KFJX was founded in 2003 as the Fox

Fox Broadcasting Company

Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

 affiliate for the Pittsburg, Kansas

Pittsburg, Kansas

Pittsburg is a city in Crawford County, in southeastern Kansas, United States. It is the most populous city in Crawford County and in southeastern Kansas. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 20,233.-History:...

/Joplin, Missouri

Joplin, Missouri

Joplin is a city in southern Jasper County and northern Newton County in the southwestern corner of the US state of Missouri. Joplin is the largest city in Jasper County, though it is not the county seat. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 50,150...

 market. It is owned by Saga Communications' Surtsey Media subsidiary, and is a sister station to Saga-owned KOAM-TV

KOAM-TV

KOAM-TV is a television station in Pittsburg, Kansas broadcasting on channel 7 and affiliated with CBS. The station also serves Joplin, Missouri, along with the Four State Area region of Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri. KOAM-TV transmits from Columbus, Kansas, and is the sister station to...

.

KFJX was launched primarily to bring a Fox

Fox Broadcasting Company

Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

 affiliate to the area, since the closest Fox affiliates were located in Kansas City

Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...

, Springfield

Springfield, Missouri

Springfield is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Greene County. According to the 2010 census data, the population was 159,498, an increase of 5.2% since the 2000 census. The Springfield Metropolitan Area, population 436,712, includes the counties of...

, and Tulsa

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...

. KFJX may have also been launched in response to the Nexstar Broadcasting Group

Nexstar Broadcasting Group

Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc., is an entity of broadcast television stations headquartered in Irving, Texas. The company consists of 50 television stations across the U.S., ranging from market sizes 9 to 201 . 43 of the stations are broadcasting at full power, with the other 4 broadcasting at...

 KODE-TV

KODE-TV

KODE-TV, virtual channel 12, is the ABC network affiliated television station serving all of Joplin, Missouri and its surrounding areas and Pittsburg, Kansas and its rural communities. Its transmitter is located in Joplin...

/KSNF

KSNF

KSNF, virtual channel 16, is the NBC-affiliated television station for the Joplin, Missouri-Pittsburg, Kansas television market, the 145th DMA. KSNF broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 46...

 duopoly, which began in 2004.

On May 8, 2009, a severe storm rolled through the Joplin area and damaged the antenna of KFJX.

In June of 2010, the DirecTV satellite system added Joplin locals to their channel line-up. KFJX and Sister station KOAM were unable to come to an agreement with DirecTV to have stations carried.

KFJX is the only Joplin-Pittsburg commercial television station that never has changed its affiliation, having been a Fox affiliate since signing on.

Digital television

Because it was granted an original construction permit

Construction permit

A construction permit or building permit is a permit required in most jurisdictions for new construction, or adding on to pre-existing structures, and in some cases for major renovations. Generally, the new construction must be inspected during construction and after completion to ensure compliance...

 after the FCC

Federal Communications Commission

The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...

 finalized the DTV

Digital television

Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...

 allotment plan on April 21, 1997 http://www.transmitter.com/FCC97115/chanplan.html, the station did not receive a companion channel for a digital television station

Television station

A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...

 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.

Newscasts

The station airs a nightly 9:00 p.m. newscast, produced by KOAM, that debuted on April 5, 2004, and expanded to include a weekend edition in the fall of 2005. On June 1, 2010, the weekday edition of Fox 14 News at Nine expanded to an hour.

Fox 14 News at Nine
(9 to 10 P.M.)

Weeknights

• Anchor:
  • Mike Olmstead
• Weather:
  • Doug Heady
• Sports:
  • Brandon Spiegel

Weekends

• Anchor:
  • Angela Greenwood
• Weather:
  • Nick Kelly
• Sports:
  • Michael Admire

KFJX features additional news personnel from KOAM. See that article for a complete listing.