KQDS-TV
KQDS-TV, virtual channel 21 (UHF digital channel 17), is a Fox-affiliated television station located in Duluth, Minnesota, United States, which also serves Superior, Wisconsin. The station is owned by Red River Broadcasting. KQDS maintains studio facilities located on London Road in Duluth (along I-35), and its transmitter is located west of downtown in Hilltop Park. Master control and some internal operations are based out of the studio facilities of sister station and fellow Fox affiliate KVRR on South 40th Street and South 9th Avenue in Fargo, North Dakota. Syndicated programs broadcast on KQDS include Two and a Half Men, Divorce Court, Everybody Loves Raymond, Family Feud, The People's Court and The Big Bang Theory.
History
The station first signed on the air on September 20, 1994, as KNLD. Very few people knew the station was actually on the air at this time, as KQDS transmitted at low power with an extremely limited schedule of programming, usually airing only for only four hours per day each morning--the minimum required by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to cover the license. The station was Duluth's first independent station. While the Northland had grown large enough to support an independent station at least a decade earlier, it is a very large market geographically. UHF stations do not cover large areas very well. Additionally, the major stations in the market need sizable networks of translators to adequately cover the market, and the cost of building a translator network scared off perspective owners. By the 1990s, cable television--a must for acceptable television in much of this market--had gained enough penetration to make an independent station viable.
KQDS (AM)
KQDS (1490 AM, "KFAN 1490") is a radio station in Duluth, Minnesota. The station is owned by Red River Broadcasting of Fargo, North Dakota. The studios are located at Grandma's Marketplace, 501 Lake Ave South in Canal Park, Duluth.
KQDS previously aired a progressive talk radio format with programming from Air America Radio along with The Ed Schultz Show until February 2007, when it began airing an oldies format with the Scott Shannon's The True Oldies Channel from ABC Radio.
KQDS is now the new home of the FAN Radio Network in Duluth. The flagship station of the FAN Radio Network is KFXN-FM, a sports talk station in Minneapolis. KQDS became "FAN 1490" as of 1/5/2009.
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Coordinates: 46°43′28″N 92°07′11″W / 46.72444°N 92.11972°W / 46.72444; -92.11972
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