About KOAM FOX14

KOAM-TV debuted on December 13, 1953, at 5:22 p.m., as a joint venture of The Joplin Globe newspaper and E. Victor Baxter and Lester Cox, proprietors of KOAM radio (860 AM, the present KKOW), with Baxter and Cox maintaining a majority interest. Baxter and Cox would eventually buy out the Globe's minority ownership in the station.

Because of KOAM radio's lengthy association with NBC Radio, KOAM-TV debuted as a principal affiliate of NBC, while it also had minor affiliations with CBS (until KSWM-TV launched in 1954), DuMont (until that network's shutdown in 1955), and ABC (until January 1968, when KODE became a full-time ABC affiliate and KUHI-TV signed on with CBS). On September 5, 1982, KOAM merged with KTVJ (the former KUHI-TV) to become a CBS affiliate.