*** Welcome to piglix ***

KHME

KHME / KQME
KHME: Rapid City, South Dakota
KQME: Lead, South Dakota
United States
Branding MeTV Rapid City
Channels Digital:
KHME: 2 (VHF)
KQME: 10 (VHF)
Virtual:
KHME: 23 ()
KQME: 5 (PSIP)
Subchannels xx.1 MeTV
xx.2 Heroes & Icons
Translators 18 (UHF) Rapid City
Affiliations MeTV (2016–present)
Owner Legacy Broadcasting
(Legacy Broadcasting of Rapid City LLC)
Founded December 8, 1954 (1954-12-08)
First air date KHME: June 1, 1955; 61 years ago (1955-06-01)
KQME: November 2, 1966; 50 years ago (1966-11-02)
Call letters' meaning K Black Hills ME-TV
Former callsigns KHME: KOTA-TV (1955-2016)
KQME: KHSD-TV (1966-2016)
Former channel number(s) Analog:
KHME 3 (VHF, 1955–2009)
KQME 11 (VHF, 1966-2009)
Virtual:
KHME 3 (PSIP, until 2016)
KQME 11 (PSIP, until 2016)
Former affiliations CBS (1955–1970; secondary, 1976–1981)
NBC (secondary 1955–1958; joint primary with ABC 1970–1976; primary 1976–1984)
ABC (secondary 1955–1965; primary 1984–2016)
Fox (secondary, 1994–1996)
Transmitter power KHME: 18.2 kW
KQME: 34.8 kW
Height KHME: 174 m
KQME: 576 m
Facility ID KHME: 17688
KQME: 17686
Transmitter coordinates KHME:
44°4′7.7″N 103°15′5″W / 44.068806°N 103.25139°W / 44.068806; -103.25139
KQME:
44°19′35.1″N 103°50′9″W / 44.326417°N 103.83583°W / 44.326417; -103.83583 (KQME-TV)
Licensing authority FCC
Public license information: / KQME Profile
/ KQME CDBS

KHME, virtual channel 23 (VHF digital RF channel 2), is an MeTV affiliate based in Rapid City, South Dakota, USA. The station is owned by Legacy Broadcasting. Its transmitter is located in Rapid City; its studios are located on St. Joseph Street in downtown Rapid City.

KHME also operates a full-power satellite in Lead, South Dakota, KQME, virtual channel 5 (VHF digital RF channel 10), which can also be seen over the air in Rapid City. KHME's transmitter is located near Spearfish, South Dakota.

KHME debuted on the air as KOTA-TV, with test operations on June 1, 1955, with regular programming beginning one month later on July 1. It was the second television station in South Dakota, and the first in the western part of the state. The station was owned by Rapid City businesswoman Helen Duhamel, and was a sister station to CBS Radio Network affiliate KOTA (1380 AM). Duhamel bought a minority stake in the radio station in 1943 and gradually expanded her holdings until she bought full control in 1954. Channel 3 originally carried programming from all three networks, though it was a primary CBS television affiliate. Helen's son William (Bill) Duhamel would become KOTA-TV's president and general manager in 1976.

When KRSD-TV, the original channel 7 in Rapid City, signed on in 1958, it took the NBC affiliation, sharing ABC with KOTA-TV. In 1965, channel 3 took on an unusual "joint primary" affiliation with CBS and ABC, slightly favoring CBS. It was certainly quite a struggle to fit as many network shows as possible onto the schedule, especially in the daytime, so KRSD-TV had to take up some of the slack. But channel 7 always had a painfully weak signal which, by 1966, had deteriorated to the point of unacceptability. For this reason, and at NBC's insistence, the two stations switched affiliations on September 13, 1970, making KOTA-TV a joint-primary affiliate of ABC and NBC. A year later, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would yank KRSD-TV's license due to its inadequate technical quality; that station's owner would fight the decision, but finally gave up and ceased operations on February 29, 1976.


...
Wikipedia

...