City Pittsburg, Kansas Affiliations Fox | Branding Fox 14 Owner Surtsey Media, LLC | |
Slogan The Four-States Own Fox Channels Digital: 13 (VHF)
Virtual: 14 (PSIP) | ||
KFJX, virtual channel 14, is the Fox-affiliated television station for the Joplin, Missouri-Pittsburg, Kansas television market; it is owned by Saga Communications' Surtsey Media subsidiary, and is a sister station to Saga-owned CBS affiliate KOAM-TV. Its transmitter is located south of Pittsburg KS on US Hwy 69.
Contents
History
The station signed on the air on October 18, 2003; the station was launched primarily to bring a Fox affiliate to the area, since the closest Fox affiliates were located in Kansas City (WDAF-TV), Springfield (KSFX-TV, now independent station KOZL-TV) and Tulsa (KOKI-TV). KFJX may have also been launched in response to the Nexstar Broadcasting Group KODE-TV/KSNF duopoly, which began in 2004.
Because it was granted an original construction permit after the FCC finalized the DTV allotment plan on April 21, 1997 [1], the station did not receive a companion channel for a digital television station and would have originally had to make a "flash cut" turning off its analog transmitter and turning on its digital transmitter. Instead on February 17, 2009, KFJX began broadcasting a digital signal on channel 13, which was the former digital assignment of KOAM, after receiving FCC permission to do so. Until the new June 12, 2009 digital conversion deadline, KFJX continued to broadcast its analog signal on Channel 14 before signing it off permanently.
In June 2010, the DirecTV satellite system added Joplin locals to their channel line-up. KFJX and sister station KOAM were unable to come to an agreement with DirecTV to have stations carried.
KFJX is the only Joplin-Pittsburg commercial television station that never has changed its affiliation, having been a Fox affiliate since signing on.
Newscasts
The station airs a nightly 9 p.m. newscast, produced by KOAM, that debuted on April 5, 2004, and expanded to include a weekend edition in the fall of 2005. On June 1, 2010, the weekday edition of Fox 14 News at Nine expanded to an hour. In the spring of 2012, KFJX began airing a rebroadcast of the KOAM Morning News starting at 7:00 AM. This has since been discontinued.