You can receive digital television programming for free if you have a digital television set or monitor and an ATSC (digital TV) tuner. 29 The Eyewitness News Station (KBAK-DT) is on the air, broadcasting a crystal-clear digital signal to the entire Southern Valley. During the day we broadcast our programming in the 4x3 aspect ratio. You'll notice black bars on the side of the picture when you watch 4x3 programming on a wide-screen digital monitor.

KBAK-DT carries all of the CBS network high-definition digital progamming. (Please note that not all network programming is in high-definition at this time.) High-definition progamming is broadcast in the 16x9 wide-screen format. Your digital TV or monitor should adjust itself automatically to wide-screen programming. All of our digital programming is broadcast in the 1080i format. Your digital tuner will automatically adjust itself to accommodate this format.

To receive over-the-air digital broadcasts, you'll need an ATSC tuner and an antenna. Our digital signal is so powerful that many people should be able to receive our DTV broadcasts with a simple indoor UHF antenna. If not, you'll need an outdoor UHF antenna. In either case, be sure and point the antenna at Mt. Breckenridge, just northeast of Bakersfield. Our digital transmitter is located at the same site as our analog transmitter.

Typically, once your antenna is hooked up to your digital tuner, you will use your set's menu navigation system to tell your digital TV set to perform a "DTV channel search." The tuner will locate all local digital broadasts and will notify you when the search is done. At that time, you should be able to switch freely between digital TV stations.

FCC regulations require over-the-air digital TV channels to be the same as a station's over-the-air analog channel. KBAK-TV broadcasts on analog channel 29. You will see KBAK-DT's digital programming on digital channel 29-1. This designates our primary programming as the number one program stream on digital channel 29.

We also broadcast a digital stream for KBFX, the Bakersfield Fox affiliate. KBFX can be seen on 58-2 on your digital television and although it is a digital signal, it currently does not have HD programming.

You should also be able to push the "info" button on your remote and see information about the digital signal, the program schedule, parental advisories, and closed captioning availability.

Click here if you would like more information regarding digital television.

Click here for a complete schedule of our digital programming