Jump to content

KNWA-TV

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by QuasiAbstract (talk | contribs) at 11:44, 6 October 2011 (→‎News teamContact Us, NWAHomepage.com.: Updated reporter and weather teams). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

{{Infobox broadcast}} may refer to:

{{Template disambiguation}} should never be transcluded in the main namespace.

KNWA-TV, virtual channel 51, is the NBC-affiliated television station for Northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas River Valley. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 50 from a transmitter southeast of Garfield. Owned by the Nexstar Broadcasting Group, the station operates Fox affiliate KFTA-TV in Fort Smith (owned by Mission Broadcasting) through a local marketing agreement (LMA). The two stations share studios in the historic Campbell-Bell building on South Block Avenue in Downtown Fayetteville. It also operates a satellite studio in Rogers, its city of license. Syndicated programming on KNWA includes: Entertainment Tonight, Judge Judy, Judge Joe Brown, and The Doctors.

Digital programming

Its signal is multiplexed. KNWA and KFTA 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 aired at 182,000 watts. KFTA has a transmitter south of Artist Point.‎

Channel Name Programming
51.1 KNWA-DT main KNWA programming / NBC HD
51.2 KFTA-DT simulcast of KFTA

This station's broadcasts became digital-only effective June 12, 2009.[1]

History

The station began in 1989 as KFAA-TV, a satellite of KPOM-TV in Fort Smith[2], both stations were owned by Oklahoma City, Oklahoma-based Griffin Television. Its sign-on marked the first time that NBC had been seen over-the-air in much of the northern part of the market since KFSM-TV lost the area's NBC affiliation to KPOM in 1983. KPOM only provided Grade B coverage of Fayetteville and could not be seen at all in Rogers and points north. In 2004, Griffin Television sold KPOM-TV and KFAA-TV to Nexstar[3], the stations changed their calls to "KNWA-TV" and KFTA-TV respectively in 2004 with KNWA becoming the main station.

In April 2006, Nexstar announced that it would sell KFTA to Mission Broadcasting although Nexstar would continue to operate the station under a local marketing agreement with KNWA. Under the plan, KFTA would become the Fox affiliate for the area leaving KNWA as the sole NBC affiliate for Northwest Arkansas. Equity Broadcasting, owner of then Class A Fox affiliate KPBI-CA, challenged the sale of KFTA to Mission with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Nonetheless, the separation occurred on August 28 while both were under Nexstar ownership. Until the sale of KFTA to Mission was approved, the stations continued to simulcast from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. KFTA now runs a separate programming schedule from KNWA. This station took its analog transmitter off-the-air for a few days in mid-August to relocate it to another site for improved coverage.[4]

This did not pose as much of a problem as it may have seemed, given the high penetration of cable and satellite service in this area. 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 acceptable television 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 those carriers usually do not offer low-power stations. After the split, KPBI-CA was dropped in favor of KFTA. 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 KNWA and KFTA. According to their FCC filings, both stations have digital transmitters licensed for one million watts each compared to five million watts for an analog UHF transmitter. Thus, their digital coverage areas well exceed the analog coverage areas of both KFTA (2.5 million watts) and especially KNWA.

Newscasts

KPOM and KFAA relaunched a local newscast in 1999. An earlier local broadcast had aired under various titles until 1992. In 2003 after Morris Multimedia sold KARK in Little Rock to Nexstar, the company eventually consolidated most sports operations from that station with KNWA. The two NBC affiliates share certain news resources with some reports filed by KARK personnel occasionally used during KNWA broadcasts. In 2007, the two stations began co-produced a daily newscast at Noon Monday through Friday, Arkansas at Noon, with news anchors in Little Rock and Fayetteville. Eventually, KARK began airing its own broadcast at that time. Since then, this station has not aired a Midday show. KFTA maintains a bureau at its original studios on Kelley Highway in Fort Smith.

Newscast titles

  • Newsline 24 / 51 (1989–early 1990s)
  • Eyewitness News (c. 1990–1992)
  • Arkansas' NBC News (1999–2005)
  • Northwest Arkansas News (2005–present)

Station slogans

  • "Coverage You Can Count On" (2000–2005)
  • "Your Northwest Arkansas News Team. Always." (2005–present)

News team[5]

Current anchors

  • Laine Baker – weekday mornings KNWA Today
  • Liz Hogan – Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5 and weekends at 10 p.m.; also weeknight reporter
  • Neile Jones – weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
  • Brad Reed – weeknights at 9 p.m. (on KFTA); also reporter
  • Matt Turner – weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
  • Tom Yazwinski – weekday mornings KNWA Today

Power Doppler Forecast Team

  • Dan Skoff (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval; NWA member) – chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 6, 9 (on KFTA) and 10 p.m.
  • Clint Boone (NWA Seal of Approval) – meteorologist; weekday mornings KNWA Today
  • Jason Dollard (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) – meteorologist; Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5 and weekends at 10 p.m

Razorback Nation Sports

  • Aaron Peters – sports anchor; weeknights at 5, 6, 9 (on KFTA) and 10 p.m., also Razorback Nation host
  • Adam Alter – sports anchor; Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5 and weekends at 10 p.m., also sports reporter
  • Trey Daerr – fill-in sports anchor and sports reporter

Reporters

  • Nina Criscuolo – general assignment reporter
  • Cassidy Hodges- general assignment reporter
  • Garret Krier – Benton County reporter
  • Kyle Leyenberger - general assignment reporter
  • Marci Manley – general assignment reporter
  • Marissa Stevens - general assignment reporter
  • Aaron Nolan – general assignment reporter

References

  1. ^ L. Lamor Williams (2009-02-07). "Northwest Arkansas' News Source". NWAnews.com. Retrieved 2009-07-16. [dead link]
  2. ^ AP: NBC Affiliates in Arkansas Re-Launch Local News with AP's ENPS[dead link]
  3. ^ Nexstar plans to buy Fayetteville's NBC 24/51; Griffin Holdings Co. to sell Fayetteville television station, Arkansas Business (via HighBeam Research), September 8, 2003.
  4. ^ Channel 51 Off Air (August 14, 2006)
  5. ^ Contact Us, NWAHomepage.com.

Further reading

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=KNWA-TV&oldid=454218820"