The stations share studios on Braddock Street in downtown Fairbanks; KXDF-CD's transmitter is located northeast of the city on Cranberry Ridge.

KXDF-CD signed on the air on August 7, 1996, as K13XD, the area's sixth television station, four months after longtime CBS affiliate KTVF switched to NBC.

The addition of K13XD meant that Fairbanks would finally have a station for each of the four main networks: KATN (ABC), KFXF (Fox), KTVF (NBC), and K13XD (CBS), along with KJNP-TV (TBN) and KUAC-TV (PBS).

[4] On November 8, 2016, Northern Lights Media, the subsidiary of Gray Television that operates Anchorage stations KTUU-TV and KYES-TV, announced that it would buy KXDD-CD, KFXF-LD and KTVF for $8 million in cash;[5] the sale was completed on January 13, 2017.

Despite its ownership with KTVF, KXDF-CD continued to maintain a small-scale local news department separate from channel 11, airing two half-hour newscasts on weekdays at 5 and 11 p.m.