KPEJ-TV

KPEJ-TV

Odessa–Midland, Texas United States
City	Odessa, Texas
Channels	Digital:23 (UHF) Virtual:24
Branding	Fox 24;Fox 24 News
Programming
Affiliations	24.1:Fox for others, see§ Subchannels
Ownership
Owner	Mission Broadcasting, Inc.
Operator	Nexstar Media GroupviaSSA
Sister stations	KMID
History
Founded	December 26,1984
First air date	June 16, 1986(1986-06-16)
Former call signs	KPEJ (1986–2009)
Former channel number(s)	Analog:24 (UHF, 1986–2009)
Former affiliations	Independent(1986–1987) UPN(secondary, 1998–2003)
Call signmeaning	randomly assigned
Technical information
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	12524
ERP	600kW
HAAT	333 m (1,093 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	32°5′51.4″N102°17′22.5″W
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	www.yourbasin

KPEJ-TV(channel 24) is atelevision stationlicensed toOdessa, Texas,United States, serving as theFoxaffiliate for thePermian Basinarea. It is owned byMission Broadcasting,which maintains ashared servicesagreement (SSA) withNexstar Media Group,owner ofMidland-licensedABCaffiliateKMID(channel 2), for the provision of certain services. The two stations share studios on Windview Street (alongI-20) in southwestern Odessa; KPEJ-TV's transmitter is located onFM 1788in rural southeasternAndrews County.

History

The station first signed on the air on June 16, 1986; it originally operated as anindependent stationand was owned by Southwest Multimedia. In September 1987, KPEJ became the Midland–Odessa market's Fox affiliate. Southwest Multimedia sold the station to Associated Broadcasters of Layfette (later renamed Communications Corporation of America) in 1990. In 1998, the station began carrying programming from the United Paramount Network (UPN) as a secondary affiliation; UPN programming moved toCBSaffiliateKOSA-TV(channel 7) in 2003, when that station launched a second digital subchannel (later affiliated withMyNetworkTVand now withThe CW Plusas asatelliteofKCWO-TV(channel 4)). In August 2007, KPEJ changed its on-air branding from "Fox 24" to "Fox West Texas"; the following year, it reverted to the "Fox 24" brand, but continued to use the "Fox West Texas" brand for its website and other special promotions.

On April 24, 2013, theCommunications Corporation of Americaannounced the sale of its television stations to theNexstar Broadcasting Group,owner of ABC affiliate KMID (channel 2). Since the Odessa–Midland market has only eight full-power stations, Nexstar could not legally purchase KPEJ (Federal Communications Commissionrules require a market to have eight remaining unique station owners after aduopolyis formed). In addition, KMID and KPEJ are two of the four highest-rated stations in the market in monthly total-day viewership, respectively ranking at third and fourth place. As a result, Nexstar planned to sell KPEJ's license assets toMission Broadcasting,with Nexstar assuming the station's operation under ashared servicesagreement, which would have formed a virtual duopoly with KMID.

However, on June 6, 2014, Nexstar announced that it would instead sell KPEJ-TV, along with two other Fox affiliates—sister stationKMSS-TVinShreveport, LouisianaandKLJBinDavenport, Iowa—to theMarshall Broadcasting Group(marking the company's first television station acquisitions) for $58.5 million. The minority-owned Marshall intends to fund the acquisitions through borrowings guaranteed by Nexstar, and are subject to FCC approval of the other stations Nexstar plans to acquire from ComCorp, White Knight Broadcasting andGrant Broadcasting;Marshall plans to launch news operations and provide sports and minority-orientedpublic affairsprogramming to KMSS and the other two stations, with Nexstar providing sales and certain non-programming services (including engineering,master controland other administrative functions).The sale was completed on January 1, 2015.

On December 3, 2019, Marshall Broadcasting Group filed forChapter 11bankruptcy protection.Mission Broadcasting, another company associated with Nexstar Media Group, agreed to purchase Marshall Broadcasting's stations for $49 million on March 30, 2020.The transaction was completed on September 1, 2020.

Programming

AfterFoxacquired the rights to theNFL'sNational Football Conferencein1994,KPEJ has carried preseason football games from theDallas Cowboys,along with team ownerJerry Jones' weekly game discussion program. In2010,KPEJ also acquired the rights toHouston Texanspreseason games, which aired ontape delayif the game started while a Cowboys pre-game broadcast or preseason game telecast was ongoing. KPEJ lost the Dallas Cowboys preseason games toNBCaffiliate KWES-TV in2011,resulting in KPEJ broadcasting Texans preseason games live. In2014,KMID acquired the rights to the Dallas Cowboys preseason games. When conflicts exist that won't allow KMID to air the games, KPEJ has been given the rights to air the Dallas Cowboys preseason games. When Dallas plays Houston in the preseason, KMID airs the Dallas broadcast while KPEJ airs the Texans broadcast.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal ismultiplexed:

Subchannels of KPEJ-TV

Channel	Res.	Aspect	Short name	Programming
24.1	720p	16:9	KPEJ-TV	Main KPEJ-TV programming /Fox
24.2	480i		KPEJ-SD	Estrella TV
24.3			Rewind	Rewind TV
24.4		4:3	Antenna	Antenna TV

Analog-to-digital conversion

KPEJ-TV ended regular programming on its analog signal, overUHFchannel 24, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United Statestransitioned from analog to digital broadcastsunder federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 23,usingvirtual channel24.

As part of theSAFER Act,KPEJ kept its analog signal on the air until June 26 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop ofpublic service announcementsfrom theNational Association of Broadcasters.

External links

• Official website(shared with KMID)