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| City | Columbia, Missouri |
| Channels | |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| KQFX-LD | |
| History | |
First air date | December 5, 1971 |
Former call signs | KCBJ-TV (1971–1985) |
Former channel number(s) |
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Call sign meaning | Mizzou |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 63164 |
| ERP | 120 kW → 231 kW (CP) |
| HAAT | 352 m (1,155 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 38°46′32.1″N 92°33′24.9″W / 38.775583°N 92.556917°W |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
KMIZ (channel 17) is a television station licensed to Columbia, Missouri, United States, serving the Columbia–Jefferson City market as an affiliate of ABC and MyNetworkTV. It is owned by the News-Press & Gazette Company alongside Fox affiliate KQFX-LD (channel 22, also licensed to Columbia); the stations together are branded as the "Networks of Mid-Missouri". The two stations share studios on the East Business Loop 70 in Columbia; KMIZ's transmitter is located west of Jamestown near the Moniteau–Cooper county line.
Channel 17 in Columbia began broadcasting as KCBJ-TV on December 5, 1971. It provided a full-time outlet for the ABC network, previously split between the market's two other major commercial stations. KCBJ-TV was built by Richard Koenig, a St. Louis–based engineer. It struggled in its early years with its ultra high frequency (UHF) signal, the first in the market; entrenched and established competition; and lack of financial resources to invest in local programming and technical improvements. In 1979, Koenig agreed to sell the station to the Wooster Republican Printing Company, but the deal turned sour, and the prospective buyers sued for breach of contract. Litigation in that case was still pending when an ascendant ABC switched its affiliation to KOMU-TV (channel 8) in 1982, leaving KCBJ-TV to change to NBC.
Koenig sold KCBJ-TV to Stauffer Communications, which took control in January 1985. With NBC rising in the ratings, it poached KOMU-TV from ABC, leading to a switch of network affiliations again that December. To coincide with the new affiliation and Stauffer's investment in a new image and improved news coverage, the station changed its call sign to KMIZ. Under Benedek Broadcasting ownership, KMIZ purchased two low-power stations to start the area's Fox affiliate, a predecessor of KQFX-LD. News-Press & Gazette Company acquired the stations from JW Broadcasting in 2012.
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for KMIZ". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.