KPMF-LD (channel 26) is a low-power television station licensed to

Paragould, Arkansas Paragould is the county seat of Greene County, and the 19th-largest city in Arkansas, in the United States. The city is located in northeastern Arkansas on the eastern edge of Crowley's Ridge, a geologic anomaly contained within the Arkansas delta ...

, United States, within the Jonesboro

media market A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television and radio station offerings, and may also incl ...

, though it actually serves the

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

market from the WATN/

WLMT WLMT (channel 30) is a television station in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with The CW and MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside American Broadcasting Company, ABC affiliate WATN-TV (channel 24). Both stations share stu ...

transmitter off Brief Road in the Brunswick section of

unincorporated Unincorporated may refer to: * Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality * Unincorporated entity, a type of organization * Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...

northeast Shelby County. Owned by

HC2 Holdings INNOVATE Corp. (formerly known as HC2 Holdings, Inc. and Primus Telecommunications Group, Inc.) is an American public financial services company founded in 1994. History Beginning (1994–1997) Primus commenced operations in 1994 intent on bei ...

, the station has a primary affiliation with

beIN Sports Xtra beIN Sports USA is a pay television sports network which primarily airs top level soccer, featuring exclusive coverage of Ligue 1, along with content from other leagues in Europe. In addition, BeIN Sports airs matches from such sports as rugb ...

. It is presently not carried on any

cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

providers.

History

Although granted a

construction permit Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...

in 2012 by the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

(FCC), the station was silent until 2016. The original

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

was K26MF-D from 2012 until January 2016, when the call sign was changed to the current KPMF-LD. While the first three subchannels remain dark, KPMF signed on virtual channel 26.4 in May 2016 as an affiliate of

The Country Network The Country Network is an American cable, streaming and broadcast television network that specializes in broadcasting country music videos and exclusive original music-based content; its playlist of videos extends from the 1990s through the pre ...

(formerly Zuus Country). The first three subchannels could go on the air later as affiliates of other multicast digital networks such as

Buzzr Buzzr is an American digital terrestrial television, digital broadcast television network owned by Fremantle North America, a unit of the Fremantle (company), Fremantle subsidiary of RTL Group. The network serves as an outlet for the extensive li ...

Bounce TV Bounce TV is an American digital multicast television network owned by Katz Broadcasting, a subsidiary of E. W. Scripps Company. Promoted as "the first 24/7 digital multicast broadcast network created to target African Americans", the channel fe ...

Doctor Television Channel The Doctor Television Channel, also known as Doctor TV (stylized as DrTV), was a healthy lifestyle digital television network in the United States. Doctor TV was primarily affiliated with the digital sub-channels (main channel or second) of tel ...

. Sister station K30MF-D could take an

Antenna TV Antenna TV is an American digital television network owned by Nexstar Media Group. The network's programming consists of classic television series, primarily sitcoms, from the 1950s to the 1990s. Antenna TV's programming and advertising operati ...

affiliation for the Jonesboro market. DTV America owned one other construction permit for K38OR-D, which was rumored to become an over-the-air relaunch of "KJOS", the area's cable-exclusive affiliate of

The CW ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

via

The CW Plus The CW Plus is a secondary national programming service feed of The CW that is fully controlled and 75% owned by Nexstar Media Group, with Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery each owning a 12.5% stake in the network. It is intended primar ...

; however, K38OR-D's license was cancelled by the FCC on November 16, 2017. On July 25, 2018,

KAIT KAIT (channel 8) is a television station in Jonesboro, Arkansas, United States, affiliated with ABC, NBC, and The CW Plus. Owned by Gray Television, the station has studios on New Haven Church Road (County Road 766) north of Jonesboro, and i ...

announced it would be bringing CW programming (via their national CW+ service) into the Jonesboro market through a third subchannel, starting on September 1, 2018; therefore, KAIT-DT3 (not K38OR-D) is the successor of the cable-exclusive "KJOS". In late June 2016, the station's first three subchannels went on the air as affiliates of Katz Broadcasting-operated

Escape Escape or Escaping may refer to: Computing * Escape character, in computing and telecommunication, a character which signifies that what follows takes an alternative interpretation ** Escape sequence, a series of characters used to trigger some so ...

and

Laff Laff (legal name: Laff Media, LLC) is an American digital multicast television network headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and is owned by the Katz Broadcasting subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. The network specializes in comedy programmi ...

on the first two subchannels. Also,

Sony Pictures Television Sony Pictures Television Inc. (abbreviated as SPT) is an American television production and distribution studio. Based at the Sony Pictures Studios complex in Culver City, it is a division of Sony Entertainment's unit Sony Pictures Entertainm ...

GetTV getTV is an American digital multicast television network owned by the Sony Pictures Television Networks subsidiary of Sony Pictures Television. Originally formatted as a movie-oriented service, the network has since transitioned into a genera ...

movie network and

FremantleMedia Fremantle (; formerly FremantleMedia) is a British multinational television production and distribution company based in London. Fremantle takes its name from Fremantle International, acquired by predecessor company All American Television in ...

-owned

came on the air on channels 26.3 and 26.4, respectively. Buzzr replaced The Country Network. Channels 26.5 and 26.6 also went on the air as

Sonlife Broadcasting Network Jimmy Lee Swaggart (; born March 15, 1935) is an American Pentecostal televangelist, gospel music recording artist, pianist, and Christian author. His television ministry, which began in 1971, and was originally known as the “Camp Meeting Ho ...

and

QVC QVC (short for "Quality Value Convenience") is an American free-to-air television network, and flagship shopping channel specializing in televised home shopping, owned by Qurate Retail Group. Founded in 1986 by Joseph Segel in West Chester, Pen ...

affiliates. Escape and Laff were replaced by different networks in October 2016. GetTV was moved up to KPMF-LD2, and

Comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ar ...

, which is a joint venture between the

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

studio and

Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, t ...

was launched onto the LD3 subchannel, with Buzzr remaining on the LD4 subchannel. The main subchannel became a

MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV (unofficially abbreviated MyTV, MyNet, MNT or MNTV, and sometimes referred to as My Network) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its ...

affiliate, with programming from the

being broadcast outside of MyNetworkTV's programming schedule. If the station launched on a transmitter within the home market of its city of license, KPMF would have been the Jonesboro market's first MyNetworkTV affiliate. For a time, Memphis also had access to a second MyNetworkTV affiliate,

, the CW affiliate in Memphis, which ran MyNetworkTV programming on its second subchannel along with most of the

MeTV MeTV, an acronym for Memorable Entertainment Television, is an American broadcast television network owned by Weigel Broadcasting. Marketed as "The Definitive Destination for Classic TV", the network airs a variety of classic television program ...

programming schedule; however, MyNetworkTV programming on that sub-channel was eventually dropped, leaving KPMF as the sole MyNetworkTV affiliate in Memphis until 2021. Jonesboro eventually gained its own MyNetworkTV affiliate on September 3, 2018 when the LD3 subchannel of low-powered dual

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

affiliate KJNB-LD/KJNE-LD picked up the programming service to supplement its own MeTV programming. In January 2017, KPMF's DrTV affiliation on the main subchannel was replaced with

AMGTV AMGTV is an American family-oriented television network featuring television programming consisting of drama, sports, movies, entertainment, how-to, hunting and fishing, children's shows, and other features, much of it repackaged from off-netw ...

and, by 2018,

Quest A quest is a journey toward a specific mission or a goal. The word serves as a plot device in mythology and fiction: a difficult journey towards a goal, often symbolic or allegorical. Tales of quests figure prominently in the folklore of ever ...

. However, MyNetworkTV remained on the main channel on weeknights until 2021, when both affiliations were replaced with

on the main subchannel, resulting in MyNetworkTV moving back to WLMT as a secondary affiliation on its main subchannel, while WATN-TV launched a sixth digital subchannel with Quest. In 2018, the station moved from a transmitter site across the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

on a cell tower on Washington Street in downtown

Marion, Arkansas Marion is a city in and the county seat of Crittenden County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 12,345 at the 2010 census, a 38.7% increase since 2000. The city is part of the Memphis metropolitan area. It is the second largest city ...

, to the

Tegna Tegna Inc. (stylized in all caps as TEGNA) is an American publicly traded broadcast, digital media and marketing services company headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into t ...

tower in Brunswick. At an unknown time, Comet was replaced by

infomercial An infomercial is a form of television commercial that resembles regular TV programming yet is intended to promote or sell a product, service or idea. It generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of dire ...

s (which also aired in a new seventh subchannel).

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is

multiplexed In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...

References

External links

DTV America
* {{DTV America Quest (American TV network) affiliates GetTV affiliates Buzzr affiliates DTV America Low-power television stations in the United States PMF-LD 2016 establishments in Arkansas Television channels and stations established in 2016