History
In 1984, two groups—Minority Television of Flagstaff and Ware Communications—filed for construction permits to build a new television station on channel 13 in Flagstaff.[1] Minority Television was granted the construction permit on October 27, and the station took the call sign KKTM. A year later, Michael Gelfand, a doctor from Bethesda, Maryland, acquired the construction permit from Minority Television principal Katherine T. Mansfield.[2]
Construction work began in August 1991.[3] Meanwhile, to make way for KKTM to begin testing, a translator for Phoenix station KTSP-TV moved to the UHF band.[4] Studio space was also secured in the Greenlaw Village shopping center on Fourth Street.[5]
KKTM began broadcasting at half power from Mormon Mountain on December 31, 1991. Most of its programming came from two services primarily used by low-power stations, Channel America and Main Street TV.[6] The station also produced several local programs, including a newscast and a country music show taped at Flagstaff's Redwood Inn.[7] The newscast ceased production in June 1994.[8]
KKTM became a charter affiliate of The WB when it launched on January 11, 1995, and changed its call sign to KWBF.[9] However, Gelfand decided he did not have sufficient resources to support the station economically; in September, he agreed to sell KWBF for $1.4 million to Christian Network, Inc., an affiliated company to Paxson Communications Corporation that had been co-founded by Bud Paxson.[10][11] Christian Network then transferred its stations to Paxson Communications in May 1996.[12]
Paxson Communications launched its Pax TV network on August 31, 1998. The station began airing the new service and was given the new call sign of KBPX; the network's intended Phoenix station, KPPX-TV, was not ready to launch.[13] However, a translator on channel 67 rebroadcast the station in Phoenix.[14] KPPX-TV ultimately debuted on February 15, 1999.[15]
In March 2001, Paxson Communications sold two of its stations—KBPX and WPXS in Mount Vernon, Illinois—to Equity Broadcasting Corporation of Little Rock, Arkansas, for $17.75 million; Paxson retained the KBPX call letters.[16] The call sign was changed to KDUO on June 21, 2001, and the station switched to broadcasting the home shopping service America's Collectibles Network (now Jewelry Television). Equity also owned KOND-LP (channel 35), a Phoenix low-power station that began broadcasting KDUO's programming. Nearly immediately, Equity sold KDUO along with KBGF in Douglas, Arizona, and three low-power TV stations to Univision for $19.1 million in August.[17] The newly acquired stations became Telefutura's stations in Arizona, with KDUO changing call signs to KFPH.[18]
