KTVK

From its sign on in 1955 until 1995, KTVK was affiliated with ABC and was one of that network's strongest affiliates.

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's fourth television station. It immediately became an ABC affiliate. McFarland chose the calls "because TV will be our middle name."[1]

KTVK cleared most of ABC's network schedule except lower-rated daytime shows, as well as an occasional show during prime time. It was broadcast across the whole state of Arizona, including Tucson, except on certain hours not to interfere with its local ABC affiliate KGUN (channel 9). 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 KOOL-TV (channel 10, later KTSP-TV and now KSAZ-TV) for many years, even when KTAR-TV (channel 12)'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. KTVK logo used from 1986 to 1996; the circle 3 dates back to 1982 and is meant to be an offshoot of ABC's circle 7 logo, as the circle was used when KTVK was an ABC affiliate.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 to 9 am) 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.[2] KTVK anticipated having its affiliation agreement with ABC renewed. However, much to the Lewises' surprise, KNXV-TV's owner, Scripps, forced ABC to switch its affiliation to KNXV (which was to lose its Fox affiliation) as a condition of keeping ABC on Scripps' two biggest stations, WEWS-TV in Cleveland and WXYZ-TV in Detroit. KTVK approached CBS in an effort to secure that network affiliation, but Meredith Corporation, owner of independent KPHO, convinced CBS to move its affiliation there as a condition of keeping CBS on KCTV in Kansas City. KTVK appealed to the Federal Communications Commission on grounds that Scripps had "abused its license power for anti-competitive purposes", but their appeal was denied.[2] After nearly 40 years as a network affiliate, KTVK was to become an independent TV station. KTVK immediately began purchasing more programming and increasing local news production.[2] In August, it 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. Since KNXV was on its way to becoming an ABC affiliate, they began to air Good Morning America beginning in September 1994.

By December 15, 1994, KTVK also dropped Mike and Maty (of which KTVK had only aired 30 minutes daily), 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 airing 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), Rolonda, Branded (for weekends), and The Little Rascals (for weekends). KTVK also affiliated with the WB Network.

As an independent station
The circle 3 logo in a TV. The TV portion was from 1996 and used to 2003.KNXV officially became Phoenix's ABC affiliate on January 9, 1995, and KTVK nominally became the market's WB affiliate. Initially, The WB only had one night a week of programming, which KTVK chose to air on Saturday nights. The WB added a second night of programming in mid-1995, which KTVK aired on Sunday. With WB only occupying two nights of programming, KTVK was essentially an independent station. It also broadcast Fox Kids 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. A quirk of the Fox Kids schedule on KTVK was that Animaniacs and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers aired on Sundays at 6 and 6:30 p.m. (respectively), after the news and before its 7 p.m. movie.

KTVK owned a substantial programming inventory, but didn't have 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 (channel 61), in September 1995, KTVK immediately entered into a local marketing agreement with the new station. KASW became the WB affiliate, and KTVK bought the new station's entire broadcast day. KASW also picked up Fox Kids programming soon after and 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 the Arizona News Channel, a joint venture with Cox Communications launched on November 4, 1996.[3] KTVK returned to NewsChannel 3 branding in 2003, resulting in this variation used from 2003 - 2005.In 1998, KTVK briefly aired The Howard Stern Show; after two episodes, it and KJTV-TV in Lubbock, Texas, stopped airing the program. KTVK aired it after its 10pm news.[4]

MAC America decided to sell off most of its media assets, including KTVK, in 1999, 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, the LMA with KASW and the two cable channels to the Belo Corporation in 1999, ending 44 years of McFarland-Lewis ownership.[5] (Belo eventually bought KASW outright in 2001.)

In 2000, Belo and Cox partnered to produce a new Spanish-language channel, ¡Más! Arizona. It launched October 16 of that year.[6]

Without a network affiliation, KTVK fills primetime with Dr. Phil, Oprah, and an hour-long 9PM newscast (which competes with the 9PM newscast on Fox-owned KSAZ, that started at the same time as KTVK's). Even with the meteoric rise of KPNX after it stayed with NBC and that network rocketed to the top of the ratings, KTVK remained the dominant news station in Arizona well through 2003; KTVK held the evening news crown that year and KPNX led in late news.[7] That year, KTVK's Oprah was also the top syndicated show in the market. The station's newscasts still receive high ratings. Its evening newscast, "Good Evening Arizona," regularly trounces the national networks' newscasts in the ratings. KTVK is one of the nation's most successful independent stations. Variation used from 2005 - 2007.KTVK was the original over-the-air home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, beginning broadcasts when the team joined the National League in 1998. The team remained on KTVK through the end of the 2007 season, when the team opted to move all of its English-language broadcasts (not counting national broadcasts) to FSN 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. The station broadcasts nearly 50 hours of HD news content per week.

On February 24, 2009 it was announced that KTVK, KPHO-TV and KPNX will share a helicopter starting March 1, 2009.[8] [9] [10]

[edit] Helicopter crash
Main article: 2007 Phoenix news helicopter collision On July 27, 2007 at exactly 12:46:20pm MST, KTVK's News Chopper 3 was involved in a mid-air collision when local ABC affiliate KNXV-TV's helicopter struck it from behind.[11] The collision occurred above Steele Indian School Park, near Third Street and Indian School Road, while both aircraft were covering a police car pursuit in downtown Phoenix.[12] All four people on both helicopters were killed, including KTVK pilot Scott Bowerbank and photographer Jim Cox.[13] The cause of the crash is now being investigated.

Digital television
Digital channels On June 12, 2009, the day mandated by the US federal government for TV stations to cease analog transmissions across the country, KTVK ended regular analog programming and switched to the nightlight service on channel 3, while continuing digital broadcasts on channel 24, which it chose for its post-transition channel.[14] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Analog_to_Digital_14-0">[15] Through the use of PSIP, KTVK's digital broadcast identifies to television receivers as virtual channel 3.

KTVK's "nightlight" service, which was intended to remind TV viewers of the switch to digital, was originally to last 30 days, but was instead ended on June 26 after two weeks.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-15">[16]

On September 22, 2009 it was announced that KTVK will be adding This TV to its 3.2 digital subchannel.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-ThisTV_16-0">[17] The subchannel launched one month later, on October 20.

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 4:30am until 9am weekdays (and 7am to 10am 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 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.

On January 14, 2010, it was announced that Good Morning Arizona will be expanding an hour and will run from 4:30-10 a.m. effective January 25, 2010. At the same time, Good Day Arizona at 11 a.m. was discontinued. Current Good Day Arizona anchor Frank Camacho will now host a weekly politics show, Politics Unplugged on Sundays at 5:30 p.m. and be the chief political reporter for the station.

Ratings
According to Tess Rafols, weekend anchor of Good Morning Arizona, GMAZ Saturday had the highest ratings in the February 2010 ratings period of any other newscast in Phoenix. Also, KTVK is currently advertising that Good Evening Arizona is #1 in the ratings during the 4:30-6:30 p.m. hours. As such, it has been one of the strongest independent (non-network-affiliated) stations in the country since it dropped ABC in 1995.

[edit] Newscast titles

 * Total News (1976-1980)
 * Eyewitness News 3 (1980-1983)
 * Channel 3 News (1983-1986 and 1996-2003)
 * NewsChannel 3 (1986-1996 and 2003-2004)
 * 3TV News (2004-present)

[edit] Station slogans

 * Arizona's First Color Television Station (1966-1970)
 * TV-3 News: Arizona's Most Respected Television News Organization (1970-1974)
 * If It's News, It's On TV-3 News (1974-1976)
 * Arizona's Largest Television News Team (1976-1977)
 * You Know You Can Count on Us (1977-1980)
 * Arizona's Choice for News (1980-1983)
 * Arizona's Very Own (1983-1986)
 * You'll Love it on TV-3 (1985-1986; localized version of ABC ad campaign)
 * Arizona's News People (1986-1993)
 * When News Happens, You'll See it Happen on NewsChannel 3 (1993-1994)
 * The Place With More Stuff (1994–2003)
 * Arizona's Family (2003–present, used infrequently until early-2005)
 * Everywhere, Always There (breaking news, developing story) (2005?-present)
 * The Place With More News (2007-2009)
 * The Best Gets Better (2009-present)

[edit] Anchors

 * Tyler Baldwin - Saturday mornings Good Morning AZ; also weekday reporter
 * Yetta Gibson - weekday mornings Good Morning AZ - starts this fall
 * Tara Hitchcock - weekday mornings Good Morning AZ (6-10 a.m.)
 * Beverly Kidd - weeknights at 9 p.m.
 * Patti Kirkpatrick - weekdays Good Evening AZ (4:30–6:30 p.m.)
 * Ryan O'Donnell - Sunday mornings Good Morning AZ; also weekday reporter
 * Kaley O'Kelley - weekday mornings Good Morning AZ (4:30-6 a.m); also 6-9 a.m. reporter
 * Scott Pasmore - weekday mornings Good Morning AZ (5-10 a.m.)
 * Tess Rafols - weekend mornings Good Morning AZ; also weekday reporter
 * Javier Soto - weekday mornings Good Morning AZ (4:30-5 a.m.); also 5-10 a.m. reporter

[edit] Weather

 * Royal Norman (AMS Seal of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weekdays Good Evening AZ (4:30–6:30 p.m.) and 9 p.m.
 * Britney Shipp - meteorologist; weekend mornings Good Morning AZ, and weekends at 5 and 9 p.m.
 * April Warnecke (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekday mornings Good Morning AZ (4:30-10am)
 * Kaley O'Kelley - Good Morning AZ fill-in weather forecaster

[edit] Traffic

 * Gina Maravilla - weekday mornings Good Morning AZ (4:30-10 a.m.)

[edit] Sports

 * Tim Ring - Sports Director; weekdays Good Evening AZ (4:30–6:30 p.m.) on and 9 p.m.
 * Brad Cesmat - Sports Anchor; weekends at 5 and 9 p.m.

[edit] Reporters

 * Steve Bodinet
 * Frank Camacho - host of "Politics Unplugged", chief political reporter
 * Stacey Delikat
 * Jared Dillingham
 * Bruce Haffner
 * Gary Harper - "3 On Your Side" investigative reporter
 * Kristine Harrington
 * Carey Pena - "3 On Your Side" investigative reporter
 * Mike Watkiss
 * Marissa Wingate
 * Carina Sonn

[edit] News Chopper 3 Pilots/Reporters
(As part of a Local News Service the helicopter is shared with KPHO-TV and KPNX and operated by Helicopters Inc.)
 * Scott Clifton - weekday mornings "Good Morning AZ (4:30-9 a.m.)
 * Jimmy Castanza - Backup pilot, weekday mornings "Good Morning AZ" (4:30-9 a.m.)
 * Tammy Rose - weekdays "Good Evening AZ" (4:30–6:30 p.m.)

Rebroadcasters
KTVK is rebroadcast on the following translator stations: List of translators [show]*K26FS Blythe, California KTVK is available on cable in Yuma, the Imperial Valley, California and Coachella, California Country Cable services.<sup class="Template-Fact" style="white-space: nowrap;" title="This claim needs references to reliable sources from October 2008">[citation needed]
 * 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