KBFX-CD

KBFX-CD, channel 58, is a Class A low-power digital television station serving Bakersfield, California. The station is a Fox affiliate and is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group. The station's studios are co-located with sister station and CBS affiliate KBAK-TV west of downtown Bakersfield, and the transmitter site is on Breckenridge Mountain.

Digital television

The analog signal went off the air in August 2010. KBFX currently broadcasts in high definition on RF channel 29 which maps to virtual channel 58-1, and also as a subchannel of KBAK-DT in high definition; this digital signal is RF channel 33-2 and virtual mapped channel 58-2. It is also available in high definition on Bright House Networks cable.

History

KBFX began in 1989 as K58DJ, a low-powered relay translator of KMPH, Fresno's Fox affiliate. It changed its call letters to KMPH-LP in 1995. Later, the Fox network wanted to include a new separate affiliate station for the Bakersfield market; as a result, in 1998, channel 58 was relaunched as KBFX-LP. Among the features on the new station was a KBAK-produced 10pm newscast, "Fox 58 News @ 10". It was so successful that KBAK's then-owner Westwind Communications bought the station in 2005 from KMPH's owners, Pappas Telecasting.