Editing Prairie Public Television (section)

==History==
[[File:PPTV.JPG|thumb|300px|Prairie Public television studio in Fargo, North Dakota]]
In 1959, ''North Central Educational Television'', the predecessor organization to Prairie Public, was incorporated. On January 19, 1964, KFME signed on from Fargo as North Dakota's first educational television station.

The ''Prairie Public'' name was adopted in 1974, the same year the first [[satellite station]], KGFE in [[Grand Forks]], signed on, marking the beginning of the statewide network. A year earlier, KFME almost shut down due to lack of funding. KFME acquired a color [[video tape recorder]] in 1967, and color cameras in 1975.

The FCC allocated educational frequencies to [[Bismarck, North Dakota|Bismarck]], [[Minot]], [[Williston, North Dakota|Williston]] and [[Dickinson, North Dakota|Dickinson]] in the 1960s. While KFME was picked up on cable in Bismarck in the early 1970s, most of the western part of the state was one of the few areas of the country without educational programming. It would be 1977 before the state legislature granted Prairie Public funding to build a statewide public television network. KBME in Bismarck was established in 1979, bringing over-the-air public television to the western portion of the state for the first time. KSRE in Minot followed suit in 1980 and KDSE in 1982. Prairie Public purchased the Fargo ''American Life Building'' in 1983 and moved its studios there in 1984. In 1989 KFME and cable feeds went to a 24-hour television broadcast schedule. The ''Prairie Satellite Network'' [[distance education]] state network, with 70 sites, was completed in 1994. Later, KWSE in Williston signed on in 1983, and KJRE in [[Ellendale, North Dakota|Ellendale]]/[[Jamestown, North Dakota|Jamestown]] signed on in 1992.

Prairie Public became the first broadcaster in North Dakota to broadcast in [[high-definition television|high definition]], with KFME-DT and KBME-DT debuting in 2002. Digital-only station KCGE-DT [[Crookston, Minnesota|Crookston]]/[[Grand Forks]] signed on in 2003, with the rest of the Prairie Public stations broadcasting in HDTV by 2004.

The transmitter for KGFE on the [[WDAZ-TV]] tower mast was damaged in May 2004, due to ice buildup on the tower, which caused very large chunks of ice to fall off and go through the roof of the transmitter building. This caused water damage to the transmitter's equipment, as well as damage to the roof of the transmitter site.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.northpine.com/broadcast/archive/news0504.html |title=Broadcasting News-May 2004 |publisher=Northpine.com |access-date=April 22, 2013 |archive-date=April 19, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120419032107/http://www.northpine.com/broadcast/archive/news0504.html |url-status=live }}</ref> KGFE went back on the air in February 2005 at low power, then later became a secondary station from the KCGE tower. KMDE of [[Devils Lake, North Dakota|Devils Lake]] signed on in 2006 to cover the western half of KGFE's viewing area, as KCGE covered the eastern half of KGFE's viewing area.