Until 2016, the KEVN call sign, Fox affiliation, and virtual channel 7 assignment were used on the broadcast license presently associated with KOTA-TV. KEVN-TV had launched in 1976 as an ABC affiliate, replacing KRSD-TV, which had signed on in 1958 as an NBC affiliate with a secondary ABC affiliation, switched to CBS in 1970, and was denied license renewal in 1971; KRSD shut down several months before KEVN began operations. KEVN switched to NBC in 1984 and Fox in 1996. The original KEVN was also seen on a satellite station in Lead, KIVV-TV, which operated on the license now used by KHSD-TV; virtual channel 5 is presently used by KQME, a satellite of MeTV affiliate KHME.
Current license
On September 14, 2015, Gray bought the non-license assets of the market's ABC affiliate KOTA-TV as part of its acquisition of Schurz Communications' television stations. Due to Federal Communications Commission ownership restrictions, Gray established this new low-powered station to move the Fox affiliation, KEVN's call sign, virtual channel, and programming. KOTA's ABC affiliation and program streams including its existing PSIP channel 3 numbering was then moved to the old full-powered KEVN, transmitting on RF channel 7. The original KOTA-TV license was then sold to Legacy Broadcasting and became KHME.
Digital television
Digital channel
News operation
KEVN-LD broadcasts 9½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week. The station carries a 6:00 p.m. newscast, but does not produce any newscasts during morning or midday timeslots. It rebroadcasts its hour-long 9:00 p.m. news program at 6:00 a.m. on weekday mornings. Early in KEVN's Fox affiliation, the station produced an hour-long morning newscast at 7 a.m. and half-hour newscasts at noon, 5:30 p.m., and 10 p.m.; on weekends, KEVN aired only its late newscast. In 1998, the station moved the late newscast to 9 p.m., making it the first Rapid City station to produce a primetime newscast; Around the same time, the morning and midday newscasts were discontinued. By 2001, KEVN expanded the weeknight 9 p.m. news to an hour; the weekend edition of the newscast was expanded to an hour on November 2, 2013. The station moved the early evening newscast to 6 p.m. on March 31, 2008 and relaunched it as The Six.
