KXDF-CD


KXDF-CD, virtual and VHF digital channel 13, is a low-powered, Class A CBS-affiliated television station licensed to Fairbanks, Alaska, United States. Owned by Gray Television, it is a sister station to NBC affiliate KTVF and primary MeTV and secondary MyNetworkTV affiliate KFXF-LD. The three stations share studios on Braddock Street in downtown Fairbanks; KXDF-CD's transmitter is located northeast of the city on Cranberry Ridge.

History

KXDF-CD signed on the air on August 7, 1996 as K13XD, the area's sixth television station, four months after longtime CBS affiliate KTVF switched to NBC. It was owned by Tanana Valley Television Company alongside Fox affiliate KFXF. Before channel 13 signed on, select CBS programming had been seen on KFXF. The addition of K13XD meant that Fairbanks would finally have a station for each of the four main networks: KATN, KFXF, KTVF, and K13XD, along with KJNP-TV and KUAC-TV.
In 2000, the station upgraded to a class A license, but retained its translator-style call sign; eventually the station branded with a contraction of its translator call as KXD. In 2012, the station flash-cut from analog to digital, modifying its call sign to K13XD-D. The call letters were changed to KXDD-CD on November 7, 2016 and to KXDF-CD on December 16, 2016.
On November 8, 2016, Northern Lights Media, the subsidiary of Gray Television that operates Anchorage stations KTUU-TV and KYES-TV, announced that it would buy KXDD-CD, KFXF-LD and KTVF for $8 million in cash, pending FCC approval. The sale was completed on January 13, 2017.

Full-market over-the-air coverage

In addition to its own digital signal, KXDF-CD receives full-market over-the-air coverage via a high definition simulcast on KTVF's third digital subchannel from a transmitter on the Ester Dome. The simulcast is most likely a direct compensation for how on March 2, 2017, Tanana Valley Television surrendered their license for KFYF back to the FCC, which cancelled it on March 10. Like KTVF does presently, KFYF had simulcast KXDF-CD on a subchannel.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP Short NameProgramming
13.11080iK13XD-DMain KXDF-CD programming / CBS
13.2480iKTVF-SDSD simulcast of KTVF / NBC

Newscasts

Despite its ownership with KTVF, KXDF-CD continues to maintain a small-scale local news department separate from channel 11, airing two half-hour newscasts on weekdays at 5:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. Interestingly under its old ownership, the station's main news theme in the mid to late 2000s was the main menu theme to the 2000 PC video game .