KLKN
Move to Lincoln
### Move to Lincoln

Citadel filed in 1991 to move KCAN from Albion to Lincoln, proposing to build a satellite station on channel 18 to serve the Albion area in order to meet an FCC requirement. Citadel contended that Lincoln was the most underserved city of its size in the United States and among the most underserved state capitals for television service. This was mostly due to a historical quirk. While Lincoln had been allocated two VHF channels and briefly had two commercial stations, that number became one when [KOLN](/wiki/KOLN "KOLN"), originally on channel 12, bought the assets and physical plant of [KFOR\-TV](/wiki/KFOR-TV_%28Nebraska%29 "KFOR-TV (Nebraska)") and moved to its channel 10 in 1954; channel 12 was then donated to the University of Nebraska and became KUON\-TV. Besides KOLN, Lincoln viewers generally watched the Omaha network affiliates, including ABC affiliate KETV, which was cited as the most direct competition for a relocated KCAN.

The move was formally protested by KOLN as well as [KPTM](/wiki/KPTM "KPTM"), the Fox affiliate in Omaha; KOLN's rebuttal cited concerns about signal overlap and loss of service in Albion, while KPTM objected on technical grounds. The FCC gave initial approval to the city of license change in 1993, and final approval was awarded in June 1995, after which construction immediately began on a new transmitter site at Utica and work began to secure studio space in downtown Lincoln. Another factor that had delayed approval was that when the FCC assigned UHF channel 18 to Albion in place of channel 8, Fant Broadcasting—owners of NTV at the time—and Citadel both applied for it, with Citadel instead receiving channel 24, which was also added to Albion by the commission. Citadel then protested a proposed sale of NTV to Blackstar Communications in 1995, feeling that Fant Broadcasting had attempted to block its own Lincoln proposal; company president Anthony Fant denied this, noting that his main goal for seeking the Albion channel was to restore the coverage lost a decade prior and "try to put that part of the NTV puzzle back together".

[thumb\|alt\=Refer to caption\|A KLKN live news truck parked at the University of Nebraska\-Lincoln.](/wiki/File:KLKN_Microwave_Truck.jpg "KLKN Microwave Truck.jpg")
The search for a studio location continued into November as the company sought an existing site with appropriate satellite visibility to receive programming; new KLKN call letters were given to channel 8, and the Albion replacement facility on channel 24 received the call letters KLKE (as it was located near [Elgin](/wiki/Elgin%2C_Nebraska "Elgin, Nebraska")). The launch was further delayed when it was discovered that a  section, intended to be installed at the  level, was skipped—when the tower had already been built up to .

[thumb\|KLKN\-TV Logo 1996 to 2003](/wiki/File:KLKN96.jpg "KLKN96.jpg")
KLKN began broadcasting on March 30, 1996\. On April 1, cable subscribers in Lincoln began viewing KLKN on the Lincoln Cablevision system, but it was not until May 20 that the transmitter facility was activated. The station expanded news production modestly in the ensuing years. When it began in 1996, it produced 6 and 10 p.m. news programs with a newsroom staff of 16\. By 2000, the staff had grown to 21, and KLKN was airing additional early evening, morning, and midday newscasts. While ratings comparisons with KOLN/KGIN were difficult given that the latter station serves a much larger area (which for ABC programs is split between NTV and KLKN), within a year, it had achieved 10 percent of the news audience in Lincoln, comparable to the Omaha stations and increasing the share of Lincoln TV viewers watching local news programs originating in Lincoln.

KLKN's digital signal signed on August 31, 2002, operating on UHF channel 31 until the end of the station's analog broadcasts on June 12, 2009\. It was the first digital television station in Nebraska. However, KLKE was shuttered by Citadel on March 2, 2003, with the company citing the high costs of digital television conversion for the Albion facility. After the digital transition, KLKN opted to continue broadcasting on channel 8\.


What are the implications of a city being underserved in terms of television service?