Wikipedia

KFAA-TV

For channel 51 in Rogers, Arkansas (1989–2004), see KNWA-TV.
"KMPX" redirects here. For the San Francisco FM radio station that used the KMPX call sign from 1962 to 1978, see KFRC-FM.

KFAA-TV (channel 29) is an independent television station licensed to Decatur, Texas, United States, serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Dallas-licensed ABC affiliate WFAA (channel 8). KFAA-TV's offices are located on Gateway Drive in Irving, and its transmitter is located in Cedar Hill, Texas. Master control and most internal operations are based at the WFAA Communications Center Studios on Young Street in Downtown Dallas.

KFAA-TV
CityDecatur, Texas
Channels
BrandingKFAA 29
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
WFAA
History
First air date
September 15, 1993 (31 years ago) (1993-09-15)
Former call signs
KMPX (1993–2024)
Former channel number(s)
Analog: 29 (UHF, 1993–2009)
Call sign meaning
From co-owned WFAA
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID73701
ERP1,000 kW
HAAT544 m (1,785 ft)
Transmitter coordinates32°35′20″N 96°58′5.9″W / 32.58889°N 96.968306°W / 32.58889; -96.968306
Links
Public license information
Websitewfaa.com

Channel 29 went on the air as KMPX in 1993 and was the original flagship station of the Daystar Television Network, a Christian ministry that operated from headquarters in the Dallas suburb of Colleyville and later Bedford. In 2003, Daystar acquired KDTN (channel 2) and sold KMPX to Liberman Broadcasting. Under Liberman, the station was a Spanish-language outlet, first as an independent station and later as the Dallas-area affiliate of Liberman's Estrella TV network. In 2020, KMPX was acquired by Tegna, giving it UHF spectrum to improve the reception of WFAA while continuing to broadcast Estrella TV as its primary subchannel. Tegna acquired the rights to telecast Dallas Mavericks basketball in 2024, with channel 29 airing most of the team's games, and concurrently switched the primary subchannel to an English-language independent station under the new call sign KFAA-TV.

Prior history of channel 29

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Channel 29 was originally allocated to Dallas, and two construction permits were issued for the channel. One was to be KLIF-TV, the television counterpart to radio station KLIF (1190 AM), owned by Gordon McLendon. A second attempt was made in 1962 to launch KAEI-TV on channel 29. Owned by and named for Automated Electronics Inc., the station would have broadcast printed quotes, news, and weather information. Since television sets were not required to include UHF tuners until the All-Channel Receiver Act went into effect in 1964, the company proposed to lease converters and UHF antennas to companies to install in their offices.[2] Though the group hoped to be weeks away from signing the station on the air and gave dates of April 15 and June 1 for a planned sign-on,[3] AEI never put it into service. The company's assets were acquired in late 1963.[4]

In 1966, three applicants filed to build new stations on channel 29—Grandview Broadcasting (which later took itself out of the running), Overmyer Communications, and Maxwell Electronics.[5] In a successful bid to give both applicants a channel, Overmyer proposed changing out channel 29 for channels 27 and 33 at Dallas;[6] Overmyer never built its station on channel 27, and Maxwell signed on KMEC-TV on channel 33 in October 1967.[7]

KMPX: Daystar and Liberman ownership

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In 1985, three applicants vied for a license to operate a television station on channel 29, including the Wise County Messenger newspaper, owned by former WBAP-TV (channel 5, now KXAS-TV) anchor Roy Eaton, whose petition had resulted in the allocation to Decatur.[8] After a settlement was reached, the construction permit was granted to Decatur Telecasting, owned by Charlotte, North Carolina, housewife Karen Hicks, in December 1985.[9] However, an unanticipated setback in the form of the sale of its planned tower site to new owners who would not allow the station to locate there led to years of delays and a sale to Word of God Fellowship, a ministry of Marcus and Joni Lamb.[10] The Lambs sold the first station they had built, WMCF in Montgomery, Alabama, to finance the move to Texas.[11] KMPX served as the basis for the launch of the Daystar Television Network on January 1, 1997.[12] The network and KMPX operated from studios in Colleyville until moving to Bedford in 2002.[13]

In 2003, Daystar acquired Denton-licensed noncommercial station KDTN (channel 2) from North Texas Public Broadcasting. KMPX was then sold to Liberman Broadcasting for $37 million[14] in a sale that was finalized on January 13, 2004; after Liberman took over on that date, the station was converted into a Spanish-language independent station featuring programming distributed by the company. On September 14, 2009, KMPX became a charter owned-and-operated station of Liberman's Estrella TV network, which carried some programming seen during the station's tenure as an independent. Liberman Broadcasting became Estrella Media in February 2020, following a corporate reorganization of the company under private equity firm HPS Investment Partners, LLC.

Duopoly with WFAA

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On September 25, 2020, it was announced that Tegna Inc. (owner of ABC affiliate WFAA, channel 8) would acquire KMPX for $19 million.[15] The deal included a five-year affiliation agreement between Estrella and Tegna, as well as an option for Estrella to purchase WFAA's VHF license.[16] The transaction for KMPX was completed on November 20.[17] The purchase allowed Tegna to begin simulcasting WFAA on a UHF-band transmitter, as virtual channel 8.8, to improve reception. Had the Estrella option been exercised, Estrella would have acquired the VHF facility of WFAA, essentially inducing a facility swap.

In 2022, Tegna filed to sell itself to Standard General and Apollo Global Management for $5.4 billion. KMPX and WFAA, along with KVUE in Austin and KHOU and KTBU in Houston, were to be resold to Cox Media Group.[18][19] The sale was canceled on May 22, 2023.[20]

KFAA-TV: Mavericks basketball and relaunch

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In September 2024, Tegna announced a signed deal with the Dallas Mavericks to move the team's local broadcasts to its television stations. As part of the deal, channel 29 originates and airs all Mavericks games not picked up by a national network, with sister station WFAA simulcasting 15 games. On September 14, Tegna requested to change KMPX's call sign to KFAA-TV effective October 20.[21] On October 17, Tegna announced that programming on KMPX would change from Estrella TV to an English-language independent format on October 20; the same date as the callsign change and station rebranding to KFAA 29. Estrella TV programming moved to subchannel 29.2.[22][23][24]

Technical information

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Subchannels

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The station's signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of KFAA-TV[25]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
29.1 720p 16:9 KFAA-TV Main KFAA-TV programming
29.2 ESTRLLA Estrella TV
8.8 WFAA-HD ABC (WFAA)
  Simulcast of subchannels of another station

Analog-to-digital conversion

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KFAA-TV (as KMPX) shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 29, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[26] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 30, using virtual channel 29.

References

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  1. ^ "Facility Technical Data for KFAA-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^ Rochelle, Rudy (March 25, 1962). "KAEI Will Cater To Businessmen". The Dallas Morning News. p. 4:1.
  3. ^ "[News Script: K*A*E*I***TV]". WBAP-TV. May 4, 1962.
  4. ^ "Electronics Firm Purchases Assets". The Dallas Morning News. October 11, 1963. p. 4:20.
  5. ^ "For the Record" (PDF). Broadcasting. January 3, 1966. p. 137. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 13, 2023. Retrieved March 29, 2020.
  6. ^ "For the Record" (PDF). Broadcasting. June 27, 1966. p. 120. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 13, 2023. Retrieved March 29, 2020.
  7. ^ "KFWT-TV to Emphasize Local Shows". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. September 20, 1967. p. 10-B. Archived from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved March 29, 2020.
  8. ^ "Publisher hopes to land Decatur TV station". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Fort Worth, Texas. September 7, 1984. p. 13A. Retrieved August 22, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "Decatur decision" (PDF). Broadcastng. December 2, 1985. p. 98 – via World Radio History.
  10. ^ Kreisman, Barbara A. (December 3, 1992). "Memorandum Opinion & Order". Federal Communications Commission. pp. 8622–8624.
  11. ^ Hodges, Sam (December 27, 2010). "More glare than just the TV lights". The Dallas Morning News. p. A1.
  12. ^ Crawford, Selwyn (August 25, 2001). "'It's not about personalities': Couple builds ministry into nation's 2nd largest Christian TV network". The Dallas Morning News. p. 2G.
  13. ^ Packer, Jennifer (November 16, 2001). "Daystar expanding with move to city - Christian TV network will leave Colleyville starting early next year". The Dallas Morning News. p. 1N (Northeast Tarrant).
  14. ^ Mendoza, Manuel (December 11, 2003). "Daystar moving to Ch. 2". The Dallas Morning News. p. 11B.
  15. ^ "Application for Consent to Assignment of Broadcast Station Construction Permit or License". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. September 25, 2020. Retrieved September 28, 2020.
  16. ^ Option Agreement
  17. ^ "Consummation Notice", CDBS Public Access, Federal Communications Commission, November 25, 2020, Retrieved November 25, 2020.
  18. ^ Szalai, Georg; Weprin, Alex (February 22, 2022). "Local TV Giant TEGNA Sold to Private Equity Firms in Mega-Deal". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
  19. ^ "WFAA and Houston, Austin TV stations expected to go to Cox Media in Tegna's $5.4 billion sale". Dallas News. February 22, 2022. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
  20. ^ Shields, Todd; Shah, Jill R. (May 22, 2003). "Standard General's Tegna Takeover Dies After Money Goes". Bloomberg. Retrieved May 22, 2023.
  21. ^ "Form 380 - Change Request". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved September 14, 2024.
  22. ^ "Dallas Mavericks, WFAA sign multi-year deal to broadcast games over-the-air for free". wfaa.com. September 6, 2024. Retrieved September 6, 2024.
  23. ^ "Mavericks announce new TV partnership, games to be available locally for free". Dallas News. September 6, 2024. Retrieved September 6, 2024.
  24. ^ "Introducing WFAA sister station KFAA 29, home of every local Dallas Mavericks broadcast this season". wfaa.com. October 17, 2024. Retrieved October 19, 2024.
  25. ^ "RabbitEars TV Query for KFAA". RabbitEars. Retrieved August 21, 2022.
  26. ^ List of Digital Full-Power Stations Archived August 29, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
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