KGTV (Iowa)

On February 5, 1953, Rib Mountain Radio, a Wausau, Wisconsin—based firm, applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a permit to build a station on ultra high frequency (UHF) TV channel 17 in Des Moines.

At the time, the area had one station, WOI-TV in Ames; Des Moines had been allocated two commercial very high frequency (VHF) channels, 8 and 13, each of which had competing applicants.

For local programming, channel 17 offered Rib Mountain Jamboree, a country music and dance show aired on Saturday evenings,[13] as well as high school football and basketball telecasts.

[17] When the FCC invited formal comment on the proposed channel change, it met with stiff opposition from backers of educational television, including Des Moines Public Schools.

[21] KGTV dropped all of its network programs in March 1955, ceasing to air live shows fed by ABC and CBS in an attempt to save on interconnection costs it believed it could not afford.

[22] The station ceased broadcasting on April 15; in spite of what general manager Leo Howard called good public support, with nearly 70 percent of local sets converted to receive UHF, he said KGTV was never able to obtain sufficient network programming.

In 1979, a report by the State Patrol found that the tower was in imminent danger of collapsing during an ice storm event, in spite of emergency repairs completed two years prior.