| St. Cloud/Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota | |
|---|---|
| Branding | ION Television |
| Channels | Digital: 40 (UHF) Virtual: 41 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels | 41.1 Ion 41.2 qubo 41.3 ION Life |
| Translators | K17FA-D 17 (Willmar, Minnesota) |
| Affiliations | Ion Television |
| Owner | Ion Media Networks (Ion Media Minneapolis License, Inc.) |
| First air date | November 24, 1982 |
| Call letters' meaning | PaX Minnesota |
| Former callsigns | KXLI (1982-1997) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 41 (UHF, 1982-2009) |
| Former affiliations | independent (1982-1992, 1994-1996) HSN (1992-1994) inTV (1997-1998) Pax TV (1998-2005) i (2005-2007) |
| Transmitter power | 1000 kW |
| Height | 430 m |
| Facility ID | 35907 |
| Website | www.ionline.tv |
KPXM-TV virtual channel 41 (digital channel 40) is a television station based in Minneapolis, Minnesota and owned and operated by ION Media Networks (the former Paxson Communications). The station is an affiliate of the Ion Television network. The station is licensed to St. Cloud, Minnesota. The KPXM Tower near the city of Big Lake (halfway between St. Cloud and the heart of the Twin Cities is the tallest structure in the state, standing 1505 feet tall—nearly twice as high as the skyscrapers of downtown Minneapolis.
Aside from evening shows from Ion Television, most content broadcast on the channel consists of infomercials.
The station originally signed on the air in 1982 as KXLI ("XLI" is 41 in Roman numerals). The station identified themselves as K-41 and showed syndicated fare and cartoons. In 1988, the identity was changed to TV Heaven 41, airing reruns of classic shows in themed nights (westerns would air on one night, detective/mystery shows on another). KXLI was also simulcast on KXLT-TV channel 47 in Rochester, and by the late 1980s, Minnesota North Stars hockey broadcasts would also air on the stations.
In the late 1980s, KXLI attempted to create the Minnesota Independent Network (MIN) along with Twin Cities station KTMA (now WUCW) and a broadcasting group in Fargo, North Dakota. After a significant amount of planning and initial work, the plan fell through. A financial crisis led KXLI and KXLT to go off the air at the end of 1988 (KTMA also teetered financially for a time). KXLI and KXLT resurfaced in 1990 with religious and infomercial programming, which continued through their purchase by Lowell "Bud" Paxson in the mid-1990s.
From 1991 to about 1995 KXLI/KXLT aired programming from the Home Shopping Network. On Sunday morning and evenings there were religious programming airing. Saturday afternoons during this time consisted of local and national hunting programs. Programming originated from the transmitter building during this time in Big Lake, MN.
Once it was decided to bring back the moniker of TV Heaven, money was spent on a new building near the tower. TV Heaven was brought back with programs from the 50's, 60', 70's, 80's and some new shows during the 90's. They also had agreements to air programming from an upstart conservative network NET (National Empowerment Television) run by Paul Weyrich. They would later nickname themselves the Political News Network. Late evenings were taken up by many different shopping networks.
In 1998, Paxson broke the KXLI/KXLT simulcast by selling the latter station (which became a Fox affiliate for the Rochester market). Paxson also changed KXLI's call letters to KPXM, and the station would join the Pax TV network (now ION Television) later in 1998. Upgrades to the equipment were made to make them more current then the 1970s La Kart tape switching equipment.
KPXM originally had a marketing agreement with KARE channel 11 where the station broadcasts KARE's evening newscasts tape-delayed by half an hour, and also transmits KARE's morning show again in the afternoon. This agreement ended in July 2005, when Paxson chose to end such agreements for all his stations.
In 2009, the FCC authorized the station to move to a tower in Shoreview. This will improve reception in the Twin Cities, but degrade reception in the Saint Cloud area.
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