First air date January 11, 1999 | ||
Owner Northwest Broadcasting(Mountain Licenses, LP) | ||
KFFX-TV, Fox 11, is a Fox affiliate serving the Tri-Cities, Washington (Richland/Pasco/Kennewick) area. Licensed to Pendleton, Oregon, and owned by Northwest Broadcasting, it also operates a satellite station in Yakima, KCYU-LD channel 41. On satellite, KFFX-TV is normally available on DirecTV. Dish Network carries KCYU-LD instead. It operates from studios on Clearwater Avenue in Kennewick, while its transmitter is located in the Umatilla National Forest east of Pendleton.
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KFFX also has a digital secondary channel NFFX that operates as channel 11.2 and NCYU which operates as channel 41.2. Both of these "dot 2's" carry the Telemundo Network in High Definition with Local news at 6PM and 11PM Monday through Friday.
History
Channel 11 signed on the air January 11, 1999 as KAUP; on April 25, the call letters were changed to KFFX-TV. It was the first full-powered VHF station in what had previously been a "UHF island." It was also the first station on the Tri-Cities side of the market not to be a satellite of a station in Yakima.
The station replaced KBWU-LP (channel 66), a low-power semi-satellite of KAYU-TV in Spokane; KCYU-LP was also a semi-satellite of KAYU before the launch of KFFX. KAYU was also piped in by area cable companies. KBWU (which originally had the call sign K66BW, though it was referred to as "KBW" outside of station identifications) had been on the air since October 1, 1989; that station, now KBWU-LD (channel 36), is now a translator of KFFX.
Initially, the KFFX-TV license was owned by Communication Properties; Northwest Broadcasting, through its Mountain Broadcasting subsidiary, operated the station under a local marketing agreement. Northwest filed to acquire KFFX outright in November 1999; however, the sale, approved on September 27, 2000, was not completed until January 14, 2003 because Northwest was required to divest another full-power television station in the Tri-Cities market, KBKI (channel 9, later known as KCWK) in Walla Walla, in order to complete its purchase of KFFX. KBKI was ultimately acquired by Pappas Telecasting.
KFFX has been digital-only since February 17, 2009. As the station's transmitter site typically becomes inaccessible to standard vehicles due to eastern Oregon's typically harsh winters, Northwest Broadcasting provided station engineers with snowmobiles on February 16, 2009 to complete the final post-transition installations.
On April 21, 2009, the station added a digital subchannel which includes Telemundo.
Translators
KFFX-TV is rebroadcast on two low-powered translators.
Programming
KFFX airs a 10PM newscast, Fox First at Ten, produced by area NBC affiliate KNDO/KNDU and a 7AM-9AM newscast, "GOOD DAY" produced by KHQ in the Spokane DMA.
KFFX also offers a line-up of back to back sitcoms between 5 and 8 PM each Monday through Friday along with many other popular shows including the NFL / NFC (Home of the Seahawks), Leathal Weapon and Empire.