Montana PBS Purchases TV Stations In Eastern Montana
Montana PBS has closed a deal to purchase three television stations in eastern Montana that will now provide communities in that part of the state with free, over-theair public television for the first time.
In October 2025, Montana PBS finalized purchase of KYUS-TV in Miles City, KXGN-TV in Glendive and K13IG-D (a translator relaying the KXGN signal) in Sidney. The PBS programming on the three stations went live in February.
The new stations will deliver all five Montana PBS broadcast channels: the primary Montana PBS channel with Montana-made and national PBS programs; Montana PBS kids with 24/7 educational children’s programming; Montana PBS Create, which features lifestyle and how-to programming; Montana PBS World, which includes news and documentaries; and Montana Public Affairs Network for unedited coverage of the Montana Legislature.
The stations were offered for sale by the Marks Group following the death of owner Stephen Marks in 2022. Aaron Pruitt, Montana PBS director, said commercial television broadcasters had passed on buying the stations because the small market sizes wouldn’t have been sufficiently profitable. Then, in 2023, recognizing that those communities did not have access to free public broadcast television, the Marks Group offered the stations to Montana PBS.
Pruitt said the conversion of commercial public TV stations to a noncommercial educational license is extremely rare in the broadcasting industry.
“In this case, it was made possible by a willing seller who recognized the value of educational programs for extremely rural communities that have never received PBS,” Pruitt said.
The process took years of negotiations, engineering studies, real-estate acquisition, Federal Communications Commission approvals and a supportive vote by the Montana University System Board of Regents to come to fruition, he said.
Efforts to acquire the eastern Montana stations began years before the current federal funding challenges for public media, Pruitt said. He added that the move reinforces the broadcaster’s mission of bringing free, educational programs to all Americans.
The new stations will increase resident access to broadcast television in all three rural areas.
In Glendive, the loss of KXGN-TV – the only broadcast station in the history of the community – would have meant that residents would no longer have access to any over-the-air TV. Its designated market area is the smallest in the nation, Pruitt said. Dawson Community College also played a key role in helping deliver the MTPBS signal from the campus to the broadcast transmitter in Makoshika State Park near Glendive, he added. In Sidney, viewers have historically had access to TV stations from Williston, N.D., but now residents will be able to watch content about their own state, from news to historical documentaries.
To celebrate the new stations, Montana PBS is planning two days of events to be held in Miles City on April 24 and 25. There will be a Clifford the Big Red Dog meetup for children at the Miles City Public Library, a PBS pint night at Otium Brewing, a “coffee and conversation” meetup at The Ugly Mug, and a special screening of Montana PBS’s brand-new documentary “Jonnie” at the Montana Theatre.
Anyone interested in attending can check for more information at montanapbs. org.
“We’re really looking forward to meeting as many people from Miles City and the surrounding region as possible,” said Kyle Sorenson, director of marketing and communications at Montana PBS. “We want to welcome them to the Montana PBS neighborhood.”
