It struggled to gain ratings traction in the market, and by , it was the only unprofitable station Doubleday owned. As a result, Doubleday sought to give the station away to a non-profit entity. CBN primarily programmed religious and family-friendly entertainment shows, though it began to broaden the appeal of its program lineup in the early s to be more competitive in the market.
It attempted to sell the station twice in the decade, but no sale eventuated. Channel 39 began serving as overflow for pre-empted NBC programming, and for six months in it was the market's affiliate of The WB. Southwest Sports Group analyzed using channel 39 as the centerpiece of a regional sports network for Rangers and Stars games but ultimately decided to sell the teams' media rights to Fox Sports Southwest.
Financing difficulties delayed the network's launch and caused the deal to collapse. The station produces local Spanish-language newscasts as well as a morning news program seen on Telemundo stations across Texas. Construction of KDTV took place during and early The station would broadcast from a tower in Cedar Hill , the primary TV transmission site in the region, [ 7 ] and maintain studios at Harry Hines Boulevard near downtown Dallas.
KDTV began broadcasting on February 5, On May 7, , a windstorm knocked down the original Cedar Hill tower. The station continued with its mix of programming for several years. In , it was the first television broadcast partner of the new Texas Rangers baseball team, leading a station TV network and airing 26 Sunday and Wednesday contests; [ 17 ] however, the team moved its games to KDFW-TV in Channel 39 struggled under Doubleday.
The station failed to make headway against Fort Worth βbased KTVT channel 11 , the primary independent station in the region; by , it had four percent of the market, while KTVT commanded 17 percent.
