KOAM-TV

KOAM-TV, channel 7, is the CBS-affiliated television station for the Four State Area region of Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri, serving the cities of Pittsburg, Kansas and Joplin, Missouri. Owned by Saga Communications, the station is operated in a virtual duopoly with Surtsey Media-owned Fox affiliate KFJX (channel 14). Both stations share studio and transmitter facilities on U.S. 69 south of Pittsburg, Kansas, with a secondary facility located on South Range Line Road in Joplin. The station utilizes VHF channel 7 for both their digital broadcasts and PSIP virtual channel.

Digital channels

History

KOAM-TV first signed on at 5:22 p.m. on December 13, 1953 under the ownership of MidContinent Broadcasting Company, a joint venture of The Joplin Globe newspaper and KOAM radio (860 AM, the current KKOW). The Globe would eventually sell its minority stake in the station to KOAM radio owners E. Victor Baxter and Lester Cox.

KOAM-TV launched as a primary affiliate of NBC, owing to KOAM radio's long affiliation with NBC Radio, though it also had secondary affiliations with CBS (until KSWM-TV launched in 1954), DuMont (until that network's 1955 closure) and ABC (until January 1968, when KODE became a full-time ABC affiliate and KUHI-TV signed on with CBS). In 1982, KOAM swapped affiliations with KTVJ (the former KUHI-TV) and became a CBS affiliate.