KFJX

KFJX, virtual channel 14, is the Fox-affiliated television station for the Joplin, Missouri-Pittsburg, Kansas television market; it is owned by Saga Communications' Surtsey Media subsidiary, and is a sister station to Saga-owned CBS affiliate KOAM-TV. Its transmitter is located south of Pittsburg KS on US Hwy 69.

History

The station signed on the air on October 18, 2003; the station was launched primarily to bring a Fox affiliate to the area, since the closest Fox affiliates were located in Kansas City (WDAF-TV), Springfield (KSFX-TV, now independent station KOZL-TV) and Tulsa (KOKI-TV). KFJX may have also been launched in response to the Nexstar Broadcasting Group KODE-TV/KSNF duopoly, which began in 2004.

Because it was granted an original construction permit after the FCC finalized the DTV allotment plan on April 21, 1997 , the station did not receive a companion channel for a digital television station and would have originally had to make a "flash cut" turning off its analog transmitter and turning on its digital transmitter. Instead on February 17, 2009, KFJX began broadcasting a digital signal on channel 13, which was the former digital assignment of KOAM, after receiving FCC permission to do so. Until the new June 12, 2009 digital conversion deadline, KFJX continued to broadcast its analog signal on Channel 14 before signing it off permanently.