KXTX-TV
Encyclopedia
KXTX-TV, digital
channel 40 (virtual channel
39.1), is the Telemundo
owned-and-operated station
in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas
Designated Market Area. Its transmitter is located in Cedar Hill, Texas
.
KXTX-TV also has plans for a Mobile DTV feed of subchannel 39.1.
as "39.1" on digital television receivers.
under the call sign KDTV. Its original owner, Doubleday, decided to exit the market in late 1973, and donated its programming and broadcast license to CBN
, which already owned KXTX, channel 33. CBN returned the license for channel 33 to the FCC
and combined its existing assets with channel 39, moving the KXTX call letters in the process (The KDTV
calls now reside on a TV station in San Francisco
, which is unrelated to KXTX; Interestingly, that station is currently an O&O of Telemundo's chief rival, Univision
). KDTV offered Japanese cartoons dubbed into English including Speed Racer
and Johnny Cypher in Dimension Zero
.
As an independent station, KXTX ranked behind KTVT
in the ratings. Initially, the station ran cartoons, off-network classic sitcoms, family dramas, old movies, and westerns about twelve hours a day. The programming included The Little Rascals
, Bugs Bunny
, Porky Pig
, The Brady Bunch
, McHale's Navy
, The Andy Griffith Show
, Star Trek
, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
, The Munsters
, Tom and Jerry
, Scooby-Doo
, The Jetsons
, Heckle & Jeckle, Mighty Mouse
, Deputy Dawg
, Magilla Gorilla
, Jonny Quest
, The Flintstones
(by the late 1970s), westerns listed below, among others. It also ran religious shows about five hours a day, and all day on Sundays. The 700 Club
, which is produced by CBN, was broadcast three times a day during the week on the station. The station also ran a variety of older movies from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. By the end of the 1970s, KXTX was on the air about 20 hours a day and running secular programming about 15 hours a day except on Sundays.
By 1983, competitors began overextending themselves to get strong programming. Channel 21 (KTXA
) was converted into a full time entertainment station. Channel 33 (now KDAF
) began to run a strong lineup by 1986. KDFI
also became a full time entertainment station in 1984. As a result, KXTX moved away from cartoons sucha s Tom & Jerry and classic sitcoms such as the Brady Bunch (which both fell off KXTX's schedule by the mid to late 1980s) and more toward westerns, family dramas, and more movies. In 1986, the station was put up for sale along with other CBN stations, but there were no buyers for KXTX.
s by 1990. By the early 1990s, KXTX was broadcasting mostly paid programming, a few drama shows, westerns, and low budget movies along with some religious programming. In 1993, LIN Broadcasting, which owned KXAS, began managing the station and added some first-run syndicated shows, with Channel 5's newscasts rebroadcast later in the day. WB programming aired on KXTX from January 1995 until July 1995, when KDAF
affiliated with the WB network. On October 12, 1996, tragedy struck when an accident by a tower crew (gin pole high centered) caused the collapse of the 1535 ft. tall tower in Cedar Hill, putting the station, as well as 3 radio stations in the area on temporary and lashed together facilities for many months. KXTX improvised facilities at the nearby tower of KXAS. The FM stations built on one tower or another.
For years KXTX was known for its "Western weekends," broadcasting a lineup of classic westerns in the afternoons and early evenings on Saturdays and Sundays. Shows included in the lineup through the years included The Lone Ranger
, The Rifleman
, Bonanza
, Rawhide
, Alias Smith and Jones
, The Virginian
, Little House on the Prairie
, Gunsmoke
, The Big Valley
, and Have Gun, Will Travel. Movies based on these shows often occupied the weekend evening timeslots. The film and television writer and director, and former Dallas resident, Mike Judge
added several references to the "Channel 39" weekend Kung Fu programming in his 1999 movie Office Space
.
The local marketing agreement
between KXTX and KXAS ended in the late 1990s when NBC bought KXAS. The network later bought KXTX in 2001. NBC, which owned Telemundo, made KXTX the market's Telemundo affiliate, while longtime Dallas Telemundo affiliate KFWD-TV became an English speaking independent station. For the last weeks of its English broadcasts, KXTX broadcast a handful of episodes of even older Westerns, such as Jim Bowie
, over and over again as well as movie marathons from Off Beat Cinema
. After the demise of English broadcasting on KXTX, Westerns in the DFW market found a home for a time on the local Pax TV (now Ion Television) affiliate. The rest of the meager programming inventory from KXTX moved over to KFWD along with some programming from another station, Channel 49 KSTR, which also converted to a Spanish format at the same time as KXTX.
On November 19, 2009 a fire at the Fort Worth studios of KXTX and sister station KXAS knocked both stations off the air. The fire was located in the electrical room of the studio. Fire alarms went off at 9:30 p.m., which lead to the studio to be evacuated when a fire alarm went off, but then again were evacuated when the fire disrupted the 10:00 newscast on KXTX.
Digital terrestrial television
Digital terrestrial television is the technological evolution of broadcast television and advance from analog television, which broadcasts land-based signals...
channel 40 (virtual channel
Virtual channel
In telecommunications, a logical channel number , also known as virtual channel, is a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel on which the signal travels....
39.1), is the Telemundo
Telemundo
Telemundo is an American television network that broadcasts in Spanish. The network is the second-largest Spanish-language content producer in the world, and the second-largest Spanish-language network in the United States, behind Univision....
owned-and-operated station
Owned-and-operated station
In the broadcasting industry , an owned-and-operated station usually refers to a television station or radio station that is owned by the network with which it is associated...
in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...
Designated Market Area. Its transmitter is located in Cedar Hill, Texas
Cedar Hill, Texas
Cedar Hill is a city in Dallas and Ellis Counties in the U.S. state of Texas. It is located approximately sixteen miles southwest of downtown Dallas and is situated along the eastern shore of Joe Pool Lake and Cedar Hill State Park. The population was 32,093 at the 2000 census...
.
Digital programming
| Channel | Video | Aspect Aspect ratio The aspect ratio of a shape is the ratio of its longer dimension to its shorter dimension. It may be applied to two characteristic dimensions of a three-dimensional shape, such as the ratio of the longest and shortest axis, or for symmetrical objects that are described by just two measurements,... |
Programming |
|---|---|---|---|
| 39.1 | 1080i 1080i 1080i is the shorthand name for a high-definition television mode. The i means interlaced video; 1080i differs from 1080p, in which the p stands for progressive scan. The term 1080i assumes a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, implying a frame size of 1920×1080 pixels... |
16:9 16:9 16:9 is an aspect ratio with a width of 16 units and height of 9. Since 2009, it has become the most common aspect ratio for sold televisions and computer monitors and is also the international standard format of HDTV, Full HD, non-HD digital television and analog widescreen television ... |
Main KFWD programming / Telemundo |
| 39.2 | 480i 480i 480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC... |
4:3 | Inmigrante TV Inmigrante TV Inmigrante TV is a United States television network featuring political news and commentary aimed at Hispanic immigrants.The station was founded in 2010 by immigration attorney Manuel Solis... |
KXTX-TV also has plans for a Mobile DTV feed of subchannel 39.1.
Analog-to-digital conversion
On June 12, 2009, KXTX shut down its analog channel 39 transmitter (to make way for KLDT to transmit its channel 39 digital signal) at 10:35 p.m. and continues digital TV broadcasting on channel 40 using PSIP to display KXTX-DT's virtual channelVirtual channel
In telecommunications, a logical channel number , also known as virtual channel, is a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel on which the signal travels....
as "39.1" on digital television receivers.
1960s-1970s
The station signed on March 2, 1968 http://www.knus99.com/tvlist.html as a business news/general entertainment independent stationIndependent station
An independent station is in the category of television terminology used to describe a television station broadcasting in the United States or Canada that is not affiliated with any television network....
under the call sign KDTV. Its original owner, Doubleday, decided to exit the market in late 1973, and donated its programming and broadcast license to CBN
Christian Broadcasting Network
The Christian Broadcasting Network, or CBN, is a fundamentalist Christian television broadcasting network in the United States. Its headquarters and main studios are in Virginia Beach, Virginia.-Background:...
, which already owned KXTX, channel 33. CBN returned the license for channel 33 to 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...
and combined its existing assets with channel 39, moving the KXTX call letters in the process (The KDTV
KDTV
KDTV-DT, channel 14, is a Univision-owned and operated station in San Francisco.-History:KDTV began operation in 1975 on channel 60 as the Bay Area's first exclusively Spanish-language TV station. The station was owned by a local group headed by Reynold Anselmo and affiliated with the Spanish...
calls now reside on a TV station in San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, which is unrelated to KXTX; Interestingly, that station is currently an O&O of Telemundo's chief rival, Univision
Univision
Univision is a Spanish-language television network in the United States. It has the largest audience of Spanish language television viewers according to Nielsen ratings. Randy Falco, COO, has been in charge of the company since the departure of Univision Communications president and CEO Joe Uva...
). KDTV offered Japanese cartoons dubbed into English including Speed Racer
Speed Racer
Speed Racer is an English adaptation name of the Japanese manga and anime, which centered on automobile racing. Mach GoGoGo was originally serialized in print form in Shueisha's 1958 Shōnen Book, and was released in tankōbon book form by Sun Wide Comics, re-released in Japan by Fusosha...
and Johnny Cypher in Dimension Zero
Johnny Cypher in Dimension Zero
Johnny Cypher in Dimension Zero was a cartoon series that debuted in 1967. It told the story of Johnny Cypher, a scientist who had the power to travel through space and time into different dimensions, and his companions Zena and Rhom...
.
As an independent station, KXTX ranked behind KTVT
KTVT
KTVT, virtual channel 11, is a CBS owned-and-operated television station licensed to Fort Worth, Texas, and serving the Dallas-Fort Worth designated market area. The station is co-owned with independent station KTXA , and the two stations share facilities in Dallas and Fort Worth...
in the ratings. Initially, the station ran cartoons, off-network classic sitcoms, family dramas, old movies, and westerns about twelve hours a day. The programming included The Little Rascals
Our Gang
Our Gang, also known as The Little Rascals or Hal Roach's Rascals, was a series of American comedy short films about a group of poor neighborhood children and the adventures they had together. Created by comedy producer Hal Roach, the series is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively...
, Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is a animated character created in 1938 at Leon Schlesinger Productions, later Warner Bros. Cartoons. Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray rabbit and is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality and his portrayal as a trickster. He has primarily appeared in animated cartoons, most...
, Porky Pig
Porky Pig
Porky Pig is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his star power, and the animators created many critically acclaimed shorts using the fat little pig...
, The Brady Bunch
The Brady Bunch
The Brady Bunch is an American sitcom created by Sherwood Schwartz and starring Robert Reed, Florence Henderson, and Ann B. Davis. The series revolved around a large blended family...
, McHale's Navy
McHale's Navy
McHale's Navy is an American television sitcom series which ran for 138 half-hour episodes from October 11,1962, to August 31, 1966, on the ABC network. The series was filmed in black and white and originated in a one-hour drama called Seven Against the Sea, broadcast on April 3, 1962...
, The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom first televised by CBS between October 3, 1960, and April 1, 1968. Andy Griffith portrays a widowed sheriff in the fictional small community of Mayberry, North Carolina...
, Star Trek
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...
, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.The show renders the title as Gomer Pyle - USMC. is an American situation comedy that originally aired on CBS from September 25, 1964, to May 2, 1969. The series was a spinoff of The Andy Griffith Show, and the pilot was aired as the finale of the fourth season of The Andy...
, The Munsters
The Munsters
The Munsters is a 1960s American family television sitcom depicting the home life of a family of monsters. It starred Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster and Yvonne De Carlo as his wife, Lily Munster. The series was a satire of both traditional monster movies and popular family entertainment of the era,...
, Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry are the cat and mouse cartoon characters that were evolved starting in 1939.Tom and Jerry also may refer to:Cartoon works featuring the cat and mouse so named:* The Tom and Jerry Show...
, Scooby-Doo
Scooby-Doo
Scooby-Doo is an American media franchise based around several animated television series and related works produced from 1969 to the present day. The original series, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, was created for Hanna-Barbera Productions by writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears in 1969...
, The Jetsons
The Jetsons
The Jetsons is a animated American sitcom that was produced by Hanna-Barbera, originally airing in prime-time from 1962–1963 and again from 1985–1987...
, Heckle & Jeckle, Mighty Mouse
Mighty Mouse
Mighty Mouse is an animated superhero mouse character created by the Terrytoons studio for 20th Century Fox.-History:The character was created by story man Izzy Klein as a super-powered housefly named Superfly. Studio head Paul Terry changed the character into a cartoon mouse instead...
, Deputy Dawg
Deputy Dawg
Deputy Dawg is a Terrytoons cartoon character featured on the animated television series of the same name in an original TV weekly run from 8 September 1962 to 25 May 1963, with no episodes on 8 December to 29 December 1962, resuming on 5 January 1963. The cartoons are between four and six minutes...
, Magilla Gorilla
Magilla Gorilla
The Magilla Gorilla Show is an animated series for television produced by Hanna-Barbera for Screen Gems between 1963 and 1967, and originally sponsored in syndication by Ideal Toys from 1963 through 1966. The show also had other recurring characters, including Punkin' Puss & Mushmouse, and Ricochet...
, Jonny Quest
Jonny Quest (TV series)
Jonny Quest – often casually referred to as The Adventures of Jonny Quest – is an American science fiction/adventure animated television series about a boy who accompanies his father on extraordinary adventures...
, The Flintstones
The Flintstones
The Flintstones is an animated, prime-time American television sitcom that screened from September 30, 1960 to April 1, 1966, on ABC. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, The Flintstones was about a working class Stone Age man's life with his family and his next-door neighbor and best friend. It...
(by the late 1970s), westerns listed below, among others. It also ran religious shows about five hours a day, and all day on Sundays. The 700 Club
The 700 Club
The 700 Club is the flagship news talk show of the Christian Broadcasting Network, airing in syndication throughout the United States and Canada. In production since 1966, it is currently hosted by Pat Robertson, Terry Meeuwsen, Kristi Watts, and Gordon P. Robertson, two of whom will host on any...
, which is produced by CBN, was broadcast three times a day during the week on the station. The station also ran a variety of older movies from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. By the end of the 1970s, KXTX was on the air about 20 hours a day and running secular programming about 15 hours a day except on Sundays.
1980s
In 1980, KXTX reduced Sunday religious shows from the entire day to 6-10 a.m. and 7 p.m.-Midnight and therefore began broadcasting secular shows in the afternoon on Sundays.By 1983, competitors began overextending themselves to get strong programming. Channel 21 (KTXA
KTXA
KTXA, virtual channel 21 , is an independent television station based in Fort Worth, Texas, and serving the Dallas/Fort Worth designated market area. With its transmitter in Cedar Hill, KTXA is owned by CBS Corporation and is the sister station of CBS outlet KTVT .KTXA was originally an...
) was converted into a full time entertainment station. Channel 33 (now KDAF
KDAF
KDAF, virtual channel 33 , is a CW-affiliated television station serving the Dallas-Fort Worth television market area. The station is licensed to Dallas and owned by the Tribune Company with its studios located off the John W. Carpenter Freeway in northwest Dallas. The station's transmitter is...
) began to run a strong lineup by 1986. KDFI
KDFI
KDFI-TV, virtual channel 27, is a MyNetworkTV-affiliated station serving the Dallas/Fort Worth area. The station is licensed to Dallas and owned by Fox Television Stations, a division of the News Corporation, and is a sister station to Fox network outlet KDFW . Its transmitter is located in Cedar...
also became a full time entertainment station in 1984. As a result, KXTX moved away from cartoons sucha s Tom & Jerry and classic sitcoms such as the Brady Bunch (which both fell off KXTX's schedule by the mid to late 1980s) and more toward westerns, family dramas, and more movies. In 1986, the station was put up for sale along with other CBN stations, but there were no buyers for KXTX.
1990s-2000s
The station began broadcasting infomercialInfomercial
Infomercials are direct response television commercials which generally include a phone number or website. There are long-form infomercials, which are typically between 15 and 30 minutes in length, and short-form infomercials, which are typically 30 seconds to 120 seconds in length. Infomercials...
s by 1990. By the early 1990s, KXTX was broadcasting mostly paid programming, a few drama shows, westerns, and low budget movies along with some religious programming. In 1993, LIN Broadcasting, which owned KXAS, began managing the station and added some first-run syndicated shows, with Channel 5's newscasts rebroadcast later in the day. WB programming aired on KXTX from January 1995 until July 1995, when KDAF
KDAF
KDAF, virtual channel 33 , is a CW-affiliated television station serving the Dallas-Fort Worth television market area. The station is licensed to Dallas and owned by the Tribune Company with its studios located off the John W. Carpenter Freeway in northwest Dallas. The station's transmitter is...
affiliated with the WB network. On October 12, 1996, tragedy struck when an accident by a tower crew (gin pole high centered) caused the collapse of the 1535 ft. tall tower in Cedar Hill, putting the station, as well as 3 radio stations in the area on temporary and lashed together facilities for many months. KXTX improvised facilities at the nearby tower of KXAS. The FM stations built on one tower or another.
For years KXTX was known for its "Western weekends," broadcasting a lineup of classic westerns in the afternoons and early evenings on Saturdays and Sundays. Shows included in the lineup through the years included The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked Texas Ranger who, with his Native American companion Tonto, fights injustice in the American Old West. The character has become an enduring icon of American culture....
, The Rifleman
The Rifleman
The Rifleman is an American Western television program that starred Chuck Connors as homesteader Lucas McCain and Johnny Crawford as his son, Mark McCain. It was set in the 1880s in the town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory. The show, filmed in black-and-white with a half hour running time, ran...
, Bonanza
Bonanza
Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...
, Rawhide
Rawhide (TV series)
Rawhide is an American Western series that aired for eight seasons on the CBS network on Friday nights, from January 9, 1959 to September 3, 1965, before moving to Tuesday nights from September 14, 1965 until January 4, 1966, with a total of 217 black-and-white episodes...
, Alias Smith and Jones
Alias Smith and Jones
Alias Smith and Jones is an American Western series that originally aired on ABC from 1971 to 1973. It stars Pete Duel as Hannibal Heyes and Ben Murphy as Jedediah "Kid" Curry, a pair of Western cousin outlaws trying to reform...
, The Virginian
The Virginian (TV series)
The Virginian is an American Western television series starring James Drury and Doug McClure, which aired on NBC from 1962 to 1971 for a total of 249 episodes. Filmed in color, The Virginian became television's first 90-minute western series...
, Little House on the Prairie
Little House on the Prairie (TV series)
Little House on the Prairie is an American Western drama television series, starring Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert, about a family living on a farm in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, in the 1870s and 1880s. The show was an adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder's best-selling series of Little House books...
, Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....
, The Big Valley
The Big Valley
The Big Valley is an American television Western which ran on ABC from September 15, 1965, to May 19, 1969, which starred Barbara Stanwyck, as a California widowed mother. It was created by A.I. Bezzerides and Louis F. Edelman...
, and Have Gun, Will Travel. Movies based on these shows often occupied the weekend evening timeslots. The film and television writer and director, and former Dallas resident, Mike Judge
Mike Judge
Michael Craig Judge is an American animator, film director, writer and voice actor, best known as the creator and star of the animated television series Beavis and Butt-head , King of the Hill , and The Goode Family .He also wrote, directed and in some instances produced the films Beavis and...
added several references to the "Channel 39" weekend Kung Fu programming in his 1999 movie Office Space
Office Space
Office Space is a 1999 American comedy film satirizing work life in a typical 1990s software company. Written and directed by Mike Judge, it focuses on a handful of individuals fed up with their jobs portrayed by Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston, Gary Cole, David Herman, Ajay Naidu, and Diedrich...
.
The local marketing agreement
Local marketing agreement
In U.S. and Canadian broadcasting, a local marketing agreement is an agreement in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another licensee...
between KXTX and KXAS ended in the late 1990s when NBC bought KXAS. The network later bought KXTX in 2001. NBC, which owned Telemundo, made KXTX the market's Telemundo affiliate, while longtime Dallas Telemundo affiliate KFWD-TV became an English speaking independent station. For the last weeks of its English broadcasts, KXTX broadcast a handful of episodes of even older Westerns, such as Jim Bowie
Jim Bowie
James "Jim" Bowie , a 19th-century American pioneer, slave trader, land speculator, and soldier, played a prominent role in the Texas Revolution, culminating in his death at the Battle of the Alamo...
, over and over again as well as movie marathons from Off Beat Cinema
Off Beat Cinema
Off Beat Cinema is a two-hour hosted movie show that airs on television stations throughout North America late at night and features "the Good, the Bad, the Foreign..." but mostly cult movies like Night of the Living Dead, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians and even more art house fare like The...
. After the demise of English broadcasting on KXTX, Westerns in the DFW market found a home for a time on the local Pax TV (now Ion Television) affiliate. The rest of the meager programming inventory from KXTX moved over to KFWD along with some programming from another station, Channel 49 KSTR, which also converted to a Spanish format at the same time as KXTX.
On November 19, 2009 a fire at the Fort Worth studios of KXTX and sister station KXAS knocked both stations off the air. The fire was located in the electrical room of the studio. Fire alarms went off at 9:30 p.m., which lead to the studio to be evacuated when a fire alarm went off, but then again were evacuated when the fire disrupted the 10:00 newscast on KXTX.