About KNBN
The station, KNBN, signed on the air on May 14, 2000 as a replacement for both KEVN (which served as the region's NBC affiliate before switching to Fox in July 1996) and KNBN-LP (which had served as an NBC affiliate since 1998, but was not carried by any cable providers due to its limited broadcasting radius).Before KNBN was upgraded to a full-power station, Denver NBC affiliate KUSA was carried by most cable providers in western South Dakota and served as the network's affiliate of record in the Black Hills region. Some areas of northwestern South Dakota, which is part of the Bismarck–Minot television market, received NBC programming via Dickinson affiliate KQCD-TV.
Despite transmitting its signal on UHF channel 21, KNBN identifies as NewsCenter1 on-air, an artifact of when the main cable systems in the market carried the station on channel 1, which is today usually used for video on demand services, barker channels, or electronic program guide services. Currently, KNBN is carried on most local cable systems on channel 10, though it retains the NewsCenter1 branding.