KNWA-TV

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KNWA-TV
Rogers/Fayetteville/Fort Smith, Arkansas
Branding KNWA (general)
Northwest Arkansas News (news)
Slogan Your Northwest Arkansas News Team. Always.
Channels

Digital: 50 (UHF)
Subchannels 51.1 NBC
51.2 KFTA/Fox TV
Translators KFTA-DT 24.2 Fort Smith
Affiliations National Broadcasting Company
Owner Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc.
(Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc.)
First air date 1989[1]
(as satellite of KPOM-TV)
Call letters’ meaning North
West
Arkansas
Sister station(s) KFTA-TV
Former callsigns KFAA (1989-2004)
Former channel number(s) Analog:
51 (1989-2009)
Transmitter Power 1000 kW
Height 267 m
Facility ID 29557
Transmitter Coordinates 36°24′47.8″N 93°57′16.8″W / 36.413278°N 93.954667°W / 36.413278; -93.954667
Website www.nwahomepage.com

KNWA-TV is the NBC television affiliate for the Fort Smith/Fayetteville, Arkansas television market. It broadcasts on digital channel 50. It is a sister station to the area's Fox affiliate, KFTA-TV. The stations' main studios and business office are located in Fayetteville at 15 South Block Street in the historic Campbell-Bell building. The station also has a bureau located in a suite at the JB Hunt building in the Pinnacle Hills area of Rogers, its city of license, which is sometimes used for filming. The station is under the ownership of Nexstar Broadcasting.

Contents

[edit] Early history

KNWA-TV was started on August 23, 1989 as KFAA-TV, a satellite of KPOM-TV in Fort Smith.[2] Its sign-on marked the first time that NBC had been seen over the air in much of the northern part of the Fort Smith/Fayetteville market since KFSM-TV lost the area's NBC affiliation to KPOM in 1983. KPOM only provided grade B coverage of Fayetteville, and couldn't be seen at all in Rogers and points north.

It relaunched a local newscast in 1999. An earlier local newscast had aired under various titles until 1992. The stations changed their calls to KNWA-TV and KFTA-TV in 2004, and KNWA became the main station.

[edit] Separation of KFTA and KNWA

In April 2006, Nexstar announced that it would sell KFTA to Mission Broadcasting, though Nexstar would continue to operate the station under a local marketing agreement with KNWA-TV. Under the plan, KFTA would become the Fox affiliate for the Fort Smith/Fayetteville market, leaving KNWA as the sole NBC affiliate for northwest Arkansas. Equity Broadcasting, owner of then-Fox affiliate KPBI-CA, challenged the sale of KFTA-TV to Mission with the FCC; nonetheless, the separation occurred on August 28, 2006, while both were under Nexstar ownership.

Until the sale of KFTA to Mission was approved, both stations continued to simulcast from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. KFTA now runs a separate programming schedule from KNWA.

KFTA and KNWA each carry the other's signal in standard definition as subcarriers of their digital stations, alongside their main signals in high definition. This is necessary because KNWA's analog signal only broadcasts at 182,000 watts. KNWA also took its analog transmitter off the air for a few days in mid-August 2006 to relocate it to another site for improved coverage.[3]

Given the high penetration of cable and satellite television in this market, few if any TV viewers in this market lost access to NBC or Fox programming through this change. (The only station that has adequate coverage throughout the market from a single transmitter is Arkansas Educational Television Network's KAFT.) Cable and satellite are all but essential for an acceptable signal in northwest Arkansas due to its rugged terrain. For example, Dish Network and DirecTV carried KPBI-CA while it was the Fox affiliate even though it usually doesn't carry low-power stations; after the split, KPBI-CA was dropped in favor of KFTA-TV. On the other hand, the split improved Fox's coverage and enables high-definition Fox programming in this market, as KPBI-CA is low-power and does not have a digital transmitter, unlike both KFTA and KNWA.

According to their FCC filings, both KFTA and KNWA have digital transmitters licensed for a full 1 million watts each, comparable to 5 million watts for an analog UHF transmitter. (For comparison, see the FCC filings of KLRT-TV and KASN in Little Rock; both have 5000-kW analog UHF and 1000-kW digital UHF transmitters with comparable coverage.) Thus, their digital coverage areas will well exceed the analog coverage areas of both KFTA (2.5 million watts) and especially KNWA.

KNWA's broadcasts became digital-only, effective June 12, 2009.[4]

[edit] News/station presentation

[edit] Newscast titles

  • Newsline 24/51 (late 1980s-1990s)
  • Eyewitness News (early 1990s)
  • Arkansas' NBC News (1999-2005)
  • Northwest Arkansas News (2005-present)

[edit] Station slogans

  • Your Northwest Arkansas News Team. Always. (2005-present)
This film, television or video-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook says August 23, while the Television and Cable Factbook says October 1.
  2. ^ AP: NBC Affiliates in Arkansas Re-Launch Local News with AP's ENPS[dead link]
  3. ^ Channel 51 Off Air (August 14, 2006)
  4. ^ L. Lamor Williams (2009-02-07). "Northwest Arkansas' News Source". NWAnews.com. http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/251640/. Retrieved on 2009-07-16. 

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Television stations in Western Arkansas and Kiamichi Country, including Fort Smith, Fayetteville and Rogers
Stations

KOET 3 (PBS / OETA) • KFSM 5 (CBS) • KWNL 9 / KXUN 43 (UNI) • KFDF 10 / KFFS 36 (This) • KAFT 13 (PBS / AETN) • KFTA 24 (Fox, 51.2 Fayetteville) •
KPBI 34 / KPBI 46 (MNTV) • KHBS 40 / KHOG 29 (ABC, 40.2 / 29.2 CW) • K45EI 45 (Rel. Ind) • KNWA 51 (NBC, 24.2 Fort Smith)• KWOG 57 (DS)
Oklahoma Broadcast television areas by city:

Ada/Sherman, TX  • Amarillo, TX  • Fort Smith, AR (Eastern OK)  • Joplin, MO (Northeast OK)  • Lawton/Wichita Falls, TX  • Oklahoma City Metro  • Texarkana, TX-AR/Shreveport, LA  • Tulsa (East Central OK)

See also Little Rock TV • Springfield TV
v • d • e
NBC Network Affiliates in the state of Arkansas
See also: ABC, CBS, CW, Fox, ION, MyNetworkTV, NBC, PBS and Other stations in Arkansas
v • d • e
Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc.
Corporate Staff
Perry A. Sook (President & CEO) · Matt Devine (CFO) · Duane A. Lammers (COO) · Timothy Busch · Brian Jones · Shirley E. Green · Susana G. Schuler-Willingham · Richard Stolpe · Paul Greeley · Blake R. Battaglia · Erik Brooks · Jay M. Grossman · Brent Stone · Royce Yudkoff · Geoff Armstrong · Michael Donovan · I. Martin Pompadur
ABC Network Affiliates
KAMC1 · KMID · KODE1 · KQTV · KSVI · WDHN · WJET · WTVO1 · WUTR1
Azteca América Network Affiliates
WTVX4 · WWHB4
CBS Network Affiliates
KEYE4 · KLBK · KLST · KOLR1 · KTAB · KUTV4 · WCIA · WMBD · WROC · WTAJ · WYOU1
The CW Network Affiliates
WCWJ · WLWC4 · WLYH5 · WTVX4
Fox Network Affiliates
KARD · KBTV · KCIT1 · KHMT1 · KFTA2 · KJTL1 · KSFX · WFFT · WFXP1 · WFXV · WFXW1 · WQRF · WTVW · WUHF3 · WYZZ3
MyNetworkTV Affiliates
KARZ · KCPN1 · KJBO1 · WCFN · WPNY · WTCN4 · WTVO1 · WTVX4
NBC Network Affiliates
KARK · KAMR · KFDX · KNWA · KRBC1 · KSAN1 · KSNF · KTAL · KTVE1 · WBRE · WHAG · WTWO
Retro Television Network Affiliates
KEYE4 · WTVX4
This TV Network Affiliates
KUSG4 · KUTV4
1Nexstar operates these stations owned by Mission Broadcasting.

2Sale of the station to Mission Broadcasting is awaiting FCC approval. Nexstar will continue to operate the station.
3Nexstar operates these stations owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group.
4Nexstar operates these stations owned by Four Points Media Group.

5Nexstar holds the license to this station, but management capabilities belong to Newport Television.
Annual Revenue: $226.1 million USD (2005) · Employees: Unknown at this time. · Stock Symbol: NASDAQ: NXST · Website: www.nexstarbroadcasting.com
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KNWA-TV"
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