KCND-TV
Encyclopedia
KCND-TV was a television station
located in Pembina, North Dakota
, USA with offices also located at 2031 Portage Avenue in Winnipeg
, Canada. KCND-TV was established by the Community Radio Corporation, the parent company of KNOX-TV and KNOX-AM in Grand Forks, N.D., after being granted a construction permit by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission
in July 1956. The station's plans were publicly announced in early 1959, and KCND-TV signed on November 7, 1960 on channel 12.
(now defunct), but would have its own studios.
KCND's original construction permit was based on plans to operate from a 310-foot (94-metre) tower with a power of 21,000 watts. However, this plan changed and one of the tallest broadcast towers in North America was constructed—1,450 feet—100 feet short of the height of the Empire State Building
in New York City
. The tower was located seven miles west of Pembina and less than a half-mile south of the Canada-U.S. border. The station initially operated at a power of 220,000 watts, later increasing power to 288,000 watts.
KCND operated as a semi-independent station. It was affiliated with both NBC
and ABC
for periods, but was not compensated by the networks due to the station's minimal U.S. audience and thus never showed all of either network's schedule. It carried The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
until 1967 when then-NBC affiliate WDAY-TV
in Fargo
opened a satellite station, WDAZ-TV
in Devils Lake
, which served Grand Forks and the northern part of the Red River Valley
. KCND also had offices on Portage Avenue in Winnipeg.
In 1962, KCND-TV was acquired along with KNOX-TV Grand Forks and KXGO-TV Fargo for $675,200 by the Pembina Broadcasting Company, a group led by Ferris Traylor, the part-owner of an Indiana TV station.
In November 1963, KCND-TV added an additional microwave relay
path to Minneapolis
via Fargo, to help provide a good quality signal if the primary link was experiencing "network trouble".
In 1966, the McLendon Corporation of Dallas, Tex. assumed ownership of KCND. McLendon would remain the station's owner until its assets were sold to Canwest Broadcasting in 1975.
Soon after WDAZ-TV went on air in early 1967, KCND lost its NBC affiliation. Thereafter, it carried about half of the ABC primetime lineup (which was in those days was a distant third among the U.S. networks in the ratings) and showed low-budget syndicated programming (e.g., series like Felony Squad
that had run for one or two seasons years earlier) and movies the rest of the time.
in Brandon, Manitoba, and the other from Continental Communications, represented by Ray Peters, the president of CHAN-TV
in Vancouver, B.C.
The CRTC held public hearings in Winnipeg in May 1974 to determine which of the three competing applicants should be granted a licence. Though Continental Communications had withdrawn its application by this stage, Western Manitoba Broadcasters had been joined in the competition for the licence by Canwest Broadcasting, which proposed acquiring KCND's assets and relocating the station to Winnipeg, and by Communications Winnipeg Co-Op, which proposed a not-for-profit, member-supported station.
The Canadian government was displeased with the existence of "border stations" which, while nominally American, existed primarily to broadcast U.S. content into major Canadian markets in competition with local broadcasters (and without the Canadian content that Canadian TV stations were and are required by law to provide). Accordingly, the government amended the Income Tax Act to curtail the tax deductibility of advertising expenditures incurred by Canadian businesses in the U.S. media, while the CRTC prepared to implement a "simultaneous substitution" policy which would require cable TV systems to carry the Canadian signal on both channels whenever the same program was being shown on both a Canadian and American station at the same time. In the case of KCND, this measure threatened to eliminate the significant portion of its advertising revenue that originated in Winnipeg and bring about the demise of the station.
Canwest also argued in its presentation to the CRTC that relocating KCND to Winnipeg would be preferable to starting a new station, as this would provide their station with a $2 million advertising base and would save $1.5 million in capital and start-up costs.
Canwest was awarded the licence in September 1974 and took over possession and day-to-day management of KCND on March 31, 1975. The McLendon Corporation remained in possession of KCND's U.S. broadcasting licence until shortly after the station went off the air in September 1975 in order to remain in compliance with U.S. television station ownership regulations.
Consolidation of KCND's Pembina, N.D. and Winnipeg, Man. studios at a new, larger facility at 603 St. Mary's Road in Winnipeg began in the spring of 1975. The station's 17 Winnipeg employees had all agreed as of late May 1975 to stay on with CKND, as the Winnipeg-based station was to be called, after the transition. Few of the 22 U.S.-based employees were retained, however, though all had been offered employment in Canada.
KCND-TV's signal on Winnipeg's cable systems went off for the final time on August 31, 1975 at 8:30 p.m., following the 7 p.m. movie, The Thrill of It All
. The transmitter remained on the air, simulcasting CKND, until the following afternoon. CKND-TV
signed on for the first time at 9:00 p.m. on over-the-air channel 9 and cable channel 12 with the program Introducing CKND, followed by the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon
, which began at 9:30 p.m. and was shown until Monday September 1 at 5:30 p.m.
This was the beginning of Asper's career as a media mogul of the Canwest empire, which culminated in his owning most of the large daily newspapers in Canada and TV stations in nearly every province.
expressed his intention to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to apply for a licence to operate a Channel 12 television station at Pembina, N.D. if KCND-TV were to go off the air. In 1981, Boler and fellow investors J. L. Wood and Robert Alphson were awarded a licence to construct a station at Pembina operating at a power of 316,000 watts from a 857-foot tower.
Initial plans were for the station to begin broadcasting in the summer of 1982, operating as a conventional television station during the day and as a pay-TV station offering commercial-free full-length movies after 7 p.m. The station never commenced operations, however, and the licence was transferred to the Boler-owned Fargo Broadcasting Corporation, operators of Fargo, N.D. independent station KVRR
, in mid-1985. The station's proposed call letters were changed from KWBA to KNRR in September 1985.
KNRR signed on in 1986 and became affiliated with the Fox
television network as a full satellite of KVRR
in Fargo.
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
located in Pembina, North Dakota
Pembina, North Dakota
Pembina is a city in Pembina County, North Dakota in the United States. The population was 592 at the 2010 census.The area of Pembina was long inhabited by various indigenous peoples...
, USA with offices also located at 2031 Portage Avenue in Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
, Canada. KCND-TV was established by the Community Radio Corporation, the parent company of KNOX-TV and KNOX-AM in Grand Forks, N.D., after being granted a construction permit by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
in July 1956. The station's plans were publicly announced in early 1959, and KCND-TV signed on November 7, 1960 on channel 12.
History
Startup preparations for the station began in March 1959, at an estimated cost of $150,000 according to Community Radio Corporation partner Robert Lukkason. The station was initially expected to be a "branch" of KNOX-TV in Grand ForksGrand Forks, North Dakota
Grand Forks is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Grand Forks County. According to the 2010 census, the city's population was 52,838, while that of the city and surrounding metropolitan area was 98,461...
(now defunct), but would have its own studios.
KCND's original construction permit was based on plans to operate from a 310-foot (94-metre) tower with a power of 21,000 watts. However, this plan changed and one of the tallest broadcast towers in North America was constructed—1,450 feet—100 feet short of the height of the Empire State Building
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark skyscraper and American cultural icon in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet , and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 ft high. Its name is derived...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The tower was located seven miles west of Pembina and less than a half-mile south of the Canada-U.S. border. The station initially operated at a power of 220,000 watts, later increasing power to 288,000 watts.
KCND operated as a semi-independent station. It was affiliated with both NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
and ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
for periods, but was not compensated by the networks due to the station's minimal U.S. audience and thus never showed all of either network's schedule. It carried The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under the Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992. It originally aired during late-night....
until 1967 when then-NBC affiliate WDAY-TV
WDAY-TV
WDAY-TV, digital channel 21 , is the ABC affiliate television station for Fargo, North Dakota. The station serves the southern half of the Fargo-Grand Forks television market, with WDAZ-TV in Grand Forks serving the northern half. The two stations are counted as a single unit for Nielsen ratings...
in Fargo
Fargo, North Dakota
Fargo is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Cass County. In 2010, its population was 105,549, and it had an estimated metropolitan population of 208,777...
opened a satellite station, WDAZ-TV
WDAZ-TV
WDAZ-TV, channel 8, is an ABC affiliate located in Grand Forks, North Dakota. The station serves the northern half of the Fargo-Grand Forks television market. The station also has significant viewership in southern Manitoba, Canada including Winnipeg and Steinbach as it is carried on cable. WDAZ is...
in Devils Lake
Devils Lake, North Dakota
As of the 2000 Census, there were 7,222 people, 3,127 households, and 1,773 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 3,508 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 89.23% White, 0.22% African American, 7.84% Native American, 0.28%...
, which served Grand Forks and the northern part of the Red River Valley
Red River Valley
The Red River Valley is a region in central North America that is drained by the Red River of the North. It is significant in the geography of North Dakota, Minnesota, and Manitoba for its relatively fertile lands and the population centers of Fargo, Moorhead, Grand Forks, and Winnipeg...
. KCND also had offices on Portage Avenue in Winnipeg.
In 1962, KCND-TV was acquired along with KNOX-TV Grand Forks and KXGO-TV Fargo for $675,200 by the Pembina Broadcasting Company, a group led by Ferris Traylor, the part-owner of an Indiana TV station.
In November 1963, KCND-TV added an additional microwave relay
Microwave
Microwaves, a subset of radio waves, have wavelengths ranging from as long as one meter to as short as one millimeter, or equivalently, with frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz. This broad definition includes both UHF and EHF , and various sources use different boundaries...
path to Minneapolis
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
via Fargo, to help provide a good quality signal if the primary link was experiencing "network trouble".
In 1966, the McLendon Corporation of Dallas, Tex. assumed ownership of KCND. McLendon would remain the station's owner until its assets were sold to Canwest Broadcasting in 1975.
Soon after WDAZ-TV went on air in early 1967, KCND lost its NBC affiliation. Thereafter, it carried about half of the ABC primetime lineup (which was in those days was a distant third among the U.S. networks in the ratings) and showed low-budget syndicated programming (e.g., series like Felony Squad
Felony Squad
Felony Squad is a half-hour television crime drama originally broadcast on the ABC network from September 12, 1966 to January 31, 1969, a span encompassing seventy-three episodes.-Overview:...
that had run for one or two seasons years earlier) and movies the rest of the time.
Relocation and Rebranding as CKND Winnipeg
In early 1973, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced it had received two applications to start a new commercial television station in Winnipeg, one from Western Manitoba Broadcasters Ltd., the parent company of CKX-TVCKX-TV
CKX-TV was a television station in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada, formerly affiliated with CBC Television. Owned and operated by CTVglobemedia, it was the first privately owned television station in Manitoba...
in Brandon, Manitoba, and the other from Continental Communications, represented by Ray Peters, the president of CHAN-TV
CHAN-TV
CHAN-DT is a television station in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, broadcasting over-the-air on digital channel 22, and available via cable providers in the area on channel 11. Owned by Shaw Communications as a part of its Shaw Media division, it is the West Coast flagship station of the...
in Vancouver, B.C.
The CRTC held public hearings in Winnipeg in May 1974 to determine which of the three competing applicants should be granted a licence. Though Continental Communications had withdrawn its application by this stage, Western Manitoba Broadcasters had been joined in the competition for the licence by Canwest Broadcasting, which proposed acquiring KCND's assets and relocating the station to Winnipeg, and by Communications Winnipeg Co-Op, which proposed a not-for-profit, member-supported station.
The Canadian government was displeased with the existence of "border stations" which, while nominally American, existed primarily to broadcast U.S. content into major Canadian markets in competition with local broadcasters (and without the Canadian content that Canadian TV stations were and are required by law to provide). Accordingly, the government amended the Income Tax Act to curtail the tax deductibility of advertising expenditures incurred by Canadian businesses in the U.S. media, while the CRTC prepared to implement a "simultaneous substitution" policy which would require cable TV systems to carry the Canadian signal on both channels whenever the same program was being shown on both a Canadian and American station at the same time. In the case of KCND, this measure threatened to eliminate the significant portion of its advertising revenue that originated in Winnipeg and bring about the demise of the station.
Canwest also argued in its presentation to the CRTC that relocating KCND to Winnipeg would be preferable to starting a new station, as this would provide their station with a $2 million advertising base and would save $1.5 million in capital and start-up costs.
Canwest was awarded the licence in September 1974 and took over possession and day-to-day management of KCND on March 31, 1975. The McLendon Corporation remained in possession of KCND's U.S. broadcasting licence until shortly after the station went off the air in September 1975 in order to remain in compliance with U.S. television station ownership regulations.
Consolidation of KCND's Pembina, N.D. and Winnipeg, Man. studios at a new, larger facility at 603 St. Mary's Road in Winnipeg began in the spring of 1975. The station's 17 Winnipeg employees had all agreed as of late May 1975 to stay on with CKND, as the Winnipeg-based station was to be called, after the transition. Few of the 22 U.S.-based employees were retained, however, though all had been offered employment in Canada.
KCND-TV's signal on Winnipeg's cable systems went off for the final time on August 31, 1975 at 8:30 p.m., following the 7 p.m. movie, The Thrill of It All
The Thrill of It All
The Thrill of It All is a romantic comedy film directed by Norman Jewison starring Doris Day, James Garner, Arlene Francis, and ZaSu Pitts. The screenplay was written by Larry Gelbart and Carl Reiner...
. The transmitter remained on the air, simulcasting CKND, until the following afternoon. CKND-TV
CKND-TV
CKND-DT is a television station that broadcasts from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It is the Manitoba outlet for the Global Television Network.-History:...
signed on for the first time at 9:00 p.m. on over-the-air channel 9 and cable channel 12 with the program Introducing CKND, followed by the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon
Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon
The MDA Labor Day Telethon is an annual telethon in the United States to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association . The first MDA telethon was during the Thanksgiving Day weekend of 1952 and titled Party for MDA. It has been held annually since 1966...
, which began at 9:30 p.m. and was shown until Monday September 1 at 5:30 p.m.
This was the beginning of Asper's career as a media mogul of the Canwest empire, which culminated in his owning most of the large daily newspapers in Canada and TV stations in nearly every province.
Subsequent Pembina station
In May 1974, John Boler, the founder and owner of Valley City-Fargo, N.D. CBS affiliate KXJB-TVKXJB-TV
KXJB-TV is a CBS affiliated television station in Fargo, North Dakota, USA, serving Eastern North Dakota and Northwestern Minnesota. It broadcasts on ATSC channel 38, which redirects to former NTSC channel 4 via PSIP. It is licensed to nearby Valley City...
expressed his intention to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to apply for a licence to operate a Channel 12 television station at Pembina, N.D. if KCND-TV were to go off the air. In 1981, Boler and fellow investors J. L. Wood and Robert Alphson were awarded a licence to construct a station at Pembina operating at a power of 316,000 watts from a 857-foot tower.
Initial plans were for the station to begin broadcasting in the summer of 1982, operating as a conventional television station during the day and as a pay-TV station offering commercial-free full-length movies after 7 p.m. The station never commenced operations, however, and the licence was transferred to the Boler-owned Fargo Broadcasting Corporation, operators of Fargo, N.D. independent station KVRR
KVRR
KVRR, is a Fox affiliated television station in Fargo, North Dakota, USA, serving Eastern North Dakota, Northwestern Minnesota, and a portion of Southern Manitoba. It broadcasts on ATSC channel 19, which redirects to former NTSC channel 15 via PSIP...
, in mid-1985. The station's proposed call letters were changed from KWBA to KNRR in September 1985.
KNRR signed on in 1986 and became affiliated with the Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
television network as a full satellite of KVRR
KVRR
KVRR, is a Fox affiliated television station in Fargo, North Dakota, USA, serving Eastern North Dakota, Northwestern Minnesota, and a portion of Southern Manitoba. It broadcasts on ATSC channel 19, which redirects to former NTSC channel 15 via PSIP...
in Fargo.
KCND-TV personalities
- Dick VincentDick VincentDick Vincent was best known as the announcer and on-air host at KCND-TV in the 1960s and 1970s.Dick started his broadcasting career as a news reporter with radio station CKDM in Dauphin, Manitoba. He was station announcer at CJOB from 1959 to 1960. KCND signed off and moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba...
– on-air host during the whole history of the station. He would later move to CKND along with the station. Previously worked as an announcer on CJOBCJOB (AM)CJOB is a talk radio station located at 680 kHz on the AM band in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It is owned and operated by Corus Radio, a national media company in Canada. CJOB has been the highest-rated radio station in Winnipeg for many years, and is also the sister station of CJGV-FM and CJKR-FM...
.