KNXV-TV
Encyclopedia
KNXV-TV, is an ABC
-affiliated television station
in Phoenix, Arizona
, broadcasting in digital
on UHF channel 15. Owned by The E. W. Scripps Company, 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 virtual channel number higher than 13.
(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 (channel 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 (channel 41) in Kansas City. Stuart Powell, General Manager of KNXV in the late 1980s, coaxed Mr. Muscare out of retirement. By 1990, KNXV nearly tied KPHO in the ratings, even though the station still produced no local newscasts.
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 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.
KNXV had already been building a news department under news director Raymond Hunt. Plans for KNXV's new newscast, originally built to match the Fox feel, included a futuristic purple set and liberal use of special effects. After ABC came to KNXV, the style was toned down, though the set remained. At last, "News 15" launched on August 1, 1994, with an 85-person news staff (larger than the planned 30).
ABC's affiliation agreement with KTVK did not expire until late 1994, but KTVK, unhappy about losing ABC after many years, 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
cartoon
s when the station officially dropped its Fox affiliation on December 15. The rest of ABC's programming moved to KNXV on January 9, 1995. KNXV kept about one-third of its syndicated programming, with the rest moving to other stations.
KNXV carried the majority of Arizona Cardinals
National Football League
games that were not blacked out in the meantime, until they returned to KSAZ in December 1994. The Cardinals were part of the National Football Conference
, which had their games on CBS
until the end of the 1993 season, moving to Fox
the next year. The move of the NFC from CBS to Fox was a major catalyst of the Fox-New World deal. After becoming a full-time ABC affiliate, KNXV was limited to airing the Cardinals' games on Monday Night Football
- the first of which would be in 1995: a Christmas Day contest against the eventual Super Bowl
champions, the Dallas Cowboys
, in Tempe (the Cowboys won 37-13 to clinch home field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs; coincidentally, the Super Bowl was also played in Tempe).
By this time, KNXV was also airing newscasts at 6 a.m., 11 a.m., 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. Over the years, KNXV has added more first-run syndicated shows, such as Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!
. In 2006, KNXV began a 4 p.m. newscast, the first in the market, replacing a Jeopardy! rerun, and in June 2007, it became the fourth TV station in Arizona (after local NBC affiliate KPNX
, KTVK
, and KVOA
, the NBC affiliate 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 it was 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 pm that afternoon.
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 channels>
Channel
Format
Programming
15.1
720p
Main KNXV-TV programming / ABC
15.2
480i
Live Well Network
KNXV ceased analog
broadcasts at 12:01 am 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 2 am, local time.
& Wheel of Fortune. The two shows were first seen on KSAZ
from 1983/1984-1994, then on KTVK
from 1994-2003.
On April 1, 2009, Fox Television Stations and E. W. Scripps Company announced the creation of the Local News Service
(LNS) model in the Phoenix, Detroit and Tampa Bay 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. KNXV is one of ten television stations that air consumer reports from John Matarese of fellow ABC affiliate (and Scripps sister station) WCPO in Cincinnati.
All KNXV reporters shoot and edit their own reports.
Multi-media journalists
Investigative team
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
-affiliated television station
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
in Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
, broadcasting in digital
ATSC
ATSC standards are a set of standards developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee for digital television transmission over terrestrial, cable, and satellite networks....
on UHF channel 15. Owned by The E. W. Scripps Company, its transmitter is located on South Mountain
South Mountains (Arizona)
The South Mountains , known locally as simply South Mountain, is a mountain range in central Arizona in south Phoenix, Arizona. It is on public land managed by the city of Phoenix as South Mountain Park...
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 virtual channel number higher than 13.
History
In February 1975, pioneering UHF broadcaster Edwin Cooperstein announced that the Federal Communications CommissionFederal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, 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
ON-TV
ON-TV, also known as National Subscription Television, was a subscription television service launched in 1977 by Oak Industries, Norman Lear's Chartwell Enterprises and Jerry Perenchio. Oak was a manufacturer of satellite and pay-TV decoders and equipment...
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
Independent station
An independent station is in the category of television terminology used to describe a television station broadcasting in the United States or Canada that is not affiliated with any television network....
, and ran a number of cartoons, old sitcoms, old movies, and drama shows. It pulled mediocre ratings, and lagged behind longtime independent station KPHO (channel 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
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
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 (channel 41) in Kansas City. Stuart Powell, General Manager of KNXV in the late 1980s, coaxed Mr. Muscare out of retirement. By 1990, KNXV nearly tied KPHO in the ratings, even though the station still produced no local newscasts.
Becoming an ABC affiliate
It was announced in 1994 that longtime CBSCBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
affiliate KSAZ-TV
KSAZ-TV
KSAZ-TV, virtual channel 10.1, is the Fox owned-and-operated station in Phoenix, Arizona. It is owned by Fox Television Stations in a duopoly with MyNetworkTV station KUTP ....
was to become a Fox affiliate. The CBS affiliation, in turn, moved to KPHO, leaving KNXV without an affiliation, and prompting Scripps to negotiate an affiliation agreement with ABC. In order for Scripps to keep ABC on Scripps' two biggest stations, WXYZ-TV
WXYZ-TV
WXYZ-TV, channel 7, is an ABC-affiliated television station in Detroit, Michigan, USA. WXYZ-TV is owned by the E.W. Scripps Company, and is the media company's largest-market TV station property...
in Detroit and WEWS-TV
WEWS-TV
WEWS-TV, virtual channel 5 , is a television station in Cleveland, Ohio. WEWS has been owned by the E. W. Scripps Company since its inception, and is an affiliate of the ABC television network...
in Cleveland, ABC agreed to affiliate with KNXV (along with WMAR in Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
and WFTS in Tampa
Tâmpa
Tâmpa may refer to several villages in Romania:* Tâmpa, a village in Băcia Commune, Hunedoara County* Tâmpa, a village in Miercurea Nirajului, Mureş County* Tâmpa, a mountain in Braşov city...
; WCPO-TV
WCPO-TV
WCPO-TV, virtual channel 9 , is an ABC-affiliated television station in Cincinnati, Ohio. WCPO's studio is located in the Mount Adams neighborhood of Cincinnati, just outside of Eden Park. Its transmitter is located along Symmes Street, just south of East McMillan Street in Cincinnati.The station...
in Cincinnati was also part of the Scripps/ABC deal, but had to wait for ABC's affiliation contract with WKRC-TV
WKRC-TV
WKRC-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for the Tri-State area of Southern Ohio, Northern Kentucky, and Southeastern Indiana that is licensed to Cincinnati. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 12 from a transmitter at its studios on Highland Avenue in the Mount...
to expire in June 1996 to switch), thus displacing longtime ABC affiliate KTVK
KTVK
KTVK is a full-service, independent television station in Phoenix, Arizona. It broadcasts in digital on UHF channel 24 from a transmitter located on South Mountain in Phoenix, and can be seen across northern Arizona on a network of nearly two dozen translator stations...
. 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.
KNXV had already been building a news department under news director Raymond Hunt. Plans for KNXV's new newscast, originally built to match the Fox feel, included a futuristic purple set and liberal use of special effects. After ABC came to KNXV, the style was toned down, though the set remained. At last, "News 15" launched on August 1, 1994, with an 85-person news staff (larger than the planned 30).
ABC's affiliation agreement with KTVK did not expire until late 1994, but KTVK, unhappy about losing ABC after many years, 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
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
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
World News Now
World News Now is an American overnight news program broadcast on American Broadcasting Company's television network. Its tone is often lighthearted, irreverent and humorous...
, Nightline, and ABC's Saturday morning
Saturday Morning
-Album credits:*All tracks produced by Ralph Sall for Bulletproof Recording Company Inc.*Executive Producer/Concept: Ralph Sall for Bulletproof Recording Company Inc.*Engineered by Peter McCabe and Larry Fergusson....
cartoon
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
s when the station officially dropped its Fox affiliation on December 15. The rest of ABC's programming moved to KNXV on January 9, 1995. KNXV kept about one-third of its syndicated programming, with the rest moving to other stations.
KNXV carried the majority of Arizona Cardinals
Arizona Cardinals
The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in Glendale, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix. They are currently members of the Western Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
games that were not blacked out in the meantime, until they returned to KSAZ in December 1994. The Cardinals were part of the National Football Conference
National Football Conference
The National Football Conference is one of the two conferences of the National Football League . This conference and its counterpart, the American Football Conference , currently contain 16 teams each, making up the 32 teams of the NFL.-Current teams:Since 2002, the NFC has comprised 16 teams,...
, which had their games on CBS
NFL on CBS
The NFL on CBS is the brand name of the CBS television network's coverage of the National Football League's American Football Conference games, produced by CBS Sports.-Market coverage and television policies:...
until the end of the 1993 season, moving to Fox
NFL on FOX
NFL on Fox is the brand name of the Fox Broadcasting Company's coverage of the National Football League's National Football Conference games, produced by Fox Sports...
the next year. The move of the NFC from CBS to Fox was a major catalyst of the Fox-New World deal. After becoming a full-time ABC affiliate, KNXV was limited to airing the Cardinals' games on Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football is a live broadcast of the National Football League on ESPN. From to it aired on ABC. Monday Night Football was, along with Hallmark Hall of Fame, and the Walt Disney anthology television series, one of the longest running prime time commercial network television series...
- the first of which would be in 1995: a Christmas Day contest against the eventual Super Bowl
Super Bowl XXX
Super Bowl XXX was an American football game played on January 28, 1996 at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona to decide the National Football League champion following the 1995 regular season...
champions, the Dallas Cowboys
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football franchise which plays in the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League . They are headquartered in Valley Ranch in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas...
, in Tempe (the Cowboys won 37-13 to clinch home field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs; coincidentally, the Super Bowl was also played in Tempe).
By this time, KNXV was also airing newscasts at 6 a.m., 11 a.m., 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. Over the years, KNXV has added more first-run syndicated shows, such as Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!
Jeopardy!
Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories...
. In 2006, KNXV began a 4 p.m. newscast, the first in the market, replacing a Jeopardy! rerun, and in June 2007, it became the fourth TV station in Arizona (after local NBC affiliate KPNX
KPNX
KPNX is a full-service television station serving the Phoenix, Arizona television market as the NBC affiliate. Its studios and offices are located in Phoenix and its transmitter is on South Mountain in Phoenix but it is licensed to the suburb of Mesa. It is owned by the Gannett Company which also...
, KTVK
KTVK
KTVK is a full-service, independent television station in Phoenix, Arizona. It broadcasts in digital on UHF channel 24 from a transmitter located on South Mountain in Phoenix, and can be seen across northern Arizona on a network of nearly two dozen translator stations...
, and KVOA
KVOA
KVOA is a full-service NBC-affiliated television station serving Tucson, Arizona. It broadcasts in digital on UHF channel 23 from its transmitter on Mount Bigelow, northeast of Tucson. Per FCC regulations, the station identifies itself on television tuners as channel 4 through PSIP...
, the NBC affiliate in Tucson
Tucson, Arizona
Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...
) to produce high-definition newscasts. KNXV has also become the home of preseason games for the National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
's Arizona Cardinals
Arizona Cardinals
The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in Glendale, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix. They are currently members of the Western Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
. 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 it was affiliated with ABC.
During the 2007 Little League World Series
2007 Little League World Series
-Pool play:The top two teams in each pool move on to their respective semifinals. The winners of each met on August 26 to play for the Little League World Championship. Teams marked in green qualified to the knockout stage, while teams marked in red were eliminated.Ties are broken based on records...
, 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
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
, thereby interrupting the national feed on Cox Communications
Cox Communications
Cox Communications is a privately owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises providing digital cable television, telecommunications and wireless services in the United States...
and other cable
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
providers in the market. Those getting KNXV by way of satellite
Satellite television
Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...
would watch the baseball game on an alternate channel. Meanwhile, the Cardinals would play the Houston Texans
Houston Texans
The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston, Texas. The team is currently a member of the Southern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
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 pm that afternoon.
Helicopter crash
Tragedy struck the newsroom on July 27, 2007, when helicopters from KNXV-TV and KTVKKTVK
KTVK is a full-service, independent television station in Phoenix, Arizona. It broadcasts in digital on UHF channel 24 from a transmitter located on South Mountain in Phoenix, and can be seen across northern Arizona on a network of nearly two dozen translator stations...
collided
2007 Phoenix news helicopter collision
The 2007 Phoenix news helicopter collision occurred on July 27, 2007 at exactly 12:46:20 P.M. MST when two AS-350 AStar helicopters from KNXV-TV and KTVK news stations collided in mid-air above Steele Indian School Park in Phoenix, Arizona while covering a police pursuit...
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
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
. The investigation concluded that pilot error caused the crash.
Digital television
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:KNXV ceased analog
Analog television
Analog television is the analog transmission that involves the broadcasting of encoded analog audio and analog video signal: one in which the message conveyed by the broadcast signal is a function of deliberate variations in the amplitude and/or frequency of the signal...
broadcasts at 12:01 am on June 12, 2009, just minutes after the start of the day mandated by the Federal government for TV stations to cease analog transmissions
DTV transition in the United States
The DTV transition in the United States was the switchover from analog to exclusively digital broadcasting of free over-the-air television programming...
across the country. KNXV moved its digital signal from channel 56 (due to the phaseout of channels 52-69) to channel 15 at 2 am, local time.
Programming
KNXV is the third station in the Phoenix market to air Jeopardy!Jeopardy!
Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories...
& Wheel of Fortune. The two shows were first seen on KSAZ
KSAZ-TV
KSAZ-TV, virtual channel 10.1, is the Fox owned-and-operated station in Phoenix, Arizona. It is owned by Fox Television Stations in a duopoly with MyNetworkTV station KUTP ....
from 1983/1984-1994, then on KTVK
KTVK
KTVK is a full-service, independent television station in Phoenix, Arizona. It broadcasts in digital on UHF channel 24 from a transmitter located on South Mountain in Phoenix, and can be seen across northern Arizona on a network of nearly two dozen translator stations...
from 1994-2003.
News operation
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
Local News Service
The name Local News Service refers to a variety of news resource share services all started in 2008 and 2009. It sometimes does not refer to a specific sharing service but to the category in general...
(LNS) model in the Phoenix, Detroit and Tampa Bay 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. KNXV is one of ten television stations that air consumer reports from John Matarese of fellow ABC affiliate (and Scripps sister station) WCPO in Cincinnati.
Newscast titles
- News 15 (1994–1995, 1997-2002)
- ABC News 15 (1995–1997)
- ABC 15 News (2002–present)
Station slogans
- We're # (number) Fun (1979-early 1980s)
- No Chit-Chat, More News (mid 1990s)
- We Won't Waste Your Time (1990s)
- Live. Local. Latebreaking. (late 1990s-2000)
- ABC15, Your Valley News Leader (2002–present)
- Always On. (website promotion, to 2009; still used infrequently)
- Make the Switch to ABC 15 (2005–present)
- Less Chit Chat... More News (morning news promotion, 2005–present)
- Arizona's New Homepage (website promotion, 2009)
- Everything Arizona (website promotion, late 2009–present)
Shows by KNXV-TV
- Daybreak 4:30am to 7am Weekdays
- Sonoran Living Weekdays, 9am to 10am
- Now@3 3pm to 3:30pm Weekdays
- ABC 15 News at 4pm, 5pm, 6pm and 10pm Weekdays
Anchors
- Susan Casper - "ABC15 Now!" at 3pm; also reporter
- Conna Colla - weekday mornings "Daybreak"
- Steve Irvin - weeknights at 4, 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
- Katie Raml - weeknights at 4, 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
- Stephanie Sandoval - Sonoran Living host and co-executive producer
- Rebecca Thomas - "ABC15 Now!" at 3pm; also reporter
- Kirk YuhnkeKirk YuhnkeKirk Yuhnke is an American TV news anchor and reporter. He works as a morning anchor/reporter at KNXV, ABC 15 News in Phoenix.Yuhnke was born in Buffalo, New York, and moved to Ohio as a teenager. After graduating from Buckeye High School in Medina, Ohio, he attended Kent State University, where...
- weekday mornings "Daybreak"; also reporter - Christopher Sign - Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5:30 and weekends at 10 p.m.
Weather team
- Amber Sullins (AMS Certified Broadcast MeteorologistCertified Broadcast MeteorologistCertified Broadcast Meteorologist is a rating for meteorologists given by the American Meteorological Society.The Certified Broadcast Meteorologist program was established to raise the professional standard in broadcast meteorology and encourage a broader range of scientific understanding,...
Seal of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 4, 5, 6 and 10 p.m. - Rich Dahlquist (AMS Certified Broadcast MeteorologistCertified Broadcast MeteorologistCertified Broadcast Meteorologist is a rating for meteorologists given by the American Meteorological Society.The Certified Broadcast Meteorologist program was established to raise the professional standard in broadcast meteorology and encourage a broader range of scientific understanding,...
Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5:30 and weekends at 10 p.m. - Amy Murphy - weather anchor; weekday mornings "Daybreak"
- Sarah Walters - meteorologist; fill-in
Sports team
- Craig Fouhy - sports director; weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.
- Jeff Heisner - sports anchor; Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5:30 and weekends at 10 p.m., also sports reporter
Reporters
All KNXV reporters shoot and edit their own reports.
Multi-media journalists
- Dave Biscobing
- Christina Boomer
- Kyle Burke
- Jodie Heisner
- Angie Holdsworth
- Chris Kline - web reporter; also producer
- Daphne Munro - "Smart Shopper" feature reporter
- Jennifer Parks
- Corey Rangel
- Mary Ellen Resendez
- Jay Reynolds
- Rudabeh Shahbazi
- Christopher Sign
- Tim Vetscher
- Brian Webb
- Brien McElhatten
Investigative team
- Joe Ducey
- John Matarese - consumer reporter
- Lori Jane Gliha
Past on-air staff
- Marc Bailey - anchor (1995–1998; now at XETV-TV in San Diego)
- Andi Barness - Daybreak anchor/traffic reporter/"Sonoran Living Live" contributor
- Bill Bellis - Meteorologist (2003–2010, now at WFLD-TV in Chicago)
- Nicole Beyer
- Manuel Bojorquez - reporter (currently serving in the same capacity for WSB-TVWSB-TVWSB-TV, virtual channel 2.1 , is the ABC affiliate in Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship television station of Cox Enterprises and its Cox Media Group subsidiary...
in Atlanta) - Jenn Burgess - Daybreak anchor/reporter (?-2009, quit after extended absence from anchor table)
- Kim Dillon - meteorologist (?-early 2000s; moved to KTVKKTVKKTVK is a full-service, independent television station in Phoenix, Arizona. It broadcasts in digital on UHF channel 24 from a transmitter located on South Mountain in Phoenix, and can be seen across northern Arizona on a network of nearly two dozen translator stations...
, but terminated following conviction on theft charges in Phoenix, ArizonaPhoenix, ArizonaPhoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
) - Jonathan Elias - anchor (2002–2007; moved to WBZ-TVWBZ-TVWBZ-TV, virtual channel 4, is a CBS owned-and-operated television station, located in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. WBZ-TV's studios and office facilities, shared with sister station WSBK-TV , are located in the Allston-Brighton section of Boston, and its transmitter is located in Needham,...
in Boston in June 2007) - Christina Estes - reporter (started own public relations business)
- Lisa FletcherLisa FletcherLisa Fletcher is an award winning American television journalist. She is an investigative reporter and news anchor who has covered stories around the world - both for ABC News as a correspondent and various major-market television stations, including most currently WJLA in Washington, DC.While...
- anchor (2002–2007; now a national correspondent for ABC NewsABC NewsABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
) - Darya Folsom - anchor (now at KRON-TVKRON-TVKRON-TV, virtual channel 4 , is a television station in San Francisco, California, serving as the Bay Area affiliate of the MyNetworkTV programming service; the station is owned by Young Broadcasting...
in San Francisco) - Kathryn Garcia - reporter (2006–2008; now working for PR firm in Texas)
- Rob Koebel, General Assignment Reporter until 2004; terminated after revelations that he violated ethical standards by running a story favorable to Sheriff Joe ArpaioJoe ArpaioJoseph M. "Joe" Arpaio is the elected Sheriff of Maricopa County in the U.S. state of Arizona. First voted into office in 1992, Arpaio is responsible for law enforcement in Maricopa County. This includes management of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, county jail, courtroom security,...
during his reelection campaign. It was also revealed that Koebel made financial contribution to Arpaio's campaign. Working for WFTXWFTXWFTX-TV is the Fox-affiliated television station for Southwest Florida licensed to Cape Coral. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 35 from a transmitter in Punta Gorda east of I-75/SR 93 near the Charlotte and Lee County line. The station can also be seen on Comcast...
since October, 2009. - Kaj Goldberg - weekend weather anchor (2005–2007; moved to KCBS-TVKCBS-TVKCBS-TV, channel 2, is an owned-and-operated television station of the CBS Television Network, located in Los Angeles, California. KCBS-TV shares its offices and studio facilities with sister station KCAL-TV inside CBS Studio Center in the Studio City section of Los Angeles, and its transmitter...
in Los Angeles) - Tracy Kornet - Daybreak co-anchor/co-host of Sonoran Living Live (now at KTVTKTVTKTVT, virtual channel 11, is a CBS owned-and-operated television station licensed to Fort Worth, Texas, and serving the Dallas-Fort Worth designated market area. The station is co-owned with independent station KTXA , and the two stations share facilities in Dallas and Fort Worth...
/KTXAKTXAKTXA, virtual channel 21 , is an independent television station based in Fort Worth, Texas, and serving the Dallas/Fort Worth designated market area. With its transmitter in Cedar Hill, KTXA is owned by CBS Corporation and is the sister station of CBS outlet KTVT .KTXA was originally an...
in Dallas-Ft. Worth) - Tony Kovaleski - investigative reporter (1994–1997; moved to KPRC in Houston and KMGH in Denver)
- Kris Long - anchor (now anchor/managing editor at KPSP-LPKPSP-LPKPSP-CD is a CBS-affiliated Class A low-power television station serving California's Coachella Valley . It is officially licensed to Cathedral City. Its studios and offices are in Thousand Palms, California...
in Palm Springs, CA) - Ross Palombo - reporter (now at CBS NewsCBS NewsCBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...
in New York) - Christi Paul - anchor/reporter/weather anchor (now anchor at HLN)
- Cary Pfeffer - weekend reporter/anchor (?-2006; started own communication business; occasionally presented HorizonHorizon (KAET TV program)Horizon is a current events television program produced by KAET in Phoenix, Arizona. It is one of the two locally produced news program for KAET, the other being its sister program, Horizonte.-Format:...
program on KAETKAETKAET is a full-service television station in Phoenix, Arizona, owned by the Arizona Board of Regents and operated by Arizona State University as a PBS member station. It broadcasts in digital on VHF channel 8 in the Phoenix metropolitan area from its transmitter on South Mountain...
) - Kathy Reilly (Lee) - morning and midday anchor (1994–1999; currently Public Relations Director at Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital, Baltimore, MD)
- Craig Smith - "Chopper15" pilot/morning reporter (killed in a helicopter crash on July 27, 2007)
- Ken Smith - "Chopper15" pilot/reporter (no relation to Craig Smith; currently the helicopter reporter at KLAS-TV in Las Vegas)
- Amy Troy - weekend anchor/reporter (2002–2005, moved to KGW-TV in Portland, OR in 2005)
- Mitch Truswell - reporter (late 2009)
- Bob Woodruff - reporter (1994–1996; co-anchored ABC World News briefly in 2006 before being seriously injured during an explosion in IraqIraqIraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
)
Translators
- K27DA Big Sandy Valley
- K04GT Bullhead CityBullhead City, ArizonaBullhead City is a city located on the Colorado River in Mohave County, Arizona, USA, roughly south of Las Vegas, Nevada, and directly across the Colorado River from Laughlin, Nevada, whose casinos and ancillary services supply much of the employment for Bullhead City...
- K29EC Blythe, CaliforniaBlythe, CaliforniaBlythe is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, in the "Palo Verde Valley" of the Lower Colorado River Valley region, an agricultural area and part of the Colorado Desert along the Colorado River. Blythe was named after Thomas Blythe, a gold prospector who established primary...
- K49EU ChlorideChloride, ArizonaChloride is a onetime silver mining camp in Mohave County, Arizona, and is considered the oldest continuously inhabited mining town in the state. Chloride has a ZIP Code of 86431; in 2000, the population of the 86431 ZCTA was 352.- History :...
- K44CN CottonwoodCottonwood, ArizonaCottonwood is a city in Yavapai County, Arizona, United States. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 11,171.-Geography:Cottonwood is located at ....
- K41BZ Dolan SpringsDolan Springs, ArizonaDolan Springs is a census-designated place in Mohave County, Arizona, United States. The population was 1,867 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Dolan Springs is located at ....
- K52CM FlagstaffFlagstaff, ArizonaFlagstaff is a city located in northern Arizona, in the southwestern United States. In 2010, the city's population was 65,870. The population of the Metropolitan Statistical Area was at 134,421 in 2010. It is the county seat of Coconino County...
- K46CG Golden Valley
- K44DK KingmanKingman, ArizonaKingman is located in a desert climate on the edge of the Mojave Desert, but its higher elevation and location between the Colorado Plateau and the Lower Colorado River Valley tempers summer high temperatures and contributes to winter cold and rare snowfall. Summer daytime highs reach above 90 °F ...
- K57FY KingmanKingman, ArizonaKingman is located in a desert climate on the edge of the Mojave Desert, but its higher elevation and location between the Colorado Plateau and the Lower Colorado River Valley tempers summer high temperatures and contributes to winter cold and rare snowfall. Summer daytime highs reach above 90 °F ...
- K39FV Lake Havasu CityLake Havasu City, Arizona-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 41,938 people, 17,911 households, and 12,716 families residing in the city. The population density was 974.4 people per square mile . There were 23,018 housing units at an average density of 534.8 per square mile...
- K38GR MeadviewMeadview, ArizonaMeadview is an unincorporated community in Mohave County, Arizona, United States, located near Lake Mead. Despite its name, the townsite does not overlook the lake; a ridge to the west of town separates it from the lake. It has roughly 1500 residents...
- K31HY Needles, CaliforniaNeedles, CaliforniaNeedles is a city located in the Mojave Desert on the western banks of the Colorado River in San Bernardino County, California. It is located in the Mohave Valley, which straddles the California–Arizona border. The city is accessible via Interstate 40 and U.S. Route 95...
/ Bullhead CityBullhead City, ArizonaBullhead City is a city located on the Colorado River in Mohave County, Arizona, USA, roughly south of Las Vegas, Nevada, and directly across the Colorado River from Laughlin, Nevada, whose casinos and ancillary services supply much of the employment for Bullhead City... - K47DJ PrescottPrescott, ArizonaPrescott is a city in Yavapai County, Arizona, USA. It was designated "Arizona's Christmas City" by Arizona Governor Rose Mofford in the late 1980s....
- K23FZ Verde ValleyVerde ValleyThe Verde Valley is a valley in central Arizona in the United States of America. The Verde River runs through it. It is overlooked by Mingus Mountain and the Mogollon Rim.- History :The first notice of this region appears in the report of one Espejo,...
/Camp Verde TV ClubCamp Verde, ArizonaCamp Verde is a town in Yavapai County, Arizona, United States. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the town is 10,610....