KPXE-TV

KPXE-TV (channel 50) is a television station in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, affiliated with Ion Television. Owned by Inyo Broadcast Holdings, the station maintains offices on Oak Street and Cleaver Boulevard in Kansas City, Missouri, and its transmitter is located in the city's Brown Estates section.

Channel 50, initially occupied by KCIT-TV from 1969 to 1971, returned to use on December 15, 1978, as KYFC. It was owned by Kansas City Youth for Christ and broadcast Christian religious programs. Amid a downturn in donations and the eventuality of a costly mandate to convert to digital broadcasting, the organization sold the station to Paxson Communications Corporation, forerunner to Ion Media, in 1997. The station was known as KINB and broadcast infomercials for more than a year until the Pax network, predecessor to Ion, began on August 31, 1998. Ion Media was acquired by the E. W. Scripps Company in 2020, with KPXE and other stations divested to Inyo in markets where Scripps already owned too many stations.

Prior channel 50

Channel 50 was first used by KCIT-TV, which began broadcasting on October 29, 1969.[1] The first new station to sign on in town in a decade, channel 50 filled an immediate void as the market's only independent station.[2]

History

KYFC: Kansas City Youth for Christ

Kansas City Youth for Christ, Inc., filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a construction permit to use channel 50.[10] The ministry, operating since 1943 and run by Al Metsker, planned to program an all-Christian format from its facilities in the Westwood area.[11] The FCC granted the permit on April 29, 1977, and construction was underway by July 1978. For Kansas City Youth for Christ, not only would the station fill a void in Christian programming in the market, but general manager David Lewis highlighted that it was a "natural extension" of the organization's purpose: "Teenagers watch an awful lot of TV."[12] KYFC debuted with an inaugural telecast on December 15, 1978.[13] Within two years, with viewer support, Kansas City Youth for Christ had retired its entire $2.6 million mortgage.[14] The station was honored by the National Religious Broadcasters as its 1992 TV station of the year.[15] In addition to religious programs, KYFC aired some sports events, but because it did not accept beer commercials, this was limited. In late 1996, KYFC became the television rights broadcaster of the Kansas City Wiz soccer team, replacing coverage on public-access cable channels.[16]

After nearly two decades of providing religious programming, viewer support had dipped by the mid-1990s, and KYFC was running annual deficits of $350,000. Ronnie Metsker, Al's son, attributed the decline in donations to the fallout from the 1987 PTL scandal, and with an expensive mandate to convert television stations to digital broadcasting, Kansas City Youth for Christ feared that KYFC would be a drain on its resources. Metsker estimated the cost of conversion at $5 million and told donors that it would require the organization to focus primarily on television and not ministering to youth. The organization sought a buyer that would, per Metsker, "air programs that would not conflict with our traditional Christian-Judeo family values".[17] A group headed by KSMO-TV general manager Jim McDonald made an offer, but McDonald's group was unable to obtain broadcast rights to Kansas City Royals baseball, which would have been the centerpiece of channel 50's new programming.

Paxson and Ion ownership

In January 1997, Kansas City Youth for Christ announced the sale of KYFC to Paxson Communications Corporation of West Palm Beach, Florida, for $16.4 million.[18] Company owner Lowell Paxson, a born-again Christian, was an ideal fit for the organization's needs, just as he was acquiring stations nationwide for his Infomall TV (inTV) service, which aired infomercials and religious programs. The KYFC production facilities were retained by Kansas City Youth for Christ.[19]

Paxson assumed control on April 25, 1997, and the station joined inTV under a new KINB call sign.[20] Shortly after, Lowell Paxson announced plans to convert the inTV stations to a new national family-oriented entertainment network, known at the time as Paxnet.[21] In January 1998, all the stations took call signs containing the letters PX, with KINB changing to KPXE-TV.[22]

callsign	KPXE-TV
digital	30 (UHF)
virtual	50
affiliations	50.1: Ion Television for others, see
owner	Inyo Broadcast Holdings (sale to the E. W. Scripps Company pending)
licensee	Inyo Broadcast Licenses LLC
location	Kansas City, Missouri
country	United States
airdate	December 15, 1978
callsign meaning	Contains "PX" for former owner Paxson Communications Corporation
former callsigns	KYFC (1978–1997) KINB (1997–1998)
former channel numbers	Analog: 50 (UHF, 1978–2009) Digital: 51 (UHF, 2004–2015)
former affiliations	Religious independent (1978–1997) Infomall TV (1997–1998)
erp	1,000 kW
haat	339 m
facility id	33337
coordinates	39.02219°N, -94.51381°W
licensing authority	FCC
website	https://iontelevision.com/

Prior channel 50

History

KYFC: Kansas City Youth for Christ

Paxson and Ion ownership

Technical information

Subchannels

Analog-to-digital conversion

References