After securing a license from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and funding from various groups, Springfield Community Television was able to launch its first station.

KOZK first signed on the air on January 20, 1975, broadcasting from a former Naval Reserve center located on the campus of Drury University.

The station borrowed transmitter space from Springfield CBS affiliate KOLR (channel 10).

Two years later, in 2003, KOZK moved its transmitter facilities to a 1,980-foot (600 m) broadcast tower located on Switchgrass Road in rural southwestern Webster County (north of Fordland), which was donated to the university by KYTV station management.

The maintenance involved upgrades to the tower in preparation for the station's upcoming allocation shift under the spectrum repack.

[3] While KOZK's signal was off the air, it continued to be available to Mediacom subscribers via a direct auxiliary feed transmitted by fiber optic to the cable provider; service was restored to AT&T U-verse and DirecTV customers by April 20, while it was unavailable on Dish Network (as of April 23, 2018).