Gray TV is selling the Aberdeen, SD, building that was once home to KABY-TV and relocating its news bureau to a downtown building.
The one-person office serving Sioux Falls-based ABC affiliate KSFY and NBC/FOX affiliate KDLT, collectively branded as Dakota News Now, is the only TV news bureau in Aberdeen. The bureau’s Sarah Parkin reported that she will be moving to the Blackstone Office Building, which is also home to the Aberdeen American News.
The station’s report says the KABY-TV building is being sold to Labyrinth Films, which is already a tenant in the building.
The building, along 5th Avenue Northwest, still bears a KABY-TV sign even though the station itself went silent in 2015 due to a tower problem. KABY had been a satellite of KSFY, which remained available on cable and satellite and returned to Aberdeen airwaves following KSFY’s purchase of KDLT and its translator network.
According to vintage Broadcasting Yearbook editions, channel 9 first signed on as standalone NBC/ABC affiliate KXAB-TV in 1958. It later became a satellite of KSFY, then known as KSOO-TV, helping it compete with CBS affiliate KELO-TV and its satellite station in Watertown (KDLO/3). Both stations also operate satellite stations in the Pierre area.
Gray TV returned the KABY license in 2018 and the channel 9 frequency is now set to be part of an FCC auction in June, which is unrelated to the news bureau’s move. The KABY callsign is now parked on a low-power TV station in Sioux Falls.
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