KSFL-TV

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Television station in Sioux Falls, South Dakota

title: "KSFL-TV" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["2001-establishments-in-south-dakota", "forum-communications-company", "ion-television-affiliates", "television-channels-and-stations-established-in-2001", "television-stations-in-sioux-falls,-south-dakota", "yta-tv-affiliates"] description: "Television station in Sioux Falls, South Dakota" topic_path: "arts/film" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KSFL-TV" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Television station in Sioux Falls, South Dakota ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox television station"]

Field	Value
callsign	KSFL-TV
logo	KSFL-TV Sioux Falls Live Logo.png
branding	Sioux Falls Live
digital	36 (UHF)
virtual	36
affiliations
country	United States
founded	April 11, 1997
airdate
location	Sioux Falls, South Dakota
callsign_meaning	The station's planned news operation and website is known as "Sioux Falls Live"
former_callsigns
former_channel_numbers
owner	Forum Communications Company
sister_stations	KCWS-LD
former_affiliations
erp
haat	229.7 m
facility_id	29121
coordinates
licensing_authority	FCC
website
::

KSFL-TV (channel 36) is a television station in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, United States, affiliated with Ion Television. It is owned by Forum Communications Company alongside low-power station KCWS-LD (channel 27). KSFL-TV's studios are located on West 57th Street in Sioux Falls, and its transmitter is located in Rowena.

History

Originally, the station had the call sign KAUN and it was the local Pax TV affiliate, while The WB was carried on a cable-only channel known by the fictitious call sign KWJB. On October 1, 2003, channel 36 acquired the WB affiliation and it became KWSD, and Pax TV was moved to then-sister station KAUN-LP. The programming on KWSD was provided by The WB 100+ Station Group, a predecessor to The CW Plus. In September 2006, The WB and UPN merged to become The CW. KWSD became the CW affiliate for Sioux Falls, and UPN affiliate "UTV", a digital subchannel of KELO-TV, became an affiliate of MyNetworkTV.

At one point in the past decade, KWSD/KAUN had a 9 p.m. newscast that served the Sioux Falls Metro Area and the KWSD viewing area. That newscast was pulled, and reports were that there were plans in the works to bring back a 9 p.m. newscast to the Sioux Falls market.

KWSD's CW affiliation ended on September 10, 2012; at that time, the affiliation moved to a subchannel of KSFY-TV. KWSD switched its affiliation to MeTV on that date. As of September 2015, the MeTV affiliation also moved to KSFY, on their third subchannel; KWSD then became a Retro TV affiliate.

As of June 2020, KWSD ended its affiliation with Retro TV and affiliated with YTA TV, solely to keep its cable positions and broadcasting license active in anticipation of a sale partner, with little local programming otherwise.

On November 23, 2022, it was reported that Fargo, North Dakota–based Forum Communications Company would purchase KWSD and sister station KCWS-LD from Jim Simpson, then-owner of KNBN and KWBH-LD in Rapid City, for $1.4 million; the sale was completed on February 21, 2023. Forum intends to create a third television news operation in the Sioux Falls market.

On February 24, 2023, the station changed its call sign to KSFL-TV; several weeks later, it switched its affiliation to Ion Television and upgraded to high-definition operations for the first time since its departure from The CW. On January 1, 2024, KSFL dropped Ion and became an independent station; it switched back to Ion in June 2025.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is multiplexed: ::data[format=table title="Subchannels of KSFL-TV{{Cite web|url=https://rabbitears.info/market.php?request=station_search&callsign=KSFL|title=RabbitEars TV Query for KSFL|website=[[RabbitEars]]|accessdate=June 24, 2025}}"]

Channel	Res.	Aspect	Short name
720p	16:9	KSFL-DT	Ion Television
YTA	YTA TV
480i	JTV	Jewelry TV
::

Analog-to-digital conversion

KSFL-TV (as KWSD) shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 36, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 51 to channel 36 for post-transition operations.

References

Malone, Michael. (June 5, 2012). "KSFY the New Home for CW in Sioux Falls". [[Broadcasting & Cable]].
[https://blog.sitcomsonline.com/2012/09/bet-fall-2012-schedule-with-return-of.html BET Fall 2012 Schedule With Return of Jamie Foxx; MeTV Network Adds 3 More Affiliates], ''SitcomsOnline'', September 5, 2012.
(November 28, 2022). "Assignments". [[Federal Communications Commission]].
(February 21, 2023). "Notification of Consummation". [[Federal Communications Commission]].
"RabbitEars TV Query for KSFL".
"DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds".

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