KFPH-DT

KFPH-DT is a full-service television station in Flagstaff, Arizona, providing over-the-air service to Flagstaff and the Verde Valley as a Telefutura affiliate. The station broadcasts in digital on VHF channel 13, is carried by cable television systems in Flagstaff, Sedona and Cottonwood, and is available over-the-air by translator stations in Globe and Safford.

KFPH-CA is a low-power Class A television station in Phoenix, Arizona, rebroadcasting the signal of KFPH-DT in digital on UHF channel 35 and in standard definition digital on sister station KTVW-TV's secondary subchannel 33.2. The station is carried on most Phoenix-area cable systems as channel 54.

Both stations are owned by Univision, KFPH-DT under licensee Telefutura Partnership of Flagstaff, and KFPH-CA under Telefutura Partnership of Phoenix. The stations brand as Telefutura 35, identifying by the over-the-air channel number from the Class A translator in Phoenix.

History

Station KFPH-DT began as an original construction permit granted to Minority Television of Flagstaff, Inc. on October 25, 1984. The station was to transmit from Mount Elden north of the city. However, the next year, the permit was sold to Michael C. Gelfand, M.D. and Del Ray Television Company, Inc., and after several permit extensions and expired permits, Del Ray licensed the station on March 11, 1992 with call letters KKTM. The station's transmitter was located on Mormon Mountain, about 20 miles (30 km) south of Flagstaff, having been granted permission to move there in 1989. KKTM was an independent station that even produced its own newscast covering Flagstaff at one point, albeit with a very low budget and production standards that rivaled Public-access television.

The station changed its call letters to KWBF after becoming a WB affiliate in 1995, but the affiliation was short-lived, as Channel 13 of Flagstaff, Inc., part of Christian Networks, Inc., acquired the station in 1996, with financing assistance from Paxson Communications (now ION Media Networks). Also part of the deal was a time brokerage agreement, under which Paxson Communications would provide programming for the station, and an option for Paxson to acquire the station outright. Paxson exercised that option several months later, and in July 1996, bought the station for its new Infomall Television Network (inTV) service. In 1998, the inTV service was replaced by the new PAX TV Network (now ION Television) and the station's call letters were changed to KBPX to reflect the new network. It was the first PAX TV station in Arizona. KBPX was originally to be the full-service PAX TV outlet, with an LPTV repeater in Phoenix, but in 2001, when Paxson Communications received an allocation for and built KPPX, a full-service PAX TV station licensed to Tolleson, Arizona, they sold KBPX to Equity Broadcasting, who immediately changed the call letters to KDUO and replaced PAX programming with ACN home shopping.

In 2002, Univision bought the station and changed its call letters once again, this time to KFPH, to reflect the station's new programming as part of Univision's new TeleFutura network. The -TV suffix was added to the callsign in 2004; after the DTV transition in 2009, the station elected to retain the -DT suffix for its digital service.

KFPH-TV shut down its analog channel 13 transmitter on September 18, 2008, citing a lack of space at its transmitter site to accommodate the analog transmitter, its former digital channel 27 transmitter, and the digital channel 13 transmitter that it has used since the DTV transition in 2009; additionally, winter weather conditions rendered it impossible to perform work during the last 90 days before the conclusion of the analog-to-digital transition.^[1]

KFPH-CA history prior to 2001

Before 2001, KFPH-CA was owned separately from KFPH-DT and had its own history. On December 16, 1986, North Phoenix Baptist Church obtained an original construction permit to build K39BI, a low-power station on UHF channel 39 in Phoenix. They licensed the station on July 31, 1987, originally as an affiliate of the Southern Baptist Convention's ACTS-TV television service, and later the SBC's FamilyNet service. The transmitter was first located at the church, but was moved to South Mountain in 1988. In December 1998, North Phoenix Baptist sold the station to Daystar, who changed the call letters to KDTP-LP. In 2000, Daystar was awarded a permit to construct full-service station KDTP on channel 39 and began to look for a buyer for KDTP-LP. Also in 2000, Daystar obtained permission to move KDTP-LP to UHF channel 35 and to upgrade the license to Class A.

In February 2001, Daystar entered into an agreement to sell the station to Equity Broadcasting. The two parties finalized the sale in May 2001, and the station became an affiliate of ACN home shopping. Three months later, the station licensed its move to channel 35 as a Class A station, and took the call letters KOND-LP.

In November 2001, Univision bought the station, along with Flagstaff full-service station KDUO (now KFPH-DT) channel 13. In February 2002, KOND-LP changed the call letters to KFPH-CA, matching the KFPH call letters that were introduced on the Flagstaff station. Also in the same month, Univision's second network, Telefutura, signed on and KFPH-CA became part of the new network. It is one of three Class A Spanish-language broadcasters in the Phoenix market (KPDF-CA and KCOS-LP are the others).

News and station presentation

Newscast Titles

• KKTM News (December 31, 1991–1992)
• Action News 13 (1992–1994)
• NewsChannel 13 (1994–1995)
• WB 13 News (1995–1996)
• First Edition News (1996–1998)
• PAX 13 News (1998–2001)

Translators

The following stations rebroadcast the signal of KFPH-DT:

• KFPH-CA 35.1 Phoenix, Arizona
• K16FB 16 Globe/Miami, Arizona
• K21GC 21 Safford, Arizona

References

External links

• Univision (English)
• Univisión (Español)
• TeleFutura (English)
• TeleFutura (Español)
• ION Media Networks
• Equity Media Holdings
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KFPH-DT
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KFPH-DT