KPMF-LD


KPMF-LD, virtual channel 26, is a low-powered television station licensed to Paragould, Arkansas, United States, within the Jonesboro media market, though it actually serves the Memphis, Tennessee market from the WATN/WLMT transmitter off Brief Road in the Brunswick section of unincorporated northeast Shelby County. The station is owned by HC2 Holdings. It is presently not carried on any cable or satellite providers.

History

Although granted a construction permit in 2012 by the Federal Communications Commission, the station was silent until 2016. The original call sign was K26MF-D from 2012 until January 2016, when the call sign was changed to the current KPMF-LD.
While the first three subchannels remain dark, KPMF signed on virtual channel 26.4 in May 2016 as an affiliate of The Country Network. The first three subchannels could go on the air later as affiliates of other multicast digital networks such as Buzzr, Bounce TV or Doctor Television Channel. Sister station K30MF-D could take an Antenna TV affiliation for the Jonesboro market. DTV America owned one other construction permit for K38OR-D, which was rumored to become an over-the-air relaunch of "KJOS", the area's cable-exclusive affiliate of The CW via The CW Plus; however, K38OR-D's license was cancelled by the FCC on November 16, 2017. On July 25, 2018, KAIT announced it would be bringing CW programming into the Jonesboro market through a third subchannel, starting on September 1, 2018; therefore, KAIT-DT3 is the successor of the cable-exclusive "KJOS".
In late June 2016, the station's first three subchannels went on the air as affiliates of Katz Broadcasting-operated Escape and Laff on the first two subchannels. Also, Sony Pictures Television's GetTV movie network and FremantleMedia-owned Buzzr came on the air on channels 26.3 and 26.4, respectively. Buzzr replaced The Country Network. Channels 26.5 and 26.6 also went on the air as Sonlife Broadcasting Network and QVC affiliates. In summer 2016, KPMF's transmitter was relocated to northern Shelby County, Tennessee near the Brunswick area north of Memphis.
Escape and Laff were replaced by different networks in October 2016. GetTV was moved up to KPMF-LD2, and Comet, which is a joint venture between the MGM studio and Sinclair Broadcast Group was launched onto the LD3 subchannel, with Buzzr remaining on the LD4 subchannel. The main subchannel became a MyNetworkTV affiliate, with programming from the Doctor Television Channel being broadcast outside of MyNetworkTV's programming schedule. If the station launched on a transmitter within the home market of its city of license, KPMF would have been the Jonesboro market's first MyNetworkTV affiliate. For a time, Memphis also had access to a second MyNetworkTV affiliate, WLMT, the CW affiliate in Memphis, which ran MyNetworkTV programming on its second subchannel along with most of the MeTV programming schedule; however, MyNetworkTV programming on that sub-channel was eventually dropped, leaving KPMF as the sole MyNetworkTV affiliate in Memphis. Jonesboro eventually gained its own MyNetworkTV affiliate on September 3, 2018 when the LD3 subchannel of low-powered dual Fox/CBS affiliate KJNB-LD/KJNE-LD picked up the programming service to supplement its own MeTV programming.
In January 2017, KPMF's DrTV affiliation on the main subchannel was replaced with AMGTV and, by 2018, Quest. However, MyNetworkTV remains on the main channel on weeknights. In 2018, the station moved from a transmitter site across the Mississippi River on a cell tower on Washington Street in downtown Marion, Arkansas, to the Tegna tower in Brunswick, returning the MyNetworkTV affiliation to the same tower it has transmitted from under WLMT's affiliation period.

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP Short
Name		Programming
26.1480iKPMF-LDMyNetworkTV & Quest
26.2480iKPMF-LDGetTV
26.3480iKPMF-LDCBN News Channel
26.4480iKPMF-LDBuzzr
26.5480iKPMF-LDSonlife Broadcasting Network
26.6480iKPMF-LDQVC
26.7480iKPMF-LDInfomercials