History

The station signed on the air in February 1955 as the first television station serving what at the time was the smallest television market in the United States. The station was a CBS

CBS

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 until April 1, 1996.

While primarily a CBS station, KTVF also served as secondary affiliates for ABC

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...

 from 1971 to 1985 (when they aired some of ABC's top-rated shows like Marcus Welby, M.D.

Marcus Welby, M.D.

Marcus Welby, M.D. is an American medical drama television program that aired on ABC from September 23, 1969, to July 29, 1976. It starred Robert Young as a family practitioner with a kind bedside manner, and was produced by David Victor and David J. O'Connell...

, Happy Days

Happy Days

Happy Days is an American television sitcom that originally aired from January 15, 1974, to September 24, 1984, on ABC. Created by Garry Marshall, the series presents an idealized vision of life in mid-1950s to mid-1960s America....

, Laverne & Shirley

Laverne & Shirley

Laverne & Shirley is an American television situation comedy that ran on ABC from January 26, 1976, to May 10, 1983...

, Three's Company

Three's Company

Three's Company is an American sitcom that aired from March 15, 1977, to September 18, 1984, on ABC. It is based on the British sitcom, Man About the House....

, and Eight is Enough

Eight Is Enough

Eight Is Enough is an American television comedy-drama series which ran on ABC from March 15, 1977 until August 29, 1981. The show was modeled after syndicated newspaper columnist Thomas Braden, a real-life parent with eight children, who wrote a book with the same name...

as well as Wide World of Sports and the Academy Awards

Academy Awards

An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...

) and NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 from 1985 to 1996. During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network

NTA Film Network

The NTA Film Network was an early American television network founded by Ely Landau in 1956. The network was not a full-time television network like CBS, NBC, or ABC. Rather, it operated on a part-time basis, broadcasting films and several first-run television programs from major Hollywood studios...

. During the Trans-Alaska Pipeline

Trans-Alaska Pipeline System

The Trans Alaska Pipeline System , includes the Trans Alaska Pipeline, 11 pump stations, several hundred miles of feeder pipelines, and the Valdez Marine Terminal. TAPS is one of the world's largest pipeline systems...

 construction boom of the 1970s, KTVF was also the first station in Alaska with an hour-long evening newscast from 5:30-6:30 pm.

In 1996, KTVF switched affiliations, from CBS to NBC. The reason for the network switch was that rival station KATN

KATN

KATN, virtual channel 2 , is the ABC-affiliated television station in Fairbanks, Alaska. The station is owned by Vision Alaska LLC.-Digital television:-History:...

 -- which had NBC affiliation since signing on a couple weeks after KTVF but had been primarily with ABC since 1984—would be merged with two other ABC stations in Anchorage

Anchorage, Alaska

Anchorage is a unified home rule municipality in the southcentral part of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the northernmost major city in the United States...

 and Juneau

Juneau, Alaska

The City and Borough of Juneau is a unified municipality located on the Gastineau Channel in the panhandle of the U.S. state of Alaska. It has been the capital of Alaska since 1906, when the government of the then-District of Alaska was moved from Sitka as dictated by the U.S. Congress in 1900...

 to form ABC Alaska's SuperStation, and that NBC was the dominant network by the 1995-96 season while CBS was in third place. KTVF also carried UPN

UPN

United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...

 programming on the weekends from 1995 to 2000. Fox affiliate KFXF

KFXF

KFXF, channel 7, is the Fox affiliate in Fairbanks, Alaska. KFXF is owned by Tanana Valley Television, which also owns CBS affiliate K13XD. Its transmitter is located in Fairbanks.-History:...

 aired a few CBS shows until K13XD

K13XD

K13XD, channel 13 , is the CBS affiliate in Fairbanks, Alaska. It is owned by Tanana Valley Television, and is a sister station to Fox affiliate KFXF...

 signed on in August.

KTVF is currently owned by Newport Television, LLC

Newport Television

Newport Television, LLC is a television station holding company founded by Providence Equity Partners and Sandy DiPasquale in 2007 to acquire the television stations owned by Clear Channel Communications. In September 2007, Newport agreed to sell KFTY and KVOS-TV to LK Station Group LLC for $26.6...

 previous owners include Clear Channel Communications

Clear Channel Communications

Clear Channel Communications, Inc. is an American media conglomerate company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, and was taken private by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP in a leveraged buyout in 2008...

; Northern Television, Inc. and the Ackerley Group. Its transmitter is located on Ester Dome.

In June 2003, Media News Group, owner of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner is a morning daily newspaper that serves the city of Fairbanks, Alaska, the Fairbanks North Star Borough, the Denali Borough, and the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area in the United States state of Alaska. It is the farthest north daily newspaper in the United States, and...

, announced that it would exercise an option to purchase KTVF. The seven-year option, pending removal of the FCC's restrictions on newspaper/broadcast ownership, was granted to Media News in 1999 when Northern Television sold the station to Ackerley. The FCC eliminated this rule on June 3, 2003, but implementation has been stayed pending the outcome of litigation. Media News has since reorganized without a broadcasting division (which was spun off into a trust company for possible resale) while Media News' purchase attempt was never carried through before the seven-year period expired in 2006 without renewal. As a result, Newport remains the owner of KTVF.

KTVF began airing high definition programming from NBC on February 12, 2010, at the start of the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver.

On September 29, 2010, the FCC granted KTVF a construction permit for a fill-in translator on their former analog allotment channel 11. The translator will serve sections of the Fairbanks area.

Newport announced the sale of KTVF to Chena Broadcasting, a local company owned by Michael Young, on October 13, 2011. Young had previously owned a partial stake in Tanana Valley Television, owner of KFXF and K13XD; that company will take over KTVF's operations under a shared services agreement upon the deal's completion.

Current on-air staff

Anchors

• Darrell Clark - weeknights at 6 and 11PM (also reporter)
• Billie Sundgren - weeknights at 6 (also News Director)
• Stephanie Lott - weekday mornings at 6:30 plus Morning Updates
• Holly Siler - Saturdays at 6 and 11PM

Reporters

• Darryl Lewis, Sr. - general assignment and sports reporter/fill-in anchor

Weather team

• Mike Shultz - Chief Weather Anchor; weeknights at 6 and 11PM (also reporter)

Sports team

• Becky Holley - Sports Director; weeknights at 6 and 11PM

Former on-air staff

• Hank Hove - also the station's GM; was the 7th mayor of the Fairbanks North Star Borough.
• Ted Lehne - Anchor (1970s), also GM
• Bob Miller - Anchor (1998–2007), currently a member of the Alaska House of Representatives
  Alaska House of Representatives
  The Alaska House of Representatives is the lower house in the Alaska Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Alaska. The House is composed of 40 members, each of whom represents a district of about 15,673 people . Members serve two-year terms without term limits...
  
   from Fairbanks
• Ann Secrest - Anchor (1982–2001)
• Curtis Thomas - Anchor/Sports Director/Reporter (1985–97)
• Chuck Hinde - Anchor/News Director (1990–95, deceased)
• Charles Fedullo - Anchor/Reporter (1992–94, returned to become anchor and News Director in 1995-96 following Chuck Hinde's death)
• Cindi Creager - Anchor/Reporter (1992–97, became News Director in 1996)
• Carla Browning - Anchor/Reporter (1993–2001, later News Director)
• Lynda Halligan - Anchor/Reporter (1999, currently at ReelzChannel)

Newscast titles

• Four Star News Final (late evening newscast, early-mid 1960s)
• Scope News (late evening newscast, mid-1960s-1981)
• NewsCenter Final (1981–present)
• Fairbanks Evening News (1971–present)
• NewsCenter 11 (1981–present)

Station slogans

• The Ones To Watch (1980s-1996)
• Your #1 Choice (1996–2002)
• Your Town, Your News, Your Station (2002–2009)
• Interior Alaska's Most Trusted News Source (present)