KNXV-TV , is a full-service television station in Phoenix, Arizona, broadcasting in digital on UHF channel 15. Owned by The E. W. Scripps Company (Scripps), the station has been the ABC television affiliate for the Phoenix area since 1995. Its transmitter is located on South Mountain in Phoenix. KNXV is available over-the-air on channel 15 in Phoenix and can be seen throughout northern Arizona on a network of low-power translator stations, as well as by cable and statellite television. Prior to the analog-to-digital conversion that moved many historically-VHF stations' broadcast assignments to UHF, KNXV was ABC's largest affiliate on the UHF band; it remains the largest affiliate to broadcast with a logical channel number higher than 13.
History
In February 1975, pioneering UHF broadcaster Edwin Cooperstein announced that the FCC had granted a construction permit to his company, New Television Corp., to build a television station in Phoenix on UHF channel 15. It was expected to begin broadcasting within a year and was intended to place a heavy emphasis on news, airing three 90-minute newscasts during the prime broadcast hours of 4 pm to midnight. Plans were soon delayed by the inability to secure financing in a difficult economy, and by the end of 1976, the station still had not been built. Finally, on September 9, 1979, more than four-and-a-half years after the construction permit was granted, KNXV-TV began broadcasting. Its programming originally consisted of first-run and off-network syndicated shows and children's programming during the day, and the ON-TV Subscription Television service in the evening and late-night hours. One of the station's most memorable early promotions was the "Bluebird of Happy News," with the voice of Elroy "Buzz" Towers in a helicopter taking jabs at local news on other stations. An early station master control/videotape operator was the voice of "Buzz".
ON-TV lasted a few years, until cable television began to prosper across the Phoenix area. KNXV eventually became a full-time independent station, and ran a number of cartoons, old sitcoms, old movies, and drama shows. It pulled mediocre ratings, and lagged behind longtime independent station KPHO 5. Cooperstein sold the station to The E. W. Scripps Company in 1984, and the deal was closed in early 1985.
Under Scripps, KNXV began to purchase more recent sitcoms, often outbidding KPHO for strong shows. Scripps also promised local newscasts would be added to the station, and as a result, the station gained the Fox affiliation at the network's inception in 1986. The first offering from the Fox network was an evening talk show hosted by Joan Rivers. KNXV kicked off the affiliation with a promotional campaign centered around the slogan "Light Up The Night With Late Night Fireworks".
Also in 1986, KNXV began producing "Friday Night At The Frights" starring Edmus Scarey (real name Ed Muscare), decidedly campy B-movie wrap arounds. Ed Muscare had previously hosted shows for KNXV's Scripps owned sister station KSHB-TV in Kansas City. Stuart Powell, General Manager of KNXV in the late eighties, coaxed Mr. Muscare out of retirement.
By 1990, KNXV nearly tied KPHO in the ratings, even though the station still produced no local news.
Becoming an ABC affiliate
It was announced in 1994 that longtime CBS affiliate KSAZ-TV was to become a Fox affiliate. The CBS affiliation, in turn, moved to KPHO, leaving KNXV without an affiliation, and prompting Scripps began to negotiate an affiliation agreement with ABC. In order for Scripps to keep ABC on Scripps' two biggest stations, WXYZ-TV in Detroit and WEWS-TV in Cleveland, ABC agreed to affiliate with KNXV (along with WMAR in Baltimore and WFTS in Tampa; WCPO-TV in Cincinnati was also part of the Scripps/ABC deal, but had to wait for ABC's affiliation contract with WKRC-TV to expire in June 1996 to switch), thus displacing longtime ABC affiliate KTVK. In turn, KNXV agreed to produce the same amount of local news as KTVK had been producing as an ABC affiliate. KNXV also agreed to not pre-empt any ABC programming except for local news emergencies.
ABC's affiliation agreement with KTVK did not expire until late 1994, but KTVK had already begun to drop ABC shows. As a result, the ABC affiliation migrated to KNXV in stages, and the station carried programming from both ABC and Fox for a while, with ABC as a temporary secondary affiliation. Good Morning America was the first ABC program shown on KNXV, following the first round of changes at the end of August 1994. KNXV then picked up World News Now , Nightline , and ABC's Saturday morning cartoons in December. The rest of ABC's programming moved to KNXV in January 1995. KNXV kept about one-third of its syndicated programming, with the rest moving to other stations. By this time, KNXV was also airing newscasts at 6 am, 11 am, 5 pm, 6 pm and 10 pm. Over the years, KNXV has added more first-run syndicated shows, such as Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!. In 2006, KNXV began a 4 pm newscast, the first in the market, replacing a Jeopardy! rerun, and in June 2007, it became the fourth TV station in Arizona (after KPNX, KTVK, and KVOA in Tucson) to produce high-definition newscasts. KNXV has also become the home of preseason games for the National Football League's Arizona Cardinals. Today, KNXV is a typical ABC affiliate, producing a decent amount of local news, and clearing nearly all of the network's programs in their intended time slots. It is the largest (by market size) ABC affiliate on a UHF channel. However, KNXV has been one of ABC's weakest affiliates after switching in 1994. In stark contrast, KTVK dominated the ratings when they were affiliated with ABC.
During the 2007 Little League World Series, this caused a conflict with ABC's coverage of one of the preliminary-round games. The plan was to move the baseball game to ESPN, thereby interrupting the national feed on Cox Communications and other cable providers in the market. Those getting KNXV by way of satellite would watch the baseball game on an alternate channel. Meanwhile, the Cardinals would play the Houston Texans in a preseason game on KNXV beginning at 1 p.m. local time. KNXV would then rebroadcast the LLWS game on tape delay at about 4:30 p.m. that afternoon.
In 2009, KNXV began training its staff of photojournalist and reporter employees to take on the role of a Multi Media Journalist, this is commonly referred to in the industry as a "one man band" operation. Employees in this classification generate story ideas, shoot, edit, write, and publish the content.
On April 1, 2009, Fox Television Stations and E. W. Scripps Company announced the creation of the Local News Service model in the Phoenix, Detroit and Tampa Markets. The service pools news gathering efforts for general market news events. Each station provides employees to the pool service in exchange for the sharing of video. KPHO-TV signed on to the Phoenix LNS model shortly after the announcement.
Helicopter crash
Main article: 2007 Phoenix news helicopter collisionTragedy struck the newsroom on July 27, 2007, when helicopters from KNXV-TV and KTVK collided above Steele Indian School Park, near Third Street and Indian School Road, after following a police car pursuit in downtown Phoenix. All four people on both helicopters were killed, including KNXV pilot Craig Smith and photographer Rick Krolak. The ABC15 helicopter was broadcasting live at the time of the collision and footage of this broadcast subsequently circulated on media-sharing sites such as YouTube. The investigation concluded that pilot error caused the crash.
Digital television
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
Digital channels
KNXV ceased analog broadcasts at 12:01AM on June 12, 2009, just minutes after the start of the day mandated by the Federal government for TV stations to cease analog transmissions across the country. KNXV moved its digital signal from channel 56 (due to the phaseout of channels 52-69) to channel 15 at 2AM, local time.
On-air
Anchors
- Lori Jane Gliha , Weekend Anchor/Reporter
- Steve Irvin , 4 pm, 5 pm, 6 pm, & 10 pm Anchor/Reporter
- Katie Raml , 4 pm, 5 pm, 6 pm, & 10 pm Anchor/Reporter
- Rebecca Thomas , Daybreak Anchor
- Susan Casper , Daybreak Anchor
- Stephanie Sandoval , Sonoran Living Host & Co-Executive Producer; Substitute Daybreak Anchor
- Michael Hagerty , Daybreak Traffic Anchor
Reporters
All reporters at ABC15 shoot and edit their own reports.
General Assignment
- Nicole Beyer
- Dave Biscobing
- Christina Boomer
- Kyle Burke
- Susan Casper
- Jodie Heisner
- Angie Holdsworth
- Chris Kline (Web Reporter/Producer)
- Daphne Munro (Smart Shopper Reporter)
- Jennifer Parks
- Corey Rangel
- Mary Ellen R
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