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| City | Mason City, Iowa |
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| History | |
First air date | May 15, 1954 (1954-05-15) |
Former call signs | KGLO-TV (1954−1977) |
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Call sign meaning | "Iowa Minnesota Television" |
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 66402 |
| ERP | 472kW |
| HAAT | 465.7 m (1,528 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 43°28′32″N92°42′30″W / 43.47556°N 92.70833°W /43.47556; -92.70833 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
KIMT (channel 3) is atelevision station licensed toMason City, Iowa, United States, serving North Central Iowa andSoutheast Minnesota as an affiliate ofCBS andMyNetworkTV. Owned byAllen Media Group, the station maintains studios on North Pennsylvania Avenue in downtown Mason City, with a news bureau onHighway 52 North inRochester, Minnesota, and a sales office on East William Street in downtownAlbert Lea, Minnesota. Its transmitter is located nearMeyer, Iowa (betweenStacyville andMcIntire) south of the Minnesota state line.
The station signed on for the first time on May 15, 1954, as KGLO-TV, owned byLee Enterprises along with theGlobe Gazette and KGLO radio (1300 AM and 101.1 FM). On the station's first day, reception of its analog signal onVHF channel 3 was reported as far away asGary, Indiana. The originaleffective radiated power of 100,000watts was the maximum amount permitted on the heritage allotment. It was affiliated with CBS owing to its radio sister's long affiliation with CBS Radio, but also carried a secondary relation withDuMont until 1956, when that network ceased operations.
In August 1977, theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled that one company could not own all the media outlets in a city, forcing Lee Enterprises to break up its cluster in Mason City. As a result, KGLO radio was sold to BY Communications in 1977 and the television station was renamed KIMT (standing for "Iowa Minnesota Television") on August 1. In 1980, it was sold to the Shott family ofBluefield, West Virginia, and theirDaily Telegraph Printing Company. However, in 1984, they sold KIMT andWBTW inFlorence, South Carolina, to Spartan Radiocasting Company (later to becomeSpartan Communications).
Early in the morning on June 27, 1995, KIMT news anchorJodi Huisentruit was abducted outside her apartment while on her way to work. She has not been found and the case remains unsolved to this day.
Spartan merged withMedia General in 2000. KIMT's digital signal on UHF channel 42 launched in May 2002 and added high definition capabilities from the network during that summer. KIMT celebrated its 50th anniversary on May 15, 2004, with flashbacks and other special programming. On October 18, 2018, KIMT moved to channel 24 as part of the FCC repack.
On April 6, 2006, Media General announced it would sell KIMT as part of the company's acquisition of fourNBCowned-and-operated stations.[3] On August 2,New Vision Television made public it had bought KIMT and sister stationWIAT inBirmingham, Alabama, for $35 million. That company's acquisition of the two outlets was finalized on October 12, 2006.[4] As part of theanalog to digital transition in 2009, the station opted to keep its analog channel on-air until the revised June 12 deadline.[5] After the transition (which occurred at 12:12 p.m.), KIMT planned to continue using digital channel 42 and filed paperwork with the FCC to eventually increase that signal's output power from 200 to 800kW which would more effectively fill its coverage footprint.
On May 7, 2012,LIN TV Corporation announced that it would acquire the New Vision Television station group, including KIMT, for $330.4 million and the assumption of $12 million in debt.[6] On October 2, the FCC approved the proposed sale to LIN TV.[7] The transaction was finalized on October 12, 2012.
On March 21, 2014, Media General announced that it would acquire LIN.[8] The merger was completed on December 19, making KIMT a Media General property once again, and marking the third ownership change for the station in less than a decade.[9]
In September 2015, Media General announced the acquisition ofMeredith Corporation in a cash and stock deal valued at $2.4 billion.[10] Upon completion of the deal, KIMT, along withDavenport sister station and NBC affiliateKWQC-TV, would have become Meredith's first television stations in its home state of Iowa. However, on January 27, 2016, it was announced that theNexstar Broadcasting Group would buy Media General for $4.6 billion. KIMT would have become part of "Nexstar Media Group", joining a cluster of Nexstar stations serving Iowa including ABC affiliatesWOI-DT inDes Moines andKCAU-TV inSioux City, and CBS affiliateWHBF-TV in theQuad Cities.[11] On June 13, 2016, Nexstar announced that it would sell KIMT and four other stations toHeartland Media, through its USA Television MidAmerica Holdingsjoint venture with MSouth Equity Partners, for $115 million; the sale was required to allow Nexstar to comply with FCC ownership caps following the merger.[12] The deal was consummated upon the approval of Nexstar's merger with Media General on January 17, 2017.[13]
On October 1, 2019,Allen Media Broadcasting, a subsidiary ofEntertainment Studios, announced that it would acquire KIMT and 10 other Heartland stations for $290 million.[14][15][16] The sale was approved by the FCC on November 22, 2019.[17]
On June 1, 2025, amid financial woes and rising debt, Allen Media Group announced that it would explore "strategic options" for the company, such as a sale of its television stations (including KIMT).[18][19]
On July 14, 2015, KIMT and itsdigital subchannels were pulled from the North Iowa region'sMediacomcable systems due to acarriage dispute overretransmission consent fees between Mediacom and KIMT owner Media General.[20] This carriage dispute was part of an ongoing disagreement nationwide between Mediacom and Media General, which saw Media General stations in 14 television markets in the United States pulled from Mediacom cable systems and even threeFox affiliates owned by Media General were lost to Mediacom subscribers inHampton Roads, Virginia,Terre Haute, Indiana, andTopeka, Kansas just before the start of the2015 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.[21] On July 30, 2015, Mediacom and Media General reached a new agreement, thereby restoring KIMT and its digital subchannels to North Iowa area Mediacom subscribers.[22]
Since KIMT is the only major station licensed to the Iowa side of the market, its newscasts have traditionally focused on Iowa issues.[citation needed] On June 12, 2009, KIMT became the first outlet to upgrade newscasts to16:9enhanced definitionwidescreen with some parts in full high definition. Although not truly HD, theaspect ratio matches that of high definition television screens.
Also at some point that year, KIMT added three newscasts to its MyNetworkTV-affiliated subchannel. This included a half-hour extension to its weekday morning show at 7 (known asMy Morning News on My 3.2), a repeat of the thirty-minute weekday noon broadcast at 12:30 (calledKIMT News 3 Midday on My 3.2), and prime time newscast weeknights at 9 (known asMy Primetime News at 9). Eventually, the half-hour weeknight show was reduced to a five-minute cut-in featuring an updated weather forecast.
On March 20, 2011, rival NBC affiliateKTTC (channel 10) in Rochester upgraded its local news to full high definition becoming the first outlet to do so. KIMT has expanded its weekday morning news show, airing2+1⁄2 hours of news from 4:30 to 7 a.m. and an additional half hour,My Morning News on My 3.2, starting at 7 a.m. on KIMT-DT2.
On January 17, 2025, Allen Media Group announced plans to cut local meteorologist/weather forecaster positions from its stations, including KIMT, and replacing them with a "weather hub" produced byThe Weather Channel, which AMG also owns.[23]
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | KIMTCBS | CBS |
| 3.2 | 720p | KIMTMyN | MyNetworkTV | |
| 3.3 | 480i | KIMTION | Ion Television | |
| 3.4 | 4:3 | KIMTANT | Antenna TV | |
| 3.5 | Story | Story Television | ||
| 3.6 | Catchy | Catchy Comedy |
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofIowa | ||
|---|---|---|
Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Iowa | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS |
| |
| Religious | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofMinnesota | ||
|---|---|---|
Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Minnesota | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS |
| |
| Religious | ||
| Spanish | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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