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KMPX, virtual channel 29 (UHF digital channel 30), is an Estrella TV owned-and-operated television station serving the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex that is licensed to Decatur, Texas, United States. The station is owned by Liberman Broadcasting. KMPX maintains offices located on Gateway Drive in Irving, and its transmitter is located south of Belt Line Road in Cedar Hill.
History
Prior history of UHF channel 29 in Dallas-Fort Worth
The UHF channel 29 allocation in the Dallas-Fort Worth market was originally planned to be used to sign on KLIF-TV (which was to have stood for "Oak Cliff"); on January 15, 1953, the Federal Communications Commission granted a construction permit for that station to legendary radio broadcaster Gordon McLendon.
Had KLIF-TV signed on, it would have been a sister station to radio station KLIF (570 AM). KLIF-TV was intended to operate from the Cliff Towers Hotel in Dallas, which formerly served as the studios of radio station KLIF (570 AM) and would later house KGKO (1480 AM, now KBXD) and KKSN (730 AM, now KKDA). The broadcast license was issued that year, but the station never went on the air; the KLIF-TV license was cancelled in 1955. Since television sets were not required to include UHF tuners until the All-Channel Receiver Act went into effect in 1964, McLendon apparently had second thoughts about developing a station that might not have any viewers (another unrelated television station using the KLIF-TV call letters was later planned to sign on 1967, but also never launched).
Channel 29 signed on the air in April 1962 from downtown Dallas as KAEI-TV, which was owned by Automated Electric Incorporated and ran a format of automated stock quotes for eight hours a day. However, poor reception reportedly led to that station's demise later that same year. In 1966, three applicants tried to take over channel 29 – Grandview Broadcasting (which later took itself out of the running), Overmyer Communications (who later applied for the UHF channel 27 license) and Maxwell Electronics (whose application was terminated in 1967 and would later sign on KMEC-TV (channel 33, allocation now occupied by KDAF) in October 1967) – while the station remained dark. In 1985, three applicants vied for a license to operate a television station on channel 29, including the Wise County Messenger newspaper, owned by former WBAP-TV (channel 5, now KXAS-TV) anchor Roy Eaton.
KMPX station history
After years of debating, KMPX first signed on the air on September 15, 1993 as the flagship station of the religious broadcast network Daystar. It was founded by Daystar founders Marcus and Joni Lamb, under the licensee Community Television Educators of DFW Inc. In 2003, Daystar acquired Denton-licensed PBS member station KDTN (channel 2) from North Texas Public Broadcasting.
KMPX was then sold to Liberman Broadcasting, a sale that was finalized on January 13, 2004; after Liberman took over on that date, the station was converted into a Spanish language independent station featuring programming distributed by the company. On September 14, 2009, KMPX became a charter owned-and-operated station of Liberman's Estrella TV network, which carries some programming seen during the station's tenure as an independent.
Digital television
Digital channels
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
| Channel | Video | Aspect | PSIP Short Name | Programming[1] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29.1 | 720p | 16:9 | KMPX | Estrella TV |
| 29.2 | 480i | 4:3 | INMAGRA | Inmigrante TV |
Analog-to-digital conversion
KMPX shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 29, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[2] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 30, using PSIP to display KMPX's virtual channel as 29 on digital television receivers.