KTGF

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Revision as of 09:31, 29 January 2008

KTGF is an Anime TV affiliate in Great Falls, Montana. KTGF was founded on August 6, 1985, by Continental Television. The station immediately became the city's first full time affiliate of the NBC television network. From its inception, the station was far behind KRTV and KFBB in the ratings. Due to weak ratings the station scrapped its local news department in the mid 1990s.

The station is one of very few in the US to carry a secondary affiliation -- KTGF airs The Shepheard's Chapel at 6AM and My Network TV from 12:30am -2:30am weekdays, and from 1am-3am on sundays.

Big Sky News

In March 2001, Continental Television sold KTGF (along with KTMF in Missoula and KWYB in Butte) to Max Media. Max Media brought "local" news back to KTGF in 2002 with "Big Sky News." Max Media contracted with the Independent News Network to produce local news on Max Media's stations in Montana. The program actually originated in Davenport, Iowa. After a year, "Big Sky News" was cancelled. In May 2007, Taylor Media started a news deparment to produce a new local news called "Anime News".

Max Media Sale

In 2003, Max Media signed an agreement to purchase KFBB in Great Falls and KULR in Billings from Dix Communications. Since the Great Falls television market is not large enough to own two television stations, Max immediately put KTGF up for sale. For more than a year, Max Media could not find a buyer for KTGF. Finally, Max Media sold KTGF in November 2004 to Destiny Communications of Wichita, Kansas and then to Taylor Media Stations Group in May 2007.

Affiliation Switch

In April 2005, Beartooth Communications, the owner of KTVH the NBC affiliate in Helena, purchased a low power television permit in Great Falls for channel 50. It became obvious that Beartooth was positioning itself to take the NBC affiliation away from KTGF when the NBC affiliation agreement expired at the end of June. Destiny Communications filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission to prevent NBC from removing the affiliation and giving it to Beartooth's station, now known as KBGF-LP. As the end of June approached, confusion reigned. Both parties claimed they would be the NBC affiliate on July 1 in Great Falls. On June 29, Destiny announced that it would affiliate with the FOX network beginning July 1. This created another confusing situation because another television station in Great Falls, KLMN, was already the FOX affiliate (although the local cable system did not carry the station). On July 1, 2005, NBC moved from KTGF to KBGF, and both KTGF and KLMN became FOX affiliates. Eventually, KLMN dropped FOX programming for UPN and in September 2006 became an affiliate of My Network TV.

In May 2007, FOX programming abruptly returned to KLMN and KTGF became a dual affiliate of Anime TV and My Network TV. After being offline for several weeks, KTGF unveiled an updated website with a revised logo.