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KTVK (known on-air as 3TV) is an independent television station in Phoenix, Arizona. Its transmitter is located on South Mountain in Phoenix. It broadcasts on Channel 3 in Phoenix and has numerous translators across Northern Arizona.
Contents
History
As an ABC affiliate
Former Senator Ernest McFarland, author of the GI Bill, was awed by the new medium of television. With a few friends, he formed the Arizona Television Company and applied for a television license. On March 1, 1955—shortly after McFarland was elected governor of Arizona—KTVK signed on as Phoenix' fourth television station. It immediately became an ABC affiliate. McFarland chose the calls "because TV will be our middle name."Template:cite web
KTVK cleared most of ABC's network schedule except lower-rated daytime shows, as well as an occasional show during prime time. Despite the pre-emptions, ABC was generally satisfied with KTVK, one of its strongest affiliates.
KTVK's news department was a very distant second to longtime leader KTSP-TV (now KSAZ) for many years, even when KTAR-TV's 1979 sale to Gannett (and call letter change to KPNX) made it the only locally-owned network affiliate in the market. When McFarland died in 1984, the station's ownership was taken over by his daughter Jewell and her husband Delbert Lewis.
The station's fortunes began to improve significantly after several news managers from KTSP defected to KTVK in 1986. An aggressive marketing campaign, a new brand ("NewsChannel 3"), and a popular new anchor team finally helped make KTVK a truly competitive player in news. By the late 1980s, KTVK was the top-rated station in Arizona. A Saturday morning newscast (from 7–9am) was launched in 1993.
KTVK's atmosphere was somewhat different from what was typical for a Big Three-affiliated major-market station. McFarland ran his station as a "mom and pop" business, and had an open-door policy which the Lewises continued when they took over the station. Employee turnover was very low, and hugs were very common in the newsroom. This was an outgrowth of the station's longtime slogan, "Arizona's Family."
In the spring of 1994, New World Communications announced an affiliation deal with Fox in which most of its stations became Fox affiliates. One of the stations to switch was KSAZ, Phoenix' longtime CBS affiliate. CBS, not wanting to affiliate with KNXV (which was to lose its Fox affiliation), approached KTVK for an affiliation. KTVK turned it down in anticipation of having its affiliation agreement with ABC renewed.
However, much to the Lewises' surprise, KNXV's owner, Scripps, forced ABC to switch its affiliation to KNXV as a condition of keeping ABC on Scripps' two biggest stations, WEWS-TV in Cleveland and WXYZ-TV in Detroit. The Lewises were very upset at how they had been treated after so many years of loyalty. KTVK immediately began purchasing more programming and increasing local news production. In August, they dropped "Good Morning America" and launched "Good Morning Arizona" in the 6–9 AM slot, featuring anchor Jodi Applegate and meteorologist Royal Norman. The 6–7 AM slot had previously been occupied by a more traditional newscast. Contractually, KNXV was unable to air "Good Morning America" for several months.
By December 1994, KTVK also dropped Mike and Maty, World News Now, and Nightline, which were also picked up by KNXV. At that point, ABC's cartoons also moved to KNXV, with KTVK dropping its Saturday morning newscasts and running Fox Kids (which had been turned down by KSAZ) instead. By then KTVK was only running prime time programming, sports, and the major soaps from ABC.
KTVK renewed Oprah and Inside Edition, and purchased all the available King World shows such as Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! (which was not renewed by KSAZ, and are now seen on KNXV), American Journal (not renewed by KPNX), Rolanda, Branded (for weekends), and The Little Rascals (for weekends). KTVK also affiliated with the WB Network.
As an Independent Station
KNXV officially became Phoenix's ABC affiliate in January 1995, and KTVK nominally became the market's WB affiliate. However, it only showed WB programming on Saturday nights, so it was essentially an independent station. It also ran Fox Kids in the early afternoons and weekend mornings for about a year. The station aired Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and several off-network sitcoms during prime time. One of the more notable things about KTVK's airing of the Fox Kids lineup was their airing Animaniacs & Mighty Morphin Power Rangers on Sundays at 6PM & 6:30PM, after the news and before their 7PM movie.
KTVK owned a huge programming inventory, but lacked enough time in its broadcast day to air it all even after dropping ABC. As such, when the Brooks family launched a new station, KASW, in September, KTVK immediately entered into a local marketing agreement with the new station. KASW became a WB affiliate, and KTVK bought the new station's entire broadcast day. KTVK then reinstated Saturday morning newscasts. On the same day KASW took over the WB affiliation, the Arizona Television Company officially changed its name to MAC America Communications, after its founder's nickname, "Mac." By this time, it had grown to include two FM stations, a magazine and two local cable news channels: Arizona's first Spanish language news channel ¡Más! Arizona and Arizona News Channel (English).
MAC America decided to sell KTVK in 1998, but was very selective about a buyer. It wanted to sell to a company that would continue to keep a local presence at the station (particularly important to the Lewises, as KTVK was the last locally-owned station in the market) and allow the station to continue its growth of the last decade. In the end, it sold KTVK and the LMA of KASW to the Belo Corporation in 1999, ending 44 years of McFarland-Lewis ownership. (Belo eventually bought KASW outright in 2001.)
Despite losing its ABC affiliation, the station's newscasts, each with its own name ("Good Evening Arizona," "The News Show," etc.), still receive high ratings. Its evening newscast regularly outperforms the national networks' broadcasts by a large ratings margin. KTVK is one of the nation's most successful independent stations.
It was also the first over-the-air home of the Arizona Diamondbacks when the team joined the National League in 1998. The team remained on KTVK through the end of the 2007 season, but the team has since chosen not to renew the contract. As of 2008, D-backs games will only be available on Fox Sports Net Arizona.
On April 26, 2007, KTVK became the third station in Arizona (following KPNX in Phoenix and KVOA in Tucson) to broadcast its news in high definition. It is reported that the station will broadcast nearly 50 hours of HD news content per week.
Helicopter Crash
Template:main Template:wikinews On July 27 2007 at around 12:45pm MST, KTVK's and KNXV-TV's helicopters collided above Steele Indian School Park, near Third Street and Indian School Road, after following a police car pursuit in downtown Phoenix.Template:cite news All four people on both helicopters were killed, including KTVK pilot Scott Bowerbank and photographer Jim Cox.Template:cite news The cause of the crash is now being investigated.
Digital Television
The station's digital channel:
| Channel | Programming |
|---|---|
| 3.1 / DTV Channel 24 | Main KTVK programming |
Trivia
Former Later Today anchor Jodi Applegate, CNN anchor Daryn Kagan, 20/20 co-anchor Elizabeth Vargas, CNN Headline News anchor Christi Paul and ABC News Producer and Univision contributing correspondent Patricio Espinoza worked at KTVK before going national.
Good Morning Arizona
Among the station's flagship broadcasts is "Good Morning Arizona," one of the country's original long-format local TV morning newscasts. Running from 5am until 9am weekdays (and also in a different form on weekends), the show has been a long-time ratings winner and the highest-rated program of its kind in the nation. "GMAZ" has its own budget, writers and air staff. The show is also simulcast on Tucson Belo station KMSB-TV. It features weathercasts done by a former Chicago standup comedian, Brad Perry; live helicopter-based traffic and breaking news reports delivered by Bruce Haffner, a pilot/reporter; and a long-time host, Tara Hitchcock. Jodi Applegate was the host of Good Morning Arizona from 1994 until 1996, when she joined NBC as a weekend Today Show anchor.
Logos
- Album 3tv sub.gif
The circle 3 logo in a TV. The TV portion was from 1997 and used to 2003; the circle 3 dates back to the 1980s and is meant to be an offshoot of ABC's circle 7 logo, as the circle was used when KTVK was an ABC affiliate.
- Album 3tv icon.gif
KTVK returned to NewsChannel 3 branding in 2003, resulting in this variation used from 2003 to 2005.
Station name and slogan over the years
- Arizona's News People: NewsChannel 3 (1980s-1993)
- NewsChannel 3, The Place With More Stuff (1994–1996)
- 3TV, The Place With More Stuff (1996–2003) NOTE: NewsChannel 3 was still used infrequently for several years after 1996
- News Channel 3, Arizona's Family (2003–2004, used infrequently until early-2005)
- 3TV, Arizona's Family (2004, present)
- 3TV, Everywhere, Always There (breaking news, developing story) (present)
- The Place With More News (present)
Rebroadcasters
KTVK is rebroadcast on the following translator stations:
- K26FS Blythe, California
- K12OF Bullhead City
- K16EV Bullhead City
- K49HP Camp Verde
- K02PE Carrizo
- K02PF Cibecue
- K27EJ Colorado City
- K38AI Cottonwood
- K47DA Duncan/Clifton/Morenci
- K54GI Flagstaff
- K15DX Fredonia
- K48FC Fort Apache
- K57BO Globe/Miami
- K23FV Kingman
- K29FD Lake Havasu City
- K25DH Meadview
- K11LC Prescott
- K53GM Williams
See also
- Jane Dornacker, a reporter who died in a helicopter accident while being on air.
- List of news aircraft crashes
External links
- KTVK Website
- The McFarland Collection - KTVK-TV (Photo gallery maintained by Pinal County, Arizona)
- Template:TVQ
References
Template:PHX TV Template:Other Arizona Stations Template:Belo Corporation
