KSNW

KSNW digital channel 45 (virtual channel 3) is a NBC affiliate television station based in Wichita, Kansas. It is owned by the New Vision Television group. KSNW is also the flagship station of the Kansas State Network (KSN), the state's chain of NBC affiliates. KSNW's transmitter is located near Colwich, Kansas.

History
KSNW signed on the air on September 1, 1955 as KARD-TV, the third television station in Wichita. This made Wichita one of the smallest cities in the country with three network-affiliated stations.

In 1962, after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled that central and western Kansas was part of the Wichita market, KARD merged with KCKT-TV, channel 2 in Great Bendand its satellites KGLD-TV in Garden City and KOMC-TV, channel 8 in Oberlin. The three stations, known as the "Tri-Circle Network," brought NBC programming to central and western Kansas. The Tri-Circle Network then changed its name to the Kansas State Network, with KARD as the flagship station of the new four station group. The stations eventually expanded their signals to reach 75% of Kansas plus portions of Nebraska, and now claim to reach half of Kansas' television households.

The stations changed their calls on August 16, 1982 to help viewers think of the four stations as parts of one large network. KARD became KSNW, KCKT became KSNC, KGLD became KSNGand KOMC became KSNK, with the KARD call letters ending up with KARD-TV in Monroe, Louisiana.

Although the three KSN satellites originated their own newscasts for many years, their local operations were progressively cut back from the mid-1980s onward. By the start of the 21st century, local news had been reduced to inserts in KSNW's newscasts, and separate identifications had been largely eliminated.

In 1988, SJL Broadcast Management acquired the KSN stations. They were then sold to Lee Enterprises in 1995. Emmis Communications bought most of Lee Enterprises' stations in 2000.Montecito Broadcast Group, a newly-formed partnership between SJL and the Blackstone Group, acquired the KSN stations from Emmis on January 27, 2006.

In January 2006, the station hired former general manager Al Buch as the station's new GM, under the then-pending ownership of Montecito Broadcast Group. The CEO/founder of Montecito is George Lilly.

 On July 24, 2007, Montecito announced the sale of all of its stations (KSNW and its satellites, plus KHON-TV inHonolulu and its satellites, KOIN in Portland and KSNT in Topeka) to New Vision Television. The sale was finalized on November 1, 2007. [1]Despite being the first station to build a semi-satellite network in the western part of the state, KSNW's newscasts have lagged far behind those of rival stations KWCH-TV and KAKE-TV for several decades. In recent years, however, KSN has been battling KAKE for second place in some time slots although both stations trail dominant KWCH by a fairly wide margin.

In 2008, KSNW established a low-powered repeater for Salina, K06LZ, which is the same programming as KSNW, but with local ads and programming. K06LZ will soon be replaced with a new digital channel, KSNL-LD. During the 1960s and 1970s, KCKT-TV sent programming to Salina via K18AA, a repeater that aired on channel 18, which in recent years became a Fox affiliate.

In January 2009, KSN acquired Cox Cable channel Kansas Now 22 from KAKE/WIBW and Gray Television to produce its own news and weather for the cable channel.

On October 31, 2010, KSNW began broadcasting its newscasts in digital widescreen. Although not truly high definition, the news broadcasts match the aspect ratio of HD television screens. This leaves KAKE as the only remaining Big Five network-affiliated television station still broadcasting local newscasts in 4:3 standard definition (KSAS-TV's 9 p.m. newscast and KSCW-DT's weekday morning newscast are produced by KWCH-DT, which remains the only local news operation in the Wichita market to broadcast in high definition).

On January 30, 2011, KSNW began broadcasting the weather portion of their newscast in high definition.

Digital TV
The station's digital channel:

Digital channels

Post-analog shutdown
KSNW shut down analog transmissions on June 12, 2009. The station remained on its pre-transition channel 45. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display KSNW's virtual channel as 3.

Current satellites
After having turned off their analog signals, KSNC and KSNK are now using their former analog channel assignments 2 and 8, respectively as their virtual channels using PSIP.

Former semi-satellites

 * KSNT (analog/virtual digital channel 27, physical RF digital channel 28), Topeka - KSNT only did limited simulcasting with KSNW and the other three KSN stations in western Kansas and is also owned by New Vision Television. However, it does not simulcast syndicated programs from Wichita and has its own programming and news departments; however, the news departments of KSNT and KSNW do share news stories in the state of Kansas and they both broadcast NBC programming, produced programs for Kansas 22, and KU Basketball. KSNT and CBS affiliate WIBW shared a secondary affiliation with ABC until 1983, when KTKA signed on and both stations exclusively affiliated with NBC and CBS respectively.
 * KSNF (analog/virtual digital channel 16, physical RF digital channel 46), Joplin, Missouri/Pittsburg, Kansas - Like KSNT, KSNF only did limited simulcasting with KSNW and its satellite stations in western Kansas. It is no longer associated with KSNW; and is now owned by Nexstar Broadcasting, but still uses the "KSN" name (though does not use the KSN logo) in its "KSN 16" moniker.

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">Both KSNT and KSNF provided limited simulcasts from KSNW from 1982 to 1990, when George Lilly's SJL Communications purchased the station from George Hatch dismantled part of the microwave system that linked KSNF and KSNT to provide simulcasts of KSNW programming in a cost cutting measure.

News operation
<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">Currently, KSNW broadcasts a total of 21½ hours of local news per week (with four hours on weekdays, one hour on Saturdays and a half-hour on Sundays).

Newscast titles

 * Your Esso Reporter (1955–1963)
 * The Marlboro News (1963–1969)
 * 24 Hours (1969–1975)
 * Total News (1975–1978)
 * NewsCenter 3 (1978–1984)
 * KSN NewsCenter (1984–1985)
 * KSN News/KSNW News (1985–1987)
 * Channel 3 News (1987–1990)
 * NewsChannel 3 (1990–1998)
 * KSN News (1998–2008)
 * KSN News 3 (2008–present)

Newscast slogans

 * KSN There, Be There (1983–1984; localized version of NBC ad campaign)
 * Hello Wichita, Channel 3 Loves You (1983–1993; used during period station used Frank Gari's Hello News)
 * Hello Kansas, KSN Loves You (1983–1993; used during period station used Frank Gari's Hello News)
 * It's Time To Go 3 (1984–1987)
 * Turn To 3 / Turn to KSN (1987–1990)
 * NewsChannel 3, The Place To Be (1990–1991; localized version of NBC ad campaign)
 * Where the News Comes First (1990–1993)
 * It`s A Whole New NewsChannel 3 (1992-1993; localized version of NBC ad campaign)
 * Clear. Accurate. To the Point. (2002–2006)
 * Chime In! (2008–present; localized version of NBC ad campaign from the 2008-2009 season)

Current on-air staff
<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">The following is the current staff, as of January 16, 2011.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[1]
 * Anchors
 * Stephanie Bergmann - weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
 * John Snyder - weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.
 * Mark Davidson - weekdays at Noon, and mornings on Kansas Today show
 * Aileen Simborio - weekdays at Noon; also reporter
 * Brooke Martin - weekend anchor
 * Josh Witsman - News Reporter
 * Justin Kraemer - News Reporter
 * Craig Andres - News Reporter
 * Kevin Wheeler - News Reporter
 * Jason Kravarik - News Director/Special projects contributor
 * Kirsten Rossotti - Garden City Bureau Reporter
 * Mekialaya White - Great Bend Bureau Reporter
 * Matt Horn - Salina Bureau Reporter


 * Weather team
 * Dave Freeman (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - Chief Meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
 * Mark Bogner (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - Assisstant Chief Meteorologist; Weekdays at Noon
 * J.D. Rudd (AMS Seal of Approval) - Meteorologist; Weekends at 6 and 10 p.m.
 * Leon Smitherman (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - Meteorologist; weekday mornings on Kansas Today


 * Sports team
 * Jamison Coyle - Sports Anchor; Weekend anchor

Past on-air staff

 * Cecil Carrier - meteorologist for several decades beginning in 1950s
 * Anita Cochran - 5, 6 and 10 p.m. anchor
 * Steve Dennis - sports anchor (now at KTVT in Dallas-Fort Worth)
 * Greg Gamer - anchor (1960s-mid 1980s)
 * John Holt - anchor/reporter (now at WDAF-TV in Kansas City)
 * Kai Jackson - anchor/reporter (now at WJZ-TV in Baltimore)
 * Gregg Jarrett - anchor/reporter (now at Fox News Channel)
 * Leon Liebl - sports anchor/reporter (formerly at KSHB-TV in Kansas City)
 * Melissa Beck - anchor (was married to anchor Todd McDermott and working with the CBS News program Up To The Minute using her married name Melissa McDermott)
 * Todd McDermott - anchor/reporter (now with WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh)
 * David Ross - political reporter/storm chaser (1986–1988; now with the Alternate Public Defender's Office of Los Angeles County, California)
 * Dennis Smith - Meteorologist (until early 1980s; left to join The Weather Channel)
 * Web Smith - Sports Anchor (1960s-mid 1980s) deceased.
 * Jim Kobbe - Sports Director and anchor; weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.