KOTA-TV
ABC television affiliate in Rapid City, South Dakota, United States
KOTA-TV (channel 3) is a television station in Rapid City, South Dakota, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by Gray Media alongside MeTV affiliate KHME (channel 23) and low-power Fox affiliate KEVN-LD (channel 7). The stations share studios on Skyline Drive in Rapid City, where KOTA-TV's transmitter is also located.
KOTA-TV operates two full-power satellite stations. KHSD-TV (channel 11) in Lead, South Dakota, serves the Black Hills proper; it can also be seen over the air in Rapid City. KSGW-TV (channel 12) in Sheridan, Wyoming, serves northern and northeast Wyoming. KHSD-TV's transmitter is located on Terry Peak near Spearfish, South Dakota, while KSGW-TV's transmitter is on Bosin Rock.
KOTA serves a large area in western South Dakota, eastern Montana, and eastern Wyoming. It calls its vast coverage area "KOTA Territory".
History
KOTA-TV intellectual unit
Until 2016, the KOTA-TV call sign, along with the virtual channel 3 assignment and the ABC affiliation, were associated with the station now known as KHME (channel 23). KOTA-TV had gone on the air in 1955 as the first television station in western South Dakota.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “KOTA-TV” is aBC television affiliate in Rapid City, South Dakota, United States. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through KOTA-TV, television and affiliate, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “aBC television affiliate in Rapid City, South Dakota, United States” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6328719. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2016 and 1955.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “KOTA-TV”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow KOTA-TV primary sources, KOTA-TV archive and KOTA-TV research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “KOTA-TV”?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “KOTA-TV” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.