KNXV-TV
KNXV-TV is the
ABC television affiliate in
Phoenix, Arizona. Its transmitter is located on
South Mountain in Phoenix. It can be seen on Channel 15 in Phoenix and can be viewed in Northern Arizona, albeit on different channels due to different transmitter locations.
Channel 15 in Phoenix was originally home to now-dark
KLUZ. It shut down sometime in the 1950s. The allocation remained.
On
September 9,
1979, KNXV-TV, the new occupant of channel 15, came to life under UHF broadcaster Ed Cooperstein, doing business as the New Broadcasting Company. Its programming originally consisted of first-run and off-network syndicated shows and children's programming during the day, and the
ON-TV Subscription Television service in the evening and late-night hours. One of the station's most memorable early promotions was the "Bluebird of Happy News," with a man dressed up in a bird costume in a helicopter taking jabs at local news on other stations.
ON-TV lasted a couple years until cable television began to prosper across the Phoenix area. KNXV eventually became a full-time
independent station, and ran a number of cartoons, old sitcoms, old movies, and drama shows. It pulled mediocre ratings, and lagged behind longtime independent station
KPHO 5. Cooperstein sold the station to
The E. W. Scripps Company in 1984, and the deal was closed in early 1985.
Under Scripps, KNXV began to purchase more recent sitcoms, often outbidding KPHO for strong shows. Scripps Howard also promised local newscasts would be added to the station, and as a result the station gained the
FOX affiliation at the network's inception in 1986.
By 1990, KNXV nearly tied KPHO in the ratings, even though the station still produced no local news.
Becoming an ABC affiliate
It was announced in 1994 that longtime
CBS affiliate
KSAZ-TV was to become a Fox affiliate. The CBS affiliation, in turn, moved to KPHO, leaving KNXV without an affiliation. As a result, Scripps began to negotiate an affiliation agreement with ABC. In order for Scripps to keep ABC on Scripps' two biggest stations,
WXYZ-TV in
Detroit and
WEWS-TV in
Cleveland, ABC agreed to affiliate with KNXV (along with
WMAR in
Baltimore and
WFTS in
Tampa;
WCPO-TV in
Cincinnati was also part of the Scripps/ABC deal, but had to wait for ABC's affiliation contract with
WKRC-TV to expire in June 1996 to switch), thus displacing longtime ABC affiliate
KTVK. In turn, KNXV agreed to produce the same amount of local news as KTVK had been as an ABC affiliate. KNXV also agreed to not pre-empt any ABC programming except for local news emergencies.
ABC's affiliation agreement with KTVK did not expire until late 1994, but KTVK already began to gradually drop ABC shows. As a result, the ABC affiliation migrated to KNXV in stages, and the station carried programming from both ABC and Fox for a while-with ABC as a temporary secondary affiliation (of note,
KECY-TV in Yuma currently carries Fox primary and ABC secondary).
Good Morning America was the first ABC program shown on KNXV, following the first round of changes at the end of August 1994. KNXV then picked up
World News Now,
Nightline, and ABC's Saturday Morning Cartoons in December. The rest of ABC's programming moved to KNXV in January 1995. KNXV kept about one third of its syndicated programming, with much of the rest moving to KTVK (and eventually ending up on
KASW), KSAZ and
KUTP.
By 1995, KNXV was running newscasts at 6-7 a.m., 11 a.m., 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 10 p.m..
In subsequent years, KNXV added more first-run syndicated shows. The station added
Wheel of Fortune and
Jeopardy! in 2004. Today, KNXV is a fairly typical ABC affiliate, producing a decent amount of local news.
KNXV has begun installations at its transmission facilities which will double the station's digital / high definition signal output power. Work began in June 2005.
ABC News anchor
Bob Woodruff worked in this station before going national.
By 1995, KNXV was running newscasts at 6-7AM, 11AM, 5PM, 6PM and 10PM. The 11 a.m. newscast has since been dropped.
Weekdays*ABC15 News Daybreak- 5AM-7AM
*ABC15 News at Four- 4PM-4:30PM
*ABC15 News at Five - 5PM-5:30PM
*ABC15 News at Six - 6PM-6:30PM
*ABC15 News at Ten - 10PM-10:35PM
Weekends*ABC15 News Sunday Daybreak - 7AM-8:30AM Sundays
*ABC15 News Sunday - 5:30PM-6PM Sundays
*ABC15 News at Six - 6PM-6:30PM Saturdays
*ABC15 News at Ten - 10PM-10:35PM
Image:Knxv1583.jpg|KNXV logo (as an independent station) from 1983Image:Knxv1592.jpg|KNXV Fox 15 logo. Used from 1988 to 1994.Image:Knxv1596.jpg|KNXV ABC News 15 logo from 1996.Image:KNXV-WIKI.jpg|KNXV's first ABC 15 logo was used until 2002.Image:ABC15phoenix.PNG|KNXV's yellow/black logo, introduced by Scripps to match sister WMAR in Baltimore. The font face for 15 is that used in the circle 15 logo, but not stylized as the circle 15.*We're # (number) Fun (1979-early 1980s)
FOX15 (1988-1994)
ABC News15 - No Chit-Chat, More News (mid 1990s)
News15: We Won't Waste Your Time (1990s)
ABC15 (No Slogan Afterwards) (to early 2000's)
ABC15, Your Valley News Leader (2002-present)
Make the Switch to ABC15 (2005-Present)
*
K29EC Blythe, California*
K49EU Chloride*
K44CN Cottonwood*
K41BZ Dolan Springs*
K52CM Flagstaff*
K44DK Kingman*
K57FY Kingman*
K39FV Lake Havasu City*
K38GR Meadview*
K31HY Needles, California /
Bullhead City*
K47DJ Prescott*
K59BP Verde Valley/
Camp Verde*
ABC 15 Website*
ABC15 to upgrade the Digital / High Definition Broadcast Signal
