Gray TV Seeks to Move Nebraska Station to UHF, Go Closer to Lincoln

Posted on by Jon Ellis

Gray TV is proposing to combine its Lincoln-market CBS and NBC stations on a reconstructed tower and move one of them to a UHF frequency, a change which would give the company more bandwidth in the capital city.

Citing “the imminent failure of [NBC affiliate] KSNB’s existing technical facilities” and the need to rebuild CBS affiliate KOLN’s tower following a collapse during an ice storm last winter, Gray’s petition for rulemaking says it makes sense to combine the projects and build a new tower at the KOLN site capable of hosting both stations.

KSNB-TV/4.1 currently transmits on VHF Low channel 4 from a tower near York. It proposes moving to the KOLN site at Beaver Crossing, which is about 15 miles closer to Lincoln, and changing its RF broadcast to UHF channel 24, where it would use 260kW at 430m.

Gray’s petition says KSNB-TV’s current VHF Low frequency “has proven to be ineffective for satisfactory viewer reception” and that the current facility was constructed by a former owner with very limited resources using “older, repurposed equipment that never worked as well as predicted using the FCC’s standard contour prediction methodologies.”

“The station’s repurposed Channel 4 equipment, which was unsuitable for digital broadcasting when it was installed, is failing and not expected to last another 6 months. Indeed, the equipment has lasted this long only due to creative repairs by a contract engineer who has now retired. “

Meanwhile, KOLN/10.1, which is licensed to Lincoln, would continue to transmit on VHF High channel 10 but would upgrade to 66.1kW/454m. Gray says the upgrade of KOLN, while only adding a few miles to its theoretical coverage area, would help fill in some gaps in broadcast coverage left by KSNB’s move east.

(Note: This story has been updated since it was first posted to reflect amended applications that changed the proposed power levels and antenna heights for KSNB and KOLN.)

KSNB-TV is currently licensed to Superior, which is about 60 miles from the current transmitter site. Gray says, “given the known problems with low VHF reception and with KSNB’s current ill-suited facilities, KSNB does not provide a reliable over-the-air signal to residents of Superior today.”

Gray says a move to UHF would offer more “robust signal levels for home reception.”

The petition asks the FCC for a two-step change: First, the community of license change from Superior to York, followed by the channel change from 4 to 24. The petition also requests a waiver on a current freeze on channel substitutions that was imposed because of the recently-completed spectrum auction repack.

The backstory on KSNB, KOLN, and the sprawling Lincoln-Kearney-Hastings-Grand Island market as a whole is rather lengthy and complicated. The market is essentially two separate viewing regions originally brought together by the simulcast of KOLN and KGIN/11.1 (Grand Island).

KSNB-TV got its start in 1965 as KHTL-TV, the fourth station in the ABC-affiliated Nebraska Television Network based at KHOL-TV (Kearney, now KHGI). It transmitted from near Superior, about 90 miles southwest of Lincoln, for several decades.

In 1996, KSNB became a FOX affiliate as a satellite of KTVG/17 (Grand Island). The station ceased to be a FOX affiliate in 2009 and lost its Superior tower site as a result of a dispute between then-licensee Collins Broadcasting and Pappas Telecasting.

In 2012, Collins relocated KSNB to the site near York, which is midway between Lincoln and Grand Island, and reached a deal to sell KSNB to Gray TV using a failing station waiver. KSNB became an affiliate of MeTV and MyNetworkTV the following year under Gray’s ownership.

KSNB’s programming changed again in 2014 when Gray bought Hoak Media, owner of NBC affiliate KHAS-TV/5 (Hastings), but could not keep KHAS-TV’s license due to FCC ownership caps. KHAS-TV’s lineup of Hastings-based newscasts, NBC, and syndicated programming moved to KSNB, which was simulcast on KOLN-DT2 and KGIN-DT2.

Then last year, the FCC allowed Gray to buy the former KHAS-TV, now KNHL/5.1, due to its diminished audience and the elimination of the “eight voices” rule (which has since been reimplemented). KSNB transmits on VHF Low and carries MeTV, NBC, CW, and ION from other Gray stations in the market.

Gray also owns low-power station KCWH-LD/18 (Lincoln), a CW affiliate which has also been hosting KOLN’s CBS programming after the tower collapse.