Channel 4, Scottsbluff

Through the Years

• 1958

  March 5, 1958-  KDUH signs on,  Semi-satellite station of the original KOTA TV 3, Rapid City, SD.  Primary affiliation is CBS, secondary NBC, ABC and DuMont.  Owner:  Duhamel Enterprises, Helen Duhamel, President.  Duhamel also owns 75% of KOTA AM/FM/TV, Rapid  City.
  Transmitter:  13 miles southwest of Hemingford, three miles south of Hay Springs on Hwy 87, with antenna at 583 feet.

• 1965

  Takes on unusual joint primary affiliation along with parent KOTA TV, with CBS and ABC, slightly favoring CBS.  This caused confusion for  viewers in the Nebraska Panhandle, since future sister station KSTF, which had signed on three years earlier in 1955, also held a joint primary affiliation with CBS and ABC, slightly favoring ABC.  It often occurred that both stations would air the same program at the same time.

• 1970

  New Tower, 1965 feet, located 22 miles northwest of  Alliance, at Hemingford.  The station’s signal reaches viewers from the Colorado state line to southwestern South Dakota and eastern Wyoming.

  Again, in tandem with its parent KOTA TV, KDUH becomes a joint primary affiliate of ABC and NBC.  This comes as NBC finally lost patience with its longtime affiliate in the Black Hills, KRSD-TV (Channel 7), whose signal had deteriorated to the point of unacceptability.

• 1976

  KRSD TV is forced off the air, replaced by a new station on channel 7, KEVN-TV.  That station took all of the ABC  programming, resulting in KOTA and KDUH becoming primary NBC affiliates with a secondary CBS affiliation.

• 1981

  Community of license is moved to Scottsbluff.

  KDUH loses CBS and becomes a sole full-time NBC affiliate after KELO-TV in Sioux Falls signs on a low-powered repeater in Rapid City.

• 1984

  KDUH operations are moved from Hay Springs to Scottsbluff.  Station also drops NBC for ABC.

• 1991

  November 8, 1991-  Helen Duhamel dies.  William and Peter Duhamel take over control.  By this time, Duhamel group owns stations in Lead-Deadwood, SD (KHSD TV) and Sheridan, WY (KSGW TV).

• 1992

  Helen Duhamel is inducted into the Nebraska Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame, the first woman recipient of that honor.

• 2002

  September 24, 2002-  The tower at Hemingford collapses during an installation of a digital antenna .  Two workers were killed, three injured.

• 2003

  The replacement tower is completed, 1500 feet, 2.5 miles east of Angora, NE.  By moving the tower 32 miles to the southeast from the original site and shortening it, KDUH will have nearly the same coverage area an can save more than $1 million, according to William Duhamel.

  September 19, 2003-  The full signal is restored.  In the interim, KDUH was carried on cable systems in the area an Duhamel-owned translators K02NT in Scottsbluff, and K02NY in Chadron.

• 2009

  February 17, 2009-  KDUH TV shuts down its analog signal, over VHF channel 4.  The station’s digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 7 using virtual channel 4.

• 2013

  October 31, 2013-Bill Duhamel announces that KOTA TV and its satellites (including KDUH TV) would be sold to Schurz Communications’ subsidiary Rushmore Media Company, pending FCC approval.

   

• 2014

  March 31,2014-  sale is approved and then completed on April 28, 2014.

• 2015

  September 2015- Schurz announces it will exit broadcasting and sell it television and radio stations, including KDUH TV, to Gray Television for $442.5 million.  In its original filing with the FCC, Gray said that KDUH would be converted to a satellite of KNOP-TV, a Gray-owned NBC affiliate in North Platte.

• 2015

  May 2015- Calls are changed to KNEP and the community of license is changed to Sidney, NE.  With the change, KNEP becomes a Denver DMA (Designated Market Area) station..  For all intents and purposes, however, it remains a de facto Scottsbluff station.  Although identifying as a separate station in its own right, KNEP is considered a semi-satellite of KNOP TV (Channel 2) in North Platte.  (Changing the City of License eliminated ownership conflict with KSTF in Scottsbluff, a semi-satellite of KGWN TV in Cheyenne, WY.  FCC rules won’t allow one company to own two of the four highest-rated stations in the market.)

• 2020

  ABC affiliation is replaced with a simulcast of Fox programming from Rapid City-licensed KEVN-LD.

• 2022

  By 2022, the city of license on FCC filings for KNEP once again shows Scottsbluff instead of Sidney.  Station returns to the Scottsbluff-Cheyenne designated market area.

  KNEP officially becomes the NBC affiliate for the Nebraska Panhandle. despite officially becoming a semi-satellite of KNOP TV, North Platte,

• 2023

  December,2023-  KNEP is re-branded from “NBC Nebraska Scottsbluff” to “KGWN Scottsbluff.”  The station continues to be rebroadcast on KGWN channel 5.2 in Cheyenne, WY, as well as KSTF channel 10.2 in Scottsbluff.