KBSH-DT


KBSH-DT, virtual and VHF digital channel 7, is a CBS-affiliated television station licensed to Hays, Kansas, United States. The station is owned by Gray Television. KBSH's news bureau, advertising sales office and transmitter are located on Hall Street in northwest Hays. On cable, the station is available on channel 7 in most cities within the viewing area; in Hays and Russell, it is carried on Eagle Cable channel 10; in Great Bend, it is carried on Cox Communications channel 12 in standard definition and on digital channel 2012 in high definition.
KBSH is part of the Kansas Broadcasting System , a statewide network of four full-power stations that relay programming from Wichita CBS affiliate KWCH-DT across central and western Kansas; KBSH incorporates local advertising and news inserts aimed at areas of central Kansas within the Wichita–Hutchinson Plus television market. KBSH is also a sister station to Wichita-licensed CW affiliate KSCW-DT and Derby-licensed Univision affiliate KDCU-DT.

History

The station first signed on the air on September 2, 1958, as KAYS-TV. The station was initially a primary affiliate of ABC. KAYS-TV was founded by Hays businessmen Ross Beach and Bob Schmidt, owners of radio station KAYS ; the television station was housed in an expansion to the radio studio building. KAYS faced stiff opposition from KCKT, which signed on in November 1954, and was affiliated with NBC in concert with Garden City sister station KGLD. The construction of KAYS-TV was marred by tragedy when a pulley broke, causing 22-year-old Ronnie Barnett of Oklahoma City, employed by a tower crew, to fall 150 feet to his death; another person survived.
After KAYS-TV went on the air, KAKE-TV and its two affiliated stations began branding as the Golden K Network. However, KTVC changed affiliations to CBS in 1961. On September 1, 1962, KAYS-TV followed suit and changed affiliations from ABC to CBS. That same year, it purchased KWHT-TV in Goodland and changed its call letters to KLOE-TV. The four stations then formed the Kansas Broadcasting System, the CBS affiliate for central and western Kansas.
In 1983, the Cowles family, which owned KTVH, began selling off its vast media holdings. KTVH was sold to the Kansas Broadcasting System Corporation, which was owned by Beach and Schmidt; the network also purchased KTVC in 1988, owning all four stations for the first time. The next year, the Kansas Broadcasting System Corporation was purchased by Smith Broadcasting; after the sale was completed, the station changed its call letters to KBSH-TV, as part of an effort that saw KWCH's three semi-satellites change their call letters to help viewers think of the stations as part of one large network. The sale effectively separated the station from KAYS radio, which continues to maintain studio facilities from channel 7's studios, along with the rest of Eagle Radio's Hays station cluster. Smith sold the station to Spartanburg, South Carolina-based Spartan Communications in 1994; Spartan merged with Media General in 2000.
Until the 2000s, Cox Communications carried both KBSH and KWCH on its system in Great Bend ; Cox eventually dropped KWCH and moved KBSH to its parent station's former channel 12 position. In 2005, KWCH began operating a digital automation system from its Wichita studio facility, which handled the scheduling of advertisements and master control operations for all four KBS stations.
On April 6, 2006, Media General announced that it would sell KWCH, its satellites, and four other stations as a result of its purchase of four former NBC owned-and-operated stations. South Bend, Indiana-based Schurz eventually emerged as the winner and took ownership of the stations on September 25, at which time Schurz formed a new subsidiary known as "Sunflower Broadcasting, Inc.," which became the licensee for its Kansas broadcasting properties.
Schurz announced on September 14, 2015 that it would exit broadcasting and sell its television and radio stations, including KWCH-DT and its satellites, to Gray Television for $442.5 million. Gray already owned KAKE and its satellites; however, it sold that station to Lockwood Broadcast Group and kept the KBS stations. The sale was completed on February 16, 2016.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP Short NameProgramming
7.11080iKBSH-DTMain KBSH-DT programming / CBS
7.2480iKBSH-WXAlways On Storm Team 12

Analog-to-digital conversion

KBSH shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 7, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 20 to VHF channel 7. On June 24, 2009, the station's callsign was officially changed to KBSH-DT to reflect the transition.

Newscasts

KAYS/KBSH provided daily newscasts from its Hall Street studios until 1991, when the Kansas Broadcasting System began consolidating its operations; full-scale evening newscasts on KBSH were discontinued, and replaced by a short insert within simulcasts of KWCH's Wichita-based newscasts. The inserts were discontinued in 2001, with the Hall Street facility being reduced to a news bureau and sales office; the two reporter/photographers employed by the station began relaying content to Wichita to be incorporated into KWCH's Eyewitness News broadcasts seen simultaneously in Wichita, Hays, Goodland and Dodge City/Ensign.