHF channel 9 to channel 8 for post-transition operations. On July 1, 2024, after receiving FCC approval in November 2023, KIFI-TV changed physical channels to

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 18. KIFI was broadcast from the existing VHF transmitter and the new UHF transmitter until August 14, 2024.

Translators

KIFI-TV's signal is additionally rebroadcast over the following translators: * Challis: K22IM-D *

Dingle Dingle ( or ''Daingean Uí Chúis'', meaning "fort of Ó Cúis") is a town in County Kerry in the south-west of Ireland. The only town on the Dingle Peninsula (known in Irish as ''Corca Dhuibhne''), it sits on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coa ...

, etc.: K13QY-D * Driggs: K27KP-D * Fish Creek: K34NC-D * Holbrook: K22NQ-D * Leadore: K13RV-D, K23JH-D * Lemhi, etc.: K09SD-D * Malad City: K33IM-D * Mink Creek: K10QJ-D * Montpelier: K20KU-D, K32KC-D *

: K21JC-D * Preston: K16IX-D *

Rexburg Rexburg is a city in Madison County, Idaho, United States. The population was 39,409 at the 2020 census. The city is the county seat of Madison County and its largest city. Rexburg is the principal city of the Rexburg micropolitan area, whic ...

, etc.: K22IK-D *

Salmon Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...

: K15ME-D * Soda Springs: K29LG-D * Jackson, WY: K29HG-D, K36JD-D * Thayne, etc., WY: K07PB-D The station was also relayed on K24HU-D in Burley (in the Twin Falls market); this translator was decommissioned on August 14, 2024, as a result of the switch to the UHF band in Idaho Falls and its location in another DMA. KIFI had been available from a Burley translator since 1977.

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kifi-Tv 1961 establishments in Idaho American Broadcasting Company affiliates CBS affiliates The CW affiliates News-Press & Gazette Company Telemundo affiliates Television channels and stations established in 1961 IFI-TV