KJTL (channel 18) is a television station licensed to Wichita Falls, Texas, United States, serving as the Fox affiliate for the western Texoma area. It is owned by locally based Mission Broadcasting as its flagship station; Mission maintains joint sales and shared services agreements (JSA/SSA) with Nexstar Media Group, owner of NBC affiliate KFDX-TV (channel 3) and low-power MyNetworkTV affiliate KJBO-LD (channel 35), for the provision of certain services. The three stations share studios near Seymour Highway (US 277) and Turtle Creek Road in Wichita Falls; KJTL's transmitter is located near East 1940 and North 2380 Roads in rural southwestern Tillman County, Oklahoma (near Grandfield).
History
Early history
The UHF channel 18 allocation in the Wichita Falls–Lawton market was contested between two groups that competed for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s approval of a construction permit to build and license to operate a new commercial independent television station on the frequency.
On March 17, 1982, First City Media, Inc.—a locally based company co-founded by Max Andrews and Peter D'Acosta—filed the initial application for the channel 18 license. Just under 1½ months later, on April 30, Thornberry TV Ltd.—an Atlanta-based company owned by William J. Barbin (who owned 36% of the company), Bert Wallace and Janet T. Lee (who each owned 18%), and David Vaughan (who owned the remaining 28%)—filed a separate application. The FCC granted the permit to Thornberry on November 28, 1983. In August 1984, Thornberry was granted use of KJTL as the planned station's callsign, named for minority owner Janet T. Lee.
The station first signed on the air on May 14, 1985, as the fourth commercial television station—after CBS affiliate KAUZ-TV (channel 6, which signed on as KWFT-TV on March 1, 1953), ABC affiliate KSWO-TV (channel 7, which signed on the air on March 8, 1953), and KFDX-TV (channel 3, which signed on April 12, 1953)—and the first commercial UHF outlet to sign on in the Wichita Falls–Lawton market. KJTL originally operated from studio facilities located on Call Field Road in Wichita Falls; the station based its transmitter facilities near Grandfield, Oklahoma, adjacent to the tower operated by KSWO-TV, to provide a signal that could adequately reach most of southwestern Oklahoma and western north Texas. Channel 18 initially maintained a programming inventory typical of an independent station, consisting of first-run and off-network sitcoms and drama series, classic off-network westerns, feature films and cartoons.
In August 1986, Thornberry TV Ltd. transferred ownership of KJTL to Wichita Falls Television, a locally based company owned by D'Acosta, who also served as general manager of channel 18. KJTL became a charter affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Company when the network inaugurated programming on October 9, 1986. Though it was technically a network affiliate, KJTL continued to be programmed as a de facto independent station as Fox's initial programming lineup consisted solely of a late-night talk show, The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers. Even after its programming expanded with the launch of a three-hour Sunday night lineup in April 1987, Fox aired its prime time programming exclusively on weekends until September 1989, when it began a five-year expansion towards a nightly prime time schedule. Until Fox began airing prime time programs on all seven nights of the week in January 1993, KJTL continued to air a movie at 7:00 p.m. on nights when the network did not offer any programming.
On May 11, 1989, Wichita Falls Television announced it would sell the station to Wichita Falls-based BSP Broadcasting (which was principally owned by local businessman and eventual Texas House Representative Lanham Lyne) for $1.587 million; the sale was approved by the FCC on June 29 of that year. (The group—which was later renamed Epic Broadcasting Corporation in 1992—would acquire an additional television property in January 1991, when it purchased fellow Fox affiliate KCIT in Amarillo, Texas from Ralph C. Wilson Industries for $2.4 million.) D'Acosta was subsequently appointed as Epic Broadcasting president, a role he would retain after Epic sold its television stations to Wicks Broadcast Group. In the fall of 1993, channel 18 gained a sister station when Epic Broadcasting acquired low-power independent station K35BO (channel 35, now MyNetworkTV affiliate KJBO-LD).