KPXJ


KPXJ is a television station licensed to Minden, Louisiana, United States, serving the Shreveport area and the Ark-La-Tex region as an affiliate of The CW. The station is owned by locally based KTBS, LLC, alongside ABC affiliate KTBS-TV. The two stations share studios on East Kings Highway on the eastern side of Shreveport; KPXJ's transmitter is located near St. Johns Baptist Church Road in rural northern Caddo Parish.

History

Early history; as a Pax TV owned-and-operated station

The UHF channel 21 allocation was contested between multiple groups that competed for approval by the Federal Communications Commission to be the holder of the construction permit to build and license to operate a new television station on the third commercial UHF allocation to be assigned to the Shreveport–Texarkana market. Among the prospective applicants were John E. Powley, Tucson, Arizona–based Northwest Television Inc. and five parties who each applied for individual applications on April 4 and 5, 1996: Los Angeles–based Venture Technologies Group LLC, Little Rock–based Kaleidoscope Partners, Washington, D.C.–based WinStar Broadcasting Corp., Wichita, Kansas–based entrepreneur Marcia T. Turner, Columbia, South Carolina–based Universal Media and Shreveport-based Word of Life Ministries Inc.
On December 19, 1997, West Palm Beach, Florida–based Paxson Communications —which was preparing to launch Pax TV, a family-oriented broadcast television network, that tapped Paxson Communications-owned affiliate stations of the Infomall TV Network, and newly launched and purchased stations to serve as the network's initial affiliates—reached a settlement with the other applicants to acquire the construction permit to operate UHF channel 21, among seven it settled to acquire for an average cost of $4.95 million. On April 14, 1998, The FCC approved the purchase of the channel 21 permit to Paxson and dismissed the applications of the seven competing applicants.
The station first signed on the air on August 31, 1998, as WPXO. Channel 21 originally operated as a charter owned-and-operated station of Pax TV, which launched on the date of the station's launch. On January 8, 1999, the station changed its call letters to KPXJ; at that time, KTBS, LLC, the Shreveport-based owner of local ABC affiliate KTBS-TV, began to operate the station under a joint sales agreement with Paxson.

As a UPN affiliate

On June 17, 2003, Paxson Communications announced it would sell KPXJ to KTBS, LLC for $10 million; the FCC rejected the application as agency ownership rules prohibited common ownership of two television stations in a single market if there are fewer than eight independent full-power station owners. As such, Paxson reached an agreement to sell the KPXJ license to Minden Television Company LLC, an indirect subsidiary of Wray Properties Trust, for $10 million.
On September 24, 2003, KPXJ took over as the Shreveport-area affiliate of UPN, assuming rights to the network's programming from KSHV-TV, which been affiliated with UPN since August 28, 1995 ; as a result, KSHV became an exclusive affiliate of The WB. After affiliating with UPN, KPXJ—which, accordingly, changed its branding to "UPN 21"—adopted a general entertainment format typical of UPN stations at the time, initially carrying a mix of first-run syndicated talk, game and court shows, recent off-network sitcoms and drama series, syndicated cartoons and educational children's programs, religious programs, and some sports programming.
Channel 21 continued to carry Pax TV programming on a secondary basis until April 2004; it also continued to air programming from The Worship Network during the overnight hours until early 2010, when Pax successor Ion Television ceased carrying the network as a subchannel service on its owned-and-operated stations. On May 1, 2004, KTBS-TV parent KTBS, LLC re-assumed operational responsibilities for channel 21 under a local marketing agreement with Minden Television.

As a CW affiliate

On January 24, 2006, the respective parent companies of UPN and The WB, CBS Corporation and the Warner Bros. Entertainment division of Time Warner, announced that they would dissolve the two networks to create The CW Television Network, a joint venture between the two media companies that initially featured programs from its two predecessor networks as well as new series specifically produced for The CW. Subsequently, on February 22, 2006, News Corporation announced the launch of MyNetworkTV, a network operated by Fox Television Stations and sister syndication division Twentieth Television that was created to primarily to provide network programming to UPN and WB stations that The CW decided against affiliating based on their local viewership standing in comparison to the outlet that The CW ultimately chose as its charter outlets, giving these stations another option besides converting to a general entertainment independent format.
On March 7, 2006, in a press release announcement by the network, KPXJ was confirmed as The CW's Shreveport charter affiliate. Since the network chose its charter stations based on which of them among The WB and UPN's respective affiliate bodies was the highest-rated in each market, KPXJ was chosen to join The CW over KSHV-TV as it had been the higher-rated of the two stations at the time of its agreement despite channel 45 having had a four-year headstart on KPXJ operation-wise. Eight days later on March 15, News Corporation announced that it had signed an agreement with White Knight Broadcasting, in which KSHV would become the market's MyNetworkTV affiliate, as part of a deal that also saw Fox-affiliated sister station WNTZ-TV in Alexandria being committed to join the network under a secondary affiliation.
On May 1, KPXJ became one of a few UPN-affiliated stations not owned by Fox Television Stations to remove on-air brand references to the network—rebranding as "KPXJ 21"—and cease promotion of the network's programs. However, it officially remained a UPN affiliate until September 17, 2006, before affiliating with The CW when that network debuted on September 18. KSHV-TV, meanwhile, joined MyNetworkTV upon that network's launch on September 5; unlike in other markets where The WB and UPN both had over-the-air affiliates—where the WB-turned-MyNetworkTV outlet either disaffiliated from The WB entirely or remained a part-time affiliate during the transition—KPXJ assumed temporary rights to the WB affiliation, carrying the final two weeks of that network's programming between midnight and 2 a.m. weeknights and 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. early Mondays until The WB ceased operations on September 17. KPXJ officially affiliated with The CW the following day on September 18, 2006, at which time the station changed its on-air branding to "KPXJ CW 21".
On December 30, 2008, Wray Properties Trust filed an application with the FCC to purchase KPXJ from Minden Television for $10.3 million, which would create the market's first legal television duopoly. As the Shreveport–Texarkana market has only eight full-power television stations, the minimum allowed to create a duopoly under FCC rules, it is the only duopoly legally allowed in the market. KTBS, LLC included in its license transfer request a "failing station waiver", indicating that KPXJ was in an economically non-viable position—noting that the station had lost revenue for the previous three years, and had averaged only a 1 audience share point for all but two sweeps ratings books while never reaching over a 4% share—and that FCC should relax ownership limits that apply to the Shreveport–Texarkana market so that Channel 21 could stay on the air; that limit permits ownership duopolies in markets with at least eight full-power stations, whereas Shreveport–Texarkana has only seven. The transfer was completed on August 3 of that year, officially making KTBS-TV and KPXJ directly owned sister stations.

Programming

Occasionally as time permits, KPXJ may air ABC network programs whenever KTBS-TV is unable to in the event of special programming, or extended breaking news or severe weather coverage.

Newscasts

, KTBS-TV produces 17 hours of locally produced newscasts each week for KPXJ. In addition, KTBS also produces Friday Football Fever, an hour-long highlight program that airs on KPXJ on Friday nights during high school football season. As the duopoly partner of KTBS, the station may also simulcast long-form severe weather coverage from the ABC affiliate in the event that a tornado warning is issued for any county in its Ark-La-Tex viewing area.

News programming history

In September 2000, in conjunction with the joint sales agreement that Paxson had signed with KTBS-TV, KPXJ began airing tape delayed rebroadcasts of that station's 5 and 10 p.m. newscasts Monday through Fridays at 5:30 and 10:30 p.m.. Channel 21 was one of a handful of Pax-owned or -affiliated stations that maintained a news share agreement with an affiliate of a broadcast network other than NBC; most of the agreements forged between Pax TV and local broadcast stations during the early 2000s involved an NBC affiliate, by way of that network holding a minority ownership interest in Pax.
The rebroadcasts were discontinued on September 1, 2003, coinciding with the station's assumption of the UPN affiliation and the transfer of KPXJ to the Wray family's stewardship. On that date, KTBS began producing a half-hour newscast at 9 p.m. for channel 21, which was the first locally produced prime time newscast to be offered in the Shreveport–Texarkana market.
On September 12, 2005, KTBS began producing a half-hour weekday morning newscast for KPXJ, predating the debut of a two-hour-long 7 a.m. newscast on Fox affiliate KMSS-TV —that station's first attempt at a local morning newscast, albeit produced by sister station WGMB in Baton Rouge—by two years. The morning newscast was shifted to 9 a.m. in September 2013, placing it in direct competition with a half-hour newscast in that slot on CBS affiliate KSLA.
On August 22, 2016, KTBS began producing an hour-long weekday afternoon newscast at 4 p.m. for KPXJ, making it the first television station in the market to offer a local newscast to air in that timeslot.
On August 16, 2021, KPXJ began airing the first 3 p.m. newscast in the market, titled KTBS 3 3:00 News Hour on KPXJ CW21.