KBOI-TV, channel 7, debuted on November 26, 1953, as the Treasure Valley's second television station, after NBC affiliate KIDO-TV (now KTVB). It broadcast an analog signal on VHF channel 2 and was owned by Boise Valley Broadcasters, who also operated KBOI radio (670 AM and 97.9 FM, now KQFC). It has always been a major CBS affiliate, although shared secondary ABC and DuMont affiliations with KIDO at first. KBOI lost the latter network when it closed in 1955, and ABC when Nampa's KITC, station 6 (now KIVI-TV) launched in 1974. Following the sale of KBOI radio to a different organization the following year, the television station changed its call letters to KBCI-TV on February 1, 1975. At the time, FCC regulations required separately-owned TV and radio stations in the same market to have unique base call letters, hence the shift.