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KNXV-TV is the ABC-affiliated television station in Phoenix, Arizona. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 15 from a transmitter atop South Mountain on the city's south side. Its signal is relayed across northern Arizona through a network of 15 low-power translators. Owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, KNXV maintains studios on the city's east side (north of Sky Harbor International Airport). Prior to the 2009 digital television transition that resulted in many stations historically broadcasting on the VHF band moving their channel assignments to UHF, KNXV was ABC's largest affiliate on the UHF band (it remains the largest affiliate to broadcast with a virtual channel number higher than 13.1).

History

In February 1975, pioneering UHF broadcaster Edwin Cooperstein announced that the Federal Communications Commission had granted a construction permit to his company, New Television Corp., to build a television station in Phoenix on UHF channel 15.[1] It was expected to begin broadcasting within a year and was intended to place a heavy emphasis on news, airing three 90-minute newscasts at different times between 4 p.m. to midnight.[2] Plans were soon delayed by the inability to secure financing in a difficult economy, and by the end of 1976, the station still had not been built.[3] Finally on September 9, 1979, more than four-and-a-half years after the construction permit was granted, KNXV-TV signed on the air. Its programming originally consisted of first-run and off-network syndicated shows, and children's programs during the day, and the subscription television service ONTV during the nighttime hours. One of the station's most memorable early promotions was the "Bluebird of Happy News," with the voice of Elroy "Buzz" Towers in a helicopter taking jabs at local news on other stations. An early station master control/videotape operator was the voice of "Buzz".

ON-TV lasted a few years, until cable television began to prosper across the Phoenix area. KNXV eventually became a full-time independent station, and ran a number of cartoons, old sitcoms, old movies and drama series. The station pulled in mediocre ratings, and lagged behind longtime independent station KPHO-TV (channel 5). Despite this, Cooperstein was able to sell the station to current owner Scripps in 1984, with the sale closing in 1985

Under Scripps, KNXV began to purchase more recent sitcoms, often outbidding KPHO for strong shows. After KPHO turned down an offer to affiliate with the fledgling Fox network, it approached KNXV. After Scripps promised to launch a news department, KNXV joined Fox at the network's inception in 1986. The first offering from the Fox network was an evening talk show hosted by Joan Rivers. KNXV kicked off the affiliation with a promotional campaign centered around the slogan "Light Up The Night with Late Night Fireworks". Also in 1986, KNXV began producing Friday Night at the Frights starring "Edmus Scarey" (portrayed by Ed Muscare), a series of decidedly campy B-movie wraparounds. Ed Muscare had previously hosted shows for KNXV sister station KSHB (channel 41) in Kansas City. Stuart Powell, general manager of KNXV in the late 1980s, coaxed Muscare out of retirement.[citation needed] By 1990, KNXV nearly tied KPHO in the ratings, even though the station still produced no local newscasts.

Becoming an ABC affiliate

File:News15.jpg
KNXV logo from 1995 to 1997. It was the first logo to feature the ABC network logo.
KNXV logo from 1997 to 2000, giving more prominence to the ABC network logo. The ABC portion was used as a globe or flipped over to reveal the station callsign, both of which were done in the channel's newscast opens at this time.
File:KNXV-TV ABC15 logo.png
KNXV logo from 2000 to 2002. It featured the classic circle/channel logo style reminiscent of the logos used by ABC's owned-and-operated stations.

On May 22, 1994, New World Communications inked a long-term groupwide affiliation agreement with Fox that would result in longtime CBS affiliate KSAZ-TV (which New World was in the process of acquiring from Citicasters) becoming the Phoenix area's Fox affiliate. The CBS affiliation, in turn, moved to KPHO, leaving KNXV without an affiliation and the likelihood of reverting into an independent, prompting Scripps to negotiate an affiliation agreement with ABC. In order for Scripps to keep ABC on its two biggest stations, WXYZ-TV in Detroit and WEWS-TV in Cleveland, ABC agreed to affiliate with KNXV, NBC station WMAR-TV in Baltimore and Fox affiliate WFTS-TV in Tampa (Scripps flagship WCPO-TV in Cincinnati was also involved in the deal, but had to wait for ABC's affiliation contract with WKRC-TV to expire in June 1996 to switch). Locally, this resulted in the displacement of ABC from longtime affiliate KTVK. As a condition of the sale, KNXV agreed to produce the same amount of local news programming as KTVK had been producing under its ABC affiliation. KNXV also agreed to not preempt any ABC programming, outside of local news emergencies.[4]

ABC's affiliation agreement with KTVK did not expire until the end of 1994, but unhappy about losing ABC after 41 years, KTVK had already begun to drop ABC shows from its schedule. As a result, the ABC affiliation migrated to KNXV in stages, and the station carried programming from both ABC and Fox for a while, with ABC as a temporary secondary affiliation. Good Morning America was the first ABC program shown on KNXV, following the first round of changes at the end of August 1994. KNXV then picked up World News Now, Nightline and ABC's Saturday morning cartoons when the station officially dropped its Fox affiliation on December 15. The rest of ABC's programming moved to KNXV on January 9, 1995. KNXV kept about one-third of its syndicated programming, with the rest moving to other area stations.

KNXV carried the majority of Arizona Cardinals National Football League games that were not blacked out in the meantime, until they returned to KSAZ in December 1994. The Cardinals were part of the National Football Conference, which had their games on CBS until the end of the 1993 season, moving to Fox the next year. The move of the NFC from CBS to Fox was a major catalyst of the Fox-New World deal. After becoming a full-time ABC affiliate, KNXV was limited to airing the Cardinals' games on Monday Night Football - the first of which would be in 1995: a Christmas Day contest in Tempe against the eventual Super Bowl champions, the Dallas Cowboys (the Cowboys won 37-13 to clinch home field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs; coincidentally, the Super Bowl was also played in Tempe).

Over the years, KNXV has added more first-run syndicated shows, such as Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!. KNXV has since become the home of preseason games for the Arizona Cardinals. Today, KNXV is a typical ABC affiliate, producing a decent amount of local news programming, and clearing nearly all of the network's programs in their intended time slots. However, KNXV has been one of ABC's weakest affiliates after switching in 1994. In stark contrast, KTVK dominated the ratings when it was affiliated with ABC.

During the 2007 Little League World Series, this caused a conflict with ABC's coverage of one of the preliminary-round games. The plan was to move the baseball game to ESPN, thereby interrupting the national feed on Cox Communications and other cable providers in the market. Those getting KNXV by way of satellite would watch the baseball game on an alternate channel. Meanwhile, the Cardinals would play the Houston Texans in a preseason game on KNXV beginning at 1 p.m. local time. KNXV would then rebroadcast the LLWS game on tape delay at about 4:30 p.m. that afternoon.[5]

Because ABC lost NFL rights in 2006, the Cardinals' preseason games are the only NFL games to be broadcast on KNXV. The Cardinals' CBS appearances are contracted to KPHO-TV, Fox appearances to KSAZ-TV, and NBC appearances to KPNX-TV. The Cards' NFL Network and ESPN appearances are contracted to KTVK.

Helicopter crash

Main article: 2007 Phoenix news helicopter collision
Wikinews has related news:

Tragedy struck the newsroom on July 27, 2007, when helicopters from KNXV and KTVK collided above Steele Indian School Park (near Third Street and Indian School Road), after following a police car pursuit in downtown Phoenix.[6] All four people on both helicopters were killed, including KNXV pilot Craig Smith and photographer Rick Krolak.[7] The KNXV helicopter was broadcasting live at the time of the collision and footage of this broadcast subsequently circulated on media-sharing sites such as YouTube. The investigation concluded that pilot error caused the crash.[8]

Digital television

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programmierung
15.1 720p 16:9 ABC15HD Main KNXV-TV programming / ABC
15.2 480i 4:3 LWN Live Well Network

Analog-to-digital conversion

KNXV ceased analog broadcasts at 12:01 a.m. on June 12, 2009, the federally-mandated date for American television stations to cease analog transmissions across the country. KNXV moved its digital signal from UHF channel 56 (due to the phaseout of the high band UHF channels 52-69 from broadcasting use) to channel 15 at 2 a.m. on that date.[9][10]

Programmierung

In addition to ABC network programming, syndicated programming featured on KNXV-TV includes Katie, Right This Minute, Made in Hollywood and Private Practice. KNXV was the third station in the Phoenix market to air Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune: the two shows were first seen on KSAZ-TV from 1983/1984 to 1994, then on KTVK from 1994 to 2003. Both shows were dropped by KNXV and other Scripps stations in September 2012 as part of a corporate edict to reduce costs, and were replaced with programs produced by Scripps itself, Let's Ask America and The List, that will initially be syndicated exclusively to the group's stations[11] (Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune returned to KTVK on September 17, 2012).

News operation

KNXV-TV presently broadcasts a total of 35 hours of local newscasts each week (with 5.5 hours on weekdays, 4.5 hours on Saturdays and 3 hours on Sundays). KNXV is one of ten television stations that air consumer reports from John Matarese of fellow ABC affiliate (and Scripps sister station) WCPO/Cincinnati.

At the time that KNXV had been named Phoenix's new ABC affiliate in 1994, the station already been building a news department under news director Raymond Hunt. Plans for KNXV's new newscast, originally built to match the Fox feel, included a futuristic purple set and liberal use of special effects. After ABC came to KNXV, the style was toned down, though the set remained. The station's newscasts debuted at last on August 1, 1994, under the News 15 brand name with an 85-person news staff (larger than the 30 that the news department was originally planned to have).[4] By September 1995, KNXV was airing daily newscasts at 6 and 11 a.m. in the morning, and evenings at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.

In 2006, KNXV debuted the first 4 p.m. newscast in the market, replacing a Jeopardy! rerun, and in June 2007, it became the fourth station in Arizona (after area NBC affiliate KPNX, KTVK and Tucson NBC affiliate KVOA-TV) to produce their local newscasts high-definition. In 2009, KNXV began training its staff of photojournalists and reporters to take on the role of a multimedia journalist, this is commonly referred to in the industry as a "one man band" operation. Employees in this classification generate story ideas, shoot, edit, write and publish the content.

On April 1, 2009, the E. W. Scripps Company and Fox Television Stations announced the formation of the Local News Service model between stations owned by the two station groups in the Phoenix, Detroit and Tampa markets. The service allows the pooling of news-gathering efforts for local news events and each station provides employees to the pool service in exchange for the sharing of video.[12] Meredith Corporation-owned CBS affiliate KPHO-TV eventually joined the Phoenix LNS agreement shortly after the announcement.[13]

On July 9, 2012, KNXV launched a one-hour midday newscast weekdays at 11am, anchored by its ABC 15 Mornings news team.

On January 19, 2013, KNXV launched a new weekend morning newscast from 5 to 7 a.m. both Saturday and Sunday with an extra hour of local news from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m on Saturday.[14]

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

  • News 15 (1994–1995, 1997-2002)
  • ABC News 15 (1995–1997)
  • ABC 15 News (2002–present)[15]

Station slogans

  • "We're # (number) Fun" (1979-early 1980s)
  • "Where The Stars Shine!" (mid-1980s)
  • "No Chit-Chat, More News" (mid-1990s)
  • "We Won't Waste Your Time" (1990s)
  • "Live. Local. Latebreaking." (late 1990s-2000)
  • "ABC15, Your Valley News Leader" (2002–present)
  • "Always On." (website promotion, to 2009; still used infrequently)
  • "Make the Switch to ABC 15" (2005–present)
  • "Less Chit Chat... More News" (morning news promotion, 2005–present)
  • "Arizona's New Homepage" (website promotion, 2009)
  • "Everything Arizona" (website promotion, late 2009–present)

News team

Current on-air staff[16]

Anchors
  • Connie Colla - weekday mornings on ABC15 Mornings (4:30-7 a.m.) and weekdays at 11 a.m.
  • Dan Spindle - weekday mornings on ABC15 Mornings and 11am
  • Stephanie Hockridge - weekend evenings
  • Steve Irvin - weekdays at 4, and weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
  • Katie Raml - weekdays at 4, and weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
  • Susan Casper - host of Sonoran Living;
  • Terri Ouelette - co-host of Sonoran Living;
  • Christopher Sign - weekend mornings; also reporter
  • Kirk Yuhnke - weekday mornings on ABC15 Mornings (4:30-7 a.m.) and weekdays at 11 a.m.
  • Brandon Hamilton - weekday morning traffic anchor and 11 a.m. reporter
ABC15 Most Accurate Forecast Team
  • Amber Sullins (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weekdays at 4, and weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
  • Iris Hermosillo (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekend mornings
  • Amy Murphy - weather anchor; weekday mornings on ABC15 Mornings (4:30-7 a.m.) and weekdays at 11 a.m.
  • TBA - meteorologist; weekend evenings
Sports team
  • Craig Fouhy - sports director; weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
  • Paul Calvisi - sports anchor; weekend evenings, also reporter
Multimedia journalists
  • Courtney Carlmark - morning reporter (wife of KPNX meteorologist Rob Carlmark)
  • Kimberly Cheng - general assignment reporter
  • Eric English - general assignment reporter
  • Navideh Forghani - general assignment reporter
  • Angie Holdsworth - general assignment reporter
  • Steve Kuzj - general assignment reporter
  • John Matarese - consumer reporter
  • Daphne Munro - consumer reporter ("Smart Shopper")
  • Corey Rangel - general assignment reporter
  • Mary Ellen Resendez - general assignment reporter
  • Katrina Schaefer - web reporter; also web producer
  • Adam Slinger - general assignment reporter
  • Brian Webb - general assignment reporter
ABC15 Investigators
  • Dave Biscobing - investigative reporter
  • Joe Ducey - consumer investigative reporter
  • Lori Jane Gliha - investigative reporter and multimedia journalist

Notable former on-air staff

Translators

List of translators
Active translators
City Callsign City Callsign City Callsign City Callsign City Callsign
Big Sandy Valley K27DA Bullhead City K04GT Blythe, California K29EC Chloride K49EU Cottonwood K44CN
Dolan Springs K41BZ Flagstaff K52CM Golden Valley K46CG Kingman K44DK Kingman K57FY
Lake Havasu City K39FV Meadview K38GR Needles, California / Bullhead City K31HY Prescott K47DJ Verde Valley/Camp Verde TV Club K23FZ

References

  1. ^ "Another television station approved for Phoenix". Tucson Daily Citizen. 1975-02-19. p. 24.
  2. ^ "New Phoenix TV to Stress News Programs". Yuma Daily Citizen. 1975-02-21. p. 13.
  3. ^ "Phoenix TV Station Can't Go on Air". Arizona Daily Sun (Flagstaff AZ). 1977-01-04. p. 3.
  4. ^ a b Meisler, Andy (1994-08-29). "Murdoch's Raid Brings a Shuffling of TV Stations in Phoenix". The New York Times.
  5. ^ "What's on TV? Little League Dominates August Lineup". Little League Online. 2007-08-01. Archived from the original on 2007-10-30. Retrieved 2007-11-04.
  6. ^ "4 Dead As 2 Helicopters Tracking Police Pursuit Collide". KPHO-TV website. 2007-07-27. Retrieved 2007-07-27.
  7. ^ "4 dead in ABC15, Channel 3 chopper crash". KNXV-TV website. 2007-07-28. Retrieved 2007-07-28.
  8. ^ Wessman, Katrina (2009-01-28). "NTSB: Both pilots responsible in ABC15, 3TV chopper crash". ABC15 website. Retrieved 2009-03-12.
  9. ^ "DTV Transition Status Report". FCC CDBS database. 2009-03-12. Retrieved 2009-03-19.
  10. ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). FCC CDBS database. 2006-05-23. p. 2. Retrieved 2009-03-19.
  11. ^ Scripps Producing New Game Show and News Mag for Stations, Broadcasting & Cable, May 22, 2012.
  12. ^ "Fox, Scripps Create Local News Service". Broadcasting & Cable. April 1, 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-28.
  13. ^ "Chicago stations join to share video crews for ENG". BroadcastEngineering. May 8, 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-28.
  14. ^ [1]
  15. ^ KNXV 5pm Open 1/08
  16. ^ Staff Bios
  17. ^ Rubin, Paul (25 January 2007). "Boob's Tube: Here's how publicity hound Joe Arpaio used a TV station to try to destroy rival Dan Saban with a bogus rape claim". Phoenix New Times. Village Voice Media. Retrieved 2008-09-25.
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