KNXV-TV (channel 15) is atelevision station inPhoenix, Arizona, United States, affiliated withABC. It was established in 1979 as the Phoenix area's secondindependent station with part-timesubscription television programming fromON TV. It was originally owned by the New Television Corporation, which had attempted to set up the station for nearly five years prior to its launch. In 1985, Scripps-Howard Broadcasting, the broadcast division of theE. W. Scripps Company, acquired KNXV-TV. Channel 15 affiliated withFox in 1986 and became the leading independent in the market, one of Fox's strongest affiliates. In 1994, Fox announced amulti-city affiliation agreement with New World Communications which included Phoenix's then-CBS affiliate,KSAZ-TV, and mostly CBS affiliates in several other major markets. CBS expressed interest in affiliating with Scripps's ABC affiliates in other cities and Scripps used this as leverage to force ABC to move its Phoenix affiliation from market leaderKTVK to KNXV-TV beginning in January 1995.
The station was in the process of organizing a local newsroom when the switch was announced and aired its first newscast on August 1, 1994;News 15 received critical acclaim in its early years but sank in ratings and quality in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The news department recovered, expanding the number of local newscasts it produced, and has since received threeGeorge Foster Peabody Awards. In 2019, Scripps acquired a second Phoenix station,KASW (channel 61), which was theCW affiliate for Phoenix. The CW affiliation briefly moved to a subchannel of KNXV-TV to allow channel 61 to airArizona Coyotes hockey games. The two stations share studios on 44th Street on Phoenix's east side; KNXV-TV's transmitter is located atopSouth Mountain. Its signal is relayed across northern Arizona through a network of low-powertranslators.
In February 1975, theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) granted aconstruction permit to New Television Corporation to build a newUHF television station on channel 15 in Phoenix. The president was Edwin Cooperstein,[3] who had started New Jersey'sWNJU-TV in the 1960s before moving to Phoenix.[4] New Television Corporation expected to begin broadcasting within a year and was intended to place a heavy emphasis on news programming, airing three 90-minute newscasts at different times between 4 p.m. and midnight.[5] The lone legacy of this intended format was the station's call sign, KNXV-TV, standing for "Newswatch 15" (the "XV" stood for 15 inRoman numerals).[6] Plans were soon delayed due to the inability to secure financing in a difficult economy, and by the end of 1976, the station was still unbuilt.[7] In 1977, Cooperstein and his investors sold a majority of New Television Corporation to Byron Lasky's Arlington Corporation.[8] Lasky would end up launching or purchasing three other stations:WTTO inBirmingham, Alabama;WCGV-TV inMilwaukee; andWQTV inBoston.[9]
In late 1978, plans were made to launch the station the next year. The catalyst and financial backer wasOak Industries, which would broadcast theON TV subscription television service in evening hours while New Television would program the station during the day as a commercialindependent station, airing first-run and off-network syndicated shows and children's programs.[10] KNXV-TV began broadcasting on September 9, 1979, more than four and a half years after the construction permit was granted.[11] One early station promotion featured the "Bluebird of Happinews", with the voice of Elroy "Buzz" Towers (who was voiced by an early station master control and videotape operator) in an invisible sky-blue helicopter taking jabs at local news on other stations.[12][13]
In Phoenix, ON TV held telecast rights at various times toASU sports, thePhoenix Suns,[14][15]Phoenix Giants minor league baseball andLos Angeles Kings hockey. By July 1982, ON TV had 39,000 subscribers in Phoenix, but sporting events and subscribers were moving from subscription television to cable. In 1981, the Suns signed a 13-year agreement to telecast games through American Cable, resulting in the launch of theArizona Sports Programming Network;[16] American Cable sub-licensed games to ON TV, partly because they had not yet wired all of the metropolitan area.[17] KNXV-TV was at times uncooperative with ON TV's programming plans; the station resisted a request to expand ON TV to start before 7 p.m. on weekdays and 5 p.m. on weekends, and it threatened to stop airing ON TV's "adults only" late-night fare.[18] ON TV sued KNXV over its refusal to cede early evening hours, which generated 60 percent of the station's revenue.[19]
Phoenix was one of the first ON TV markets to show serious subscriber erosion. By April 1983, its subscriber base had dipped below 25,000—a drop of more than 35 percent. Oak Communications ultimately shuttered ON TV in Phoenix on May 4, 1983, resulting in the loss of 140 jobs.[18] KNXV then became a full-time general-entertainment independent station, relying on a movie library and syndicated shows not already owned byKPHO-TV (channel 5)—the established independent in Phoenix—or the network affiliates.[20]
After going full-time with the end of ON TV, potential buyers expressed interest in acquiring channel 15. Cooperstein rebuffed a $22 million (equivalent to $54.6 million in 2024[21]) bid from theTribune Company but accepted a $30 million (equivalent to $74.5 million in 2024[21]) offer fromScripps-Howard in 1984; the sale was finalized in 1985 after Scripps was required by the FCC to divest itself of radio stations KMEO-AM-FM.[22]
The new owner's connections showed in a program KNXV debuted shortly after the sale. In mid-1985, KNXV began producingFriday Night at the Frights starring "Edmus Scarey" (portrayed byEd Muscare), a series of hostedB-movies. Ed Muscare had previously hosted shows for another Scripps station,KSHB-TV inKansas City. Stu Powell, general manager of KNXV in the mid-1980s and former KSHB-TV general manager, coaxed Muscare out of retirement to work in Phoenix. Muscare resigned in September 1986, shortly before being arrested on charges of sexual battery with a minor stemming from an incident in Florida.[23] The station also became the over-the-air broadcaster of the Suns again;[24] it lost the rights to televise the team's games toKUTP (channel 45) in 1988[25] with the figure increasing to 30 beginning in the 1990–91 season.[26] KNXV beat out KPHO-TV and KUTP to become Phoenix'sFox affiliate at the network's inception on October 9, 1986; as Fox's first and only program wasThe Late Show Starring Joan Rivers, KNXV remained essentially independent.[27][28] The station had a unique view of the development of the network, as general manager Powell sat on Fox's first board of governors; he would remark of the early days, "The only definition of failure at Fox at that time was not trying things."[29]
During this period, KNXV made steady gains. By 1990, channel 15 had surpassed KPHO in total-day ratings, even though the station still produced no local newscasts,[30] and it was regularly appearing as one of the top five Fox affiliates by ratings in the country.[31] While KPHO attempted to woo Fox away with its existing news operation, KNXV retained the affiliation, having become by 1992 the second most successful Fox affiliate in ratings afterKTXL inSacramento, California.[32]
On May 22, 1994,New World Communications signed a long-term groupwide affiliation agreement with Fox[33] that would result in longtime CBS affiliateKSAZ-TV (channel 10), which New World was in the process of acquiring, becoming the Phoenix area's new Fox affiliate. The deal also affected the two other Fox stations owned by Scripps-Howard, KSHB-TV andWFTS-TV inTampa. New World also owned CBS affiliates switching to Fox inDetroit andCleveland. CBS was highly interested in moving to the successful Scripps-ownedABC affiliates—WXYZ-TV andWEWS-TV—in these markets, which ABC estimated to generate half a rating point by themselves forWorld News Tonight, per a declaration made by KTVK general manager Bill Miller in an FCC filing.[34]: 16 [35] Miller described a pressure campaign led by Scripps to coerce a reluctant ABC to switch from longtime affiliate and market leaderKTVK by threatening disaffiliation in Detroit and Cleveland, having been told by ABC executive Bryce Rathbone that "Scripps has a gun to their head".[34]: 9, 16 Meanwhile, KNXV general manager Raymond Hunt was receiving calls congratulating him on KNXV's new CBS affiliation, even though no such deal had been made.[36]
On June 15, 1994, ABC officially gave KNXV-TV its affiliation for Phoenix, effective January 9, 1995, and agreed to affiliate with Scripps-owned stations in Tampa and Baltimore.[37][38] KNXV was in the advanced stages of building a local news department when the affiliation switch was announced; in September 1993, the station had hired its first news director, and the station's newly hired staff of 30 had reported to Phoenix in the weeks before the New World deal was announced.[39] As a result of the switch and the consequent demand for more newscasts, the news staff expanded to 85, and the station delayed the launch of its newscast a month to August 1.[39] KTVK's loss of the ABC affiliation was attributed to it being a standalone, family-run operation, while Scripps held substantial clout as a major broadcast chain.[40]
Over the second half of 1994, ABC programming migrated from KTVK to KNXV in stages as the outgoing affiliate shed a variety of its soon-to-be former network's offerings. When KTVK launched a local morning newscast at the end of August,Good Morning America was the first ABC program to move to KNXV. KNXV then picked upWorld News Tonight andNightline on December 12, the day after the Fox affiliation ended.[41] The rest of ABC's programming moved to KNXV on January 9, 1995.[42][43][a]
In 1999, the station moved to a new $31 million studio facility that included two studios and a helipad;[45]KDRX-LP, the low-power Telemundo affiliate, then acquired KNXV's former building in 2001, allowing it to start producing its own local newscasts;[46] KNXV-TV had previously produced KDRX's first local news program in 1997.[47] Scripps opted to centralize its advertising traffic operation at hubs in Phoenix and Tampa in 2009, choosing Phoenix as one of its westernmost properties at the time, allowing the traffic hub to stay open later.[48]
The KNXV-TV helicopter, "Air 15", destroyed in the 2007 collision
On July 27, 2007, two news helicopters leased to KNXV and KTVKcollided while covering a police pursuit indowntown Phoenix.[49] All four people on both helicopters were killed, including KNXV pilot Craig Smith and photographer Rick Krolak.[50]
KNXV-TV shut down its analog signal, overUHF channel 15, at 12:01 a.m. on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United Statestransitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. At 2 a.m. on that date, the station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 56, which was among the high band UHF channels (52–69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to its analog-era UHF channel 15.[51][52]
Scripps has since expanded its operations in Phoenix and the state. Its 2015 acquisition ofJournal Communications includedKGUN-TV andKWBA-TV, the ABC and CW affiliates inTucson. On March 20, 2019, Scripps announced that it would acquire Phoenix's affiliate of The CW, KASW, and seven other stations fromNexstar Media Group as part of that company's proposed acquisition of Tribune Media. This would create a new duopoly between KNXV and KASW, the third in the Phoenix market afterFox Television Stations's KSAZ-TV/KUTP andMeredith Corporation's KPHO-TV/KTVK.[53][54][55] The sale was approved by the FCC on September 16 and was completed on September 19, 2019.[56]
On October 5, 2023, theArizona Coyotes announced their departure from the troubledregional sports networkBally Sports Arizona as, duringits parent company's bankruptcy, the network rejected the Coyotes' contract. That same day, the team andScripps Sports announced a new contract. As part of the deal, games would be broadcast by KNXV in Phoenix and Scripps stations in other markets. Because of network programming commitments between KNXV and KASW, most games would air on KNXV's second subchannel, which usually carriesAntenna TV, though both stations would carry surrounding Coyotes team content on their main channels (such as the monthly magazine programCoyotes Insider).[57][58]
Scripps announced on November 16 that The CW would move to KNXV's second subchannel as "CW 6 Arizona" beginning November 20, freeing up KASW to become anindependent station and air subsequent Coyotes games. The subchannel continued to carry programming from Antenna TV in all other time periods and assumed KASW's former cable channel 6 allotment onCox Communications in the Phoenix metro area.[58][59] The affiliation lasted less than three months on KNXV 15.2; effective February 1, 2024, the network moved toKAZT-TV (channel 7) after CW ownerNexstar Media Group entered into atime brokerage agreement with KAZT-TV's owner, Londen Media Group, to program that station.[60]
In 1993, Scripps announced that it would start a local newscast for KNXV in 1994. It had already started a 9 p.m. local newscast for one of its other Fox affiliates, KSHB-TV in Kansas City, and the proposed newscast was intended to be unconventional to match the target demographic of Fox network programming. A news director had been hired in September 1993;[61] the set was already under construction; and anchors and staff had reported to Phoenix in the first weeks of May 1994. However, the New World deal and consequent affiliation switch to ABC occurred late in the development of the newscast. This forced Scripps to rethink both the product to go out on air and the long-term trajectory of KNXV's news department. As a result, the intended style was toned down slightly; a staff of 30 was expanded to 85;[62] and what was once a 9 p.m. newscast slated to launch July 7 turned into a 10 p.m. newscast,News 15, that debuted on August 1, 1994.[39] The new newscast was fast-paced with a high story count, and it was also the start of a rapid expansion to fit the needs of a Big Three affiliate. A 6 p.m. newscast soon followed, with a 5 p.m. show added in December[41] and 6 and 11 a.m. programs in January 1995.[63]
The founding news director, Mary Cox, soon exited; she was replaced by Susan Sullivan, who created an environment focused on enterprise and investigative reporting that employees described as "utopian".[64] Bob Rowe, a station manager "excommunicated" by Scripps to Phoenix, was just as influential in the early years of KNXV's news operation, laying the groundwork for a "no chit-chat" approach. The resulting news product attracted increased viewership:News 15 rose as high as second place at one point. It also led to critical acclaim: in 1995, channel 15 won the most regional Emmy Award nominations for a Phoenix station.[64] After Sullivan left the station in 1996, Michael Kronley was installed as station manager fromCharlotte ABC affiliateWSOC-TV. Under Kronley, the investigative reports were discontinued and replaced by more live shots, and the station acquired a helicopter.[64] KNXV and KPHO both adopted the slogan "Live, Local, Late Breaking", requiring KPHO to alter its version[65] and ultimately leading KNXV to adopt a new slogan, "We won't waste your time".[66] Under Jeff Klotzman, channel 15's fourth news director,[64] ratings generally fell for the station's newscasts; he resigned in 1998 and was replaced by Bob Morford,[67] whose format tended to deemphasize reporters.[68] A 2000Columbia Journalism Review study of local newscasts nationwide gave KNXV an "F" rating for its short stories lacking investigations and mentioned sources,[69] though it praised the focus on local issues and geographic diversity in local news coverage.[70] Morford defended KNXV's news format as an alternative to the longer-established newscasts that already drew frequent news watchers and noted that his station sought to attract "low-use TV news viewers".[71]
On April 1, 2009, Scripps joined with Fox Television Stations, owner of KSAZ-TV, to form Local News Service, a model for pooling newsgathering efforts for local news events in which each station provided employees to the pool service in exchange for the sharing of video.[72] KPHO-TV eventually joined the Phoenix LNS agreement shortly after the announcement.[73] By 2020, all four English-language television newsrooms in Phoenix shared a helicopter.[74]
In the 2010s, KNXV steadily expanded its news product to additional time slots. In 2012, KNXV relaunched an 11 a.m. newscast, and it added weekend morning news in 2013[75] and a 6:30 weeknight half-hour in 2014,[76] among other new newscasts. After acquiring KASW, Scripps launched extended morning, midday, and 9 p.m. newscasts on that station over the course of 2020.[77]
In the mid-2010s, KNXV also became a leader at digital news within the Scripps group, particularly under the leadership of Chris Kline, who was promoted to news director from digital director. It was the first station in the company to launch a channel onRoku, later expanded throughout the group,[78] and the use of a "digital-first" newsroom methodology helped lead to ratings increases for channel 15's newscasts.[79]
KNXV-TV has won threeGeorge Foster Peabody Awards. The first, in 2007, was for "Security Risks at Sky Harbor", which exposed lapses in security at the airport overnight.[80] The station won a second in 2012 for "Ford Escape: Exposing a Deadly Defect", which led to a recall of SUVs,[81] and a third in 2020 for reporter Dave Biscobing's investigation, "Full Disclosure", on the state ofBrady lists in the state,[82] which also received anAlfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award[83] andThe Hillman Prize.[84] Another Biscobing report, "Politically Charged", won a 2021George Polk Award.[85]
KNXV-TV also airs one non-news local program:Sonoran Living, a long-running late morning lifestyle program which debuted in 2000.[86] It is broadcast each weekday at 9 a.m. and hosted by Susan Casper and Terri Ouellette.[87]
KNXV's first subchannel offering was a traffic subchannel, launched in 2008.[93] In 2011, subchannel 15.2 began carrying theLive Well Network;[94] LWN was replaced with classic television network Antenna TV on January 1, 2014.[95] The Antenna TV subchannel, beginning with the2024–25 NHL season, airs selectUtah Hockey Club andVegas Golden Knights games during conflicts with sister station KASW.[96]
The main 61.1 subchannel of KASW is also broadcast on the KNXV-TV multiplex; KASW, Phoenix's high-powerATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV) station, carries KNXV-TV in that format.[92]
KNXV did not have any translator coverage until 1989, when it signed on a translator in Flagstaff.[98] When it became an ABC affiliate in 1995, it replaced KTVK on some transmitters inMohave County's translator network, the largest in the state.[99] The second transmitter in Cottonwood rebroadcast KASW prior to its ATSC 3.0 conversion.[100]
^KNXV became the third station in Phoenix to affiliate with ABC. The network had previously affiliated with channel 10 (then known as KOOL-TV) from 1954 to 1955,[44] when it moved to the newly launched KTVK.[42]
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