KRDK-TV (channel 4) is a television station licensed to Valley City, North Dakota, United States, serving the Fargo–Grand Forks market.
Owned by Major Market Broadcasting, it is affiliated with multiple networks on various digital subchannels, with Cozi TV and MyNetworkTV on its main channel.
In the United States, it is second only to the Petronius oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico and is still the tallest broadcasting tower in the Western Hemisphere.
In 2014, the station's non-license assets were acquired by KVLY's new owner Gray Television; due to increasing scrutiny by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) surrounding local marketing agreements and similar arrangements, Gray decided against having the station acquired by an affiliated third party to maintain the LMA.
Its CBS programming was moved to KVLY's second digital subchannel in December 2014 and KXJB-LD in 2016, and KXJB's license was sold to the minority-owned Major Market Broadcasting, who re-christened the station KRDK-TV.
KXJB moved its main studios to Fargo in 1963, and completed construction of its current 2,060-foot (630 m) tall tower site near Galesburg in 1966.
When West Acres Shopping Center opened in 1972, KXJB-TV had a studio in the mall, located roughly where the food court is today.
[citation needed] KXJB was one of only four CBS stations not to carry the Late Show with David Letterman when it premiered; the program aired instead on Fox affiliate KVRR (channel 15).
Sioux City, Iowa affiliate KMEG also declined to alter its syndicated lineup, along with lame duck CBS affiliates WITI in Milwaukee (which would switch to Fox a year after) and WBAL-TV in Baltimore (which switched to NBC 1½ years later due to the deal between CBS and Group W).
[4] KXJB-TV's tower location (along with KVLY) was intended to provide a strong over-the-air signal to both the Fargo–Moorhead and Grand Forks metro areas.
The other three network affiliates (WDAY, KFME, and KVRR) do not have the reach of KVLY or KXJB/KRDK, and use full-power satellite stations to provide both their signal to the market and advertising specific to Grand Forks.
[18] The station's signal is multiplexed: KRDK-TV (as KXJB-TV) shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 4, on February 16, 2009, the day prior to the original date on which full-power television stations in the United States were set to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later rescheduled for June 12, 2009).
These arrangements ended in 1986, when the Canadian cable companies were granted permission to replace most of the North Dakota stations with network affiliates from Detroit due to complaints about poor reception.
After an ice storm on April 6, 1997, caused the KXJB-TV mast to collapse, some cable systems replaced KXJB with KXMB from Bismarck, KXMC from Minot, KDLO from Watertown, South Dakota, KCNC from Denver, KCCO from Alexandria, Minnesota, KCCW from Walker, Minnesota, or KDLH from Duluth (depending on location) either temporarily or permanently, to maintain CBS service.