Forum Completes its Sioux Falls Expansion

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In November 2022, a Fargo-based media company that owns WDAY-AM, flagship TV property WDAY-6 and The Forum newspaper serving this South Dakota city and neighboring Moorhead, Minn., signed off on paperwork awaiting FCC regulatory approval that will see it obtain a full-power TV station and a silent low-power TV station serving Sioux Falls, S.D.


That transaction, which saw Kalil & Co. serve as the exclusive broker, has now closed.

As such,  unaffiliated KWSD-36 and presently silent KCWS-LD in Sioux Falls, S.D., has been acquired from J.F. Broadcasting by Forum Communications Company.

The transaction is valued at $1.4 million. KWSD and KCWS-LD are presently YouToo America TV affiliates and the plans that Forum has for the stations have not been disclosed. However, building out a local newsroom is in the plans.

Sioux Falls is DMA No. 109, and the acquisition enables Forum Communications to expand its coverage and “further strengthen Forum’s commitment to providing local news, weather, sports and information coverage to communities in its footprint,” Joshua Rohrer, Forum’s VP of Broadcast, commented.

In addition to the Fargo properties, in addition to others in Minnesota and South Dakota, Forum Communications owns and operates the Mitchell Republic newspaper in Mitchell, South Dakota.

Now, it will have television stations to go alongside the print publication in the state.

“Sioux Falls is a vibrant, fast-growing community,” Rohrer said. “We are very excited to bring our 100+ years of local journalism, broadcasting and publishing to the area. The ability to bring together all these resources promises to provide Sioux Falls with news, information and entertainment from a reliable, regionally owned media organization. Our designs will bring an alternative source and presentation of news largely not seen today. This is an exciting new chapter for our company, and we believe, the Sioux Falls area.”

J.F., led by Jim Simpson, has owned KWSD-TV since January 2006 and acquired the station for $300,000 from Gilbert Moyle’s Rapid Broadcasting Co.