| ATSC 3.0 station | |
|---|---|
 | |
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| Channels | |
| Branding | The Spot – Arizona 61 |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| KNXV-TV | |
| History | |
First air date | September 23, 1995 (30 years ago) (1995-09-23) |
Former channel numbers |
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| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 7143 |
| ERP | 445kW |
| HAAT | 551.8 m (1,810 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 33°20′1″N112°3′47″W / 33.33361°N 112.06306°W /33.33361; -112.06306 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | arizona61.com |
KASW (channel 61), branded asThe Spot – Arizona 61, is anindependent television station inPhoenix, Arizona, United States. It is owned by theE. W. Scripps Company alongsideABC affiliateKNXV-TV (channel 15). The two stations share studios on North 44th Street on the city's east side; KASW's primary transmitter is located onSouth Mountain. KASW is the high-powerATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV) station for the Phoenix area and provides the ATSC 3.0 broadcasts of six major Phoenix commercial stations.
KASW went on the air in 1995 as the Phoenix affiliate ofThe WB. Its first owner contracted withKTVK (channel 3) for programming and support services, and KTVK bought the station in 1999. In addition to being an affiliate of The WB and later The CW, the station also broadcast several secondary local sports teams at various times. As a result of KTVK's sale to theMeredith Corporation, KASW was sold toNexstar Media Group in 2014. In 2019, Scripps acquired KASW from Nexstar as part of the latter's acquisition ofTribune Media.
In 2023, Scripps moved KASW's CW affiliation to a KNXV subchannel, and relaunched KASW as an independent station anchored by broadcasts ofArizona CoyotesNHL hockey. With the team's franchise being deactivated after the 2023–24 season, the Coyotes were replaced with broadcasts of theUtah Mammoth (which acquired the Coyotes' hockey operations) and theVegas Golden Knights syndicated from Scripps sister stations.
Prior to KASW's sign-on, the UHF channel 61 frequency in the Phoenix market was originally occupied bylow-power station K61CA; that station carried a locally programmedmusic video format known as "Music Channel" and operated from March 15, 1983,[2] until November 12, 1984, closing due to mounting debts and lack of cash to continue operating.[3]
The construction permit for K61CA remained active for several more years; by 1988, it was owned by Channel 61 Development Corporation and was planned as a satellite-fed relay ofKSTS, aTelemundo affiliate inSan Jose, California.[4]
In November 1987, theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) allocated channel 61 for full-power use in Phoenix.KUSK-TV applied alongside four other groups;[5] the field was narrowed to three, and Brooks Broadcasting, owned byChandler farmer Gregory R. Brooks, was granted the permit in February 1991 by the FCC review board.[6]
Little activity occurred on the permit, with the call sign KAIK; Brooks considered running home shopping on the station, and he was approached byKPHO-TV about potentially splitting rights to a new major league baseball team with the station.[7]
In December 1994, Brooks entered into alocal marketing agreement with Media America Corporation, then owners ofKTVK (channel 3). KTVK, in the concluding phase of losing its ABC affiliation, had acquired a large inventory of children's programs, includingFox Kids, and theWB affiliation that did not fit with its planned programming as an independent. Brooks, who was wanting to run a station catering to Phoenix's youth audience but had not been able to get the station going, was surprised when KTVK approached him; Delbert Lewis, the owner, owned a farm adjacent to one of Brooks's properties inFlorence but had never met him.[8]
KASW signed on September 23, 1995, as the first new full-power Phoenix television station sinceKUTP started up in December 1985.[7] In addition to WB, Fox Kids and syndicated shows, as well as old movies on the nights when The WB did not air programming,[9] it also aired a 30-minute newscast, known asNewsNight, produced by KTVK;[10] the logo fit the station's youth appeal and was described by Dave Walker ofThe Arizona Republic as "reminiscent of an amoeba-shaped 1960s coffee table".[9] Brooks, a member ofthe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also aired the twice-yearlyLDS General Conference on channel 61.[10] KTVK and KASW also split over-the-air coverage rights to thePhoenix Coyotes hockey team when it moved to Phoenix in 1996, with 20 of the 25 games in the package airing on channel 61.[11]
In July 1999, MAC America (the former Media America) announced it would sell KTVK to theBelo Corporation.[12] Later that year, Belo announced that it would purchase KASW from Gregory Brooks, forming the first televisionduopoly in the Phoenix market just as they were being legalized.[13]
On January 24, 2006, the Warner Bros. unit ofTime Warner andCBS Corporation (which had been created as a result of the split of Viacom at the start of the year) announced that the two companies would shut down The WB andUPN and combine the networks' respective programming to create a new "fifth" network calledThe CW.[14][15] The local UPN affiliate was KUTP, owned byFox Television Stations. None of Fox's UPN stations, some of which were in the same market as charter network outlets owned by CBS andTribune Broadcasting, were selected for the new network, and in late February, Fox announced it would startMyNetworkTV to serve its ex-UPN portfolio (including KUTP) and other stations that would not join The CW.[16][17] On March 8, Belo signed an affiliation agreement with for KASW to become The CW's affiliate in Phoenix.[18][19]
On June 13, 2013, Belo announced that KTVK and KASW would be acquired by theGannett Company, owner of local NBC affiliateKPNX and theArizona Republic. Since this would have given Gannett control of three stations in the Phoenix market, Gannett announced that it would spin off KTVK and KASW to Sander Media,LLC (operated by former Belo executive Jack Sander). While Gannett intended to provide services to the stations through ashared services agreement, KTVK and KASW's operations would have remained largely separate from KPNX and theRepublic.[20] On December 23, 2013, shortly after the approval and completion of the Gannett/Belo deal, theMeredith Corporation announced that it would purchase KTVK and the non-license assets of KASW from Sander Media and Gannett in a $407.5 million transaction.[21] As Meredith already ownedCBS affiliate KPHO-TV (channel 5), the KASW license was instead sold toSagamoreHill Broadcasting, with Meredith operating the station under a shared services agreement.[22]
The FCC approved the sale of KASW and KTVK to SagamoreHill and Meredith on June 17, 2014, and the deal closed two days later. The two companies also agreed to voluntarily divest KASW to an independent buyer within 90 days of the deal's closure; on October 23, 2014, Meredith and SagamoreHill announced that it would sell KASW toNexstar Broadcasting Group for $68 million, giving the company its first station in the Phoenix market. The FCC approved the sale to Nexstar on December 19, and the sale was consummated on January 30, 2015, ending the nearly 20-year partnership between KASW and KTVK.[23][24] The station began migrating out of KTVK's facilities in September 2015.[25]
In March 2019, Nexstar announced it would purchase Tribune Media. This acquisition required divestitures of several overlapping stations; however, in addition to stations in markets where divestiture was necessary, Nexstar opted to also sell KASW to theE. W. Scripps Company, owner of local ABC affiliateKNXV-TV (channel 15), creating Phoenix's third TV duopoly. Although other stations acquired from the Nexstar/Tribune divestitures came from the Tribune portfolio, KASW was the only Nexstar station to be bought out by Scripps.[26][27][28] The sale was approved by the FCC on September 16 and was completed on September 19.[29] Scripps added newscasts from KNXV and also upgraded the station's syndicated programming inventory.[30]
On November 20, 2023, CW programming moved to the second subchannel of KNXV-TV (which otherwise carriedAntenna TV programming), and KASW became anindependent station, with the branding of Arizona 61; the station aired a mix of local news, sports (including Arizona Coyotes hockey), and entertainment programming, as well as content fromScripps News. The rebranded station moved to channel 95 onCox Communications cable systems in the Phoenix metro area, as KNXV's second subchannel took over KASW's channel 6 placement.[31][32] This service in turn lost the CW affiliation on February 1, 2024, toKAZT-TV after Nexstar (who had acquired majority ownership of The CW) began programming the station under a multi-yeartime brokerage agreement with KAZT-TV's owner Londen Media Group.[33] The station adopted The Spot branding on July 27, 2025.[34]
From 1995 to 1997, KTVK produced a half-hour 9 p.m. newscast for KASW.[9]
After the station was sold to Scripps, KNXV-TV began producing two local newscasts for KASW; both of them debuted in a gradual basis over the course of 2020. The first of these newscasts debuted on March 30, when KASW debuted a two-hour extension of KNXV's morning newscast, anchored by a separate team of anchors from the existing morning newscast; a noon news hour followed as daytime news viewership spiked during theCOVID-19 pandemic.[30] It was followed on August 30 by a half-hour long 9 p.m. newscast, anchored by the station's evening team.[35]
KASW served as the first over-the-air broadcast home of theNHL'sPhoenix Coyotes, airing the team's games from the time that the franchise moved to Phoenix in 1996[36][37] until 2006, when the Coyotes announced the move of their over-the-air telecasts toKAZT-TV.[38] The Coyotes returned to KASW in November 2023 as part of Scripps's broadcast deal with the team, airing all regionally-televised games.[32] Though the franchise was deactivated after the 2023–24 season, Scripps retained the rights to broadcast the new expansion franchiseUtah Mammoth (which acquired the hockey-related assets from the Coyotes), which airs on KASW[39] and on Scripps-ownedKUPX-TV inSalt Lake City.[40] The station also airs select games from theVegas Golden Knights,[41] whose TV territory was expanded to include the state of Arizona after the Coyotes deactivated.[42]
From 1997 to 2004, 2019 and again in 2025, KASW broadcastArizona Rattlers arena football,[43][44] and KASW also aired games of thePhoenix Mercury from 1997 through 1999.[45]Phoenix Rising FC soccer was seen on KASW from 2019 through 2021.[46][47]
The station's ATSC 1.0 channels are carried on themultiplexed signals of other Phoenix television stations:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming | ATSC 1.0 host |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 61.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | AZ 61 | Main KASW programming | KNXV-TV |
| 61.2 | 480i | Grit | Grit | KPNX | |
| 61.3 | mystery | Ion Mystery | KTVK | ||
| 61.4 | HSN | HSN | KSAZ-TV |
KASW shut down its analog signal, overUHF channel 61, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United Statestransitioned from analog to digital broadcasts. The station's digital signal continued to broadcast on its pre-transition UHF channel 49, usingvirtual channel 61.[49] The station was then repacked to channel 27 in 2019.[50]
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.1 | 720p | 16:9 | KPHO-NG | CBS (KPHO-TV) |
| 10.1 | KSAZ_NG | Fox (KSAZ-TV) | ||
| 12.1 | 1080p | KPNX-NG | NBC (KPNX) | |
| 15.1 | ABC15NG | ABC (KNXV-TV) | ||
| 45.1 | 720p | KUTP-NG | MyNetworkTV (KUTP) | |
| 61.1 | 1080p | AZ61 NG | Main KASW programming |
On March 27, 2020, this station was launched as a high-power ATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV) transmitter for Phoenix, operating alongsideKFPH-CD and carrying the main program streams of KASW, KNXV, KSAZ and KUTP. It also is being used in the testing ofsingle-frequency networks, with a second transmitter atopShaw Butte.[51]
On July 8, 2021, KPHO and KPNX were added to KASW from KFPH-CD, placing all four major network affiliates on the same ATSC 3.0 multiplex.[52]
At the time of ATSC 3.0 conversion, KASW had three dedicated translators: K34EF-D inKingman, K21EA-D inLake Havasu City, and K34EE-D inCottonwood.[53]
Since conversion, programming from KASW has been seen through the translators of its ATSC 1.0 hosts. K34EE-D in Cottonwood was switched to rebroadcast KNXV-TV in June 2021.[54] Mohave County also surrendered the licenses of its two translators carrying KASW in July 2022.
Includes English-language stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Arizona | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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