KPAZ-TV

KPAZ-TV (channel 21) is a religious television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, owned and operated by the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). The station's transmitter is located atop South Mountain on the city's south side.

Channel 21 in Phoenix was built by Spanish Language Television of Arizona, Inc., and began broadcasting on September 16, 1967. It was the first ultra high frequency (UHF) station in the state and featured a format of specialty sports programs, daytime automated news, and Spanish-language and other local programming. The original owner went bankrupt less than two years after putting KPAZ-TV on the air; in 1970, Glad Tidings Church filed to buy the station and immediately became active in its management even before it was approved to complete the purchase. Even though Glad Tidings struggled to find its economic footing, it built new studios and invested in additional equipment for channel 21.

However, the debts accumulated by Glad Tidings became too great to ignore. In December 1975, TBN agreed to buy KPAZ-TV from Glad Tidings and pay operating expenses. The original deal fell apart when the church tried to renegotiate the terms of the sale. On January 19, 1977, RCA, one of Glad Tidings's creditors, seized its equipment and forced the station off the air; questions were also raised about the church's ability to honor savings certificates it had sold to finance operations. TBN bought KPAZ-TV and put it back on the air that September; it was the second television station owned by the ministry.