KATV
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| KATV | |
|---|---|
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| Little Rock, Arkansas | |
| Branding | KATV 7 (general) Channel 7 News (newscasts) |
| Slogan | The Spirit Of Arkansas (general) 7 is News (newscasts) |
| Channels | Analog: 7 (VHF) |
| Affiliations | ABC |
| Owner | Allbritton Communications Company (KATV, LLC) |
| First air date | December 1953[1] |
| Call letters’ meaning | Arkansas TeleVision |
| Transmitter Power | 316 kW (analog) 750 kW (digital) |
| Height | 591 m (analog) 574 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 33543 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.katv.com |
KATV (referred to as "KATV 7" or "Channel 7 News"), is an affiliate station of ABC serving the Little Rock television market and central Arkansas. The station is owned by Allbritton Communications Company.
The station broadcasts its analog signal on VHF channel 7; its assigned digital frequency is UHF channel 22. Both broadcast from the KATV Tower near Redfield, Arkansas until it collapsed January 11, 2008; its official FCC license continues to reflect this information, though KATV is presently broadcasting in analog from a temporary site and in HDTV on a subchannel of KWBF until it rebuilds.
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[edit] History
It signed on the air on December 19, 1953, originally in Pine Bluff, and is now Little Rock's oldest television station, beating KARK-TV by a few months. Less than a year after it was founded in Pine Bluff, KATV moved to Little Rock and took over the studio of KRTV, a failed UHF station that had been Arkansas' first TV station (itself beating KFSM in Fort Smith by a few months), on North Beech Street near Kavanaugh; however, it burned in 1957.
KATV then moved to downtown Little Rock; it moved to its current studio, a former home of Worthen Bank (now Bank of America) at Fourth and Main Streets, in 1970. The KATV Building extends along Fourth Street a full block eastward to Scott Street, one block north of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and across Fourth Street from the Rose Law Firm. KATV continues to maintain a nominal studio in Pine Bluff to satisfy the original FCC conditions for moving the license to Little Rock, even though modern FCC rules would allow it to operate only from Little Rock even if the license returned to Pine Bluff. A secondary studio utilized primarily for its daily mid-morning Good Morning Arkansas program is located in Little Rock's River Market District.
KATV, along with sister station KTUL in Tulsa, Oklahoma and original sister station KWTV in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, were founded by John Griffin (whose company would later become today's Griffin Communications) and Jimmy Leake. Leake became sole owner of KATV and KTUL in the late 1960s or early 1970s, and owned the stations until 1982, when he sold both stations to their current owner, Allbritton Communications Company.
KATV has used the Circle 7 logo since the 1960s; though it is traditionally associated with O&O ABC stations, KATV is one of several non-O&Os to have used it. KATV's use of the Circle 7 logo predates even the variant Circle 7 once used by Allbritton's flagship WJLA before it switched to the standard version. However, unlike WJLA and most of the O&Os, KATV only uses the ABC logo with the Circle 7 occasionally, usually in screen-corner bugs where the Circle 7 covers the standard ABC bug. KATV also first placed the Circle 7 inside a square in the 1990s; WJLA now uses that as well, though neither station uses it consistently.
[edit] KATV's Broadcast Service Area
Before the recently-collapsed tower was built in 1965, KATV broadcast from a smaller tower near Jefferson (south of Redfield).
KATV's broadcast area comprises mostly central Arkansas. However, many sections of the state were able to receive KATV's signal. Western sections of Bolivar and Coahoma Counties in west central Mississippi have been known to receive KATV's signal. KATV is also carried on cable systems in those areas, including Greenville, Cleveland, Clarksdale, and Drew.
On January 11, 2008, the KATV Tower collapsed while workers were adjusting guy wires. [1]
On July 6, 2004, a spectacular intense high MUF Sporadic-E opening allowed Mike Bugaj [2] to receive KATV[2] (channel 7, Little Rock, Arkansas) in Enfield, Connecticut, 1,176 miles (1,892 km) away. [3]
[edit] Tower collapse
The KATV tower collapsed January 11, 2008. KATV's analog signal returned to the air a couple of weeks later from an auxiliary tower of competitor KTHV. In addition, Equity Media Holdings, based in Little Rock, initially helped restore KATV's signal to cable and satellite systems.[4] Equity is presently carrying KATV's digital signal thru its station KWBF--originally as 42.3 in SDTV, now as 7.1 in HDTV. KATV's analog signal was never interrupted on Comcast's Little Rock system due to a direct studio feed, though the HDTV feed was initially interrupted; Comcast is also feeding KATV's signal to other cable and satellite providers.[5][6]
A report in the January 12, 2008 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (p. 1A, or subscribers-only link) indicates that KATV will either lease space on the nearby Clear Channel Broadcasting Tower Redfield or build a temporary tower to get back on the air while rebuilding its tower.
The tower was also used by the Arkansas Educational Television Network for broadcasts into central Arkansas via KETS Channel 2. Its analog signal is also unavailable.
[edit] Image of tower
[edit] KATV in the Digital Age
Before the collapse of its tower, KATV also broadcast on the second band of its digital signal (7-2), calling this channel KATV News Now. Like competitor KTHV's THV2 channel, KATV News Now broadcasts 24 hour news and weather and is available online; it remained online even after the tower collapse, and has recently been restored on Comcast in Little Rock.
[edit] Personalities
[edit] Current On-Air Talent
CHANNEL 7 NEWS ANCHORS
- Heather Crawford: 5PM Anchor/Investigative Reporter
- Jason Harper: Daybreak and Mid-Day Arkansas Anchor/Good Morning Arkansas Feature Reporter
- Beth Hunt: Daybreak and Mid-Day Arkansas Anchor/Reporter
- Scott Inman: 5PM, 6PM and 10PM Anchor/Reporter
- Christina Muñoz: 6PM and 10PM Anchor/Weekday Evening Anchor/Reporter
- Jason Pederson: Saturday Daybreak Anchor/Consumer Reporter
- Steve Powell: Good Morning Arkansas Anchor/"All About Arkansas" Feature Reporter
- Pamela Smith: Weekend Evening Anchor/Reporter
- Renee Shapiro: Saturday Daybreak Anchor/Entertainment Editor
CHANNEL 7 NEWS REPORTERS
- Jessica Dean: General Assignment Reporter
- Joan Early: "Family First" Feature Reporter
- Kristin Fisher: General Assignment Reporter
- Michael Knight: Traffic Reporter
- Amanda Manatt: General Assignment Reporter
- "Chopper" Scott Munsell: Air7 Pilot Reporter
- Anne Pressly: General Assignment Reporter/Saturday Daybreak Feature Reporter
- Michelle Rupp: Special Assignment Reporter
CHANNEL 7 METEOROLOGISTS
- Ned Perme (NWA Seal of Appoval): Weekday 6 and 10PM Chief Meteorologist
- Barry Brandt (AMS Seal of Appoval): Weekday Good Morning Arkansas, Mid-Day Arkansas and 5PM Meteorologist
- Melinda Mayo: Daybreak meteorologist and Good Morning Arkansas Host
- Todd Yakoubian: Weekend Meteorologist
SPORTS ANCHORS/REPORTERS
- Steve Sullivan: Sports Director, seen weeknights
- Dale Nicholson III: Weekend Sports Anchor
- Beau McCastlain: "Hog Central" Arkansas Razorbacks reporter (based in Fayetteville)
[edit] News/Station Presentation
[edit] Newscast Titles
- Arkansas Newsreel (1953-1962)
- KATV News (1962-1974)
- Newscene 7 (1974-1987)
- Channel 7 News (1987-present)
[edit] Station Slogans
- Channel 7's Still the One! (1977-1978, local version of ABC slogan)
- The One and Only TV7 (1978-1979)
- Superseven's the One! (1979-1980, local version of the 1979-80 ABC "Still the One" slogan)
NOTE: For a few years, KATV used a separate Superman style logo for on-air promotions but retained the Circle 7 logo for the news. The Superseven name remained well into the mid-80s, but the Superman style logo was dropped in favor of the Circle 7 logo.
- The Spirit Of Arkansas (Early 1980s-present; general slogan)
- If It's KATV-7, It Must be ABC (1992-1993, local version of ABC campaign)
- 7 is News (2000-June, 2007; newscast slogan)
[edit] References
- ^ The Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook says December 18, while the Television and Cable Factbook says December 19.
- ^ High Band E Skip. Mike's TV and FM DX Page. Retrieved on April 26, 2005.
[edit] External links
- KATV Website
- KATV News Now
- Historical timeline of KATV
- Little Rock city timeline, from city manager's office (includes original KRTV)
- Query the FCC's TV station database for KATV
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KATV-TV
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