KARE News Going HD in April

NBC affiliate KARE-TV will become the first station in the Minneapolis-St. Paul market (and still one of the few nationally) to broadcast its local news in HD, starting in April.

The station said on its Web site the change will necessitate KARE 11 News upgrade to a new "state-of-the-art" set that is being designed to showcase its newsgathering capabilities and its local weather system.

The station acknowledged to viewers that the HD transition has been plagued somewhat by a "chicken and egg" mentality -- with consumers having hesitated to make financial commitments to buy HD sets until there was more programming and local broadcasters, in turn, waiting for more HD viewers before committing to local programming. That mentality now appears to be rapidly melting away, it said.

KARE management said they decided to try to lead the way with HD local news in the Twin Cities, rather than hold back and see what happens.