KFQX

KREX first began providing Fox to the Grand Junction area on September 1, 1994, when Withers Broadcasting activated low-power station K27CO. This replaced Foxnet on cable in Grand Junction.^[3] Withers Broadcasting had obtained the primary affiliation the previous May for its planned full-service station, KJWA.^[4] John Harvey Rees had been granted the construction permit for channel 4 in Grand Junction on November 20, 1992.^[5]

KFQX signed on the air in June 2000, replacing K27CO (now KGJT-CD). Parker Broadcasting acquired KFQX in 2004,^[6] following the 2003 purchase of KREX by Hoak Media.^[7] The station began offering simulcasts of the morning and late newscasts of KDVR, the Fox station in Denver, in 2006; at least one Denver newscast had long been available on cable in Grand Junction, though network duplication issues had left the city without access to a Denver newscast for much of the year. The Denver news simulcasts included Grand Junction-specific weather inserts.^[8]

The station was disrupted severely by a fire that destroyed the KREX studios in January 2008. The station was in service within two weeks airing national Fox programming.^[9] A new studio facility was opened in August 2009.^[10]

On November 20, 2013, Gray Television announced it would purchase Hoak Media and Parker Broadcasting in a $335 million deal. KFQX was to be sold to Excalibur Broadcasting, a company intended to serve as a sidecar for Gray. However, Gray and Excalibur opted to put the Grand Junction stations on the market, with the companies already running KKCO and KJCT.^[11][12] On December 19, Gray announced that KREX and its satellites would be sold to Nexstar Broadcasting Group, while KFQX would be sold to Mission Broadcasting, for $37.5 million.^[13] The sale of KREX was completed on June 13, 2014; Nexstar began providing services to KFQX while it awaited FCC approval.^[14] The sale was approved on February 27, 2017,^[15] and finalized on March 31.^[16]

Subchannels

The station's signal is multiplexed:

Satellite station

KFQX also operates a satellite station in Montrose, Colorado, KREY-TV (channel 10). KREY transmits from Flattop Mesa, a hill northeast of Montrose. Due to its relatively weak signal and the area's very uneven terrain, the station uses six translators to relay its signal to the Uncompahgre Valley and surrounding San Miguel mountain communities. Local studios are located on North 1st Street in Montrose. In its earliest days, local programs including Letters to Santa, in which area children were invited to sit on Santa Claus' lap on live television, were made in cramped quarters at the transmitter building, which doubled as KREY's studio through the 1970s. KREY previously produced short news inserts during KREX's weeknight newscasts, though this has since ended.

Translators

• K26MS-D Collbran
• K13ML-D Hotchkiss
• K17NI-D Mesa
• K06HZ-D Paonia
• K03AY-D Ridgway, etc.
• K33QL-D Snowmass Village
• K26PG-D Woody Creek

• Official website