KXDF-CD, virtual and

VHF Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter. Frequencies immediately below VHF ...

digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Technology and computing Hardware *Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals **Digital camera, which captures and stores digital i ...

channel 13, is a low-power, Class A

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 Entertainmen ...

- affiliated

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...

licensed A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

Fairbanks, Alaska Fairbanks is a home rule city and the borough seat of the Fairbanks North Star Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior region of Alaska and the second largest in the state. The 2020 Census put the po ...

, United States. Owned by

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

-based

Gray Television Gray Television, Inc. is an American publicly traded television broadcasting company based in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1946 by James Harrison Gray as Gray Communications Systems, the company owns or operates 180 stations across the United St ...

, it is a

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

affiliate

KTVF KTVF, virtual channel 11 ( UHF digital channel 26), is an NBC- affiliated television station licensed to Fairbanks, Alaska, United States. Owned by Atlanta-based Gray Television, it is sister to two low-power stations: primary MeTV and seconda ...

(channel 11) and primary

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 ...

and secondary

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

KFXF-LD KFXF-LD, virtual channel 7 ( UHF digital channel 22), is a low-power primary MeTV and secondary MyNetworkTV- affiliated television station licensed to Fairbanks, Alaska, United States. Owned by Atlanta-based Gray Television, it is a sister stati ...

(channel 22). The stations share studios on Braddock Street in downtown Fairbanks, while KXDF-CD's transmitter is located northeast of the city on Cranberry Ridge.

History

KXDF-CD signed on the air on August 7, 1996 as K13XD, the area's sixth television station, four months after longtime CBS affiliate

switched to

. It was owned by Tanana Valley Television Company alongside Fox affiliate KFXF. Before channel 13 signed on, select CBS programming had been seen on KFXF. The addition of K13XD meant that Fairbanks would finally have a station for each of the four main networks:

KATN KATN, virtual channel 2 (UHF digital channel 18), is an ABC/ Fox/ CW+- affiliated television station licensed to Fairbanks, Alaska, United States. Owned by Raleigh, North Carolina–based Vision Alaska LLC, the station is operated through a ti ...

(

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

), KFXF (

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 ...

), KTVF (NBC), and K13XD (CBS), along with

KJNP-TV KJNP-TV, virtual channel 4 ( UHF digital channel 20), is a TBN- affiliated television station serving Fairbanks, Alaska, United States that is licensed to North Pole. Owned by the Evangelistic Alaska Missionary Fellowship, it is sister to radi ...

( TBN) and KUAC-TV (

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

). In 2000, the station upgraded to a class A license, but retained its translator-style call sign; eventually the station branded with a contraction of its translator call as KXD. In 2012, the station

flash-cut A flash cut, also called a flash cutover, is an immediate change in a complex system, with no phase-in period. In the United States, some telephone area codes were split or overlaid immediately, rather than being phased in with a permissive dia ...

from analog to digital, modifying its call sign to K13XD-D. The call letters were changed to KXDD-CD on November 7, 2016 and to KXDF-CD on December 16, 2016. On November 8, 2016, Northern Lights Media, the subsidiary of

that operates Anchorage stations

KTUU-TV KTUU-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Anchorage, Alaska, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Gray Television alongside dual CBS/MyNetworkTV affiliate KAUU (channel 5). Both stations share studios on East 40th Avenue in mi ...

and KYES-TV, announced that it would buy KXDD-CD, KFXF-LD and KTVF for $8 million in cash, pending FCC approval. The sale was completed on January 13, 2017.

Full-market over-the-air coverage

In addition to its own digital signal, KXDF-CD receives full-market over-the-air coverage via a high definition

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultane ...

on KTVF's third

digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...

(

UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...

channel 26.3 or virtual channel 11.3 via

PSIP The Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) is the MPEG (a video and audio industry group) and privately defined program-specific information originally defined by General Instrument for the DigiCipher 2 system and later extended for the A ...

) from a transmitter on the Ester Dome. The simulcast is most likely a direct compensation for how on March 2, 2017, Tanana Valley Television surrendered their license for

KFYF KFXF, virtual channel, virtual and very high frequency, VHF digital terrestrial television, digital channel 7, was a Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox-Network affiliate, affiliated television station city of license, licensed to Fairbanks, Alaska, U ...

(the original full-market over-the-air distributor of the programming of KFXF-LD) back to the FCC, which cancelled it on March 10. Like KTVF does presently, KFYF had simulcast KXDF-CD on a subchannel.

Newscasts

Despite its ownership with KTVF, KXDF-CD continues to maintain a small-scale local news department separate from channel 11, airing two half-hour newscasts on weekdays at 5:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. Under its old ownership, the station's main news theme in the mid to late 2000s was the main menu theme to the 2000 video game '' Hitman: Codename 47''.

Technical information

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

webcenterfairbanks.com
{{Gray TV CBS network affiliates 1996 establishments in Alaska Television channels and stations established in 1996 XDF-CD Low-power television stations in the United States Gray Television