came to Bismarck in 1955, KBMB-TV (channel 12, later changed to KXMB-TV), which was a CBS affiliate and served as an extension of KXJB-TV in Valley City and KCJB-TV in Minot. Earlier that year, KFYR-TV began broadcasting live network programming to Bismarck. KFYR-TV would continue to air some ABC programming until a full-time ABC service, KBMY, began broadcasting in 1985. Meyer Broadcasting expanded its reach with the construction of two new stations in 1957 and 1958. The first application to be granted was that for channel 10 in Minot (KMOT-TV), in October 1955, and Meyer was unopposed in its bid for channel 8 at Williston (KUMV-TV), which was approved in 1956. Dickinson would have to wait much longer for its full-power station, KQCD, to begin in 1980. Local news inserts from Dickinson ended on December 31, 1991, with the station turning to rebroadcasting KFYR's Bismarck news. In 1995, Meyer acquired KTHI-TV in Fargo, which it renamed KVLY-TV. When Meyer opted to exit broadcasting, KFYR-TV and its associated stations were sold to Sunrise Television Corporation for $63.75 million; at that time, KFYR-TV accounted for 57 percent of all broadcast TV viewing in Bismarck. The sale separated KFYR radio and television, which at the time shared several on-air personalities and a news director. It was the first of several sales for KFYR-TV. In 2002, North Dakota Television LLC, a consortium of private equity firms The Wicks Group of Companies, JP Morgan Partners, and Halyard Capital acquired the KFYR system as well as KVLY-TV in Fargo. Hoak Media of Dallas acquired these stations, as well as KSFY-TV in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and its satellites in 2006. The NBC North Dakota network picked up MeTV in April 2013, with an official launch date of May 1, 2013. On November 20, 2013, Gray Television announced it would purchase Hoak Media in a $335 million deal. Gray initially planned, through Excalibur Broadcasting, to also acquire Fox affiliate KNDX/KXND for $7.5 million and operate them under a local marketing agreement. On March 25, 2014, Prime Cities Broadcasting, owner of KNDX/KXND, requested that the FCC dismiss the sale of that station to Excalibur. Gray would instead acquire the stations' non-license assets; upon the closure of the Hoak purchases on June 13, 2014, KNDX/KXND were shuttered and their Fox programs moved to subchannels of KFYR and its satellites. News operation KFYR's newscasts have led the ratings in western