KNXV-TV
KNXV-TV (channel 15) is a television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside independent station KASW (channel 61). The two stations share studios on 44th Street on the city's east side; KNXV-TV's transmitter is located atop South Mountain. KNXV-TV's signal is relayed across northern Arizona through a network of low-power translators.
- Phoenix, Arizona
- United States
- Phoenix, Arizona
- United States
ABC15 Arizona; ABC15 News
- 15.1: ABC
- for others, see § Subchannels
- E. W. Scripps Company
- (Scripps Broadcasting Holdings LLC)
September 9, 1979
- Analog: 15 (UHF, 1979–2009)
- Digital: 56 (UHF, 2000[1]–2009)
- Independent (1979–1986, 1994–1995)
- ON TV (1979–1983)
- Fox (1986–1994)
- ABC (secondary, 1994–1995)
- The CW (DT2, 2023–2024)
Intended original "Newswatch" format; XV is the Roman numeral for 15
59440
458 kW
521 m (1,709 ft)
see § Translators
KNXV-TV was originally established in 1979 as the Phoenix area's second independent station with part-time subscription television programming from ON TV. It was owned by the New Television Corporation, which had tried to get the station going for nearly five years prior to its launch. ON TV folded in 1983 as cable television became more prevalent in the Phoenix area and after station management refused requests to give the pay service more airtime. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting, the broadcast division of the E. W. Scripps Company, acquired KNXV-TV in 1985. Channel 15 affiliated with Fox in 1986 and surpassed KPHO-TV in the ratings as the leading independent in the market, becoming one of Fox's strongest affiliates.
In 1994, Fox announced a multi-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, most notably Detroit and Cleveland, and used this as leverage to force ABC to move its Phoenix affiliation from market leader KTVK to KNXV-TV beginning in January 1995. The station was already 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. However, the news product later improved; the station has received three George Foster Peabody Awards.
History[edit]
Independent station (1979–1986)[edit]
In February 1975, pioneering UHF broadcaster Edwin Cooperstein, who had started New Jersey's WNJU-TV in the 1960s before moving to Phoenix, announced that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had granted a construction permit to his company, New Television Corp., to build a television station in Phoenix on UHF channel 15.[3] It was 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.[4] The lone legacy of this intended format was the station's call sign, KNXV, standing for "Newswatch 15" (the "XV" stood for 15 in Roman numerals).[5] 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.[6] In 1977, funding problems continued to stand in the way of getting KNXV-TV on the air, leading Cooperstein and his investors to sell a majority of New Television Corp. to Byron Lasky's Arlington Corporation.[7] Lasky would end up launching or purchasing three other stations: WTTO in Birmingham, Alabama; WCGV-TV in Milwaukee; and WQTV in Boston.[8]
In late 1978, firm plans were made for a 1979 launch of the station. The catalyst and financial backer was Oak Industries, which would broadcast the ON TV subscription television service in evening hours while New Television would program the station during the day as a commercial independent, airing first-run and off-network syndicated shows and children's programs.[9] KNXV-TV signed on September 9, 1979, more than four and a half years after the construction permit was granted.[10] One of the station's most memorable early promotions featured the "Bluebird of Happinews", with the voice of Elroy "Buzz" Towers (who was voiced by an early station master control/videotape operator) in an invisible sky-blue helicopter taking jabs at local news on other stations.[11][12]
In Phoenix, ON TV held telecast rights at various times to ASU sports, the Phoenix Suns,[13][14] Phoenix Giants minor league baseball and Los Angeles Kings hockey. By July 1982, ON TV had 39,000 subscribers in Phoenix, but signs of trouble for the business were emerging rapidly. In 1981, the Suns signed a 13-year agreement to telecast games through American Cable, resulting in the launch of the Arizona Sports Programming Network;[15] however, American Cable sub-licensed games to ON TV in part because they had not yet wired all of the metropolitan area.[16] KNXV-TV also proved itself a tough partner for Oak's subscription service. The station resisted a request to expand ON TV to start before 7 p.m. on weekdays and 5 p.m. on weekends, while the station also threatened to stop airing ON TV's "adults only" late-night fare.[17] ON TV took the station to court over its refusal to cede early evening hours, which generated 60 percent of the television station's revenue.[18]
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.[17] KNXV then became a full-time general entertainment independent station, relying on a movie library and those syndicated shows not already owned by KPHO-TV, the established independent in Phoenix, or the network affiliates.[19]
Scripps purchase and Fox affiliation[edit]
After going full-time with the end of ON TV, potential buyers appeared for channel 15. Cooperstein rebuffed a $22 million bid from the Tribune Company and accepted a $30 million offer from Scripps-Howard in 1984, with the sale being finalized in 1985 after Scripps was required to divest itself of radio stations KMEO-AM-FM.[20]
One new program on channel 15 in its first months with Scripps had much to do with its new owner. In mid-1985, KNXV began producing Friday Night at the Frights starring "Edmus Scarey" (portrayed by Ed Muscare), a series of decidedly campy B-movie wraparounds. Ed Muscare had previously hosted shows for another Scripps station, KSHB-TV in Kansas City. Stu Powell, general manager of KNXV in the mid-1980s and former KSHB-TV general manager, had convinced Muscare to work in Phoenix and coaxed Muscare out of retirement. Muscare resigned in September 1986, shortly before being arrested on charges of sexual battery with a minor stemming from an incident in Florida.[21]
Under Scripps, KNXV began to purchase more recent sitcoms, often outbidding KPHO for strong shows. The station also became the over-the-air broadcaster of the Suns again;[22] it lost the rights to televise the team's games to KUTP (channel 45) in 1988. After KPHO turned down an offer to affiliate with the fledgling Fox network, it approached KNXV. Channel 15 joined Fox at the network's inception on October 9, 1986; as Fox's first and only program was The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers, KNXV remained essentially independent.[23] The station had a unique view of the development of the network, as general manager Powell, who later worked in Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Charlotte, also 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."[24]
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,[25] and it was regularly appearing as one of the top five Fox affiliates by ratings in the country.[26] 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 after KTXL in Sacramento, California.[27]
Local programming[edit]
News operation[edit]
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;[55] 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. The style was toned down slightly; a staff of 30 was expanded to 85;[56] 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.[33] 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[35] and 6 and 11 a.m. programs in January 1995.[57]
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".[58] 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.[58] However, after Sullivan left the station in 1996, Michael Kronley was installed as station manager from Charlotte ABC affiliate WSOC-TV: the investigative reports were discontinued, replaced by more live shots, and the station acquired a helicopter.[58] KNXV and KPHO then both adopted the slogan "Live, Local, Late Breaking", requiring KPHO to alter its version[59] and ultimately leading KNXV to adopt a new slogan, "We won't waste your time".[60] Under Jeff Klotzman, channel 15's fourth news director,[58] ratings generally fell for the station's newscasts; he resigned in 1998 and was replaced by Bob Morford,[61] whose format tended to deemphasize reporters.[62] A 2000 Columbia Journalism Review study of local newscasts nationwide gave KNXV the lowest rating in the history of the report, an "F", for its short stories lacking investigations and mentioned sources.[63]
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.[64] KPHO-TV eventually joined the Phoenix LNS agreement shortly after the announcement.[65] By 2020, all four English-language television newsrooms in Phoenix shared a helicopter.[66]
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,[67] and a 6:30 weeknight half-hour in 2014,[68] 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.[69]
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 on Roku, later expanded throughout the group,[70] and the use of a "digital-first" newsroom methodology helped lead to ratings increases for channel 15's newscasts.[71]
Technical information[edit]
Subchannels[edit]
The station's signal is multiplexed: