the group, which became Heritage Media in 1987 when the broadcast stations were spun out from the firm's cable TV systems. That same year, rule changes allowed KDLT to move most of its operations to a studio on South Westport Avenue in Sioux Falls; previously, the station staff was split between the two cities. The new owners focused KDLT's low-rated newscasts, now called Sioux First News, on Sioux Falls events. This was out of necessity; it could not hope to adequately cover the entire 80-county market with just a single transmitter. Heritage Media sold KDLT to Red River Broadcasting, owner of KVRR in Fargo, North Dakota, in 1994. Red River embarked on a two-pronged campaign to expand KDLT's coverage area. In 1995, it set up low-power translators in Aberdeen, Milbank, Pierre, South Dakota, and Watertown, adding over 84,000 potential viewers to its coverage area. Viewers in these areas had long been served over the air by KELO-TV and KSFY. The second phase, however, was even more crucial. FCC rules for the forthcoming introduction of digital television required a station's digital signal to cover at least 80 percent of its analog footprint. KDLT's transmitter was too far away from Sioux Falls to provide that city with an acceptable digital signal; it was located over from Sioux Falls. In 1989, KDLT had purchased K46CB, a low-powered station in Sioux Falls, to improve its reception in the city. On September 8, 1998, this was replaced with a new full-power facility in Sioux Falls which retained the KDLT call letters. It operated from a new tower in Rowena, where most of the other Sioux Falls stations have their towers. Red River would have preferred to move the channel 5 tower closer to Sioux Falls, but was rebuffed by the FCC. The Salem location was as close as the channel 5 tower could legally get to Sioux Falls while still providing a city-grade signal to its city of license, Mitchell. As a compromise, the station was allowed to operate on channel 46, the lowest channel that was available at the time. As a result, Red River changed channel 5's call letters to KDLV, which was repurposed as a full-time satellite of KDLT for areas west of the city. In December, KDLV moved to a new tower in Plankinton, closer to Mitchell. The changes cost $8 million. Due to the way in which the changeover was