KXLF Butte-Bozeman MT

KXLF-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Butte, Montana, United States, affiliated with CBS. Owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, it is part of the Montana Television Network (MTN), a statewide network of CBS-affiliated stations. KXLF-TV's studios are located on South Montana Street in downtown Butte, and its transmitter is located on XL Heights east of the city. KXLF-TV and KBZK (channel 7) in Bozeman split the media market, and local news for the Butte area is produced from KBZK's Bozeman studios.

KXLF-TV is Montana's first and oldest television station. It began broadcasting on August 14, 1953, as an affiliate of NBC and the DuMont Television Network. It was an extension of KXLF radio, part of Ed Craney's regional Z-Bar Network. Originally on channel 6, it relocated to channel 4 in 1956 when it moved its transmitter to XL Heights, atop the Continental Divide, and increased its coverage area. That same year, it moved its studios into a former Milwaukee Road depot. Joe Sample purchased KXLF radio and television in 1960; the station switched primary network affiliations to CBS, and in 1969, it was one of the original three stations in MTN. In 1970, KXLF-TV spawned

KPAX-TV in Missoula, which originally was a full-time satellite station but began producing local programming in 1977.

MTN was sold to SJL, Inc. in 1984, and SJL sold the stations outside of Billings to Cordillera Communications in 1986. KXLF-TV viewers continued to receive newscasts consisting of Butte inserts into KTVQ's news until January 1989. KCTZ, now KBZK, was purchased in 1993 to rebroadcast KXLF-TV and returned to that role in 2000. In 2011, KXLF-TV's Butte-area newscasts began to originate from Bozeman.