 | |
| |
|---|---|
| City | Dallas, Texas |
| Channels | |
| Branding | More 27 |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
|
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| KDFW | |
| History | |
First air date | January 26, 1981 |
Former call signs |
|
Former channel number(s) |
|
| |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 17037 |
| ERP | 1,000 kW |
| HAAT | 519 m (1,703 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 32°35′7.2″N 96°58′42.1″W / 32.585333°N 96.978361°W |
| Translator(s) | KDFW 4.2 Dallas |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
KDFI (channel 27), branded More 27, is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, serving as the MyNetworkTV outlet for the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned and operated by Fox Television Stations alongside KDFW (channel 4). The two stations share studios on North Griffin Street in downtown Dallas; KDFI's transmitter is located in Cedar Hill, Texas.
Channel 27 began broadcasting in January 1981 as KTWS-TV. It was built by Liberty STV, a subsidiary of Oregon-based Liberty Television, and was primarily created to serve as a conduit for over-the-air subscription television programming. It was the third such station to sign on within four months in the Metroplex. The station's subscription programs originally came from Preview, a division of American Television & Communications. The Dallas–Fort Worth market proved brutal for subscription TV, as three different companies competed for subscribers for a period lasting nearly two years. The market experienced a shake-out that began in September 1982, when VEU, a competing service owned by Golden West Broadcasters, acquired Preview's Metroplex operations. VEU then moved its programming from KNBN. By the end of April 1983, VEU was the last subscription system standing.
Liberty Television was purchased by Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI), a major owner of cable systems, in 1983. TCI determined that it could not keep Liberty's television stations, including KTWS-TV, because of rules that barred cross-ownership of broadcast stations and cable systems in the same areas. It sold KTWS-TV to a consortium known as Dallas Media Investors. With VEU continuing to lose subscribers, the station changed its call letters to KDFI-TV in August 1984 and became a full-time commercial independent on October 1 of that year. The station ran on a lean basis, avoiding the more expensive program purchases that characterized its competitors, but held its own against stations like KTXA and KDAF in the ratings. Dallas Media Investors reorganized in bankruptcy in the early 1990s to settle a lawsuit with Paramount Pictures and a dispute among stockholders. In 1994, Argyle Television, then-owner of KDFW-TV, took over KDFI-TV's programming under a local marketing agreement; KDFW and KDFI became co-owned in 1999 when the Federal Communications Commission permitted duopolies.
In the years following KDFW's takeover of KDFI, channel 27 increased its profile with higher-quality entertainment programming and rights to telecast various Dallas-area sports teams, most notably the Texas Rangers and Dallas Stars. These teams moved their limited over-the-air schedules off KDFI at the end of the 2000s.
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for KDFI". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.