KBAK-TV

KBAK-TV channel 29 is a CBS-affiliated television station located in Bakersfield, California, USA. KBAK-TV is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which also operates the local Fox affiliate, KBFX-CD from a shared facility in Bakersfield. The two stations share studios on Westwind Drive west of downtown Bakersfield and the transmitter site is on Breckenridge Mountain. Until 2014, KBAK-TV has a second transmitter for Eastern Kern County, the Antelope Valley and Victor Valley in the Mojave Desert on K55CW-D (moved to channel 34 in 2009). KBAK plans to continue to serve this region on a future translator.

History

KBAK signed on August 20, 1953 as KAFY-TV owned along with KAFY radio (AM 550, now AM 1100). It is Bakersfield's oldest television station; KERO-TV followed a month later. KAFY-TV was initially an affiliate of the Dumont television network, later becoming a primary CBS affiliate, sharing ABC programming with KERO-TV until KLYD-TV (channel 17, now KGET-TV) signed on in 1959.