KTVQ (channel 2) is a television station in Billings, Montana, United States, affiliated with CBS and The CW Plus. Owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, it is part of the Montana Television Network, a statewide network of CBS-affiliated stations. KTVQ's studios are located on Third Avenue North in Billings, and its transmitter is located on Sacrifice Cliff southeast of downtown. History The Montana Network, owner of radio station KOOK (970 AM), applied on December 13, 1952, for a construction permit to build a new TV station on channel 2 in Billings, which was granted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on February 4, 1953. The turnaround time was short considering that Robert S. Howard, who owned Scripps-associated radio and newspaper holdings in Utah and Idaho, had also applied for channel 2, but his firm dropped its bid and cleared the way for The Montana Network. KOOK had already revealed it had held an option for two years to build a transmitter site on Coburn Hill. Ground was broken on the studio and transmitter facilities there in early June, and programming from KOOK-TV began on November 9, 1953. It was the third station in the state: Butte's KXLF-TV had begun in August, and a second station, KOPR-TV, had started there at about the same time. KOOK-TV was affiliated with CBS, ABC and the DuMont Television Network at launch. In December 1956, Joseph Sample acquired majority control of KOOK radio and television from its previous ownership, headed by Charles L. Crist, a state representative. A year later, KOOK broke ground on a new radio and television center in downtown Billings, which was completed in 1959; three homes were moved off the property before construction began. By the time the building was completed, a second television station, KGHL-TV (channel 8, now KULR-TV), had begun in 1958. Sample later expanded his holdings across the state. In 1961, he acquired KXLF in Butte; in 1969, he purchased KRTV in Great Falls, giving his Garryowen Broadcasting coverage of half the state's population. The Montana Television Network was formed that same year from these stations and KPAX-TV in Missoula, which was built in 1970. In 1972, seeking to get ahead of a proposed FCC rule that would have barred radio-television cross-ownership, Sample sold KOOK radio; the call letters were retained by the radio station, and the television station changed its call sign to KTVQ on September