KAAL (TV)  KAAL, virtual channel 6 (UHF digital channel 36), is an ABC-affiliated television station licensed to Austin, Minnesota, United States, serving Southeastern Minnesota and Northern Iowa. The station is owned by Hubbard Broadcasting. KAAL's studios are located on Salem Road in Rochester, Minnesota, and its transmitter is located in Grand Meadow Township. In addition to its main signal, KAAL operates a low-powered translator licensed to Mason City, Iowa. This airs a digital signal on UHF channel 33 from a transmitter in Garner, Iowa along US 18. The station signed on the air on August 17, 1953 as KMMT and aired an analog signal on VHF channel 6. Its first owners were local businessmen Martin Busted, Harry Smith, and Palmer Ulland, who also owned KAUS radio (AM 1480 and FM 99.9). Originally, the station was a primary CBS affiliate with secondary ABC and DuMont relations. After KGLO-TV (channel 3, now KIMT) launched from Mason City in late 1954, KMMT switched its primary affiliation to ABC. DuMont would eventually be dropped in 1956 after that network shut down operations. This station is the longest-tenured ABC affiliate in the Upper Midwest. During the late-1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network. It shared studios with KAUS radio on MN 105 in Austin where the two radio stations continue to operate today. The television station produced a few local programs most notably "The Family Hour" hosted by Christian Pastor Joe Matt. The program aired until April 2001 and was one of the longest-running, locally produced religious shows in the United States. KMMT and KAUS radio were purchased by Waterloo, Iowa-based Blackhawk Broadcasting in 1958. The station would add color television in 1967. Its call letters became KAUS-TV (for AUStin) in 1968 to match its radio sisters. The outlet would begin carrying the yearly "Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon" in 1973 and remained the area's affiliate until the event ended its run in 2015. KAUS-AM-FM-TV separated operations in 1974 after the television station moved to its current location on 10th Place Northeast along I-90. The building previously housed a Volkswagen dealership and showroom. The call letters were changed to the current KAAL-TV in 1975 referring to Austin and Albert Lea. Blackhawk sold KAAL to the News-Press & Gazette Company of St. Joseph, Missouri in 1980.