KTVK (channel 3) is an
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...
in
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...
, United States. It is owned by
Gray Television
Gray Television, Inc. is an American publicly traded television broadcasting company based in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1946 by James Harrison Gray as Gray Communications Systems, the company owns or operates 180 stations across the United St ...
alongside
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
affiliate
KPHO-TV
KPHO-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Gray Television alongside independent station KTVK (channel 3) and low-power LATV affiliate KPHE-LD (channel 44). KPHO-TV and K ...
(channel 5) and
low-power LATV
LATV (; originally pronounced on-air as from 2007 to 2014 and, since 2014, serving as a backronym for its on-air slogan, "Latino Alternative Television") is an American bilingual broadcast television network, digital publisher and media company ...
affiliate
KPHE-LD
KPHE-LD (channel 44) is a low-power television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, affiliated with the Spanish-language LATV network. It is owned by Gray Television alongside CBS affiliate KPHO-TV (channel 5) and independent station KTV ...
(channel 44). KTVK and KPHO-TV share studios on North Seventh Avenue in
Uptown Phoenix; KTVK's transmitter is located on
South Mountain on the city's south side. The station's signal is relayed across
northern Arizona
Northern Arizona is an unofficial, colloquially-defined region of the U.S. state of Arizona. Generally consisting of Apache, Coconino, Mohave, Navajo, and Gila counties, the region is geographically dominated by the Colorado Plateau, the sout ...
on a network of
translator stations.
Prior to being an independent station, KTVK was Phoenix's
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 ...
affiliate for nearly 40 years, losing its affiliation as part of a shuffle of networks in 1994 and 1995. It was one of the last family-owned major-market TV stations, being owned in part or whole by the McFarland and Lewis family from its inception until 1999.
History
Early years
Channel 3 was the last commercial VHF allocation in Phoenix to be awarded. Prior to the
1948 freeze on new TV applications, there had been one application made, from radio station
KTAR KTAR may refer to:
* KTAR (AM), a radio station (620 AM) licensed to Phoenix, Arizona.
* KTAR-FM, a radio station (92.3 FM) licensed to Glendale, Arizona.
* KMVP-FM, a radio station (98.7 FM) licensed to Glendale, Arizona, which formerly used the ...
, one of the state's largest. In February 1953, however, after the freeze was lifted, a second applicant filed for the channel: the Arizona Television Company. That put the plans of KTAR—which already had television equipment on order—on hold. Originally owned by
Buckeye rancher and car dealer Ralph Watkins as well as two other principals, a new stockholder was added to the company in May: former senator
Ernest McFarland
Ernest William McFarland (October 9, 1894 – June 8, 1984) was an American politician, jurist and, with Warren Atherton, one of the "Fathers of the G.I. Bill." He is the only Arizonan to serve in the highest office in all three branches of Ariz ...
, who bought a 40 percent interest. Also seeking channel 3 was Herb Askins, a local businessman, but his Desert Advertising Co. dropped out late in the year, setting up a high-stakes showdown between Phoenix's NBC radio affiliate and the McFarland group in hearings in February 1954.
The staring contest, however, ended two months later. In late April, KTAR announced that it would purchase
Mesa
A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge or hill, which is bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and stands distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas characteristically consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks capped by ...
-based
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
affiliate
KTYL-TV channel 12, for $250,000, a move that effectively awarded the channel 3 allocation to the Arizona Television Company. Within weeks, a
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
hearing examiner recommended the company be granted a construction permit, which took place on June 11.
The transmitter was built at South Mountain, and a $500,000 studio building was constructed at 16th Street and Osborn Road. The station affiliated with
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 ...
, filling a void that would have been created when existing ABC outlet
KOOL-TV
KSAZ-TV (channel 10) is a television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, broadcasting the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV station KUTP (channel 45). Bot ...
announced plans to change to CBS. By the time the station signed on February 28, 1955, McFarland had been elected
Governor of Arizona
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
. Channel 3 boasted the first color-equipped studios in Phoenix and the largest in the state.
Channel 3 lost money in its early years, competing against three local stations that had long-respected radio sisters on which to draw revenue.
According to a 1990 interview, in the early 1960s,
Walter Cronkite
Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the ''CBS Evening News'' for 19 years (1962–1981). During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the mo ...
sought to buy a stake in the Arizona Television Company. He would have become KTVK's main anchor, with a salary of $25,000 a year. However, Arizona Television Company could not afford to meet Cronkite's salary demands.
Delbert W. Lewis, McFarland's son-in-law, was named president of KTVK in 1975 and general manager in 1980. McFarland bought out the other partners in the Arizona Television Company in 1977.
The rise
In March 1984, Delbert Lewis and his wife Jewell McFarland Lewis were named the conservators of McFarland's estate, just three months before the former governor died; as a result, the Lewises inherited full control of KTVK. Two years later, Lewis would make the two most consequential hirings in station history, poaching a dozen employees from KTSP-TV, including station manager Bill Miller and news director Phil Alvidrez. At the time, KTVK had spent the better part of its history in third place. In January 1985, ''
Arizona Republic
''The Arizona Republic'' is an American daily newspaper published in Phoenix. Circulated throughout Arizona, it is the state's largest newspaper. Since 2000, it has been owned by the Gannett newspaper chain. Copies are sold at $2 daily or at $3 ...
'' television columnist Bud Wilkinson referred to the station as a "blot on
BCs affiliate ledger" and claimed, citing a conversation with a top network executive, that the network had occasionally tried to move to another station and still was interested in the idea. As late as 1989, ABC executives were in negotiations to move from KTVK to KTSP-TV.
Under Miller and Alvidrez, the station relaunched its news department—considered by the mid-1980s as "a joke" in the industry—as "NewsChannel 3" and began a climb to the top of the ratings. The station dismissed its existing weeknight news anchor team and rolled out a new lineup, led by new hire Cameron Harper and former weekend anchor Heidi Foglesong. Lewis bankrolled major investments in people, syndicated programming and equipment and dramatically boosted KTVK's promotional budget. Improvement started slowly but was noticeable by 1988.
By late 1990, the station had taken the lead at 10 pm, and its early evening newscasts were posting the strongest numbers in their history;
a year later, it had tied longtime leader KTSP-TV in those time slots.
The growth of the company fueled additional media acquisitions. In the span of a year, the Arizona Television Company bought ''Phoenix Magazine'' and radio station
KESZ
KESZ (99.9 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Phoenix, Arizona, featuring an adult contemporary format known as "99.9 KEZ". Owned and operated by iHeartMedia the station serves the Phoenix metropolitan area. KESZ's studios are locate ...
(99.9 FM), as well as a production studio. Reorganizing as Media America Corp. (and later MAC America Communications), the group also handled programming responsibilities for the new
KTWC (103.5 FM) when it signed on in 1994.
Going independent
On May 23, 1994,
New World Communications
New World Pictures (also known as New World Entertainment and New World Communications Group, Inc.) was an American independent production, distribution, and (in its final years as an autonomous entity) multimedia company. It was founded in 197 ...
and Fox announced a pact that would see KSAZ-TV leave its longtime affiliation with CBS to join Fox. The landmark deal also left CBS looking for new television stations in several other markets, including
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
,
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
and
Tampa
Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough County ...
, and set off a mad dash to secure network affiliations. The dealmaking environment favored station groups with presences in multiple cities, not KTVK—one of the last family-owned major-market stations in the country.
In this environment,
Scripps-Howard Broadcasting
The E. W. Scripps Company is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglomerate. The company is he ...
, owner of displaced Fox affiliate
KNXV-TV
KNXV-TV (channel 15) is a television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside CW affiliate KASW (channel 61). Both stations share studios on 44th Street on the city's e ...
, found itself in a prime position. Scripps owned two successful ABC affiliates
in Detroit and
in Cleveland, and CBS was heavily wooing both stations to join its network. KTVK was already in talks for a new affiliation agreement with ABC, more than doubling its hourly compensation rate—but still less than the network was offering to stations much smaller than channel 3.
However, the offer was then taken off the table by the network at the advice of its lawyers; a call with ABC network president
Bob Iger
Robert Allen Iger (; born February 10, 1951) is an American businessman who is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The Walt Disney Company. He previously served as the President of ABC Television between 1994 and 1995 and the President and Ch ...
revealed that Scripps-Howard—a longtime partner of the network—had told ABC that they were threatening to flip the Detroit and Cleveland ABC affiliates to CBS unless they secured the ABC affiliation for KNXV-TV in Phoenix. Iger wanted to keep KTVK, but
Tom Murphy, the CEO of Capital Cities/ABC, felt that he had to be able to offer the ABC affiliation in Phoenix to Scripps if necessary to avoid potential long-term damage to the ABC television network.
Scripps-Howard refused to budge from demanding the ABC affiliation for Phoenix. It even refused $25 million from the network to "take Phoenix off the table". Ultimately, ABC gave in and awarded the ABC affiliations in Phoenix,
Tampa
Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough County ...
and
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
to Scripps; in informing KTVK, Iger explained that they "had to" do so. The Lewises then sought to affiliate with CBS, which was about to be displaced from KSAZ. However, despite Tom Murphy's support, CBS ultimately chose a deal with group owner
Meredith Corporation
Meredith Corporation was an American media conglomerate based in Des Moines, Iowa, that owned magazines, television stations, websites, and radio stations. Its publications had a readership of more than 120 million and paid circulation of more ...
and its
KPHO-TV
KPHO-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Gray Television alongside independent station KTVK (channel 3) and low-power LATV affiliate KPHE-LD (channel 44). KPHO-TV and K ...
.
Over the second half of 1994, KTVK relinquished ABC programming to KNXV in stages. ''
Good Morning America
''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...
'' was the first ABC program to move to KNXV after KTVK displaced it with a new local morning newscast. KNXV then picked up ''World News Tonight'' and ''
Nightline
''Nightline'' (or ''ABC News Nightline'') is ABC News' late-night television news program broadcast on ABC in the United States with a franchised formula to other networks and stations elsewhere in the world. Created by Roone Arledge, the progra ...
'' on December 12, the day after Fox programming moved to KSAZ.
The rest of ABC's programming moved to KNXV on January 9, 1995.
Despite the loss of ABC programming, the Lewises and station management committed to build KTVK into one of the nation's top independents. The station spent some $100 million on new syndicated programming, including ''
Mad About You
''Mad About You'' is an American television sitcom starring Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt as a married couple in New York City. It initially aired on NBC from September 23, 1992, to May 24, 1999, winning numerous awards including four Golden Glob ...
'' and ''
Frasier
''Frasier'' () is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for 11 seasons. It premiered on September 16, 1993, and ended on May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey (screenwriter), Peter Case ...
'', as well as poaching the most popular shows in syndication at the time from KSAZ-TV—game shows ''
Wheel of Fortune The Wheel of Fortune or ''Rota Fortunae'' has been a concept and metaphor since ancient times referring to the capricious nature of Fate. Wheel of Fortune may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Art
* ''The Wheel of Fortune'' (Burne-Jo ...
'' and ''
Jeopardy!
''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given genera ...
''—and programming them in the prime time hour between 7 and 8 p.m.
KTVK also broke ground on a new studio center to house its growing operations.
The news department was expanded with 20 new staffers. Media America struck a
local marketing agreement
In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or tim ...
to operate the new
KASW
KASW (channel 61) is a television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, affiliated with The CW. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside American Broadcasting Company, ABC affiliate KNXV-TV (channel 15). Both stations share studi ...
(channel 61) with
The WB
The WB Television Network (for Warner Bros., or the "Frog Network", for its former mascot, Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network launched on broadcast television on January 11, 1995, as a joint venture between the Warner Bros. ...
—which would air on KTVK until KASW launched in September 1995—and children's programming, and it launched the AZ News Channel, a cable offering on
Cox Communications
Cox Communications, Inc. (also known as Cox Cable and formerly Cox Broadcasting Corporation, Dimension Cable Services and Times-Mirror Cable) is an American digital cable television provider, telecommunications and home automation services. It i ...
systems featuring breaking news and replays of KTVK newscasts that had been in the planning stages since 1993. Another large acquisition came in the form of sports rights to the expansion
Arizona Diamondbacks
The Arizona Diamondbacks (colloquially known as the D-backs) are an American professional baseball team based in Phoenix. The Diamondbacks compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The f ...
baseball team, with channel 3 airing half of the team's games beginning in the 1998 season. The station remained Phoenix's news leader in most time slots, with the exception of 10 pm, when strong NBC programming gave KPNX the lead.
In the fall of 1998, KTVK briefly aired ''
The Howard Stern Radio Show
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
''; both KTVK (which aired the program after its 10 p.m. news) and
Lubbock, Texas
Lubbock ( )
is the 10th-most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of government of Lubbock County. With a population of 260,993 in 2021, the city is also the 85th-most populous in the United States. The city is in the northw ...
, Fox affiliate
KJTV-TV
KJTV-TV (channel 34) is a television station in Lubbock, Texas, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by SagamoreHill Broadcasting alongside Wolfforth-licensed low-power, Class A news-formatted independent station K ...
pulled the program from their schedules after two episodes.
Belo ownership
In what Del Lewis described as "the most difficult decision our family has ever made", MAC America sold KTVK and its other remaining assets to the
Belo Corporation
Belo Corporation was a Dallas-based media company that owned 20 commercial broadcasting television stations and three regional 24-hour cable news television channels. The company was previously known as A. H. Belo Corporation after one of the ...
of
Dallas, Texas
Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...
, for $315 million in July 1999.
The Lewises cited the costs of conversion to
digital television
Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an innovative advanc ...
, economies of scale that station groups had in purchasing syndicated programming, and competition from cable and satellite TV in their decision to sell; the transaction capped two years of selling the rest of the company, including ''Phoenix Magazine'', the production facility, and the radio stations, which had suffered from the needed investments in programming and news expansion at KTVK. Later that year, Belo announced that it would purchase KASW from Gregory Brooks, forming the first television
duopoly
A duopoly (from Greek δύο, ''duo'' "two" and πωλεῖν, ''polein'' "to sell") is a type of oligopoly where two firms have dominant or exclusive control over a market. It is the most commonly studied form of oligopoly due to its simplicit ...
in the Phoenix market just as they were being legalized. Bill Miller retired a year later.
In 2000, Belo and Cox expanded their existing partnership with a new
Spanish-language
Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...
channel, ¡Más! Arizona, that launched on October 16 of that year.
KTVK lost the Diamondbacks after the
2007 season, when the team opted to move all of its regional telecasts to cable on
regional sports network
In the United States and Canada, a regional sports network (RSN) is a cable television channel (many of which are also distributed on direct broadcast satellite services) that presents sports programming to a local market or geographical region.
...
Fox Sports Arizona
Bally Sports Arizona (BSAZ) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios, and operates as an affiliate of Bally Sports. The channel broadcasts pro ...
.
Helicopter crash
On July 27, 2007, KTVK's news helicopter "News Chopper 3" was involved in a
mid-air collision
In aviation, a mid-air collision is an aviation accident, accident in which two or more aircraft come into unplanned contact during flight. Owing to the relatively high velocities involved and the likelihood of subsequent impact with the ground o ...
when another news helicopter, belonging to KNXV-TV, struck it from behind.
The collision occurred above
Steele Indian School Park (near Third Street and Indian School Road), while both aircraft were covering a police pursuit in
downtown Phoenix
Downtown Phoenix is the central business district (CBD) of the City of Phoenix, Arizona, United States. It is located in the heart of the Phoenix metropolitan area or Valley of the Sun. Phoenix, being the county seat of Maricopa County, Ari ...
. All four people aboard both helicopters were killed, including KTVK pilot Scott Bowerbank and photographer Jim Cox. An investigation conducted by the
Federal Aviation Administration
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...
(FAA) and
National Transportation Safety Board
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incid ...
(NTSB) determined that the accident was caused by both pilots'
inability to see one another and avoid a collision with the other helicopter.
[
The helicopter collision resulted in the establishment of shared news helicopters in the Phoenix market; while KTVK initially shared a helicopter with KPHO-TV and KPNX, all four Phoenix news operations now share a single helicopter.]
Sale to Meredith
On June 13, 2013, the Gannett Company
Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.[shared services
Shared services is the provision of a service by one part of an organization or group, where that service had previously been found, in more than one part of the organization or group. Thus the funding and resourcing of the service is shared and th ...]
agreement, KTVK and KASW's operations would have remained largely separate from KPNX and the ''Republic''. Despite objections to the Gannett-Belo merger by anti-consolidation groups (such as Free Press) and pay television providers (due to ownership conflicts involving television stations and newspapers both companies owned in other markets, the use of Sander as a third-party licensee to buy stations that would be operated by the owner of a same-market competitor, concerns over any future operational consolidation of the stations involved in the deal, and the Gannett and Sander stations colluding in retransmission consent
Retransmission consent is a provision of the 1992 United States Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act that requires cable operators and other multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) to obtain permission from commercia ...
negotiations), the FCC granted approval of the deal on December 20.
As the sale was completed on December 23, 2013, Sander/Gannett then sold KTVK to the Meredith Corporation, owner of CBS affiliate KPHO-TV. The license assets of KASW were sold to SagamoreHill Broadcasting
SagamoreHill Broadcasting LLC is a privately held American holding company that owns 13 television stations based in the Great Lakes and southern United States regions. The company is a joint venture of the investment firm Duff Ackerman & Goodric ...
, with Meredith to operate that station through a shared services agreement. However, as a voluntary condition of the transaction's approval, that station was instead sold off to the Nexstar Broadcasting Group
Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarter offices in Irving, Texas; Midtown Manhattan; and Chicago, Illinois. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 te ...
. The sale was approved on June 16, 2014, and completed on June 19. On August 7, 2014, Meredith bought the KTVK studios, with the intent of housing the combined operation at KTVK's larger and newer facility.
The union of KTVK and KPHO-TV's news operations, marketed under the "Arizona's Family" banner long associated with KTVK, came with the loss of 14 jobs across both stations. KPHO general manager Ed Munson headed the combined operation until his 2018 retirement.
Sale to Gray Television
On May 3, 2021, Gray Television
Gray Television, Inc. is an American publicly traded television broadcasting company based in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1946 by James Harrison Gray as Gray Communications Systems, the company owns or operates 180 stations across the United St ...
announced its intent to purchase the Meredith Local Media division, including KTVK and KPHO, for $2.7 billion. In Arizona, Gray owned KOLD-TV
KOLD-TV (channel 13) is a television station in Tucson, Arizona, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Gray Television, which provides certain services to Fox affiliate KMSB (channel 11) and MyNetworkTV affiliate KTTU (channel 18) ...
in Tucson
, "(at the) base of the black ill
, nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town"
, image_map =
, mapsize = 260px
, map_caption = Interactive map ...
. The sale was completed on December 1.
Local programming
Newscasts
KTVK had traditionally been the third-rated local station for news and had "long been viewed as a loser", with stints as "Total News" and later "Eyewitness News"; while the station briefly had momentum under Cecil Tuck in the early 1980s, it was unable to escape the ratings basement. The station frequently attempted to lure personalities from competing stations, with mixed results: Mary Jo West, the first female anchor in Phoenix at KOOL/KTSP, returned from a job at CBS News
CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 48 H ...
in 1983, but channel 3 was unsuccessful in hiring anchors from KPNX. West left in the summer of 1986.
The station managed to shed its third-place positioning and become the market leader after the hiring of Miller and Alvidrez in 1986. However, the loss of ABC affiliation led to major changes for KTVK's news department. Chief among them was the launch of a three-hour morning newscast, ''Good Morning Arizona'', initially hosted by , who would leave KTVK to host the weekend editions of ''The Today Show'' in 1996. By that time, ''Good Morning Arizona'' had beaten out all of its local and national competitors in the ratings. The station also transformed its 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts into the 90-minute ''Good Evening Arizona'', and when KASW launched in 1995, KTVK produced a 9 p.m. newscast for the new station.
KTVK itself, however, was later to prime time news than many independent stations. In 1996, it instead relaunched its 10 p.m. newscast as "Tonight Arizona", which later became "NewShow" and "The News Show". This changed in 2008, when the station replaced 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. broadcasts with a 9 p.m. newscast and expanded ''Good Morning Arizona'', bringing it to 52 hours a week of newscasts; a 10 p.m. broadcast was later reinstated in 2011.
KTVK was also involved with news production and simulcasts for the Tucson market when Belo owned and operated KMSB
KMSB (channel 11) is a television station in Tucson, Arizona, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate KTTU (channel 18); Tegna maintains a shared services agreement (SSA) with ...
, Tucson's Fox affiliate. In 2003, KMSB began a 9 p.m. newscast, which originally was produced in Phoenix and used news reporting from KMSB-employed reporters and from Tucson NBC affiliate KVOA
KVOA (channel 4) is a television station in Tucson, Arizona, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Allen Media Broadcasting. The station's studios are located on West Elm Street north of downtown Tucson, and its primary transmitter is ...
. Additionally, from 2003 to 2012, KMSB simulcast ''Good Morning Arizona''.
Non-news
KTVK also airs a limited amount of non-news local programming. One of the station's offerings, the local pet program ''Pets on Parade'', is the longest-running local TV show in Arizona, having first been broadcast in December 1958. In 2010, the station launched the weekly political program ''Politics Unplugged''.
Notable former on-air staff
* Wally Bruner
Wallace Bruner Jr. (March 4, 1931 – November 3, 1997) was an American journalist and television host. He covered Congress and the Lyndon Johnson administration for ABC News in the 1960s. He was the first host of the 1968–1975 syndicate ...
, former newscaster in the 1960s
* Jineane Ford, former reporter, later of KPNX
* Tony Kovaleski
Anthony Carl "Tony" Kovaleski (born 1959) is an investigative reporter currently working at Denver ABC Scripps' KMGH-Channel 7. Previously Kovaleski worked at NBC Bay Area, KNTV in the San Francisco Bay Area. From 2001 to 2011, he was the investi ...
, former reporter, later of KNXV
* Samantha Mohr
Samantha Mohr (born September 13, 1961) is an American meteorologist and television personality from Columbus, Georgia. Mohr was crowned Miss Georgia 1985 and competed for the Miss America 1986 title. She is currently on-air talent at WXIA-TV in ...
, former meteorologist, later of The Weather Channel
The Weather Channel (TWC) is an American pay television channel owned by Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Allen Media Group. The channel's headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia. Launched on May 2, 1982, the channel broadcasts weather forecas ...
* Christi Paul
Christi Paul is a former weekday news anchor for HLN and weekend anchor for CNN's '' New Day''.
Biography
Paul was raised in a Christian family in Bellevue, Ohio. She graduated from the University of Toledo where she earned a bachelor's deg ...
, former anchor and consumer reporter, left in 2003 to work for CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...
; currently a weekday news anchor at HLN and weekend anchor for CNN's New Day
* Brandon Lee Rudat
Brandon Lee Rudat (born May 29, 1980) is an American journalist and television anchor.
Professional career
Rudat started his professional career as an intern on the '' Today Show'' in New York City and a producer for WNBC's ''Today in New York'' ...
, anchor
* Lauren Sánchez
Lauren Wendy Sánchez (born December 19, 1969) is an American media personality who gained fame as an entertainment reporter and news anchor. She has been a guest host on ''The View'', co-host on KTTV Fox 11's ''Good Day LA'' and anchor on the F ...
, former anchor and reporter
* Ray Scott, 5 pm sportscaster and television play-by-play voice of ASU football in the 1980s
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's digital signal is multiplexed
In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...
:
On October 20, 2009, KTVK added This TV
This TV (also known as This TV Network and alternately stylized as thisTV) is an American free-to-air television network owned by Allen Media
Broadcast Networks, LLC, part of the Allen Media Group division of Entertainment Studios. Originally fo ...
to its 3.2 digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...
. This TV was dropped on April 13, 2015, and replaced with a 24/7 loop of local news—the former Arizona NewsChannel. On the same day, sister station KPHO's former 24/7 weather service, moved to KTVK's 3.3 digital subchannel. It was dropped from KPHO in favor of Cozi TV
Cozi TV (stylized on-air as COZI TV) is an American free-to-air television network owned by the NBC Owned Television Stations division of NBCUniversal. The network airs classic television series from the 1960s to the 2000s.
The network origina ...
. On August 1, 2017, the local news loop on 3.2 was replaced by the sci-fi network Comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ar ...
.
KTVK joined the Phoenix ATSC 3.0
ATSC 3.0 is a major version of the ATSC standards for television broadcasting created by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC).
The standards are designed to offer support for newer technologies, including HEVC for video channels of u ...
lineup on July 8, 2021, on the KFPH-CD
KFPH-CD (channel 35) is a low-power, Class A television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, airing programming from the Spanish-language UniMás network. It is a translator of Flagstaff-licensed KFPH-DT (channel 13) which is owned and ...
multiplex. On that date, as part of rebalancing of its subchannels, the KASW subchannel of Ion Mystery
Ion Mystery (formerly Escape and Court TV Mystery, stylized as ESCAPE and MYSTERY; formerly branded on-air as Mystery) is an American digital subchannel#Commercial networks, free-to-air television network owned by the Katz Broadcasting subsidiar ...
was moved to the KTVK multiplex.
Analog-to-digital conversion
KTVK 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 3, 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 continued to broadcast on its pre-transition 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 ...
channel 24, using virtual channel
In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver's ...
3.
As part of the SAFER Act
In cryptography, SAFER (Secure And Fast Encryption Routine) is the name of a family of block ciphers designed primarily by James Massey (one of the designers of IDEA) on behalf of Cylink Corporation. The early SAFER K and SAFER SK designs share ...
, KTVK kept its analog signal on the air to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcement
A public service announcement (PSA) is a message in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge to raise public awareness and change behavior. In the UK, they are generally called a public information film (PIF); in Hong Kong, ...
s from the National Association of Broadcasters
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is a trade association and lobby group representing the interests of commercial and non-commercial over-the-air radio and television broadcasters in the United States. The NAB represents more than ...
. KTVK's "nightlight" service was originally intended to last 30 days, but was instead discontinued two weeks after the analog-to-digital transition on June 26.
Translators
KTVK is rebroadcast on the following translator stations:
* Bullhead City
Bullhead City is a city located on the Colorado River in Mohave County, Arizona, United States, south of Las Vegas, Nevada, and directly across the Colorado River from Laughlin, Nevada, whose casinos and ancillary services supply much of the em ...
(Katherine Landing): K12OF-D
* Bullhead City
Bullhead City is a city located on the Colorado River in Mohave County, Arizona, United States, south of Las Vegas, Nevada, and directly across the Colorado River from Laughlin, Nevada, whose casinos and ancillary services supply much of the em ...
(Oatman/Goldroad Crest): K16EV-D
* Camp Verde, etc.: K32ME-D
* Cottonwood: K28OA-D
* Flagstaff: K25MG-D
* Globe
A globe is a spherical model of Earth, of some other celestial body, or of the celestial sphere. Globes serve purposes similar to maps, but unlike maps, they do not distort the surface that they portray except to scale it down. A model globe ...
–Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
: K14NA-D
* Kingman: K23FV-D
* Lake Havasu City
Lake Havasu City (, ) is a city in Mohave County, Arizona, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 57,144, up from 52,527 in 2010. It is served by Lake Havasu City Airport.
History
The community first started as an ...
: K29FD-D
* Meadview (Patterson Slope): K25DH-D
* Prescott: K11LC-D
* Williams– Ash Fork: K15HY-D
See also
* List of news aircraft crashes
References
External links
*
The McFarland Collection – KTVK-TV
(Photo gallery maintained by Pinal County, Arizona
Pinal County is in the central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. According to the 2020 census, the population of the county was 425,264, making it Arizona's third-most populous county. The county seat is Florence. The county was founded in 187 ...
)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ktvk
Independent television stations in the United States
TVK
Comet (TV network) affiliates
Television channels and stations established in 1955
Gray Television
1955 establishments in Arizona
Former Meredith Corporation subsidiaries