The stations share studios on Richmond Road (near Texas Loop 323) in Tyler; KFXK-TV's transmitter is located near FM 125[broken anchor] in rural northwestern Rusk County (northwest of New London).

Kamin Broadcasting bought KLMG-TV out of bankruptcy in January 1991 and immediately moved to switch the station from CBS to Fox under new KFXK call letters.

At the time, KLMG-TV was below the CBS affiliates from Dallas and Shreveport in the local ratings, but no Fox station was broadcasting to East Texas.

In February 1982, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted a company owned by Clara McLaughlin a construction permit to build a new TV station on channel 51 in Longview.

McLaughlin reached an affiliation agreement with CBS in late December, and the station agreed to renovate the former Rollins Elementary School—once Longview's all-Black school[4]—using tax-free bonds supplied by the city.

[6] That date was missed, in part because of changing technological requirements; CBS was switching to satellite distribution of network programming, and the addition of the necessary dishes further delayed channel 51's launch.

Delays in construction,[4] a sluggish regional economy in the years after channel 51 went to air and threatened litigation led East Texas Television Network to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization on March 13, 1987.

[22] The decision was made in part because CBS was available in the market on cable from KSLA in Shreveport, Louisiana, and KDFW-TV in Dallas, but there was no Fox affiliate.

[23] This was indeed the case; in a 1990 Arbitron ratings survey, KLMG-TV attracted fewer viewers than either of KSLA or KDFW and tied with multiple out-of-market stations available on cable.

[24] While the station initially announced its intention to keep a 9 p.m. local newscast after the affiliation switch,[22] the news department was dissolved again in February 1991, believing a focus on community affairs programming would be more effective.

[33] In 1998, White Knight Broadcasting, a company controlled by Sheldon Galloway, bought KFXK and its associated low-power stations from the successor to Warwick, Inwood Investors Partnership, for $11.5 million.

[34] By December 2000, Communications Corporation of America, owner of KETK-TV, was operating KFXK and KLPN-LP under a local marketing agreement with Warwick.

[35] After entering bankruptcy reorganization, a majority share in White Knight was sold to Malara Enterprises; Galloway remained involved in the buyer, and no changes were foreseen aside from the addition of a local newscast for KFXK.

In addition to the newscast for KFXK-TV, news programs seen on the Fox affiliates in Waco and Baton Rouge and Shreveport, Louisiana, were presented from Tyler with stories sent from the local areas.