KPAX-TV


KPAX-TV, virtual channel 8, is a dual CBS/CW+-affiliated television station licensed to Missoula, Montana, United States. Owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, it is part of the Montana Television Network, a statewide network of CBS-affiliated stations. KPAX-TV's studios are located on West Central Avenue in Missoula, and its transmitter is located on TV Mountain north of the city.
KAJJ-CD in Kalispell operates as a low-powered, Class A semi-satellite of KPAX-TV; known on-air as KAJ, it broadcasts the same schedule as KPAX, but with local commercials and news segments. To comply with the requirements of its Class A license, KAJJ also produces its own weeknight 5:30 and 10 p.m. newscasts with a separate anchor, which premiered in 2010.

History

Channel 8 signed on for the first time in 1970 as a semi-satellite of KXLF-TV in Butte. The station was originally owned by Garryowen Corporation, controlled by Joe Sample, as part of the Montana Television Network. In 1977, KPAX opened a new studio on Regent Street in Missoula and severed the electronic umbilical cord with Butte.
For most of its existence, KPAX-TV has been a primary CBS affiliate. However, it shared ABC with KGVO-TV until 1976, when KPAX, along with KXLF-TV, upgraded ABC to a primary affiliation, relegating CBS to a secondary affiliation shared with KGVO. KPAX returned to CBS in 1984, and continued to air ABC in off-hours until KTMF signed on in 1990.
In 1984, Sample sold the MTN stations to SJL, Inc. for $20 million. SJL, in turn, sold KPAX-TV, KXLF-TV, and KRTV in Great Falls to Evening Post Publishing Company, through its Cordillera Communications subsidiary, for $24 million in 1986.
KAJJ was established in 1984 as K18AJ. Its original owner, Telecrafter Broadcasting Corporation, sold K18AJ to Cordillera in 1988. It became KAJJ-CA in 2011, and KAJJ-CD in 2012.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP Short NameProgramming
8.11080iKPAX-DTMain KPAX-TV programming / CBS
8.2720pKPAX-CWCW 8.2
8.3480iGrit TV

Analog-to-digital conversion

KPAX-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 8, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 7. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 8.

Notable former on-air staff