KMVT / GRAY TELEVISION
KMVT / Gray Television
Chris Pruitt
Broadcasting & Media Production Company
1100 Blue Lakes Blvd.
North Twin Falls ID 83301
The station moved to its present location in 1986 from its original site at the corner of Eastland Drive and Elizabeth Boulevard in Twin Falls, Idaho. At this original location, radio station KLIX first sent a signal to the Magic Valley in December 1946. It was the third radio station in a town of 17,000. In 1955, station President Frank C. Carman announced the company would operate a television station alongside of KLIX radio.
KLIX-TV went on the air on June 1, 1955, with approximately 40 employees sharing the duties of selling and operating both the radio and television stations. In 1957, Abe Glasmann of Ogden, Utah, purchased KUTV in Salt Lake City and KLIX. The radio station was sold, retaining the call letters KLIX. The television station remained the property of the Glasmann group, with the call letters KMVT, an acronym for Magic Valley Television.
KMVT carried all three major networks; NBC, CBS and ABC. Programs were presented either by live network, live studio or kinescope. Commercials were live or produced on film and all video was in black and white. In 1965, KMVT became the first station in Idaho to originate local programming in color. At that time, only a small percentage of network programs were broadcast in color. Live studio color capabilities from KMVT followed a few years later.