KBFX-CD


KBFX-CD, virtual channel 58, is a low-powered, Class A Fox-affiliated television station licensed to Bakersfield, California, United States. Owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, it is a sister station to CBS affiliate KBAK-TV. The two stations share studios on Westwind Drive west of Downtown Bakersfield; KBFX's transmitter is located atop Breckenridge Mountain.
In addition to its own digital signal, KBFX is simulcast in high definition on KBAK's second digital subchannel from the same transmitter site.

History

KBFX signed on November 1, 1990 as K58DJ, a low-powered relay translator of KMPH, Fresno's Fox affiliate. It changed its call letters to KMPH-LP in 1995. Later, the Fox network wanted to include a new separate affiliate station for the Bakersfield market; as a result, in 1998, channel 58 was relaunched as KBFX-LP. Among the features on the new station was a KBAK-produced 10 p.m. newscast, "Fox 58 News @ 10". It was so successful that KBAK's then-owner Westwind Communications bought the station in 2005 from KMPH's owners, Pappas Telecasting.
On August 6, 2007, Westwind Communications announced the sale of KBAK and KBFX-CA to Fisher Communications of Seattle, with the sale closing on January 1, 2008.
On February 28, 2010, Bright House Networks announced that KBFX will be carried in Tehachapi on cable channel 6.
In January 2011, KBFX began airing its local news in high definition.
Fisher Communications announced on April 11, 2013 that it would be acquired by Sinclair Broadcast Group, pending Federal Communications Commission approval. The deal was completed on August 8, 2013. On October 3, 2013, Sinclair announced the completion of the sale of four stations owned by Titan TV Broadcast Group, including KMPH, which reunites KBFX as sister-stations for the first time in eight years.
KBFX is the only Bakersfield television station to never change its affiliation, having always been a Fox affiliate.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP Short NameProgramming
29.2480iTBD-TVTBD
58.1720pKBFX-HDMain KBFX-CD programming / Fox
58.3480iCometTVComet
58.4480iStadiumStadium

The analog signal went off the air in August 2010. KBFX just recently launched their new digital transmitter on RF channel 29. This signal carried This TV on its subchannel, which maps to virtual channel 29-2.
The station's 29.2 subchannel was an initial affiliate of the American Sports Network with its first broadcast on August 30, 2014.