KDFI (channel 27), branded on-air as Fox 4 More or More 27, is a

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 to

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...

, United States, broadcasting

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 ...

to the

Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex The Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, officially designated Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, is a conurbated metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Texas encompassing 11 counties and anchore ...

. It is

owned and operated In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an affiliate ...

Fox Television Stations Fox Television Stations, LLC (FTS; alternately Fox Television Stations Group, LLC), is a group of television stations located within the United States, which are owned-and-operated by the Fox Broadcasting Company, a subsidiary of the Fox Corp ...

alongside

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 ...

outlet

KDFW KDFW (channel 4) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, broadcasting the Fox network to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNet ...

(channel 4, also licensed to Dallas). Both stations share studios on North Griffin Street in

downtown Dallas Downtown Dallas is the central business district (CBD) of Dallas, Dallas, Texas, United States, located in the geographic center of the city. It is the second-largest business district in the state of Texas. The area termed "Downtown" has tradit ...

, while KDFI's transmitter is located in

Cedar Hill, Texas Cedar Hill is a city in Dallas and Ellis counties in the U.S. state of Texas. It is located approximately southwest of downtown Dallas and is situated along the eastern shore of Joe Pool Lake and Cedar Hill State Park. Per the 2020 United States ...

History

Prior history of UHF channel 27 in Dallas–Fort Worth

The UHF channel 27 allocation in the Dallas–

Fort Worth Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

market was initially applied for broadcasting use by Overmyer Communications, who filed a license application in 1966. Veteran radio broadcaster

Gordon McLendon Gordon Barton McLendon (June 8, 1921 – September 14, 1986Texas State Historical AssociationMcClendon, Gordon Barton/ref>) was a radio broadcaster. Nicknamed "the Maverick of Radio", McLendon is widely credited for perfecting, during the 1950s ...

(who purchased the station for his son Barton) was granted a

license 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 ...

for channel 27 in 1967 with 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 ...

being issued in 1968. McLendon planned to launch a television station under the callsign KLIF-TV, which was to be based out of the building that also housed upstart radio station KNUS (98.7 FM, now KLUV) at 2110 Commerce; resources would also be pooled between the television and radio stations as KNUS planned to convert to an

all-news All-news radio is a radio format devoted entirely to the discussion and broadcast of news. All-news radio is available in both local and syndicated forms, and is carried on both major US satellite radio networks. All-news stations can run the ...

format. However, the station never formally signed on and by 1972, the KLIF-TV license was deleted 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 KLIF calls were later used for a

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

broadcasting at 570 AM.)

As an independent station

The current television station on UHF channel 27 traces its history to 1973, when

Englewood, Colorado The City of Englewood is a home rule municipality located in Arapahoe County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 33,659 at the 2020 United States Census. Englewood is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Stati ...

-based Liberty STV – a subsidiary of

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...

provider

Tele-Communications Inc. Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCI) was a cable television provider in the United States, and for most of its history was controlled by Bob Magness and John Malone. The company was started in 1958 in Bozeman, Montana as Western Microwave, Inc. and Co ...

(TCI), which formed the company as part of a trust to avoid violating FCC cross-ownership rules prohibiting common ownership of television stations and cable television systems in markets where TCI owned cable systems – filed an application with the FCC for a license and construction permit to operate a commercial television station on channel 27 that would operate as a part-time subscription television service. A month before the FCC Broadcast Bureau granted Liberty a construction permit in February 1980, the name of the company changed to Liberty Television, Inc. The station first signed on the air on January 26, 1981, as KTWS-TV. The station's original studio facilities were located at 433 Regal Row in northwest Dallas. Originally operating as an

independent station An independent station is an independent radio or terrestrial television station which is independent in some way from broadcast networks. The definition of "independence" varies from country to country, reflecting governmental regulations, market ...

, KDFI initially maintained a mixed information and entertainment schedule, running low-cost syndicated and barter programs (consisting of

cartoons A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

s and

drama series In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-ge ...

, religious programs,

westerns The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred ...

and some

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

movies A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

) from 7:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. weekdays, a mix of public affairs, outdoor sports and children's programs on Saturday mornings, and religious programs on Sunday mornings. It also aired business news programming from the

Financial News Network The Financial News Network (FNN) was an American financial and business news television network that was launched November 30, 1981. The purpose of the network was to broadcast programming nationwide, five days a week for seven hours a day on t ...

each weekday from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and 3:30 to 4:00 p.m., as well as network programs from

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 ...

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

and

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 ...

that were respectively preempted by

WFAA WFAA (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Decatur-licensed Estrella TV affiliate KMPX (channel 29), ...

(channel 8),

KXAS-TV KXAS-TV (channel 5) is a television station licensed to Fort Worth, Texas, United States, broadcasting NBC programming to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned-and-operated station, owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Televis ...

(channel 5) and

KDFW-TV KDFW (channel 4) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, broadcasting the Fox network to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNe ...

(channel 4). The signal was

scrambled Scrambled eggs is a dish made from eggs (usually chicken eggs) stirred, whipped or beaten together while being gently heated, typically with salt, butter, oil and sometimes other ingredients. Preparation Only eggs are necessary to make scrambled ...

weekdays from 7:00 p.m. until its 2:00 a.m. sign-off and weekends from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. to transmit

Preview Preview may refer to: Theatre, film, television * Preview (subscription service), an early subscription television service in the United States * Preview (theatre), a public performance of a theatrical show before the official opening * Previe ...

, a subscription service that offered a mix of theatrically released feature films and required a special decoder box in order to receive the programs. (In September 1982, Preview was replaced by Video Entertainment Unlimited (

VEU Video Entertainment Unlimited (VEU) (also referred to as VEU Subscription TV) is a defunct American subscription television service that was owned by the Golden West Subscription Television, Inc. subsidiary of Golden West Broadcasters, which op ...

), after the latter moved its affiliation from fellow independent KNBN-TV CW_affiliate_KDAF.html"_;"title="The_CW.html"_;"title="hannel_33,_now_The_CW">CW_affiliate_KDAF">The_CW.html"_;"title="hannel_33,_now_

CW_affiliate_KDAF.html"_;"title="The_CW">CW_affiliate_KDAF.html"_;"title="The_CW.html"_;"title="hannel_33,_now_The_CW">CW_affiliate_KDAF">The_CW.html"_;"title="hannel_33,_now_The_CW">CW_affiliate_KDAF">The_CW">CW_affiliate_KDAF.html"_;"title="The_CW.html"_;"title="hannel_33,_now_The_CW">CW_affiliate_KDAF">The_CW.html"_;"title="hannel_33,_now_The_CW">CW_affiliate_KDAF) On_October_25,_1983,_Liberty_Television_sold_the_station_to_Richardson,_Texas">Richardson_ Richardson_may_refer_to: __People_ *_Richardson_(surname),_an_English_and_Scottish_surname *_Richardson_Gang,_a_London_crime_gang_in_the_1960s *__Richardson_Dilworth,_Mayor_of_Philadelphia_(1956-1962) _Places_Australia *_Richardson,_Australian_Cap_...

-based_Dallas_Media_Investors_Corporation_(owned_by_former_KDFW_station_manager_John_A._McKay_and_

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_chairman_Arthur_Levin)_for_$12_million._The_station_briefly_went_ CW_affiliate_KDAF.html"_;"title="The_CW">CW_affiliate_KDAF.html"_;"title="The_CW.html"_;"title="hannel_33,_now_The_CW">CW_affiliate_KDAF">The_CW.html"_;"title="hannel_33,_now_The_CW">CW_affiliate_KDAF">The_CW">CW_affiliate_KDAF.html"_;"title="The_CW.html"_;"title="hannel_33,_now_The_CW">CW_affiliate_KDAF">The_CW.html"_;"title="hannel_33,_now_The_CW">CW_affiliate_KDAF) On_October_25,_1983,_Liberty_Television_sold_the_station_to_Richardson,_Texas">Richardson_ Richardson_may_refer_to: __People_ *_Richardson_(surname),_an_English_and_Scottish_surname *_Richardson_Gang,_a_London_crime_gang_in_the_1960s *__Richardson_Dilworth,_Mayor_of_Philadelphia_(1956-1962) _Places_Australia *_Richardson,_Australian_Cap_...

History

Prior history of UHF channel 27 in Dallas–Fort Worth

As an independent station

MyNetworkTV affiliation

Programming

Sports programming

Newscasts

Technical information

Subchannels

Analog-to-digital conversion

References

External links