KMPX
 | |
| Decatur/Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas United States | |
|---|---|
| City | Decatur, Texas |
| Channels | Digital: 30 (UHF) Virtual: 29 |
| Branding | Estrella TV Dallas (see WFAA article for 8.8 branding) |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Tegna Inc. (sale to Standard General pending; to be resold to Cox Media Group thereafter[2]) (WFAA-TV, Inc.) |
| WFAA | |
| History | |
First air date | September 15, 1993 |
Former channel number(s) | Analog: 29 (UHF, 1993–2009) |
| Daystar (1993–2004) Spanish Independent (2004–2009) | |
Call sign meaning | Metroplex |
| Technical information | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 73701 |
| ERP | 1,000 kW |
| HAAT | 544 m (1,785 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 32°35′20″N 96°58′5.9″W / 32.58889°N 96.968306°WCoordinates: 32°35′20″N 96°58′5.9″W / 32.58889°N 96.968306°W |
| Links | |
Public license information | Profile LMS |
| Website | www |
KMPX (channel 29) is a television station licensed to Decatur, Texas, United States, serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex as an affiliate of the Spanish-language Estrella TV network. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Dallas-licensed ABC affiliate WFAA (channel 8). KMPX's offices are located on Gateway Drive in Irving, and its transmitter is located in Cedar Hill, Texas. Master control and most internal operations are based at the WFAA Communications Center Studios on Young Street in Downtown Dallas.
KMPX is the largest primary Estrella TV affiliate by market size that is not owned and operated by the network's parent company Estrella Media, although it was previously owned by Estrella Media from 2004 until 2020.
History[edit]
Prior history of UHF channel 29 in Dallas–Fort Worth[edit]
The UHF channel 29 allocation in the Dallas–Fort Worth market was originally planned to be used to sign on KLIF-TV (which was to have stood for "Oak Cliff"); on January 15, 1953, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted a construction permit for that station to legendary radio broadcaster Gordon McLendon.
Had KLIF-TV signed on, it would have been a sister station to radio station KLIF (1190 AM, now KFXR). KLIF-TV was intended to operate from the Cliff Towers Hotel in Dallas, which formerly served as the studios of KLIF radio and would later house KGKO (1480 AM, now KNGO) and KKSN (730 AM, now KKDA). The broadcast license was issued that year, but the station never went on the air; the KLIF-TV license was cancelled in 1955. Since television sets were not required to include UHF tuners until the All-Channel Receiver Act went into effect in 1964, McLendon apparently had second thoughts about developing a station that might not have any viewers (another unrelated television station using the KLIF-TV call letters was later planned to sign on 1967, but also never launched).
Channel 29 signed on the air in June 1964[3] from downtown Dallas as KAEI-TV, which was owned by Automated Electric Incorporated and ran a format of automated stock quotes for eight hours a day. However, poor reception reportedly led to that station's demise later that same year. In 1966, three applicants tried to take over channel 29—Grandview Broadcasting (which later took itself out of the running), Overmyer Communications and Maxwell Electronics. In a successful bid to give both applicants a channel, Overmyer proposed changing out channel 29 for channels 27 and 33 at Dallas; Overmyer never built its station, and Maxwell signed on KMEC-TV on channel 33 in October 1967. Channel 29 was later restored to the market. In 1985, three applicants vied for a license to operate a television station on channel 29, including the Wise County Messenger newspaper, owned by former WBAP-TV (channel 5, now KXAS-TV) anchor Roy Eaton.
KMPX station history[edit]
After years of debating, KMPX first signed on the air on September 15, 1993, as the flagship station of the religious broadcast network Daystar. It was founded by Daystar founders Marcus and Joni Lamb, under the licensee Community Television Educators of DFW Inc. From that point until 1999, its slogan was "The Heart of Texas". In 2003, Daystar acquired Denton-licensed PBS member station KDTN (channel 2) from North Texas Public Broadcasting.
KMPX was then sold to Liberman Broadcasting (which was renamed Estrella Media in February 2020, following a corporate reorganization of the company under private equity firm HPS Investment Partners, LLC), a sale that was finalized on January 13, 2004; after Liberman took over on that date, the station was converted into a Spanish-language independent station featuring programming distributed by the company. On September 14, 2009, KMPX became a charter owned-and-operated station of Liberman's Estrella TV network, which carries some programming seen during the station's tenure as an independent.
Sale to Tegna[edit]
On September 25, 2020, it was announced that Tegna Inc. (owner of ABC affiliate WFAA, channel 8) would acquire KMPX for $19 million.[4] The deal includes a five-year affiliation agreement between Estrella and Tegna, as well as an option for Estrella to purchase WFAA's VHF license.[5] The transaction for KMPX was completed on November 20.[6]
The station was purchased to solve long-term problems with WFAA's digital signal on VHF physical channel 8, as Tegna has been unable to acquire its own construction permit to move WFAA to UHF. Thus, KMPX is utilized to provide a full-market high definition simulcast of WFAA's main channel, which maps on KMPX's spectrum to channel 8.8. It also carries Twist from Tegna, which was launched on April 5, 2021 on channel 8.9.
If the five-year agreement to sell the station to Estrella is carried out in full, Estrella would purchase the license and transmitter assets of WFAA, and the two stations would swap physical channels, with WFAA then taking KMPX's FCC facility ID and in technicality, KMPX moving to the channel 8 facility ID established in 1949.
Pending sale to Cox Media Group[edit]
On February 22, 2022, Tegna announced that it would be acquired by Standard General and Apollo Global Management for $5.4 billion. As a part of the deal, KMPX and WFAA, along with their Austin sister station KVUE and Houston sister stations KHOU and KTBU would be resold to Cox Media Group.[7][8]
Technical information[edit]
Subchannels[edit]
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
| Channel | Video | Aspect | Short name | Programming[9] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8.8 | 1080i | 16:9 | WFAA-HD | UHF simulcast of WFAA / ABC |
| 8.9 | 480i | Twist | Twist | |
| 29.1 | 720p | KMPX-HD | Estrella TV | |
| 29.2 | 480i | KMPX-2 | Estrella News | |
| 29.3 | KMPX-3 | Estrella Games | ||
| 29.4 | SHOP-LC | Shop LC |
Analog-to-digital conversion[edit]
KMPX shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 29, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[10] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 30, using PSIP to display KMPX's virtual channel as 29 on digital television receivers.
References[edit]
- ^ "Estrella TV Inks Affil. Deal With Sunbeam". Mediaweek. April 6, 2009. Archived from the original on April 12, 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-11.
- ^ Miller, Mark K. (February 22, 2022). "Tegna Selling To Standard General For $5.4 Billion". TVNewsCheck. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
- ^ "[News Script: K*A*E*I***TV]". 4 May 1962.
- ^ "Application for Consent to Assignment of Broadcast Station Construction Permit or License". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. September 25, 2020. Retrieved September 28, 2020.
- ^ Option Agreement
- ^ "Consummation Notice", CDBS Public Access, Federal Communications Commission, 25 November 2020, Retrieved 25 November 2020.
- ^ Szalai, Alex Weprin,Georg; Weprin, Alex; Szalai, Georg (2022-02-22). "Local TV Giant TEGNA Sold to Private Equity Firms in Mega-Deal". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2022-02-22.
- ^ "WFAA and Houston, Austin TV stations expected to go to Cox Media in Tegna's $5.4 billion sale". Dallas News. 2022-02-22. Retrieved 2022-02-22.
- ^ RabbitEars TV Query for KMPX
- ^ List of Digital Full-Power Stations Archived 2013-08-29 at the Wayback Machine