KOTA-TV (channel 3) is a television station in Rapid City, South Dakota, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by Gray Television alongside MeTV affiliate KHME (channel 23) and low-power Fox affiliate KEVN-LD (channel 7). The stations share studios on Skyline Drive in Rapid City, where KOTA-TV's transmitter is also located. KOTA-TV operates two full-power satellite stations: KHSD-TV (channel 11) in Lead, South Dakota (which can also be seen over the air in Rapid City), with transmitter atop Terry Peak; and KSGW-TV (channel 12) in Sheridan, Wyoming, with transmitter on Bosin Rock. KOTA serves a large area in western South Dakota, eastern Montana, eastern Wyoming and the Nebraska panhandle. It calls its vast coverage area "KOTA Territory". History KOTA-TV intellectual unit Until 2016, the KOTA-TV call sign, along with the virtual channel 3 assignment and the ABC affiliation, were associated with the station now known as KHME (channel 23). KOTA-TV had gone on the air in 1955 as the first television station in western South Dakota. Owned by Helen Duhamel along with KOTA radio (1380 AM), it was originally a primary CBS affiliate. The station also had secondary affiliations with NBC (until 1958) and ABC; it took on a joint-primary affiliation with both CBS and ABC in 1965, dropped CBS for NBC in 1970, lost ABC in 1976, and carried a secondary CBS affiliation from 1976 until 1981. KOTA became an ABC affiliate in 1984, and also carried some Fox programming from 1994 to 1996. The KHSD-TV call letters and virtual channel 11 were previously associated with the station now known as KQME (channel 5), which had been a KOTA-TV satellite since 1966. First Channel 7 license Channel 7 debuted as KRSD-TV on January 21, 1958. It was owned by The Heart of the Black Hills Stations, a company controlled by John, Eli, and Henry Daniels, along with KRSD radio (1340 AM, now KTOQ). The station was a primary NBC affiliate, sharing ABC with the original KOTA-TV. Two years later, in January 1960, KRSD-TV started a satellite station on channel 5 in Lead, KDSJ-TV; the Daniels brothers already operated KDSJ radio (980 AM) in nearby Deadwood. For most of its history, Heart of the Black Hills was under scrutiny from network officials, the viewing public, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for substandard technical operations. In 1966 and 1967, FCC inspectors found numerous violations of FCC technical rules. In