It is owned by the News-Press & Gazette Company (NPG) alongside dual ABC/MyNetworkTV affiliate KMIZ (channel 17, also licensed to Columbia); the stations together are branded as the "Networks of Mid-Missouri".

The two stations share studios on the East Business Loop 70 in Columbia; KQFX-LD's transmitter is located west of Jamestown near the Moniteau–Cooper county line.

KQFX-LD is the successor to three different low-power TV stations, two in Columbia and one in Jefferson City, the oldest of which began broadcasting in 1990.

In 1989, Ray Karpowicz, the general manager of WEVU and W07BR "WBR" in Naples, Florida, and a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism, obtained a permit from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to build a new low-power TV station on channel 2 in Columbia—K02NQ, typically styled "KONQ".

[4] In 1997, Karpowicz sold K02NQ and K11TB in Jefferson City to Benedek Broadcasting, the owners of Columbia ABC affiliate KMIZ (channel 17).

[16] In 2012, JW Broadcasting sold KMIZ and KQFX-LD to the News-Press & Gazette Company (NPG) for $16 million.