KFWD-TV
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KFWD,
virtual channel In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver's ...
52 ( VHF digital channel 9), is a
ShopHQ ShopHQ (formerly ValueVision, ShopNBC, Evine Live, and Evine) is an American cable, satellite and broadcast home shopping television network and multi-channel video retailer owned by iMedia Brands Inc., in which Comcast holds a 12.5% stake in th ...
- 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 eart ...
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to
Fort Worth, Texas 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. Accord ...
, United States and serving the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex. The station is owned by
Rye Brook, New York Rye Brook is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States, within the town of Rye. The population was 9,347 at the 2010 census. Rye Brook has been designated as a Tree City USA for 14 years. History Rye Brook is located in south ...
-based WRNN-TV Associates. KFWD's offices are located in Coppell, and its 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


As a Telemundo affiliate

The station first signed on the air on September 1, 1988; it first operated as the
Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
–Fort Worth market's original affiliate of the Spanish-language network
Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is owned by Comcast. It provides content nationally with pr ...
. The KFWD call letters were previously used by a local radio station on 102.1 FM (now
KDGE KDGE () is a commercial radio station licensed to both Fort Worth and Dallas, Texas. It is owned and operated by iHeartMedia, and broadcasts a mainstream adult contemporary radio format, switching to Christmas music for much of November and Decem ...
). For much of its history with the network, KFWD signed off the air during the overnight hours each night; as a result, the station did not carry the entire Telemundo network schedule, whose overnight lineup (as is the case to this day) consisted of infomercials produced and dubbed in Spanish as well as
feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...
s from countries with a predominant population of Spanish speakers such as
Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
. The station began broadcasting 24 hours a day in late 2000. KFWD lost its affiliation with the network when
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 ...
, which had recently acquired Telemundo, bought independent station
KXTX-TV KXTX-TV (channel 39) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, broadcasting the Spanish-language Telemundo network to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned and operated by NBCUniversal's Telemundo Station Group ...
(channel 39) from the
Christian Broadcasting Network The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) is an American Christian media production and distribution organization. Founded in 1960 by Pat Robertson, it produces the long-running TV series '' The 700 Club'', co-produces the ongoing ''Superbook'' ...
in 2001. During KFWD's final month as a Telemundo affiliate, the station aired English-language infomercials during the morning and overnight hours.


As an independent station

On
January 1 January 1 or 1 January is the first day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 364 days remaining until the end of the year (365 in leap years). This day is also known as New Year's Day since the day marks the beginning of the yea ...
, 2002, KFWD became an English-language general entertainment independent station. It acquired syndicated programs displaced by both KXTX and
KSTR-TV KSTR-DT (channel 49) is a television station licensed to Irving, Texas, United States, broadcasting the Spanish-language UniMás network to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned and operated by TelevisaUnivision alongside Garland-licens ...
(channel 49) when both stations affiliated with Spanish-language networks on that date—KXTX having joined Telemundo, while KSTR joined TeleFutura (including programs such as ''
Real TV Real may refer to: Currencies * Brazilian real (R$) * Central American Republic real * Mexican real * Portuguese real * Spanish real * Spanish colonial real Music Albums * ''Real'' (L'Arc-en-Ciel album) (2000) * ''Real'' (Bright album) (2010) ...
'' and ''
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''). The station also began carrying live sporting events including the
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, as well as
FC Dallas FC Dallas is an American professional soccer club based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The club competes as a member of the Western Conference in Major League Soccer (MLS). The franchise began play in 1996 as a charter club of the le ...
and Dallas Sidekicks soccer games that were dropped from KLDT (channel 55, now
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 ...
affiliate KAZD).
Belo Corporation Belo Corporation was a Dallas-based media company that owned 20 commercial broadcasting television stations and three regional 24-hour cable news television channels. The company was previously known as A. H. Belo Corporation after one of the ...
began managing the station in 2006, providing advertising sales assistance, certain technical services and facilities to support the operations of KFWD; Belo's flagship
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 ...
affiliate
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, now owned by
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 ...
) also supplied the station with repurposed editions of its newscasts (consisting of simulcasts of its Monday–Saturday 6:00 p.m., Sunday–Friday 10:00 p.m. and Sunday 5:30 p.m. newscasts) and other programs seen on that station (such as '' The Dr. Oz Show''). Belo also operated KFWD.tv, the station's website, using a website platform similar to that used by Belo's other stations. The management agreement included an option to purchase KFWD and create a duopoly with WFAA; this option was never exercised. KFWD has been digital-only since June 12, 2009.List of Digital Full-Power Stations
On October 17, 2011, KFWD changed its programming format, placing a strong emphasis on classic television series. The new "Classic TV" logo and branding was first unveiled on the station's
YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
channel on August 3, 2011, and later on KFWD's
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
page on October 7. It was then rolled out to the station's website one month later.


Return to Spanish

On June 11, 2012, HIC Broadcast, Inc. announced that KFWD would revert to a Spanish-language format as a charter affiliate of MundoFox (a
joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and economic risk, risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four rea ...
between
Fox International Channels Fox Networks Group (FNG) is a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company that oversees international television assets that were acquired from 21st Century Fox. It produces and distributes more than 300 entertainment, film, sports and factual channe ...
and
RCN Television RCN may refer to: * '' Radio Cadena Nacional (disambiguation)'', a broadcast network in Colombia ** RCN Radio ** RCN TV * RCN Corporation (formerly Residential Communications Network), a cable television, telephone, and Internet service provider i ...
); it switched to the network when MundoFox "
soft launch A soft launch, also known as a soft opening, is a preview release of a product or service to a limited audience prior to the general public. Soft-launching a product is sometimes used to gather data or customer feedback, prior to making it widely ...
ed" on select affiliates on August 1, 2012 at 6 a.m. local time (the network's formal launch date was on August 13). As a result, Belo terminated its management agreement with HIC Broadcast, Inc. to operate KFWD. The last program to air on KFWD as an English-language independent was '' The Shepherd's Chapel'' at 5:00 a.m. on August 1 (despite being an English-language program, ''The Shepherd's Chapel'' returned to KFWD's schedule one month later). There was no formal on-air announcement of the programming change, except for a message posted on KFWD's
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
page reading "it has been a pleasure". Many of the programs formerly seen on KFWD during its classic television format now air on
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 ...
(whose original local affiliate
KTXD-TV KTXD-TV (channel 47) is a television station licensed to Greenville, Texas, United States. Owned by Cunningham Broadcasting and serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, it carries programming from the four digital multicast television networ ...
(channel 47), joined the network shortly before KFWD's format change; KTXD continues to carry some of these programs as an independent station whereas
KTXA KTXA (channel 21) is an independent television station in Fort Worth, Texas, United States, serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group alongside Fort Worth–based CBS station KTVT (channel 11). B ...
's second digital subchannel recovered the MeTV affiliation), and on
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 ...
(which is affiliated with the second digital subchannel of CW affiliate
KDAF KDAF (channel 33) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex with programming from The CW. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group (based in nea ...
(channel 33)). On June 27, 2015; MundoFox has been rebranded as
MundoMax MundoMax (; originally known as MundoFox from August 13, 2012 to July 28, 2015) was an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network that was owned by RCN Televisión. The network broadcast programs aimed at Hispanic and Latino Ameri ...
after 21st Century Fox sold its stake in the network to RCN, giving it full ownership. The full name change and logo overhaul occurred August 13, which coincided with the network's third anniversary.


Sale to NRJ TV; switch to Sonlife

On October 26, 2015, HIC Broadcast, Inc. filed an application to sell KFWD to NRJ TV DFW License Co., LLC, a subsidiary of NRJ Holdings LLC. Sale was approved by the FCC on December 15, 2015 and completed on January 8, 2016. On September 1, 2016, KFWD switched to being an affiliate of the
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 ...
at approximately 12:00 a.m. CT. Like the previous transition, there was no announcement of the programming change, except on SonLife's website. In fact, around the time of the affiliation switchover, KFWD was just starting to run an infomercial at its scheduled time. After a few seconds, the abrupt change from MundoMax to Sonlife began, months before MundoMax went off the air on November 30. There had been rumors that KFWD would be sold by NRJ in a
spectrum auction A spectrum auction is a process whereby a government uses an auction system to sell the rights to transmit signals over specific bands of the electromagnetic spectrum and to assign scarce spectrum resources. Depending on the specific auction form ...
.


Sale to WRNN-TV Associates

On December 9, 2019, it was announced that WRNN-TV Associates, owner of
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
-based
WRNN-TV WRNN-TV (channel 48) is a television station licensed to New Rochelle, New York, United States, serving the New York City area as an affiliate of ShopHQ. It serves as the flagship station of Rye Brook–based WRNN-TV Associates; its headquarter ...
, secured a deal to purchase seven full-power TV stations (including KFWD) and one Class A station from NRJ. The sale was approved by the FCC on January 23, and was completed on February 4, 2020. From February 1 until February 4, 2020, WRNN-TV Associates operated KFWD under a short-term local marketing agreement (LMA) while it awaited full consummation of its purchase. KFWD dropped its affiliation with the Sonlife Broadcasting Network, and began airing WRNN-TV's independent network RNN on its primary channel. RNN's schedule consisted primarily of infomercials, with occasional
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, E/I, and news/talk (''Richard French Live'') programs. Later, KFWD reinstated the Sonlife Broadcasting Network affiliation on subchannel 52.3. On May 20, 2021, RNN and iMedia Brands announced an agreement to affiliate most of RNN's television stations (including KFWD) with
home shopping Home shopping is the electronic retailing and home shopping channels industry, which includes such billion dollar television-based and e-commerce companies as Shop LC, HSN, Gemporia, TJC, QVC, eBay, ShopHQ, Buy.com and Amazon.com, as well as ...
network
ShopHQ ShopHQ (formerly ValueVision, ShopNBC, Evine Live, and Evine) is an American cable, satellite and broadcast home shopping television network and multi-channel video retailer owned by iMedia Brands Inc., in which Comcast holds a 12.5% stake in th ...
. KFWD began carrying ShopHQ programming on June 28, 2021. RNN's educational/informational programming and ''Richard French Live'' continues to air, but in different timeslots than before.


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 ...
: Prior to becoming a MundoFox affiliate, KFWD carried a
standard definition Standard-definition television (SDTV, SD, often shortened to standard definition) is a television system which uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. "Standard" refers to it being the prevailing sp ...
simulcast of its main channel on digital subchannel 52.2.


Analog-to-digital conversion

KFWD began transmitting a
digital television Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an innovative adva ...
signal in
standard definition Standard-definition television (SDTV, SD, often shortened to standard definition) is a television system which uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. "Standard" refers to it being the prevailing sp ...
on UHF channel 51 on May 1, 2002, five months after it converted into an independent station. After KFWD shut down its analog signal on June 12, 2009, its digital signal moved to VHF channel 9, formerly WFAA's digital channel spot.


References


External links


DFW Radio/TV History
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kfwd Independent television stations in the United States Television channels and stations established in 1988 1988 establishments in Texas Television stations in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex FC Dallas broadcasters Major League Soccer over-the-air television broadcasters