KRPL-TV

**KRPL-TV** (Digital channel 38, virtual channel 57) is a dual Univision/UniMás-affiliated station in Lewistown Heights, Montana. The station's transmitter is located in the west side of neighboring Lewistown.

## History

### Prior history of UHF channel 57 in Lewistown

Lewistown Public Schools, who are the original owners of the allocation, signed on an educational television station on UHF channel 57 on February 29, 1976, KLPS-TV. It was the first television station in the state of Montana to be owned by a public organization (beating KGDS-TV (channel 17), which was founded by the
Tri-County Association for Public Educational and Instructional Technology by eleven years, four months and four days). Licensed to nearby Lewistown, KLPS only broadcast on weekdays during the school year for only two hours a day initially, before expanding to the entire school day; five-minute breaks were inserted between programs, which was filled by various pieces of music. Costing only $70,000 to build, it operated out of Fergus County High School. Although operating on a full-power license, the station only provided a signal up to 20 miles from its transmitter. KLPS-TV ceased operations in May 1980, and on August 31, was transitioned to the "TAGER" closed-circuit television system used for high school and college telecourses; the broadcast license was returned to the FCC.

### KRPL-TV station history

The current television station licensed to channel 57 first signed on the air on New Year's Day 1987 as KGST; it was founded by Gold and Silver Television (owned by local librarian Jeremy Wilkins). The station initially carried a mix of English-language religious programs sourced from the Christian Television Network during the morning hours, Spanish language programming from the Spanish International Network (which became Univision several months later) during the afternoon and evening hours, and programming from the Home Shopping Network during the overnight hours. The station originally operated from studios located on West Spring Street in Lewistown.

Wilkins sold KGST to Univision in 1988, becoming the first and only station in the state of Montana to be affiliated full time with a Spanish-speaking network; following the purchase, the station changed its call letters to KRPL. At that point, channel 57 began running Univision programming 24 hours a day.

### Low-powered satellites and translators

   The station mainly serves the counties of Fergus and Judith Basin (part of the Great Falls DMA) as well as Petroleum County (part of the Billings DMA). Because the terrain is mountainous, viewers insisted on cable to maintain a clear reception of the station. As a result, operations were sold to Entravision Communications in 2004.

Prior to the sale, Entravision helped the station build low-powered semi-satellite stations serving the Great Falls, Helena, Billings, Butte and Missoula metropolitan areas. Following the sale, the station have built two more low-powered satellites in Whitefish (serving Kalispell) and Belgrade (serving Bozeman). There are also translators of those semi-satellite stations found all across the state of Montana.

## News operation

*Coming soon*

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Template:Univision Communications
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