The station began its broadcasting operation as KDUB-TV, founded by the late television pioneer W. D. "Dub" Rogers, Jr, putting the station on the air for the first time on November 13, 1952. It was the first commercially licensed television station in a medium to small-sized market. Over the next few years, Rogers signed on KPAR-TV in
Abilene (now
KTXS-TV), KEDY-TV in
Big Spring (now
KCWO-TV) and KVER-TV in
Clovis, New Mexico (now KVIH-TV, a satellite of
KVII-TV in
Amarillo). These stations made up the West Texas Television Network, the first regional television network in the United States. Originally the station also carried
ABC as a secondary affiliation until 1969 when KSEL-TV (now
KAMC) became the local primary ABC affiliate. The station also carried an affiliation with
DuMont during the early 1950s. Grayson Enterprises (named for Sidney Grayson but after 1964 not owned) assumed ownership of KDUB-TV and KPAR-TV in 1961 and changed KDUB's call letters to the current KLBK-TV. Over the years, Grayson acquired several other stations, including KVKM-TV in
Monahans (later KMOM and now
KWES-TV). However, Grayson Enterprises ran into license renewal trouble in 1968, 1971, 1974, and 1977 for some of its stations. These stations were accused of fraudulent billing, program and transmitter log fabrication, main studio violations, failure to make required technical tests, and other issues. The stations had their renewals deferred and hearings ordered as a result. The case was settled in what was then described as a "distress sale", in which Grayson's stations were broken up and sold to minority-controlled groups (nowadays known as historically-underutilized groups) at a reduced price. The parameters of such a sale were defined by this sell-off. As a result, KMOM and KWAB were transferred to a Hispanic-controlled group, while KLBK and KTXS went to Prima, Inc. (whose principals were African American). The other stations in the West Texas Network were sold to other owners. Woods then sold KLBK plus three of its stations—
KARD in
West Monroe, Louisiana, KDEB-TV (now
KOZL-TV) in
Springfield, Missouri, and
WTVW in
Evansville, Indiana—to Banam Broadcasting, a subsidiary of
BankAmerica in 1993. In 1995, Banam sold KLBK, along with KARD, WTVW, and KDEB-TV, to Petracom Broadcasting. Petracom in turn sold it to Quorum Broadcasting in 1998. KLBK was acquired in late 2003 as part of
Nexstar Broadcasting Group's purchase of Quorum Broadcasting. The station updated its logo and news set on February 1, 2007, dropping the channel number from its branding (since KLBK is carried on different channels on different television platforms). KLBK is one of the few stations in the country to
sign off (along with KAMC), doing so early Saturday mornings at 2:35 a.m. and on Sunday mornings at 1:05 a.m., returning to the air at 5:30 a.m. These stations airs a weather loop during overnight periods. ==News operation==