Idaho Falls, Idaho
November 23, 2009:
KIFI News Group, the first commercial broadcast station in eastern Idaho to broadcast in HD, announces another first: Free over-the-air HD Television service in the Teton Valley. The communities of Driggs, Alta, Wyoming, parts of Victor and Tetonia will soon have Local News 8 in HD on 8.1, Telemundo East Idaho on 8.2 and CW East Idaho on 8.3.
KIFI News Group General Manager, Mark Danielson says, "We have been working with the Federal Communications Commission to get quick approval to build a new transmitter in an existing facility on Relay Ridge. "The FCC granted that request last week, authorizing KIFI to build the site (K47MK-D) immediately in order to serve those communities with the high quality news, critical weather information as well as entertainment programming from our television properties." Danielson says equipment is already being delivered to his main studio in Idaho Falls. Barring other surprises, including weather events, Danielson says his engineering team hopes to have the new transmitter ready for broadcast in a matter of weeks, before Christmas.
In addition to serving the Teton Valley with digital television, the new Relay Ridge site will stabilize KIFI's signal at its transmitter site on Rendezvous Peak which feeds the entire Jackson Hole area with all of KIFI's Digital Signals.
In order to receive the new digital signals, viewers will need to orient a UHF Antenna toward Relay Ridge, which is southwest of the city of Driggs. The new digital signal will be broadcast on RF 47, but it will show up on digital receivers as 8.1 for ABC, 8.2 for Telemundo, and 8.3 for CW. Danielson says, "KIFI News Group will be the first and only television station to provide an over-the-air high-quality HD signal to the region." Danielson says he plans to operate and maintain KIFI's old analog transmitter (K05GU) which is currently located and licensed to the Grand Targhee Resort for the foreseeable future.
About KIFI News Group
KIFI News Group operates the following broadcast properties: KIFI-TV, the ABC television affiliate, CW East Idaho, the CW Television affiliate and Telemundo East Idaho, the Telemundo affiliate. In addition, KIFI News Group owns and operates Localnews8.com, the leading news and information website in eastern Idaho and Western Wyoming, SuperIdaho.com Free Classifieds and SportslinePrep.com. KIFI News Group is a division of News-Press & Gazette Co., a fourth-generation family-run business based in St. Joseph, Missouri which owns television stations in El Paso, Texas; Bend, Oregon; Palm Springs, Calif.; Yuma, Ariz.; Colorado Springs, Colorado, Grand Junction, Colorado and Idaho Falls, Idaho, along with radio stations in the Palm Springs and Colorado Springs markets. The company also publishes a number of daily and weekly newspapers in Missouri and Kansas and operates local cable television systems in Missouri, Arizona and California. Additional questions can be directed to Mark Danielson at mdanielson@localnews8.com or 208.525.8888.
