KDLH
KDLH (channel 3) is a television station in Duluth, Minnesota, United States, serving the Duluth-Superior market, known locally as the Twin Ports. For most of its history it was the market's CBS affiliate, a role it held from 1955 to 2016. Since August 1, 2016, its main channel has been affiliated with The CW Plus, and CBS programming for the Twin Ports is carried instead on a subchannel of its sister station. KDLH is owned by Gray Media alongside Superior, Wisconsin-licensed KBJR-TV (channel 6), the market's NBC affiliate, which also carries CBS on its second subchannel. The stations share studios on South Lake Avenue in Canal Park, downtown Duluth. KDLH's transmitter is located west of downtown, in Hilltop Park. Its branding is Duluth CW.
Sign-on as KDAL-TV in 1954
The station signed on on March 14, 1954, as KDAL-TV, on VHF channel 3. It was owned by Dalton Alexander LeMasurier, founder of KDAL radio, and its first studios were in the Bradley Building in Duluth, which it shared with the radio station. The call letters came from the radio operation. KDAL-TV began as an NBC affiliate for its first year, from 1954 to 1955, while also carrying ABC programming on a secondary basis, a common arrangement in smaller markets in the 1950s when there were more networks than stations. In the late 1950s it was also linked for a short period with the NTA Film Network. In 1955 it became a CBS affiliate, beginning an association that would last for sixty-one years and define the station's identity for generations of Twin Ports viewers.
Growth, colour and the move downtown
LeMasurier sold his television and radio interests in 1960 to the company that eventually became known as Tribune Broadcasting, through WGN Continental Broadcasting. KDAL-TV started colour transmissions in 1965. In the mid-1960s the station moved from the Bradley Building to new facilities on Superior Street in downtown Duluth. It continued to carry ABC on a secondary basis until 1966, after which its schedule was centred on CBS, supplemented by syndicated programming. For viewers in northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin, channel 3 was the source of CBS national news, sports and prime time entertainment, and its local newscasts were part of a three-station competition with the market's NBC and ABC outlets.
Palmer Broadcasting and the KDLH call letters
In 1979 Palmer Broadcasting of Des Moines and Davenport, Iowa, bought the television station for a reported 7.25 million dollars. KDAL radio was retained by its existing owner and would continue with the CBS affiliation for radio. Because Federal Communications Commission rules required call letters to change when a co-owned station was sold separately, KDAL-TV became KDLH-TV on February 21, 1979, the new letters referring to Duluth. The television station was operated by a Palmer subsidiary, KDLH-TV Broadcasting Company. Its executive vice president and general manager, John LaForge, continued in those roles under the new ownership, and Palmer predicted an expansion of public affairs programming. In 1985 Benedek Broadcasting became the owner, and in 1991 the -TV suffix was dropped, leaving the present KDLH call sign. Benedek declared bankruptcy in 2002; KDLH was not absorbed in the resulting merger of Benedek with Gray Television and instead passed to Chelsey Broadcasting.
New Vision, Malara and the end of the independent newsroom
New Vision Broadcasting acquired KDLH in 2003. In March 2005 the station was acquired by Malara Broadcast Group, which outsourced most of its operations to KBJR-TV, then owned by Granite Broadcasting, under a shared services agreement. The sale was announced on March 8, 2005, and the majority of KDLH's news staff was dismissed as its news department was closed and merged into KBJR's operation, which was branded the Northland's NewsCenter. To maintain a separate identity, some KBJR personalities appeared on channel 3, but not all KBJR programmes were carried there. KDLH's 5:30 p.m. newscast was for a time anchored by Pat Kelly, the only member of the former channel 3 news team who remained after the sale. Its 10 p.m. programme was initially a ten-minute news capsule followed by a syndicated sitcom rerun; after thirteen months of mediocre ratings it was expanded to a traditional thirty-five minutes and renamed Northland's NewsCenter Tonight.
The news operation before and after consolidation
While it operated its own news department, KDLH had been the last of Duluth's big three stations to offer a weekday 5 p.m. newscast. It aired a court programme in that slot instead until 2004, when it debuted a 5 p.m. show featuring anchor Amy Rutledge and meteorologist Phil Johnson. That programme, and the 6 p.m. newscast, were replaced in March 2005 by the combined 5:30 p.m. format. KDLH and KBJR began broadcasting local newscasts in 16:9 widescreen on May 4, 2009, the first stations in the market to do so, although the broadcasts were not initially true high definition. From November 2009 the station's separate weeknight shows were branded KDLH 3 News and aired from a secondary set, and on January 11, 2010, KDLH began the area's only weeknight 6:30 p.m. newscast. That separate branding preserved a distinct channel 3 news voice even though the journalists and facilities were shared with channel 6.
Digital transition
KDLH broadcast in analog on VHF channel 3 from 1954 to 2009. It was among the Duluth stations that moved to digital broadcasting in February 2009, and full-power analog broadcasting in the market ended that June. Its digital signal is on UHF channel 33, while it continues to display virtual channel 3. The station operates with an effective radiated power of 381 kilowatts and an antenna 310.2 metres above average terrain, at 46 degrees 47 minutes 21.1 seconds north and 92 degrees 6 minutes 51.4 seconds west. Its facility ID is 4691. Digital multicasting later allowed channel 3 to carry The CW Plus, initially on a second subchannel from 2006, at the same time as its main channel still carried CBS, a preview of the larger change that came a decade later.
The 2016 end of the CBS affiliation
In November 2015 SagamoreHill Broadcasting purchased KDLH and entered a shared services agreement with Quincy Media, which was acquiring KBJR. As that agreement ended on August 1, 2016, CBS programming was moved from KDLH's main channel to KBJR's second digital subchannel, KBJR-DT2, and KDLH switched exclusively to The CW. The new CBS service was deliberately branded CBS 3, in reference both to KDLH's long history and to its position on Charter Spectrum cable channel 3, to reduce viewer disruption. Quincy invested in more separate news identities for the CBS and NBC services, building separate sets and control rooms and hiring additional journalists, including a dedicated CBS 3 morning team, so that the CBS newscasts on 6.2 competed directly with KBJR's NBC newscasts at 6 and 10 p.m. and added a 5 to 7 a.m. programme. KDLH itself, meanwhile, became a CW station without the network news and sports profile it had carried for six decades.
Quincy ownership and the Gray acquisition
On May 21, 2018, Quincy Media announced that it would acquire KDLH outright for 792,557 dollars. Although the FCC normally prohibits one company from owning two television licences in the same market when both are among the top four rated stations, Quincy filed evidence that in the November 2017 ratings sweeps KBJR was the top-ranked station in Duluth while KDLH placed fifth, so the combination was permissible. The sale was completed on August 1, 2018. On February 1, 2021, Gray Television announced its intent to purchase Quincy Media for 925 million dollars. The acquisition was completed on August 2, 2021, making KBJR and KDLH Gray stations, alongside Gray outlets in nearby markets such as Mankato, Wausau, Marquette and Eau Claire. Gray Media is KDLH's present owner.
Subchannels and present programming
KDLH's main channel, 3.1, carries The CW Plus, the network's service for smaller markets, which combines CW prime time programming with syndicated shows supplied for the hours outside prime time. Its other subchannels in recent listings are 3.2 True Crime Network, 3.3 Laff, 3.4 Court TV, 3.5 Ion Mystery and 3.6 Quest. Historically, in addition to CBS as its primary affiliation, the station carried Fox on a secondary basis from 1996 to 2000 and The WB as a secondary service before The CW replaced it. The station's listed web presence for its CW service is through The CW's partner page for Duluth. Its day-to-day operation remains integrated with KBJR in Canal Park, whose Northern News Now operation is the successor to the Northland's NewsCenter brand under which the two stations' news was combined in 2005.
Significance
KDLH's history reflects both continuity and consolidation in American local television. It signed on in 1954, brought CBS to the Twin Ports in 1955 and kept that affiliation for sixty-one years, through ownership by its radio founder, Tribune, Palmer, Benedek and several smaller groups. Since 2005, however, it has not operated independently: its newsroom was closed and merged, its operations were supplied by the owner of the competing NBC station, and in 2016 its defining CBS affiliation moved to a subchannel of that station, leaving channel 3 as the market's CW outlet. The survival of the CBS 3 brand on a different frequency is a reminder that in the digital era a station's identity, its licence and its network can each move separately.
