Originally signed on the air on September 30, 1953 as WMT-TV, Eastern Iowa's first television station and a primary CBS affiliate on VHF channel 2. It was first owned by a group consisting of American Broadcasting Stations, William B. Quarton and several others. WMT-TV was sister to WMT (600 AM) which had been broadcasting in the area since 1922. The callsign stood for the now-defunct Waterloo Morning Tribune which owned WMT radio from 1928 until 1934.
1958–1965
LOGO MISSING
1965–1970
LOGO MISSING
In 1968, the WMT stations (including WMT-FM (96.5, now KKSY-FM), which signed on in 1963) were sold to the Morton family of Louisville, Kentucky, whose holdings would later evolve into Orion Broadcasting.
1970–1976
1976–1981
WMT, along with then-sister stations WFIE, WFRV-TV/WJMN-TV, and flagship WAVE, shared a common logotype style set in Verona Serial Heavy for the numericals and Windsor Heavy for the lettering.
"WMT Newswatch" open (1976-late 1970s)
KGAN (-TV)
1981–1986
This Kabel "2" was also used by WMAR-TV from 1975 to 1981.
The WMT stations remained under Orion's ownership until 1981 when the company merged with Cosmos Broadcasting, a subsidiary of insurance and broadcasting conglomerate Liberty Corporation. However, the two companies owned more television stations than the FCC allowed at the time. As a condition of the sale, Cosmos had to sell WMT-TV and found a buyer in Guy Gannett Publishing of Portland, Maine. On October 29, 1981, the station changed its callsign to KGAN-TV (FCC rules at the time prohibited TV and radio stations in the same city, but with different owners from sharing the same call letters, hence the change; the "-TV" suffix would later be dropped on September 13, 1984).
"Reach For The Stars" ID (1981-1982)
1986–1993
SVG NEEDED
1993–2003
The station's logo used during that time frame was a variation of the logo that was used by German television channel RTL2 from March 1993 to April 1996.
1Owned by Tennessee Broadcasting and operated by Sinclair under an outsourcing agreement. 2Nominally owned by Cunningham Broadcasting and operated by Sinclair under an LMA. However, trusts belonging to members of Sinclair's founding Smith family control almost all of Cunningham's stock. 3Operated by Nexstar Media Group under an LMA. 4Owned by Second Generation of Iowa, Ltd., operated by Sinclair under an LMA. 5Owned by Howard Stirk Holdings, operated by Sinclair under an LMA. 6Owned by Mercury Broadcasting Company and operated by Sinclair. 7Owned by Deerfield Media and operated by Sinclair under an LMA. 8Owned by New Age Media and operated by Sinclair under an MSA. 9Owned by MPS Media, but operated by New Age Media under an LMA. 10Owned by Main Street Sports Group. 11Co-owned with Yankee Global Enterprises, The Blackstone Group, Amazon, RedBird Capital and Mubadala Investment Company. 12Co-owned with Chicago Cubs. 13Owned by Palm Television, L.P. and operated by Cunningham Broadcasting under an LMA. 14Operated by Marquee Broadcasting under an SSA. 15Owned by Rincon Broadcasting Group, but operated by Sinclair under an SSA. 16Owned by Rincon Broadcasting Group, but operated by Sinclair under an LMA. 17Owned and operated directly by Cunningham. 18Owned by Sinclair, but operated by Rincon Broadcasting Group under an SSA.
