KTVK
KTVK is an independent television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. It is owned by Gray Media alongside CBS affiliate KPHO-TV and low-power station KPHE-LD, a grouping known as "Arizona's Family". The three stations share studios on North Seventh Avenue in Uptown Phoenix; KTVK's transmitter is located on South Mountain on the city's south side. The station's signal is relayed across northern Arizona on a network of translator stations.
KTVK signed on in 1955 as the fourth and last commercial VHF station in Phoenix. Owned by a syndicate fronted by former U.S. senator and newly elected governor Ernest McFarland, it took over as Phoenix's ABC affiliate. After spending its first three decades as an also-ran, it poached several employees from then-dominant KTSP-TV in 1985, beginning a surge that made it the market leader by 1990. It lost its ABC affiliation as part of a shuffle of networks in 1994 and 1995 but has since prospered as an independent. It was one of the last family-owned major-market TV stations, being owned in part or whole by the McFarland-Lewis family from its inception until 1999.
The Belo Corporation acquired KTVK in 1999 and also took over KASW, which KTVK had been programming since it began broadcasting four years prior. After Belo merged with Gannett, owner of KPNX and The Arizona Republic, the station was briefly owned by former general manager Jack Sander but was sold to the Meredith Corporation, separating it from KASW and merging it with KPHO-TV. KPHO-TV moved into the newer, larger KTVK studios; the "Arizona's Family" brand associated with channel 3 was extended to cover both stations, which began sharing news resources. In 2023, Gray Television's Phoenix stations became the new television home of the Phoenix Suns of the NBA.
History
Early years
Channel 3 was the last commercial VHF allocation in Phoenix to be awarded. Prior to the 1948 freeze on new TV applications, there had been one application made, from radio station KTAR, one of the state's largest. In February 1953, however, after the freeze was lifted, a second applicant filed for the channel: the Arizona Television Company. That put the plans of KTAR—which already had television equipment on order—on hold. Originally owned by Buckeye rancher and car dealer Ralph Watkins as well as two other principals, a new stockholder was added to the company in May: former senator Ernest McFarland, who bought a 40 percent interest. Also seeking channel 3 was Herb Askins, a local businessman, but his Desert Advertising Co. dropped out late in the year, setting up a high-stakes showdown between Phoenix's NBC radio affiliate and the McFarland group in hearings in February 1954.The staring contest, however, ended two months later. KTAR owner John J. Louis was unwilling to go through a hearing process to get a television sister for his radio station. Instead, in late April, he announced that KTAR would purchase Mesa-based NBC affiliate KTYL-TV channel 12, for $250,000, effectively awarding the channel 3 allocation to the Arizona Television Company. With no other applications to consider, a Federal Communications Commission hearing examiner recommended the company be granted a construction permit weeks later. The permit was duly granted on June 11.
The transmitter was built atop South Mountain, and a $500,000 studio building was constructed at 16th Street and Osborn Road. The station affiliated with ABC, filling a void that would have been created when existing ABC outlet KOOL-TV announced plans to change to CBS. By the time KTVK began broadcasting on February 28, 1955, McFarland had been elected Governor of Arizona. Channel 3 boasted the first color-equipped studios in Phoenix and the largest in the state.
Channel 3 lost money in its early years. Unlike its three competitors, it did not have a long-established radio sister on which to draw revenue. According to a 1990 interview, in the early 1960s, Walter Cronkite sought to buy a stake in the Arizona Television Company. He would have become KTVK's main anchor, with a salary of $25,000 a year. However, Arizona Television Company could not afford to meet Cronkite's salary demands.
McFarland bought out the remaining partners in the Arizona Television Company in 1977. Long before then, McFarland had intended for KTVK to be a locally focused station. As Delbert Lewis, husband of McFarland's adopted daughter, Jewell, put it in a 1978 interview with The Arizona Republic, his father-in-law wanted channel 3 to be "a family corporation. All Arizonans. To keep it local." In an era when the television industry was already dominated by large station groups, Lewis said that his family took pride in the fact that major decisions were made in Phoenix, not in New York.
The socially laudatory aims of the McFarland-Lewis family initially did not translate into ratings success. Channel 3 spent most of its first 30 years stubbornly in third place. In January 1985, Arizona Republic television columnist Bud Wilkinson referred to the station as a "blot on 's affiliate ledger" and claimed, citing a conversation with a top network executive, that the network had occasionally tried to move to another station and still was interested in the idea.
The rise
In March 1984, Delbert Lewis and Jewell McFarland Lewis were named the conservators of McFarland's estate, just three months before the former governor and senator died. In the preceding decade, Delbert Lewis had taken the reins of the station; he was named president of the Arizona Television Company in 1975 and assumed the role of general manager in 1980. McFarland ceded day-to-day control of the station to his relatives after undergoing brain surgery in 1977, shortly after buying out his partners. Upon McFarland's death, the Lewises inherited full control of KTVK. Eventually, Jewell and Delbert held a 60 percent controlling interest in the Arizona Television Company, with the remaining 40 percent divided between their four children. In 1986, Lewis made the most consequential hires in channel 3's history when he poached a dozen employees from long-dominant KTSP-TV. Included in the raid were KTSP's news director, Bill Miller, and his assistant news director, Phil Alvidrez. Miller became KTVK's station manager, while Alvidrez became KTVK's news director.Under Miller and Alvidrez, the station relaunched its news department as NewsChannel 3 and began a climb to the top of the ratings. The station dismissed its existing weeknight news anchor team and rolled out a new lineup, led by new hire Cameron Harper and former weekend anchor Heidi Foglesong. Lewis bankrolled major investments in people, syndicated programming and equipment and dramatically boosted KTVK's promotional budget. He had no qualms about spending what he believed it would take to increase KTVK's profile; in 1990, he told The Republic that if Miller and others showed that they needed something, he would ensure that they would get it. As a "one-man board of directors", he was able to make decisions in mere minutes that took years at KTVK's corporate-owned competitors. For example, when Miller sought a new $500,000 satellite truck, Lewis greenlighted it in only 15 minutes. Improvement started slowly but was noticeable by 1988. Even those changes almost came too slowly for ABC; as late as 1989, ABC executives were in negotiations to move from KTVK to KTSP-TV.
The changes finally began to pay off by the November 1990 sweeps period. KTVK's 10 p.m. newscast surged to first place, and its early evening newscasts were posting the strongest numbers in their history. Channel 3 also was the most-watched station in the Valley in prime time, even as NBC won its 11th consecutive sweeps period nationally. A year later, it tied KTSP-TV in the early evening timeslot and took the lead in the morning. By February 1992, channel 3 had pulled ahead of channel 10 at 6 pm; it was the first time on record that channel 10 had lost that timeslot.
The growth of the company fueled additional media acquisitions. In the span of a year, the Arizona Television Company bought Phoenix Magazine and radio station KESZ, as well as a production studio. Reorganizing as Media America Corp., the group also handled programming responsibilities for the new KTWC when it signed on in 1994.
Going independent
On May 23, 1994, New World Communications and Fox announced a pact that would see KSAZ-TV leave its longtime affiliation with CBS to join Fox. The landmark deal also left CBS looking for new affiliates in several other markets, including Detroit, Cleveland, and Tampa, and set off a mad dash to secure network affiliations. KTVK was at a distinct disadvantage in the ensuing affiliate shuffle even though it was now one of the strongest ABC affiliates in the country. By this time, it had firmly established itself as the Valley's news leader, and its overall ratings were 20 points ahead of the runner-up. However, even though channel 3 had left its ratings-challenged past far behind, its gains over the previous decade meant little in the affiliate shuffle. It took place in an environment which favored station groups with presences in multiple cities, not KTVK—by this time, one of the last family-owned major-market stations in the country.In this environment, Scripps-Howard Broadcasting, owner of displaced Fox affiliate KNXV-TV, found itself in a strong position. Scripps owned two powerful bargaining chips in its successful and longstanding ABC affiliates in Detroit and in Cleveland. Both stations were being heavily pursued by CBS, which was about to lose its longstanding New World-owned affiliates to Fox. KTVK was already in talks for a new affiliation agreement with ABC that would have more than doubled its hourly compensation rate, but it would still have been less than the network was offering to stations in markets much smaller than Phoenix. However, ABC pulled the offer off the table on the advice of its lawyers; a call with ABC network president Bob Iger revealed that Scripps-Howard—a longtime partner of the network—had threatened to flip its Detroit and Cleveland ABC affiliates to CBS unless ABC moved its Phoenix affiliation to KNXV-TV. Iger wanted to keep KTVK, but Tom Murphy, the CEO of Capital Cities/ABC, felt that he had to be able to offer the ABC affiliation in Phoenix to Scripps if necessary to avoid potential long-term damage to the ABC television network. Specifically, ABC officials feared losing as much as half a ratings point on ABC World News Tonight if Scripps made good on its threat to flip its Detroit and Cleveland stations to CBS.
Scripps-Howard would not relent from demanding the ABC affiliation for Phoenix and even refused $25 million from the network to "take Phoenix off the table". Ultimately, ABC gave in and awarded its affiliations in Phoenix, Tampa, and Baltimore to Scripps; in informing KTVK, Iger explained that they "had to" do so. The Lewises then sought to affiliate with CBS, which was about to be displaced from KSAZ. However, despite Tom Murphy's support and channel 3's stronger ratings, CBS ultimately chose a deal with group owner Meredith Corporation and its KPHO-TV. Meredith also provided CBS security in Kansas City, where the New World switches had dislodged the NBC affiliation, and an upgrade in the Flint, Michigan, market. Miller told The Republic that CBS gave its Phoenix affiliation to KPHO rather than face having to search for a new affiliate in Kansas City, though CBS officials denied this. According to Miller, KTVK would have been the obvious choice to take the CBS affiliation if CBS only had to consider "which two stations it wanted in Phoenix".
Over the second half of 1994, KTVK relinquished ABC programming to KNXV in stages. Good Morning America was the first ABC program to move to KNXV after KTVK displaced it with a new local morning newscast, Good Morning Arizona. KNXV then picked up World News Tonight and Nightline on December 12, the day after Fox programming moved to KSAZ. KTVK's nearly 40-year affiliation with ABC officially ended on January 9, 1995, when ABC's remaining non-news programming moved to KNXV.
Despite the loss of ABC programming, the Lewises and station management committed to build KTVK into one of the nation's top independents. The station spent some $100 million on new syndicated programming, including Mad About You and Frasier, as well as poaching the most popular shows in syndication at the time from KSAZ-TV—game shows Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!—and programming them in the prime time hour between 7 and 8 pm. KTVK also broke ground on a new studio center to house its growing operations. The news department was expanded with 20 new staffers. Media America struck a local marketing agreement to operate the new KASW with The WB—which would air on KTVK until KASW launched in September 1995—and children's programming, and it launched the AZ News Channel, a cable offering on Cox Communications systems featuring breaking news and replays of KTVK newscasts that had been in the planning stages since 1993. Another large acquisition came in the form of sports rights to the expansion Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team, with channel 3 airing half of the team's games beginning in the 1998 season. The station remained Phoenix's news leader in most time slots, with the exception of 10 pm, when strong NBC programming gave KPNX the lead.
In the fall of 1998, KTVK briefly aired The Howard Stern Radio Show; both KTVK and Lubbock, Texas, Fox affiliate KJTV-TV pulled the program from their schedules after two episodes.