SIOUX FALLS, SD (KELO) — By now, you may have noticed the ’70 Years’ logo featured during our newscasts. That’s because KELOLAND TV is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. We signed on as South Dakota’s very first TV station on May 19th, 1953. Through the decades we’ve remained a pioneer in the broadcast, and now, digital age.

The clicking of something called a typewriter opened this KELOLAND newscast in 1953.

“Good evening, for Standard Oil, these are the headlines. Britain’s Grand Old Lady passes away,” news anchor Bill Wigginton said.

Newscasts were recorded on film and lacked the fancy graphics you see today. Sports scores were scrawled onto chalkboard.

“The Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies today by a score of 7-6 in a very close game,” Sports Director Jim Burt said.

Pushing technology forward through the decades has been a hallmark of KELOLAND TV.

“The technology that we have today is just so different than what is was back in those days, right? I mean, just a lot of change,” KELOLAND Media Group General Manager Mari Ossenfort said.

Captain 11 was a favorite of generations of KELOLAND viewers. Dave Dedrick hosted the show for 41 years, which at the time, was the longest-running children’s show in America.

“Everybody mentions Captain 11. We all love Captain 11 and we will continue to pay our honors to him, also,” Ossenfort said.

The grainy images may have been black and white, but for an audience longing for local programming, KELOLAND TV set the standard back then, and today.

“I think the biggest thing is just to reflect and show appreciation to all the people that have set the balls in motion for this amazing station to be who and what it is. We’ll celebrate, we’ll reflect and we’ll just have a joyous year,” Ossenfort said.

We will be sharing more stories about our station’s history and legacy in the weeks and months ahead, before our big celebration in May.