KFXK-TV (channel 51) is a television station licensed to Longview, Texas, United States, serving East Texas as an affiliate of the Fox network. It is owned by White Knight Broadcasting, which maintains a shared services agreement (SSA) with Nexstar Media Group owner of Jacksonville-licensed NBC affiliate KETK-TV (channel 56) and Tyler-licensed low-power MyNetworkTV affiliate KTPN-LD (channel 48), for the provision of certain services. The stations share studios on Richmond Road (near Texas Loop 323) in Tyler, while KFXK-TV's transmitter is located near FM 125 in rural northwestern Rusk County (northwest of New London).
Although KFXK-TV operates a full-power signal, the broadcasting radius does not reach much of the southern part of the market. Therefore, it is relayed on low-power translator station KFXL-LD (UHF channel 29, also mapped to virtual channel 51) in Lufkin. This station's transmitter is located on SH 103 near Loop 287 northwest of Lufkin.
History
The station first signed on the air on September 9, 1984 as KLMG-TV; the station originally operated as a CBS affiliate, making it the first full-time affiliate of the network in the Tyler–Longview market since the short-lived KAEC-TV (channel 19) operated in Nacogdoches in the late 1960s. Until channel 51 signed on, CBS programming was relegated to joint primary status on KLTV (channel 7), which also juggled programming with NBC and ABC (the latter of which is now that station's sole affiliation) for many years.
KLMG-TV made national news as its founding owner, Clara McLaughlin, was the first African American woman ever to own a television station in the United States. McLaughlin bought a vacant school building located near Interstate 20 in Longview and had it renovated into a studio facility for the station. KLMG was intended to be part of a network of stations serving East Texas that would be known as the "East Texas Television Network." To this end, McLaughlin also held construction permits for KLNL on channel 19 in Nacogdoches, KLPH-TV on channel 42 in Paris, and KLDS on channel 20 in Denison. However, this plan did not come to fruition and none of the other stations ever signed on the air. KLMG wound up filing for bankruptcy just a few years later, and shut down its news department.
In April 1991, the station changed its call letters to KFXK; it also became the market's Fox affiliate; prior to the switch, viewers in the Tyler–Longview market were only able to receive Fox programming via either the network's then-Dallas owned-and-operated station KDAF (now a CW affiliate) or Shreveport affiliate KMSS-TV; those living in Houston County carried Waco affiliate KWKT-TV instead. Conversely, the switch left the market without a CBS affiliate for the next thirteen years; Max Media would later purchase KLSB (channel 19), a satellite of NBC affiliate KETK-TV (channel 56), and converted it into CBS affiliate KYTX in 2004. In the interim, CBS programming was provided on cable via Shreveport affiliate KSLA-TV, although some cable providers in the western portion of the market carried KDFW (between 1991 and 1995) or network-owned KTVT (between 1995 and 2004); cable systems in Houston County carried KBTX-TV instead. (KETK later signed on a low-power station on UHF channel 53, which assumed the KLSB call letters (which were later changed to KETK-LP) to serve as its repeater until it shut down in 2012.) By 1998, KFXK had signed on KFXL as a translator serving the Lufkin–Nacogdoches area. In January 2013, KFXL-LD migrated its operations to KETK and KFXK's studio facility in Tyler.
On April 24, 2013, the Communications Corporation of America announced the sale of its television stations, including KETK-TV, to Nexstar Broadcasting Group. KFXK and KTPN were planned be sold to Nexstar partner company Mission Broadcasting; in the case of KFXK, that station was being sold to Mission to comply with FCC duopoly rules. But on August 5, 2014, Mission withdrew its application to acquire KFXK. Nexstar continues to operate KFXK and KLPN under a shared services agreement with sister station KETK. The sale was completed on January 1, 2015.
Nexstar completed a $4 million renovation of studio and office facilities that KFXK shares with KETK in November 2017. A dedication and reception was held on November 16, which included the presence of Nexstar chairman/president/CEO Perry Sook, as well as Leslie Roberts, an anchorwoman who worked for KETK in the late 1980s, among other attendees.
Programming
Syndicated programming
Syndicated programs broadcast by KFXK-TV include The People's Court, Young Sheldon, The Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, and Divorce Court, among others.