KNWA-TV
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| KNWA-TV | |
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| Fayetteville/Rogers/Fort Smith, Arkansas | |
| Branding | KNWA (general) Northwest Arkansas News (news) |
| Slogan | Your Northwest Arkansas News Team. Always. |
| Channels | Analog: 51 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | NBC |
| Owner | Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc. (Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc.) |
| First air date | 1989[1] (as satellite of KPOM-TV) |
| Call letters’ meaning | North West Arkansas |
| Sister station(s) | KFTA-TV |
| Former callsigns | KFAA (1989-2004) |
| Transmitter Power | 182 kW (analog) 1000 kW (digital) |
| Height | 143 m (analog) 267 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 29557 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | (analog) (digital) |
| Website | www.nwahomepage.com |
KNWA-TV is the NBC television affiliate for the Fort Smith/Fayetteville, Arkansas television market. It broadcasts on analog channel 51 and digital channel 50. The station is located in Fayetteville at 15 South Block Street in the Campbell-Bell building. The station also has a bureau loctaed in a suite an the JB Hunt building in the Pinnacle Hills area of Rogers and is 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.[2] 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.
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[edit] Separation of KFTA and KNWA
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 under Nexstar ownership.
Until the sale of KFTA to Mission was approved, both stations continued to simulcast from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. KFTA now runs a separate programming schedule from KNWA.
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.[3]
Given the high penetration of cable and satellite television in this market, few if any TV viewers in this market lost access to NBC or Fox programming through this change. (The only station that has adequate coverage throughout the market from a single transmitter is Arkansas Educational Television Network's KAFT.) Cable and satellite are all but essential for an acceptable signal in northwest Arkansas due to its rugged terrain. For example, Dish Network and DirecTV 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 is low-power and does not have a digital transmitter, unlike both KFTA and KNWA.
According to their FCC filings, both KFTA and KNWA have digital transmitters 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
- Aaron Peters, Sports
- Dan Skoff, Chief Meteorologist
[edit] Former Anchors
- Mike Nail (Sports)
- Shani Walls
- Deena Day
- Justin Earley
- Don Elkins
- Steve Gibbs
- Rhonda Justice
- Rick Katzfey
- John Patrick
- Dana Sargent
- Bernadette Woods
- Eric Aldrich
- Rob Smith National Weather Service, Glasgow, MT
[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
- ^ The Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook says August 23, while the Television and Cable Factbook says October 1.
- ^ AP: NBC Affiliates in Arkansas Re-Launch Local News with AP's ENPS
- ^ Channel 51 Off Air (August 14, 2006)
[edit] External links
- KNWA Northwest Arkansas News Homepage
- FAQ's on transition (from new KFTA-TV website)
- Deal could mean new Fox affiliate in NWA (April 21, 2006)
- Fort Smith TV Station Plans Begin To Take Shape (July 11, 2006)
- KPBI, KFTA Fight For Fox Network (July 31, 2006)
- Fox Network Likely To Switch In Fort Smith (August 7, 2006)
- Fox Switch Planned Monday (August 26, 2006)
- Query the FCC's TV station database for KNWA
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KNWA-TV
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