KPNX

KPNX

Mesa/Phoenix, Arizona United States
City of license	Mesa, Arizona
Branding	Channel 12 (general) 12 News (newscasts)
Slogan	"Connecting Arizona" "This is Home"
Channels	Digital: 12 (VHF) Virtual: 12 (PSIP)
Subchannels	12.1 NBC 12.2 12 News Weather Plus
Translators	(see below)
Affiliations	NBC The Local AccuWeather Channel (DT2)
Owner	Gannett Company (Multimedia Holdings Corporation)
First air date	April 23, 1953
Call letters' meaning	PhoeNiX
Former callsigns	KTYL-TV (1953–1955) KVAR (1955–1959) KTAR-TV (1959–1979)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 12 (VHF, 1953–2009) Digital: 36 (UHF, 2000–2009)
Former affiliations	Secondary: DuMont (1953–1956)
Transmitter power	819 kW
Height	534 m (1,752 ft)
Facility ID	35486
Transmitter coordinates	33°19′59.2″N 112°3′51.2″W / 33.333111°N 112.064222°W / 33.333111; -112.064222
Licensing authority	FCC
Public license information:	Profile CDBS
Website	www.12news.com

KPNX, virtual and VHF digital channel 12, is an NBC-affiliated television station located in Phoenix, Arizona, United States that is licensed to Mesa. The station is owned by the Gannett Company; KPNX shares offices with co-owned newspaper The Arizona Republic on Van Buren Street in downtown Phoenix, and its transmitter is located atop South Mountain on the city's south side. The station's programming is simulcast on satellite station KNAZ-TV (VHF digital channel 2), in Flagstaff, and is further relayed through a network of 14 low-power translators across northern and central Arizona.

Because of the common ownership of KPNX and The Arizona Republic (which is permitted under an FCC waiver due to media cross-ownership rules restricting ownership of newspapers and television stations by one company in the same market^[1]), Gannett maintains a joint news website for both properties called AZCentral.

History

The station first signed on the air on April 23, 1953, as KTYL-TV; it was originally owned by the Harkins Theatre Group, which also owned KTYL radio (1490 AM, now KIHP on 1310, and 104.7 FM, now KZZP). The station's original studios were located in Mesa, the Phoenix area suburb that serves as the station's city of license. The station has been a full-time NBC affiliate since its sign-on, taking the affiliation from KPHO-TV (channel 5), which carried NBC programming as a secondary affiliation. Channel 12 carried some programming from the DuMont Television Network (an affiliation that was shared with KPHO) until that network's demise in 1956.

John J. Louis, owner of KTAR radio (620 AM and 98.7 FM, now KMVP-FM), bought channel 12 in 1955 and changed its call letters to KVAR. The station then changed its callsign again four years later to KTAR-TV. Its operations were moved into a facility on Central Avenue in Phoenix in 1959, after the Federal Communications Commission began permitting television stations to operate their studio facilities outside of their city of license. Over the years, the Louis family bought several other broadcasting outlets, including WQXI-TV (now WXIA-TV) in Atlanta, Georgia and WPTA-TV in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Eventually, the Louis family's broadcasting interests became known as Pacific & Southern Broadcasting, which were headquartered in Phoenix with KTAR-AM-FM-TV as the company's flagship stations.

KTAR-TV logo used in 1970.

Advertising mogul Karl Eller bought Pacific & Southern Broadcasting in 1968 and combined it with his existing business to form Combined Communications. Eller was also one of the original founding owners of the city's first major professional sports team, the National Basketball Association's Phoenix Suns. Channel 12 carried Suns games from the team's 1968 inception until the 1980s, when the game telecasts moved to then-independent station KNXV-TV (channel 15).

KTAR-TV ident from 1973. Based on the lettering used by NBC News at the time, the "12" logo survived until 1986, long after the station became KPNX.

KTAR-TV was the Phoenix pioneer of the so-called "happy talk" news format when it reformatted its newscasts under the Action News format in late 1973, with longtime anchor Ray Thompson paired alongside Bob Hughes, weatherman Dewey Hopper (most recently with Air America Radio affiliate KPHX, and a longtime weather forecaster in Sacramento) and sportscaster Ted Brown.

South-west corner of the Republic Media Building in 2013

Combined Communications merged with Gannett in 1979, in what was at that time the largest media merger in United States history. Combined's ownership of the KTAR stations had been grandfathered earlier in the decade, when the Federal Communications Commission forbade common ownership of television and radio stations in the same market. However with the Gannett merger, the KTAR cluster lost its grandfathered protection. Gannett opted to keep channel 12 and sell off the radio stations. The station then changed its callsign to KPNX, since the radio properties had held the KTAR call letters first.

The station had placed third in the Nielsen ratings for many years behind ABC affiliate KTVK (channel 3) and CBS affiliate KTSP (channel 10, now Fox owned-and-operated station KSAZ-TV). That soon changed in December 1994, when four of the major English-language commercial stations in Phoenix all changed their network affiliations. Coupled with a resurgent NBC, KPNX surged past KTVK to the top of the ratings, where it has remained ever since, only wavering as NBC has experienced its own ratings troubles since the 2004–05 television season. As it retained its NBC affiliation as KPHO, KTVK, KSAZ-TV and KNXV all swapped affiliations (ABC from KTVK to KNXV, CBS from KSAZ to KPHO and Fox from KNXV to KSAZ with KTVK becoming an independent station after a short-lived affiliation with The WB), KPNX is the only major English-language commercial television station in Phoenix to have never changed its primary network affiliation.

In 2000, Gannett merged with Central Newspapers, owner of The Arizona Republic. As the FCC forbids the common ownership of newspapers and television stations in the same market, Gannett would have been forced to sell off either KPNX or the Republic, however the FCC granted Gannett a "permanent" waiver to keep both media properties. In January 2011, KPNX relocated from its Central Avenue facility, and consolidated its operations with the Republic at the Republic Media Building on East Van Buren Street in downtown Phoenix, with the station's local newscasts broadcasting from a streetside studio.^[2]

Digital television

Weather Plus local insert with former meteorologist Bill Kelly

Digital channels

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

KPNX operates 12 News Weather Plus, a 24-hour local weather service, on its 12.2 digital subchannel and on local cable providers. In addition to national forecasts from AccuWeather, Weather Plus also runs local forecast inserts for the Phoenix area and northern Arizona, provided by the KPNX weather department. Regional weather conditions and forecasts are displayed on an "L-bar" on the left and bottom quadrants of the screen. Originally affiliated with NBC Weather Plus from December 29, 2005 to November 1, 2008, national programming on the subchannel has been provided by The Local AccuWeather Channel since March 2009 (KNXV's former GoAZ.tv subchannel also was affiliated with the service, but that subchannel's format focused on traffic; KPNX runs most of AccuWeather's programming with the "Weather Plus" brand name).

Analog-to-digital conversion

In 1997, the Federal Communications Commission allocated UHF channel 36 as KPNX's companion digital channel, construction on the digital transmitter began the following year. KPNX signed on its digital signal in June 2000. KPNX shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 12, at 10:12 p.m. (during the station's 10 p.m. newscast) on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. At 10:38 p.m. on that date, the station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 36 to its former analog VHF channel 12.^[4][5]

FCC-compliant station identification used by KPNX beginning in 2008.

Station Identification

Over the years, KPNX has used legal station identifications that did not comply with regulations set by Federal Communications Commission, which require that in the legal identification broadcast aurally or visually (a station must state its call sign, followed by its city of license). Dating back to its days as KTAR-TV, channel 12 has long identified its service area as "Phoenix/Mesa", though legally it should have been properly addressed as "Mesa/Phoenix." Beginning in 2008, KPNX began using an FCC-compliant station ID on its analog and primary digital channels.

Programming

KPNX broadcasts the entire NBC schedule, with the exception of program preemptions for special programming scheduled in advance or breaking news coverage. Syndicated programs featured on KPNX are Live! with Kelly and Michael, The Ellen DeGeneres Show and Extra. With this (in part, due to its weekday schedule being heavy on locally produced and NBC network programs), KPNX has the lowest amount of syndicated programming among the Phoenix market's television stations, and one of the lowest amounts in the country (the syndication inventories of Milwaukee NBC affiliate WTMJ-TV, Green Bay CBS affiliate WFRV-TV and Las Vegas NBC affiliate KSNV-DT are also limited in a similar fashion).

Newscasts and local programming

KPNX/12 News Studios located on the south-east corner of the Republic Media Building in 2013.

KPNX presently broadcasts 29 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 4½ hours on weekdays, 3½ hours on Saturdays and three hours on Sundays); KPNX's newscasts are among the highest-rated local newscasts in Arizona during evening timeslots,^[6] with newscasts during that time period having dominated ratings for several years, particularly since the 1994 affiliation switches.

On March 1, 2009, KPNX began to share a news helicopter operated by Helicopters Inc., as part of a Local News Service agreement with KPHO-TV and KTVK; the helicopter is named "News Chopper 20", as a combination of the over-the-air virtual channel numbers of the three stations (3, 5 and 12).^[7][8][9] In November 2009, KPNX's newscasts were beaten by KPHO in the ratings at 10 p.m., ending 50 consecutive sweeps victories in the timeslot (dating back to 1996) as the latter's ratings increased due to CBS' strong primetime lineup. KPNX, traditionally known as a very news-intensive station, went through a period of transition when nearly all of its tenured reporters left – including longtime consumer reporter, Rick DeBruhl who retired in November 2009.

KPNX produces a daily local lifestyle show, with paid segments, titled Arizona Midday, hosted by Jan D'Atri and Destry Jetton; it originally aired at 1 p.m. weekdays, before expanding from 60 to 90 minutes in 2013, when it began airing at 12:30 p.m. A new lighter news and entertainment show, EVB Live (named after KPNX's new operations at 200 East Van Buren), debuted in August 2011; the 4 p.m. program, which initially ran 90 minutes, was shortened to one hour on April 20, 2012, with the 5 p.m. half-hour replaced by a traditional newscast. Since the program's debut, ratings for EVB Live have been substantially lower than when The Ellen Degeneres Show aired in the 4 p.m. timeslot previously. The station also produces Sunday Square Off, a political discussion program hosted by chief political reporter Brahm Resnik, airing Sundays at 8 a.m.

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

• Your Esso Reporter (1953–1956)
• News Nite (1956–1962)
• News 90/The World Today (1962–1967)
• TV-12 News (1967–1972)
• Phoenix News (1972–1973)
• Action News (1973–1986)^[10]
• Channel 12 News (1986–1990)^[11]
• 12 News (1990–present)^[12]

Station slogans

• "Arizona's Full Color Station" (1960s)
• "It's All Right Here" (early 1980s)
• "Hello Phoenix" / "Hello Arizona" (1980s; used during period station used Frank Gari's "Hello News")
• "We're Going Where You're Going" (mid-1980s)
• "Arizona's Most Watched Station" (1992–2004)
• "12 Stands for Local News" (2004–2008)
• "Arizona's #1 Source for Local News" (2004–2008)
• "The Leader in HD, Local Television Redefined" (2006–2012)
• "It's All on 12 News" (2008–2012)
• "Connecting Arizona" (2012–present)
• "This is Home" (2013–present; slogan shared with other Gannett-owned stations)
• "The 1-2 (pronounced like "one to") Watch for NBC" (used in radio promos for primetime shows, used infrequently for TV promos)

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Notable former on-air staff

• Pat Finn - host of Finn & Friends (1989–1990; later host of Shop 'til You Drop and California Lottery's The Big Spin)
• Jineane Ford - anchor (1991–2007; most recently anchored Arizona Midday, still fills in as Arizona Midday anchor)^[13]
• Sean McLaughlin - chief meteorologist (1992–2004; moved at first to MSNBC/NBC Weather Plus, now primary anchor at KPHO-TV)
• Fred Roggin - sports anchor (late 1970s; now at KNBC in Los Angeles)
• Ric Romero - investigative reporter (1980s, now at KABC-TV)^[14]
• Mary Kim Titla - reporter (1993–2005; publisher of Native Youth Magazine online; unsuccessfully sought Congressional seat in 2008)^[15]

References in movies

Elizabeth Ashley portrayed fictional Channel 12 station owner Sharon Allan in the 1978 made-for-television disaster movie A Fire in the Sky (at the time of the movie's release, November 26, 1978,^[16] KPNX was still using the KTAR-TV callsign).

Translators

Notes:

• 1: Not owned by KPNX. Formerly K71AB ch 71.
• 2: Mohave County-owned. K42CQ-D was once K74AN channel 74; K50CY-D was K70AC channel 70; K46GI-D has been on channel 54 (K54AN) and 7 (K07JH); and K26GF-D was K80AP channel 80 until 1989, when it became K54DD.
• 3: Formerly K70BY ch 70. Gannett-owned (through Multimedia Holdings Corporation, owners of KPNX and KUSA-TV). Construction permit for channel 48 expires October 23, 2009.
• 4: Not owned by KPNX. Formerly K72AE channel 72.
• 5: Gannett-owned through Multimedia. Took current callsign in 2012.
• 6: Gannett-owned through Multimedia.
• 7: Not owned by KPNX. Formerly channel 67/K67BR.

References

External links

• 12News.com - Official website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KPNX
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KPNX-TV
• Program Information for KPNX at TitanTV.com