Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 20, 2026

KBMY

KBMY is a television station in Bismarck, North Dakota, United States, affiliated with ABC and MyNetworkTV. Owned by Forum Communications Company, the station maintains a news bureau and advertising sales office on North 15th Street in Bismarck, and its transmitter is located near St. Anthony, North Dakota.

Last revised
Jul 20, 2026
Read time
≈ 7 min
Length
1,608 w
Citations
35
Source
Wikipedia ↗
KBMY and KMCY
Semi-satellites of WDAY-TV,
Fargo, North Dakota
Channels for KBMY
Channels for KMCY
Branding
  • KBMY:
    • KBMY; WDAY News
    • WDAY Xtra (17.3)
  • KMCY:
    • KMCY; WDAY News
    • WDAY Xtra (14,3)
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
History
First air date
  • KBMY: March 31, 1985 (1985-03-31)
  • KMCY: June 19, 1985 (1985-06-19)
Former channel number
  • KBMY: Analog: 17 (UHF, 1985–2009)
  • KMCY: Analog: 14 (UHF, 1985–2009)
Call sign meaning
  • KBMY: Bismarck–Mandan, disambiguation of last call letter for owner Forum's flagship station WDAY1
  • KMCY: Magic City (nickname of Minot)
Technical information23
Licensing authority
FCC
  • KBMY: 22121
  • KMCY: 22127
ERP
  • KBMY: 75 kW
  • KMCY: 40 kW
HAAT
  • KBMY: 290 m (951 ft)
  • KMCY: 217 m (712 ft)
Transmitter coordinates
Links
Public license information

KBMY (channel 17) in Bismarck, North Dakota, United States, and KMCY (channel 14) in Minot, North Dakota, are television stations affiliated with ABC and MyNetworkTV. The two stations are owned by Forum Communications Company and serve as semi-satellites of WDAY-TV in Fargo. KBMY has a news bureau and advertising sales office on North 15th Street in Bismarck and is broadcast from a transmitter located near St. Anthony, North Dakota. KMCY has a local office on 2nd St SE in Minot and is broadcast from a transmitter near South Prairie.

KBMY and KMCY went on the air in March and June 1985, respectively, as westward extensions of WDAY-TV. Previously, there was no full-time broadcast of ABC programs in western North Dakota. From 1986 to 1989, KBMY–KMCY had its own news department, producing local newscasts that were combined with content from WDAY-TV. From 2002 to 2016, other regional broadcasters—first KNDX–KXND and later KX Television—provided advertising sales services and transmission capacity in Dickinson and Williston to KBMY–KMCY. Since 2014, WDAY has aired its Fargo-based newscasts on the stations.

History

Early years

In mid-1983, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the allocation of UHF channel 17 to Bismarck, North Dakota, at the request of WDAY Inc., the owner of WDAY-TV in Fargo.4 WDAY-TV then filed for new stations on channel 17 at Bismarck and channel 14 at Minot.5 The Fargo station had only recently switched its network affiliation from NBC to ABC and wished to operate satellite stations for the Bismarck and Minot area.4 Potential competitors in eastern and western North Dakota objected to WDAY's proposals. Fargo competitor KTHI-TV presented petitions against WDAY-TV's broadcast license renewal and its new station applications, claiming that the co-owned The Forum of Fargo–Moorhead newspaper gave preferential placement to WDAY in its television listings. KTHI as well as the owner of KXMB-TV–KXMC-TV in Bismarck and Minot charged that an additional station would increase Forum's hold on the mass media in the Dakotas. In October 1984, FCC administrative law judge James C. McKinney rejected nearly all of their objections, except for the one pertaining to newspaper listings, and granted Forum's pending applications.6 This cleared the way for the Bismarck and Minot stations to be constructed.7 By that time, WDAY already had land options for both stations: in Bismarck near St. Anthony and in Minot on a parcel near KXMC-TV and Prairie Public Television.8

KBMY signed on for the first time on March 31, 1985,9 and KMCY signed on for the first time on June 19, 1985.10 Previously, the full ABC schedule had only been available to households with cable television in these areas;7 KXMB-TV and KXMC-TV were secondary ABC affiliates but with a limited use of ABC programming outside of Monday Night Football.1112 The call signs for KBMY and KMCY were in keeping with other Forum stations, such as KSFY-TV and satellites, in containing two letters for the city and a Y at the end.1

Initially, KBMY offered limited news service. A reporter in Bismarck contributed stories to WDAY-TV's newscasts.11 In August 1986, KBMY began producing a 10 p.m. local news program, presented from Bismarck by former KFYR-TV anchor Dewey Heggen, which was combined with the weather and sports segments presented from Fargo.13 With limited resources, KBMY news concentrated on fewer, more in-depth stories.14 The news department was discontinued on March 9, 1989,15 due to concerns about costs; a new reporter was to have moved from California before the shutdown. The nationally syndicated USA Today: The Television Show took over the newscast's former timeslot in KBMY/KMCY's schedule.14

Operation under LMA

Former logo as "ABC West" source ↗

In the 2000s and 2010s, KBMY–KMCY (known as ABC West) were operated by other local broadcasters under two different local marketing agreements. In 2002, Prime Cities Broadcasting, owner of Fox affiliate KNDX–KXND, took over sales and master control services for the ABC stations, and ABC West began to be broadcast in Dickinson and Williston.16 In 2008, advertising sales duties for KBMY–KMCY were taken over by Reiten Television, owner of KXMB–KXMC, in a new joint sales agreement. Reiten and Forum already had an agreement to share news stories.17 Reiten sold the KX stations to Nexstar Broadcasting Group in 2015,18 and the agreement was ended, including the broadcast of KBMY–KMCY over digital subchannels of the KX stations in Dickinson (KXMA-TV) and Williston (KXMD-TV).19

News expansion from Fargo

Starting in 2014, WDAY-TV began reorienting its newscasts to a statewide focus and gradually began simulcasting them on KBMY/KMCY. The Sunday 5:30 p.m. (Central Time) newscast was the first rolled out to Bismarck, in February 2014.20 A Saturday morning newscast debuted in 2015.21 By 2020, KBMY–KMCY was simulcasting all newscasts from WDAY.22

Technical information

Subchannels

KBMY is broadcast from a transmitter located near St. Anthony, North Dakota.2 KMCY is broadcast from a transmitter near South Prairie.3 The stations' signals are multiplexed:

Subchannels of KBMY23 and KMCY24
Channel Res.Tooltip Display resolution Short name Programming
KBMY KMCY KBMY KMCY
17.1 14.1 720p KBMYABC KMCYABC ABC
17.2 14.2 480i CRIME True Crime Network
17.3 14.3 720p XTRA WDAY Xtra (Independent) with MyNetworkTV
17.4 14.4 480i ION Ion
17.5 14.5 Defy Ion Plus
17.6 14.6 CourtTV Court TV

Analog-to-digital conversion

KBMY shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 17, on June 12, 2009, the official digital television transition date. It followed the lead of KXMB in maintaining analog service to the end.25 While KBMY had received channel 16 for digital operations,26 in 2008 it requested to use channel 17 so it could use its existing analog antenna at St. Anthony and a transmitter provided by another station.27 KMCY shut down its analog signal by February 17, 2009.28

References

References

  1. "ABC affiliate gets call letters". The Bismarck Tribune. Bismarck, North Dakota. February 6, 1985. p. 2A. Retrieved July 25, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. "Facility Technical Data for KBMY". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  3. "Facility Technical Data for KMCY". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  4. "WDAY applies to operate UHF station". The Bismarck Tribune. August 23, 1983. p. 13. Retrieved July 18, 2026.
  5. "For the Record". Broadcasting. July 4, 1983. pp. 84–85. ProQuest 1014709944.
  6. "Attempt to keep ABC station out of Bismarck fails: FCC dismisses license challenge". The Bismarck Tribune. Associated Press. October 5, 1984. pp. 1A, 2A. Retrieved July 18, 2026.
  7. Herron, Stacy (October 5, 1984). "Ruling to give city a third station". The Bismarck Tribune. pp. 1A, 2A. Retrieved July 18, 2026.
  8. Crites, Ken (October 5, 1984). "Official Unsure When New Station Will Open". The Minot Daily News. p. 2.
  9. "ABC station to begin service March 31". The Bismarck Tribune. Bismarck, North Dakota. March 19, 1985. p. 2A. Retrieved July 25, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. "New Minot Television Station Scheduled To Go On Air June 19". The Minot Daily News. Minot, North Dakota. June 11, 1985. p. 6. Retrieved December 23, 2025 – via State Historical Society of North Dakota.
  11. Quanrud, Ted (February 1, 1985). "Finally! ABC on local airwaves: City gets 4th station". The Bismarck Tribune. p. Fanfare 11. Retrieved July 18, 2026.
  12. Franzen, Debbie (April 11, 1985). "Minot's ABC Affiliate Still On Target". The Minot Daily News. p. 11.
  13. "Let the networks have the glamour: Bismarck TV puts its money into... News Wars". The Bismarck Tribune. February 27, 1987. p. Fanfare 10–11. Retrieved July 18, 2026.
  14. Olson, Jeff (March 12, 1989). "Death of a newsroom: Fired and stunned, KBMY employees wonder what went wrong". The Bismarck Tribune. pp. 1A, [1]. Retrieved April 26, 2021.
  15. Quanrud, Ted (March 9, 1989). "Bismarck TV station ends local newscast". The Bismarck Tribune. pp. 1A, 10A. Retrieved July 18, 2026.
  16. "Business people: Service agreement". The Bismarck Tribune. September 8, 2002. pp. 2B. Retrieved July 18, 2026.
  17. "Reiten Television and Forum Communications Announce Partnership". The Bismarck Tribune (Advertisement). June 18, 2008. p. 4A. Retrieved July 18, 2026.
  18. "Nexstar Buys 4 North Dakota Stations". TVNewsCheck. September 17, 2015. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
  19. "KBMY and KMCY agreement expires, to disappear". The Dickinson Press. March 4, 2016. pp. A3. Retrieved July 18, 2026.
  20. "Fargo TV station starting statewide broadcast". The Bismarck Tribune. February 18, 2014. Retrieved February 21, 2014.
  21. "First News Saturday to debut this weekend". The Forum. January 8, 2015. p. A6. Retrieved July 18, 2026.
  22. Ellis, Jon (March 16, 2020). "More Prime Time News for Western North Dakota". NorthPine. Retrieved July 19, 2026.
  23. "TV Query for KBMY". RabbitEars.
  24. "TV Query for KMCY". RabbitEars.
  25. Reid, Crystal R. (June 11, 2009). "TV going all-digital Friday". The Bismarck Tribune. pp. 1B, 6B. Retrieved July 19, 2026.
  26. "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. May 23, 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
  27. "Notice of Proposed Rule Making DA 08-1630" (PDF). Media Bureau, Federal Communications Commission. July 9, 2008.
  28. "List of TV stations ending analog broadcasts". NBC News. Associated Press. February 17, 2009. Archived from the original on January 6, 2023. Retrieved March 20, 2023.