KARK-TV
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KARK-TV is an NBC affiliate based in Little Rock, Arkansas. The station is owned and operated by CBS Corporation and is the market's second television station, having signed on the air on April 15, 1954. It broadcasts its analog signal on VHF channel 4, and its digital signal on UHF channel 32.
Controversy
KARK made national news in early 2006 by declining to air the NBC TV program The Book of Daniel. The Station's General Manager Duane Lammers issued two statements regarding the issue. The first, issued January 4, 2006, stated "Our relationship with NBC always provided for the right to reject programming. I am reaffirming that right to let them know I will not allow them to make unilateral decisions affecting our viewers." The statement continued, "If my action causes people in our community to pay more attention to what they watch on television, I have accomplished my mission." [1]
Two days later a second statement was released citing concerns about FCC rules regarding obscenity, "My first obligation to my station is to protect the license granted by the FCC. Current regulations could subject this station to severe punishment, up to and including revocation of our license if even a single person's objection to the FCC found material broadcast by our station to be indecent or obscene. Subsequent viewing of the material within "The Book of Daniel" leaves me no choice but to do my job and uphold the standards of our community."
It should be noted that central Arkansas, like the South generally, is home to an overwhelming majority of conservative and fundamentalist Protestants, whose tastes and sensibilities cannot be ignored by a major broadcaster like KARK. It is likely the station feared a possible boycott of its advertisers if it had decided to air the program, or even a challenge to its broadcast license.
The local WB affiliate, KWBF, aired the program instead. However, due to KARK's action, and that of several other NBC affiliates throughout the Midwestern and Southern U.S., NBC cancelled the show after only three episodes.