KNWA-TV

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KNWA-TV
Rogers/Fayetteville/Fort Smith, Arkansas
Branding KNWA (general);
Northwest Arkansas News (news)
Slogan "Your Northwest Arkansas News Team. Always.
Channels 51 (UHF) analog,
50 (UHF) digital
Affiliations NBC
Owner Nexstar Broadcasting Group
Founded August 23, 1989
(as satellite of KFTA-TV)
Call letters meaning K North West Arkansas
Former callsigns KFAA-TV (1989-2004)
Former affiliations None
Website www.knwa.com/

KNWA-TV is the NBC television affiliate for the Fort Smith/Fayetteville, Arkansas television market. KNWA is licensed to Rogers; it broadcasts on analog channel 51 and digital channel 50. It operates out of Fayetteville under the ownership of Nexstar Broadcasting.

KNWA-TV was started on August 23, 1989 as KFAA-TV, a satellite of KPOM-TV in Fort Smith.[1] It launched a newscast in 1999. The stations changed their calls to KNWA-TV and KFTA-TV in 2004, and KNWA became the main station.

Contents

[edit] Separation of KFTA and KNWA

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In April 2006, Nexstar announced that it would sell KFTA to Mission Broadcasting, though Nexstar would continue to operate the station under a local marketing agreement with KNWA-TV. Under the plan, KFTA would become the Fox affiliate for the Fort Smith-Fayetteville market, leaving KNWA as the sole NBC affiliate for northwest Arkansas. Equity Broadcasting, owner of then-Fox affiliate KPBI-CA, challenged the sale of KFTA-TV to Mission with the FCC; nonetheless, the separation occurred on August 28, 2006, while both were still under Nexstar ownership.

KFTA and KNWA each carry the other's signal in standard definition as subcarriers of their digital stations, alongside their main signals in high definition. This is necessary because KNWA's analog signal only broadcasts at 182,000 watts. KNWA also took its analog transmitter off the air for a few days in mid-August 2006 to relocate it to another site for improved coverage.[2] The two stations will continue to simulcast from 7 AM to 5 PM until the FCC approves KFTA's sale to Mission.

Given the high penetration of cable and satellite television in this market, since due to geography only KAFT, the Arkansas Educational Television Network station, can adequately cover all of the market's major cities with a single transmitter, few if any TV viewers in this market should have lost access to NBC or Fox programming through this change. Cable and satellite are all but essential for an acceptable signal in northwest Arkansas due to its rugged terrain. For example, Dish Network carried KPBI-CA while it was the Fox affiliate even though it usually doesn't carry low-power stations; after the split, KPBI-CA was dropped in favor of KFTA-TV. On the other hand, the split improved Fox's coverage and enables high-definition Fox programming in this market, as KPBI-CA was low-power and does not have a digital transmitter, unlike both KFTA and KNWA.

Also note in the FCC filings of both KFTA and KNWA that their digital transmitters are licensed for a full 1 million watts each, comparable to 5 million watts for an analog UHF transmitter. (For comparison, see the FCC filings of KLRT-TV and KASN in Little Rock; both have 5000-kW analog UHF and 1000-kW digital UHF transmitters with comparable coverage.) Thus, their digital coverage areas will well exceed the analog coverage areas of both KFTA (2.5 million watts) and especially KNWA.

[edit] Anchors

  • Neile Jones
  • Matt Turner
  • Bo Mattingly, Sports
  • Dan Skoff, Chief Meteorologist

[edit] Former Anchors

  • Deena Day
  • Justin Earley
  • Don Elkins
  • Steve Gibbs
  • Rhonda Justice
  • Rick Katzfey
  • John Patrick
  • Dana Sargent
  • Bernadette Woods

[edit] News/Station Presentation

[edit] Newscast Titles

  • Arkansas' NBC News (1999-2005)
  • Northwest Arkansas News (2005-present)

[edit] Station Slogans

  • Your Northwest Arkansas News Team. Always. (2005-present)

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ AP: NBC Affiliates in Arkansas Re-Launch Local News with AP's ENPS
  2. ^ Channel 51 Off Air (August 14, 2006)

[edit] External links

Broadcast television in the Fort Smith / Fayetteville / Rogers market  (Nielsen DMA #104)

KOET 3 (PBS/OETA) - KFSM 5 (CBS) - KWNL-CA 9 (UNI) - KFDF-CA 10 (RTN) - KAFT 13 (PBS/AETN) - KFTA 24 (Fox) - KPBI 34/KPBI-CA 46 (MNTV) - KHBS 40/KHOG 29 (ABC) - KNWA 51 (NBC) - KSBN 57 (Wor/A1)
NBC Network Affiliates in the state of Arkansas

KARK 4 (Little Rock) - KTAL 6 (Texarkana) - KTVE 10 (El Dorado) - KNWA 51 (Rogers)
See also: ABC, CBS, CW, Fox, MyNetworkTV, PBS, and Other stations in Arkansas
Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc.
v • d • e

Corporate Staff: Perry A. Sook (President & CEO) | Matt Devine (CFO) | Duane A. Lammers (COO) | Timothy Busch | Brian Jones | Shirley E. Green | Susana G. Schuler-Willingham | Richard Stolpe | Paul Greeley | Blake R. Battaglia | Erik Brooks | Jay M. Grossman | Brent Stone | Royce Yudkoff | Geoff Armstrong | Michael Donovan | I. Martin Pompadur

Television Stations owned by Nexstar Broadcasting

Annual Revenue: $226.1 million USD (2005) | Employees: Unknown at this time. | Stock Symbol: NASDAQ: NXST | Website: www.nexstarbroadcasting.com
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