KTAJ-TV

KTAJ-TV (channel 16) is a religious television station licensed to St. Joseph, Missouri, United States, serving the St. Joseph and Kansas City markets as an owned-and-operated station of the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). The station's transmitter is located at the intersection of East 23rd Street and Topping Avenue in Kansas City's Blue Valley section.

KTAJ-TV

St. Joseph–Kansas City, Missouri United States
City	St. Joseph, Missouri
Channels	Digital: 21 (UHF) Virtual: 16
Programming
Affiliations	16.1: TBN for others, see § Subchannels
Ownership
Owner	Trinity Broadcasting Network (Trinity Broadcasting of Texas, Inc.)
History
First air date	October 15, 1986 (38 years ago) (1986-10-15)[a]
Former call signs	KTAJ (1986–2003)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 16 (UHF, 1986–2009)
Call sign meaning	"Keep Teaching About Jesus"
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	999
ERP	1,000 kW
HAAT	315.8 m (1,036 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	39°1′19.9″N 94°30′49.7″W
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	www.tbn.org

KTAJ-TV formerly operated from studios on Northwest Seymour Avenue in the Tiffany Springs area of Kansas City. That facility was one of several closed by TBN in 2019 following the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s repeal of the "Main Studio Rule", which required full-service television stations like KTAJ-TV to maintain facilities in or near their communities of license.^[2]

Although KTAJ-TV mainly serves the Kansas City area, it is officially assigned by Nielsen to the St. Joseph market due to the location of its city of license.^[3] The station has been available on cable television providers in both the St. Joseph and Kansas City markets since its sign-on, although Charter Spectrum (in the immediate Kansas City area),^[4] Comcast Xfinity,^[5] Consolidated Communications,^[6] AT&T U-verse^[5] and Google Fiber^[7] do not carry KTAJ but do carry TBN's national feed.

Overview

The station first signed on the air on October 15, 1986, and was built and signed on by All American Television, as an affiliate of the Trinity Broadcasting Network. In 2000, KTAJ was purchased by TBN, along with the other All American Television stations. KTAJ is the only full-power TBN station in the state of Missouri, and was one of only two stations licensed to St. Joseph—alongside ABC affiliate KQTV (channel 2)—until the June 2012 sign-on of Fox affiliate KNPN-LD (channel 26)^[8]—although KQTV remains the only local full-power commercial television station licensed to the city (two other low-power stations owned by KNPN parent News-Press & Gazette Company have signed on since that point—KBJO-LD (now KNPG-LD; channel 21) and KNPG-LD (now KCJO-LD; channel 30)).

As KTAJ-TV's virtual digital channel is mapped as "16" (its former analog channel assignment), NBC affiliate KNPG-LD instead maps its virtual channel as 21^[9] to avoid co-channel mapping issues with KTAJ.

Local programming

Locally produced programs that are taped in the station's Kansas City studios include local versions of TBN's flagship program Praise the Lord and Joy in Our Town, a public affairs program format that is produced by TBN partner stations on a local basis.

Subchannels

The station's signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of KTAJ-TV

Channel	Res.	Aspect	Short name	Programming
16.1	720p	16:9	TBN HD	TBN
16.2			Merit	Merit TV
16.3	480i		Inspire	TBN Inspire
16.4		4:3	ONTV4U	OnTV4U (infomercials)
16.5		16:9	POSITIV	Positiv

TBN-owned full-power stations permanently ceased analog transmissions on April 16, 2009.

Notes

1. The Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook says October 6, while the Television and Cable Factbook says October 7.