In the mid-1990s, few people knew that Duluth had a TV station on channel 21, but one person who worked there made sure some of its history was preserved.
Joe Mann recently passed away at the age of 49 following a stroke. Mann was well-known for his work at several local historical organizations and at PBS station WDSE/8, which honored him with a segment on Almanac North.
Joe was also proud of the fact that he had worked for Duluth’s channel 21 in two different eras. We worked together at FOX 21 (KQDS-TV) in 2010, when he surprised me with tales of his earlier stint at channel 21 when it was little-known Independent station KNLD.
KNLD signed on in 1994, and while many expected it to be the market’s FOX affiliate, that didn’t happen immediately. Instead, the station initially carried a very limited schedule of programming from the American Independent Network and later, Shop at Home Network.
Surprisingly, checking out the fuzzy channel 21 signal from my dorm room at UW-Superior in 1995, I also noticed that it was running syndicated Big Ten football broadcasts without any local commercials.
It’s unlikely anyone noticed. The station wasn’t included in newspaper TV listings and wasn’t on the cable lineup. Duluth’s UHF band otherwise only had a scrambled subscription TV service and a low-power religious station, all of which have since gone off the air.
Shortly before my departure from FOX 21 in 2010, Joe surprised me with a packet of photos of the 1990s KNLD facility and a letter briefly recounting his first stint at the station.
“I’ve enclosed with this letter some of my photos for your archives to give you an inside look at what I worked with,” he wrote.
His packet also includes a blank transmitter log noting that the original KNLD transmitted with just 44.7kW ERP. Though it was a full-power license, that 44.7kW was less power than was being used by some low-power licenses in other cities.
In 1996, KNLD owner Fant Broadcasting purchased KQDS-FM/94.9 and KQDS/1490 with stated plans to build a new tower for the FM and TV stations. KNLD’s technical facilities were located at the KQDS transmitter site on Observation Hill, near Central High School (which has now been closed for a decade and will soon be demolished).
Joe’s pictures show a very limited operation for the TV station including a few tape decks, an equipment rack, and a small TV to monitor the signal.
“I enjoyed my experience with what I dealt with, but I can say I was a master control operator for KNLD and that I was a pioneer in the job I did. I am proud of that,” he wrote.
There had been various announcements in the mid to late 1990s about plans to upgrade KNLD. Though a construction permit for an upgrade was first sought in 1996, the upgrade wasn’t completed until 1999 after a sale to Red River Broadcast Corp.
Joe’s photos document some of the work, showing sections of the new tower (at the top of this post) and construction of the foundation for the new building. The much larger new building was constructed next to the smaller building, which was retained.
As a FOX affiliate, the new version of channel 21 (KQDS-TV) mirrored the successful FOX operation that Red River had already built in Fargo. That included a network of eight translators across the vast Duluth-Superior TV market, similar to Red River’s network of translators and satellite stations relaying KVRR across the Fargo market.
Red River also added to its radio group in Duluth, buying WWAX/92.1, KZIO/104.3, and KZIO translator K292EZ/106.3. WWAX and K292EZ’s transmitters were moved to the KQDS transmitter site, while KQDS radio’s studios and offices were relocated to the existing WWAX/KZIO space in Canal Park.
That left the old KQDS radio building on London Road to be home for KQDS-TV. When FOX 21 News launched in 2007, the TV studio, production control room, and newsroom were constructed on the second floor of the building, with video editing bays placed where the radio studio had been.
In his letter, Joe wrote that he was proud to see how the station had evolved.
“Seeing the studio, offices and staff, I was impressed with the work that has been done with what is there,” he wrote.
Another former FOX 21 colleague once remarked that even if we no longer worked at the station, we could drive past with pride and say, ‘we helped build that.’ Joe could have the pride of knowing that he helped build it — twice.
Disclosure: Jon Ellis is an employee of Gray Media Group. The statements and views expressed in this posting are his own and do not reflect those of Gray Media Group.