KATN, virtual channel 2 (

UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...

digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Technology and computing Hardware *Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals **Digital camera, which captures and stores digital i ...

channel 18), is an

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

/ CW+- affiliated television station licensed to Fairbanks, Alaska, United States. Owned by Raleigh, North Carolina–based Vision Alaska

LLC A limited liability company (LLC for short) is the US-specific form of a private limited company. It is a business structure that can combine the pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited liability of a ...

, the station is operated through a time brokerage agreement (TBA) by Coastal Television Broadcasting Company, LLC.Time Brokerage Agreement (Part 1 of 3) - Federal Communications Commission
/ref>Time Brokerage Agreement (Part 2 of 3) - Federal Communications Commission
/ref>Time Brokerage Agreement (Part 3 of 3) - Federal Communications Commission
/ref> KATN's studios are located in the Lathrop Building on 2nd Avenue in downtown Fairbanks, and its transmitter is located on Cranberry Ridge northeast of the city.

History

KATN debuted on March 1, 1955 as KFAR-TV, and was Fairbanks' second television station after

KTVF KTVF, virtual channel 11 (UHF digital channel 26), is an NBC- affiliated television station licensed to Fairbanks, Alaska, United States. Owned by Atlanta-based Gray Television, it is sister to two low-power stations: primary MeTV and secondary ...

. It became KTTU-TV (no relation to the present-day Tucson, Arizona station) on June 18, 1981 and KATN on August 18, 1984. It is now a part of the ABC Alaska Superstation and was the first TV station in Fairbanks to broadcast in color in 1967 (while KTVF was temporarily off the air due to a flood). KFAR/KTTU was primarily an NBC station with ABC as the secondary network until 1985, when the owners of KIMO (now KYUR) in

Anchorage Anchorage () is the largest city in the U.S. state of Alaska by population. With a population of 291,247 in 2020, it contains nearly 40% of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring Ma ...

bought the station, changed the call letters (the ATN in KATN stood for Alaska Television Network, a consortium of KATN, KIMO, and

KJUD KJUD, virtual channel 8 ( VHF digital channel 11), is an ABC/ CW+/Fox- affiliated television station licensed to Juneau, Alaska, United States. The station is owned by Vision Alaska LLC. KJUD's transmitter is located along Douglas Highway in W ...

Juneau The City and Borough of Juneau, more commonly known simply as Juneau ( ; tli, Dzánti K'ihéeni ), is the capital city of the state of Alaska. Located in the Gastineau Channel and the Alaskan panhandle, it is a unified municipality and the se ...

), and made KATN the primary ABC affiliate. The station continued carrying NBC programs as a secondary affiliate until KTVF switched from CBS to NBC in 1996, in response to KATN's new ownership. Until the launch of KFXF in 1992, they were Fairbanks' only two commercial network stations. In September 2006, KATN began to show programming from The CW (via The CW Plus) on its digital subchannel. The subchannel is called Fairbanks CW and uses the fictional call letters KWFA (the actual call letters of the subchannel are still KATN).

Smith Media Smith Media, LLC, successor to Smith Television aka Sunrise Television, was a broadcasting group co-based in Los Angeles, California and St. Petersburg, Florida, that formerly owned and operated several television stations across the United Stat ...

sold KATN and the remainder of the "ABC Alaska's Superstation" system to Vision Alaska LLC in 2010. When the sale was completed, on May 13, 2010, Coastal Television Broadcasting Company, LLC entered into a time brokerage agreement with Vision Alaska to operate KATN and sister station KJUD. On October 30, 2017,

announced that it would move its Fairbanks affiliation from KFXF-LD (channel 22) to a subchannel of KATN on November 4.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Conversion to digital signal

KATN shut down its analog signal, over

VHF Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter. Frequencies immediately below VHF ...

channel 2, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition

channel 18. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 2.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Katn 1955 establishments in Alaska ABC network affiliates Ion Television affiliates Television channels and stations established in 1955 ATN