KOLN
KOLN in Lincoln, Nebraska, and KGIN in Grand Island, Nebraska, together known as 10/11, are television stations serving as the CBS affiliates for southeastern and central Nebraska. Owned by Gray Media, 10/11 maintains studios on North 40th Street in Lincoln and a news bureau and sales office on West State Street in Grand Island; KOLN's transmitter is located near Beaver Crossing, while KGIN's is near Heartwell. The stations serve southern and central Nebraska as well as portions of far northern Kansas.
KOLN began broadcasting on channel 12 in 1953 and was originally a sole affiliate of the DuMont Television Network. It was bought by John Fetzer soon after its debut. Fetzer bought KFOR-TV, the original channel 10, in 1954. This led to an effective merger of the two stations, with KOLN as the survivor. KOLN moved to channel 10 from a new, higher-coverage transmitter site later that year and joined CBS; the channel 12 facility was transferred to the University of Nebraska and became KUON-TV. This left KOLN without competition based in Lincoln for more than 40 years.
To further increase its reach, Fetzer built KGIN-TV at Grand Island in 1961. 10/11, as the combination became known, dominated the ratings in its enlarged market. Despite a news presentation that remained stubbornly traditional and even stodgy into the 1980s, the station built up a loyal news audience, particularly in rural areas, competing against stations from Omaha in the Lincoln area and two network affiliates in the Tri-Cities portion. The purchases of KOLN and KGIN-TV by Gillett Communications in 1985 and Busse Broadcasting in 1987 heralded a shift toward a more modern style of newscasting.
Gray acquired KOLN/KGIN in 1998. In the 2010s, the company's Nebraska operations grew with the 2013 purchase of KSNB-TV, which became the market's NBC affiliate the next year when it acquired the non-license assets of KHAS-TV in Hastings. A semi-satellite of KOLN/KGIN-TV, KNPL-LD "10/11 North Platte", is the CBS affiliate for North Platte.
History
Early years
In 1952, Lincoln radio station KOLN was acquired by the Cornhusker Radio and Television Corporation from Inland Broadcasting Corporation of Omaha. Inland had filed for a permit to construct a KOLN television station, which was replaced by a new application from Cornhusker seeking channel 12. KOLN-TV received its construction permit from the Federal Communications Commission on October 2, 1952, and announced plans for a tower at 40th and W, where KOLN radio was located. A second Lincoln station, KFOR-TV, was authorized to the Cornbelt Broadcasting Company to operate on channel 10. KOLN-TV began telecasting programming on February 18, 1953. It was a sole affiliate of the DuMont Television Network. KFOR-TV, an ABC affiliate, followed on May 31.Channel 12 had been on the air for five months when John Fetzer of Kalamazoo, Michigan, acquired KOLN radio and television from Cornhusker. Under Fetzer, KOLN began planning for a major upgrade. It applied for and received authority to erect a tower and maximum-power transmitter facility east of Beaver Crossing in order to expand its coverage area.
On February 17, 1954, Fetzer announced he was purchasing KFOR-TV from Stuart Investment Company. The Beaver Crossing facility would be constructed to utilize channel 10 instead of 12, and KOLN intended to discard DuMont programming in favor of KFOR-TV's ABC affiliation. However, this required action to divest or surrender the channel 12 facility. Even though FCC approval of the channel 10 acquisition came in March, Fetzer had yet to find a buyer for channel 12. It was spun out into a trust to make it available to the University of Nebraska or another educational institution. The trust assumed the channel in July 1954 on behalf of the university. Fetzer's effective consolidation of KFOR-TV and KOLN left channel 10 the only commercial station in Lincoln.
KOLN became a CBS affiliate on June 15, 1954, and moved to channel 10 on August 1 from its new Beaver Crossing transmitter facility. The existing channel 12 transmitter facility and use of KOLN's studios went to the new educational station, which debuted as KUON-TV on November 1. DuMont ceased its existence as a network in 1955, while KOLN remained an ABC affiliate even after KETV began broadcasting in Omaha in 1957.
Regional expansion
When KOLN went on the air, it financially struggled. In its first nine months, it lost some $25,000 a month; it had a poor movie selection and was initially saddled with meager offerings from DuMont. The construction of the Beaver Crossing transmitter and move to channel 10 marked the start of a commitment to expand the station's service area well beyond Lincoln. In the Lincoln area, general manager A. James Ebel had an idea. The station gave out television antennas with directions for viewers to point their antennas west toward Beaver Crossing and away from Omaha. West of Lincoln, where the Omaha stations' signals did not reach, a station study found that there was a significant number of charge accounts at Lincoln department stores. In 1959, the Electron Corporation of Dallas, a manufacturer of television equipment, began applying for television station permits in small markets throughout the country, including channel 11 at Grand Island. Electron hoped to use the Grand Island station and others as demonstrations of equipment it claimed would make it 70 percent cheaper to set up new TV stations. Electron obtained the permit and gave it the call sign KGIN-TV, but instead of constructing the station, it sold the permit to KOLN to be used to rebroadcast the Lincoln station.KGIN-TV began broadcasting on October 1, 1961. A three-hop microwave transmission link from Lincoln carried KOLN programming to the channel 11 transmitter facility at Heartwell. The initial performance of the facility was poor, which was discovered to be due to a mis-assembly of the antenna. It had been incorrectly marked at the factory and, when assembled, sent most of its signal up. A station spokesman noted, "We probably had a good signal on the moon, but this installation wasn't designed to serve the moon." The Grand Island station completed a studio with live telecasting capability in 1967, which moved to the Hotel Yancey in 1969. KGIN continued to have offices at the Yancey as late as 1990. Further translators began carrying KOLN/KGIN-TV as far west as North Platte, with 18 in service by 1973.
With the Grand Island satellite in place, KOLN-TV began branding itself as 10/11. It became one of the highest-rated television stations in its market in the United States in total-day ratings, late afternoon ratings, and other metrics. Its late newscast attracted more than 60 percent of area television viewers in the 1970s. It also became a profitable venture for Fetzer. Other local programs debuted, such as the Morning Show and Cartoon Corral. After 1967, both programs had the same host, Leta Powell Drake, who also hosted local commercials. Cartoon Corral left the air in 1982.
Gillett and Busse ownership
After 31 years of ownership, in August 1985, Fetzer announced the sale of KOLN and KGIN-TV—as well as WKZO-TV in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and KMEG in Sioux City, Iowa—to Gillett Communications of Nashville, Tennessee. The change of ownership resulted in the end of several local programs, including Romper Room, Etc., and For Children Only, as well as a more adversarial relationship between management and the unionized staff than had been the case under Fetzer.In 1987, Gillett conducted a buyout of Storer Communications. With this acquisition, Gillett now had 14 stations, more than the limit of 12 then in place. Five of Gillett's smaller stations, including KOLN/KGIN-TV, were spun off to a new company, Busse Broadcasting Corporation, which was run by and named for the former general manager of WEAU-TV in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, one of the stations included in the transaction. Busse Broadcasting was originally announced to be owned by Lawrence A. Busse and a trust set up for George N. Gillett Jr.'s children; the FCC rejected complaints from members of Congress after Gillett himself bought non-voting stock in the company. In 1996, Citadel Communications moved the former KCAN-TV into Lincoln as KLKN, giving KOLN its first competition within Lincoln since 1954.
Gray ownership
In 1995, Busse declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy and reorganized. After suspending attempts to sell its stations in 1996, Busse sold its television properties to Gray Communications Systems in 1998. The $112 million purchase brought Gray out of the southeastern U.S. for the first time.KOLN launched a second subchannel in 2005 to carry UPN programming to digital-equipped viewers and on cable. The subchannel affiliated with MyNetworkTV in 2006. For a time in January 2009, the KOLN/KGIN website included a section about a Fox affiliate on its second digital subchannel. However, station officials later said there were no immediate plans to launch such a station, describing the page as part of an experimental project not meant for public consumption. At that time, the rights to Fox programming in the Lincoln–Hastings–Kearney market belonged to KSNB-TV in the eastern half of the market and KTVG-TV in the west.
Gray has expanded its central and western Nebraska media holdings beyond 10/11. In 2012, it moved to acquire KSNB-TV, which had lost its Fox affiliation. In an effort to trade on the success of the 10/11 brand, KSNB was relaunched in 2013 as "10/11 Central Nebraska", which aired programming from MyNetworkTV and MeTV. 10/11 Central Nebraska also offered 5:30 and 9 p.m. newscasts from KOLN/KGIN and several local programs. That same year, the North Platte translator began offering separate newscasts as KNPL-LD "10/11 North Platte". In 2014, Gray acquired the assets of KHAS-TV in Hastings and moved its NBC affiliation and programming to KSNB-TV.
In January 2020, the KOLN tower near Beaver Crossing collapsed in an ice storm. KOLN and most of its subchannels were broadcast from Gray-owned KCWH-LD in the immediate Lincoln area, while KLKN offered two of its subchannels to KOLN and KSNB. A new tower at the Beaver Crossing site was activated in November 2021, and in March 2022, KSNB-TV began broadcasting from the same site.