KOTA Territory News history

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.

In 1967, more than 2,000 viewers asked NBC and the FCC for help in improving the station's quality.

In 1969, an FCC inspector deemed KRSD-TV/KDSJ-TV's signal unfit for broadcast.

On September 13, 1970, NBC struck an affiliation deal with KOTA, and CBS programs moved to KRSD-TV.

Faced with having to go off the air at midnight on December 31, 1971; Heart of the Black Hills fought the decision.

On June 24, 1984, NBC moved its programming to KEVN. NBC had finally lost patience with KOTA-TV's local preemptions (NBC had long been less tolerant of preemptions than the other networks). KOTA-TV took over KEVN's old ABC affiliation.

In 1985, Dakota Broadcasting sold KEVN/KIVV and KDLT to Heritage Communications for nearly $20 million.

In 1987, following Tele-Communications Inc.'s purchase of a majority interest in Heritage Communications, the company spun off its television and radio stations to Heritage's management under the Heritage Media banner.

Blackstar immediately announced that KEVN would become a Fox affiliate; the affiliation change happened in July 1996.

In January 2007, after having been branded as "KEVN Fox 7" for its first 11 years as a Fox affiliate, the station changed its branding to "Black Hills Fox," removing the over-the-air channel number from KEVN's brand identity.

On December 18, 2013, it was announced that Mission TV would sell KEVN-TV and KIVV-TV to Gray Television for $7.75 million.

Upon the completion of the sale on May 1, 2014, KEVN was Gray's first standalone full power Fox affiliate.

On September 14, 2015, Gray announced that it would purchase the television and radio stations owned by Schurz Communications, including KOTA-TV and its satellites and the Rushmore Media Company group of radio stations, for $442.5 million.