KFDM

KFDM is a television station licensed to Beaumont, Texas and serving the Beaumont/Port Arthur market. The station operates on physical channel 25 or virtual channels 6.1 (which is affiliated with CBS) and 6.2 (The CW). The station is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group. It also serves the Lake Charles, Louisiana market as the market's default CBS station (especially since Lafayette's KLFY-TV's coverage was severely crippled by the low power the FCC gave it on TV RF 10 with its digital signal; KLFY-TV on analog 10 could easily cover Lake Charles). The station's studios are located at the Interstate 10/U.S. Highway 69 (Eastex Freeway) interchange in Beaumont, which is shared with KBTV-TV, and the transmitter location is in Vidor, Texas.

History

KFDM-TV commenced broadcasting on April 24, 1955 and is the oldest on air TV station in the Beaumont/Port Arthur market (there was a short lived UHF TV 31 that preceded KFDM by a year or so but went dark (off the air) in less than a year of its sign on). The call sign was borrowed from its then sister radio station KFDM (AM 560), which was founded in 1924 by Magnolia Petroleum Company; the calls stood for "Kall For Dependable Magnolene," the brand name for Magnolia's motor oil line. (Coincidentally, the call letters could also be said to represent former owner FreeDoM Communications.) KFDM used the "-TV" suffix in its call sign to differentiate from KFDM radio until 1964 (when KFDM radio was sold and became KLVI) and again from 1980 until 2009.