KXNW

KXNW

Eureka Springs/Fort Smith/
Fayetteville, Arkansas
United States
City Eureka Springs, Arkansas
Branding KXNW 34 (general)
5 News (newscasts)
Channel 5 (on DT3)
Channels Digital: 25 (UHF)
Virtual: 34 (PSIP)
Subchannels 34.1 MyNetworkTV
34.2 Antenna TV
34.3 CBS
Translators KFSM-DT 5.2 (18.2 UHF) Fort Smith
Affiliations MyNetworkTV (2006–2009, 2012–present)
Owner Tribune Broadcasting
(Tribune Broadcasting Fort Smith License, LLC)
Founded June 25, 1999
First air date June 19, 2000 (2000-06-19)
Call letters' meaning K X North West Arkansas (viewing area)
Sister station(s) KFSM-TV
Former callsigns KWBS-TV (2000–2004)
KWFT (2004–2006)
KBBL-TV (2006)
KPBI (2006–2012)
Former channel number(s) Analog:
34 (UHF, 2000–2009)
Digital:
34 (UHF, until 2018)
Former affiliations Analog/DT1:
Pax TV (2000–2003)
Lick TV (2003–2004)
The WB (2004–2006)
MeTV/RTV/Tuff TV (2009–2012)
DT2:
Univision (until 2012, via KXUN-LP)
Transmitter power 130 kW
Height 218 m (715 ft)
Facility ID 81593
Transmitter coordinates 36°24′40.9″N 93°57′12.9″W / 36.411361°N 93.953583°W / 36.411361; -93.953583 (KXNW)
Licensing authority FCC
Public license information: Profile
CDBS
Website 5newsonline.com

KXNW, virtual channel 34 (UHF digital channel 25), is a MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station licensed to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, United States, serving Northwest Arkansas (including Fayetteville) and the Arkansas River Valley (including Fort Smith). (While Eureka Springs is located in the Springfield, Missouri market, Nielsen considers this station to be part of the Fort Smith–Fayetteville market.) The station is owned by the Tribune Broadcasting subsidiary of the Tribune Media Company, as part of a duopoly with Fort Smith-licensed CBS affiliate KFSM-TV (channel 5). The two stations share studios on North 13th Street in downtown Fort Smith; KXNW's transmitter is located on Humphrey Mountain near Garfield.

Even though KXNW broadcasts a digital signal of its own, its broadcasting radius does not reach Fort Smith. Therefore, the station can also be seen through a high definition simulcast on KFSM's second digital subchannel in order to reach the entire market. This signal can be seen on UHF channel 18.2 (or virtual channel 5.2 via PSIP) from a transmitter northwest of Winslow, Arkansas. On cable, KXNW is carried on Cox Communications channel 14 in Fort Smith and Fayetteville.[1][2]

History

Channel 34 began operations on June 19, 2000 as KWBS-TV, which stood for WB Springfield; however, original station owner Equity Broadcasting decided to make another new station, KWBM (channel 31), as the WB affiliate for Springfield, and KWBS instead affiliated with Pax (now Ion Television). KWBS dropped the Pax-affiliation in 2003 in favor of the Equity-owned Lick TV, which was a short-lived network that broadcast professional wrestling events. But one year, later the station dropped that network and finally affiliated with The WB as its Northwest Arkansas affiliate. This was accompanied by a call-letter change to KWFT.

After it was announced in January 2006 that The WB and UPN would close down to form The CW in September, KWFT changed its call-letters to KBBL-TV on July 6, 2006. However, its Fort Smith repeater retained the KWFT-LP call sign, which to this day it still uses. The KBBL-TV call-letters were almost certainly not inspired by the KBBL-TV of The Simpsons, even though both stations are located in a DMA with the same name as the Simpsons' fictional hometown. Equity likes to use former radio call-letters from its hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas as TV call letters, and the KBBL call sign was once used by a Little Rock radio station.

The KPBI logo as a MyNetworkTV-affiliate

Around the same time as the call-letters change, KBBL-TV was announced as joining the Retro Television Network (then owned by Equity) after The WB ceased operations, but as a result of KPBI-CA (channel 46) losing its Fox-affiliation to KFTA-TV (channel 24) and joining MyNetworkTV, channel 34 changed its call letters to KPBI on September 22, 2006 and began to carry KPBI-CA's programming schedule (KFDF-CA, the station that was originally scheduled to join MNTV, ended up becoming the RTV affiliate). As of October 30, 2011, KPBI has dropped from RTV in favor of the Me-TV programming.

After failing to find a buyer at a bankruptcy auction,[3] KPBI was sold to Pinnacle Media in August 2009 (after having initially been included in Silver Point Finance's acquisition on June 2 of several Equity stations[4]) with Pinnacle assuming control under a local marketing agreement on August 5 that same year.[5] Pinnacle Media officially took ownership on November 3, 2009 and was restructured into Riverside Media in August 2010 with a change in the minority (40%) ownership in the company.

It was announced on August 12, 2009 that KPBI would switch to RTV,[6] which had been dropped from KFDF in January after the network severed its ties with Equity.[7] The area's MyNetworkTV-affiliation subsequently moved to a new digital subchannel of KFSM-TV, which today airs on KXNW-DT1.

Purchase by Local TV and then by Tribune

On September 1, 2011, Local TV, the owners of the CBS-affiliate KFSM, filed papers with the Federal Communications Commission to purchase KPBI for $784,000 through a "failing station" waiver. This is necessary because the Fort Smith-Fayetteville DMA has only seven "unique" full-power television stations (though the ABC-affiliate KHOG-TV is a satellite of Fort Smith-based parent KHBS, the FCC considers the parent and its satellite together as all one unit). That number of unique full-power stations is normally not enough to legally support a duopoly.[8] The sale to Local TV was completed on January 5, 2012; on that day, the station's callsign was changed to KXNW.[9]

Immediately upon consummation, all remaining MeTV and RTV programming was dropped in favor of a simulcast of KFSM digital subchannel 5.2, which carries MyNetworkTV programming during primetime hours on weeknights, syndicated programming during the daytime hours and at select time periods on weekend mornings and afternoons and a part-time affiliation with Antenna TV on weekdays from 1-7 a.m., Saturdays from 1-8 a.m., and 6 p.m.-6 a.m. and Sundays from 6-8 and 9-10 a.m., and 12-6 a.m. In addition, KXNW's digital subchannel 34.2 dropped Univision and began simulcasting KFSM's CBS-affiliated main channel 5.1.

On July 1, 2013, Local TV announced that its stations would be acquired by the Tribune Broadcasting.[10] The sale was completed on December 27.[11] With the completion of the deal, KFSM and KXNW became Tribune's smallest stations by market size (previously, the company's New Orleans duopoly of WGNO and WNOL-TV held this distinction).

Aborted sale to Sinclair Broadcast Group

On May 8, 2017, Sinclair Broadcast Group announced that it would acquire Tribune Media for $3.9 billion, plus the assumption of $2.7 billion in debt held by Tribune. However, on August 9, 2018, Tribune announced that it had pulled out of the deal, after the FCC raised "serious concerns" about the amount of money some of the stations being resold in the deal were being sold for.[12]

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP short name Programming[13]
34.1720p16:9KXNW-DTMain KXNW programming / MyNetworkTV
34.2480i4:3Ant TVSimulcast of KFSM-DT3 / Antenna TV
34.31080i16:9KFSM DTSimulcast of KFSM-TV / CBS

Analog-to-digital conversion

Because it was granted an original construction permit after the FCC finalized the DTV allotment plan on April 21, 1997,[14] the station did not receive a companion channel for a digital television station. Instead, at the end of the digital TV conversion period for full-service stations, KPBI was required to turn off its analog signal and turn on its digital signal (called a "flash-cut").

As of December 2008, this station was scheduled to go dark in 2009. According to the station's DTV status report, "On December 8, 2008, the licensee's parent corporation filed a petition for bankruptcy relief under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code... This station must obtain post-petition financing and court approval before digital facilities may be constructed. The station ceased analogue broadcasting on February 17, 2009, regardless of whether digital facilities are operational by that date. The station filed authority to remain silent if so required by the FCC."[15]

While the DTV Delay Act extended this deadline to June 12, 2009, Equity applied for an extension of the digital construction permit in order to retain the broadcast license after the station goes dark.

Newscasts

On March 12, 2012, KXNW began airing a weekday morning newscast at 7 a.m. and a nightly newscast at 9 p.m. that are produced by KFSM. The latter newscast competes with the primetime newscast which airs seven days a week on KFTA-TV (one hour on weekdays, and a half-hour on weekends).

References

  1. ↑ "Fort Smith, Arkansas Channel Lineup" (PDF). Cox Communications. Retrieved August 7, 2018.
  2. ↑ "Northwest Arkansas Channel Lineup" (PDF). Cox Communications. Retrieved August 7, 2018.
  3. ↑ "Equity stations still on the block". Television Business Report. April 20, 2009. Retrieved April 28, 2009.
  4. ↑ "APPLICATION FOR CONSENT TO ASSIGNMENT OF BROADCAST STATION CONSTRUCTION PERMIT OR LICENSE". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. June 15, 2009. Retrieved June 22, 2009.
  5. ↑ "APPLICATION FOR CONSENT TO ASSIGNMENT OF BROADCAST STATION CONSTRUCTION PERMIT OR LICENSE". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. August 14, 2009. Retrieved August 25, 2009.
  6. ↑ "KPBI Fort Smith, Ark., Drops MNT For Retro TV". TVNewsCheck. August 12, 2009. Retrieved August 25, 2009.
  7. ↑ Jessell, Harry A. (January 5, 2009). "Financial Dispute Disrupts RTN Diginet". TVNewsCheck. Retrieved August 25, 2009.
  8. ↑ Seeking Duopoly In Fort Smith, Ark., TVNewsCheck, September 2, 2011.
  9. ↑ "Media Bureau Call Sign Actions" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. October 31, 2011. Retrieved October 31, 2011.
  10. ↑ Channick, Robert (July 1, 2013). "Acquisition to make Tribune Co. largest U.S. TV station operator". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved July 1, 2013.
  11. ↑ Company Completes Final Steps of Transaction Announced in July Archived 2013-12-28 at the Wayback Machine., Tribune Company, 27 December, 2013
  12. ↑ Dinsmore, Christopher. "Tribune Media pulls out of Sinclair Broadcast merger". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 2018-08-09.
  13. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for KXNW
  14. ↑ "Final DTV Channel Plan from FCC97-115". Transmitter.com. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
  15. ↑ "FCC DTV status report". Fjallfoss.fcc.gov. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.