KFSM-TV

KFSM-TV, virtual channel 5 (UHF digital channel 18), is a CBS-affiliated television station licensed to Fort Smith, Arkansas, United States, serving the Arkansas River Valley and Northwest Arkansas (including Fayetteville). The station is owned by Tegna Inc. KFSM-TV's studios are located on South 48th Street in Johnson (with a Springdale mailing address), and its transmitter is located northwest of Winslow, Arkansas. KFSM also operates a secondary studio and news bureau on North 13th Street in downtown Fort Smith (site of its former main studio).

KFSM-TV
Fort Smith/Fayetteville, Arkansas
United States
CityFort Smith, Arkansas
ChannelsDigital: 18 (UHF)
Virtual: 5 (PSIP)
BrandingChannel 5 (general)
5 News (newscasts)
SloganMore News Where You Live
Programming
Affiliations5.1: CBS (since 1980; secondary from 1953–1956, 1958–1971)
5.2: True Crime Network (O&O)
5.3: Antenna TV
5.4: Quest (O&O) (soon)
Ownership
OwnerTegna Inc.
(Cape Publications, Inc.)
History
First air date
July 9, 1953 (1953-07-09)
Former call signs
KFSA-TV (1953–1958, 1959–1973)
KNAC-TV (1958–1959)
Former channel number(s)
Analog:
22 (UHF, 1953–1958)
5 (VHF, 1958–2009)
Call sign meaning
Fort SMith (FSM is also the airport designation for the Fort Smith Regional Airport)
Technical information
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID66469
ERP1000 kW
HAAT286 m (938 ft)
Transmitter coordinates35°49′49.2″N 94°9′24.1″W
Translator(s)24 (UHF) Van Buren
Links
Public license information
Profile
LMS
Website5newsonline.com

History
"KNAC-TV" redirects here. It is not to be confused with WNAC-TV.

KFSM is one of the oldest television stations in Arkansas. It signed on for the first time on July 9, 1953 as KFSA-TV on channel 22. It was owned by American Television Company, Inc., which was run by Donald W. Reynolds, who also owned Fort Smith's two major newspapers — the Southwest American and Times Record (later merged as the Southwest Times Record) — and KFSA-AM 950. KFSA radio personality Pat Porta hosted the first broadcast. The station's studios and transmitter were located in the Times Record/Southwest American building at 920 Rogers Avenue in downtown Fort Smith. It carried programming from all four networks of the time — NBC, CBS, ABC and DuMont — but it was a primary NBC affiliate.

Initially, KFSA-TV relied on kinescopes of network programming and various live performers in the Fort Smith area. Local talent included Clint Fisher, Freddie Rose and programs from Camp Chaffee (later Fort Chaffee). Most commercials were live since videotapes were not yet available. A local TV-Appliance dealer, Bill Engles (a.k.a. "Wild Bill") along with Engles TV & Appliance, bought the first commercial live spots for $1.00 per minute.

At that time, the network live signal reached only as far towards Memphis, Tennessee. However, the networks extended the AT&T coaxial cable to Little Rock in 1957 to provide live coverage of the Little Rock Crisis. Reynolds then built a microwave transceiver on Mount Magazine to relay live programming from the Little Rock stations. Although the system was less than dependable, it was far better than kinescopes' which aired as many as three weeks after the original air date. Many old timers remember the station's microwave problems that disrupted several games of the 1954 World Series.

In 1956, KNAC-TV signed on channel 5 and became a CBS affiliate, from studios in Van Buren. At that time, CBS was the top network with such hits as Red Skelton, Jackie Gleason and Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town and later, Your Show of Shows. The network was number one in viewers and KNAC-TV quickly became a favorite because of its VHF signal and CBS affiliation. Meanwhile, channel 22's UHF signal didn't reach much farther than 30 miles (48 km) from downtown Fort Smith, leaving many homes without clear television reception. The Fort Smith television market is a fairly large market geographically, spilling across a large swath of Arkansas and Oklahoma. Much of this area is mountainous. UHF stations do not get good reception over large areas or in rugged terrain. It did not help that viewers in Fort Smith could receive television stations from Tulsa or Little Rock by using large masts and rotary antennas.

During the late 1950s, both KFSA-TV and KNAC struggled for advertising and viewers. By 1958, it became apparent the Fort Smith market (which soon merged with Fayetteville) could not support two television stations at the same time. Talks between Reynolds and KNAC's owner, businessman Hiram Nakdeiman, resulted in an agreement to merge the two stations under KFSA-TV's license, but using the stronger channel 5 facility. However, under the terms of an agreement with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the merged station operated under the KNAC-TV call letters until the sale formally closed.

KFSA-TV signed off permanently from channel 22 on August 16, 1958. The two stations' operations were merged at a converted furniture warehouse in downtown Fort Smith at North 5th and B Streets that had originally been renovated for KNAC-TV. After the license transfer was finalized in January 1959, the KFSA-TV calls were assigned to channel 5. The merged operation benefited from a technical quirk in the FCC's original television allocation plan. Most markets received two commercial VHF licenses plus a noncommercial VHF license. However, Fort Smith and Fayetteville are sandwiched between Little Rock to the east, Shreveport–Texarkana (channels 3, 6, and 12) to the south, Springfield (channels 3 and 10) and Pittsburg–Joplin (channels 7 and 12) to the north, and Tulsa (channels 2, 8, and 11) to the west. This created a large "doughnut" in Northwest Arkansas where there could be only one commercial VHF license plus a noncommercial license (eventually occupied by AETN's KAFT).

Many of the personnel at channel 22 (Pat Porta, Harry Freeman, John Candler, and wrestling promoter Jimmy Lott) made the transition to channel 5. KNAC's weathermen LeRoy Stollard and Cy Spicer were also staff members of the new operation. All became icons in Fort Smith's broadcasting history. Many had started their broadcasting careers on KFSA radio just after the war.

Until 1964, the station operated without a news department, instead relying on reports from its sister newspapers. However, that changed with the addition of Cliff Walker, who became the outlet's first news director. Walker had worked for KFSA radio and earlier for Nakdieman at KWHN.

In 1969, the FCC barred common ownership of newspapers and broadcasting outlets. Donrey owned one other newspaper/broadcasting cluster, the Las Vegas Review-Journal and KORK-AM-FM-TV. While Reynolds was able to get grandfathered protection for his Las Vegas cluster, he was unable to get it for his flagship cluster in Fort Smith. As a result, KFSA was sold to Buford Television in 1973 and renamed KFSM-TV (after the airport designation for Fort Smith Regional Airport). The station was purchased by the New York Times Company in 1979.

Aside from KNAC's brief time on-the-air, KFSA/KFSM was the only station in Fort Smith for 18 years. However, the Fayetteville area was served by KGTO (TV) in the late-1960s and 1970s. The station lost its CBS affiliation when KFPW-TV (now KHBS) signed on in 1971. It lost ABC in 1978 when KFPW-TV surrendered its CBS affiliation to new sign-on KLMN-TV (now KFTA-TV). KFSM swapped affiliations with KLMN in 1980 and became a CBS affiliate, which it remains today. At some point in March/April 2010, KFSM added MyNetworkTV to its second digital subchannel. Previously, the subchannel had served as a local news repeat channel. Eventually, new newscasts and sports call-in shows will be added. The area's original affiliate, KPBI-CA which was repeated on full-power KPBI, went silent after its owner Equity Media Holdings went bankrupt. Full-power KPBI, at one point a standalone RTV affiliate, officially became KFSM's sister station on January 5, 2012 with an FCC "failing station" waiver and changed its call letters to KXNW; at that time, KXNW dropped all remaining RTV programming in favor of a simulcast of KFSM-DT2, which had for a while also carried a part-time affiliation with Antenna TV in addition to its primary MyNetworkTV affiliation (until Antenna TV was ultimately segregated out onto its own dedicated sub-channel via KFSM-DT3, as of spring 2016).

The New York Times Company sold its entire broadcasting division, including KFSM, to Local TV in 2007.[1] During the analog television era, KFSM was the only big three affiliate that did not need a second full-power station to reach the entire market.

KFSM logo, used from 1997 to 2019. Prior to 1997, an alternate of this same style was utilised.

On September 1, 2010, the FCC granted KFSM a construction permit for a fill-in translator in Van Buren on channel 24.[2] KFSM operated a low-power analog translator, K62DQ channel 62, licensed to Fayetteville with a transmitter in Johnson along I-540/US 62/US 71. It had a construction permit to air on channel 44, but its license was cancelled on May 4, 2012.[3]

On July 1, 2013, Local TV announced that its stations would be acquired by Tribune Broadcasting.[4] The sale was completed on December 27.[5] With the completion of the deal, KFSM and KXNW became Tribune's smallest television stations by market size (previously, the company's New Orleans duopoly of WGNO and WNOL-TV held this distinction).

Aborted sale to Sinclair Broadcast Group

On May 8, 2017, Hunt Valley, Maryland-based Sinclair Broadcast Group announced that it would acquire Tribune Media for $3.9 billion, plus the assumption of $2.7 billion in debt held by Tribune. Had the deal received regulatory approval, the transaction would have given KFSM and KXNW new sister stations in the company's ABC affiliates in bordering markets, KTUL in Tulsa and KATV in Little Rock.[6][7][8][9][10] Three weeks after the FCC's July 18 vote to have the deal reviewed by an administrative law judge amid "serious concerns" about Sinclair's forthrightness in its applications to sell certain conflict properties, on August 9, 2018, Tribune announced it would terminate the Sinclair deal, intending to seek other M&A opportunities. Tribune also filed a breach of contract lawsuit in the Delaware Chancery Court, alleging that Sinclair engaged in protracted negotiations with the FCC and the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division over regulatory issues, refused to sell stations in markets where it already had properties, and proposed divestitures to parties with ties to Sinclair executive chair David D. Smith that were rejected or highly subject to rejection to maintain control over stations it was required to sell.[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]

Sale to Nexstar Media Group and resale to Tegna

On December 3, 2018, Irving, Texas-based Nexstar Media Group—which owns NBC affiliate KNWA-TV (channel 51) and Fox affiliate KFTA-TV (channel 24)—announced it would acquire the assets of Tribune Media for $6.4 billion in cash and debt. Nexstar is precluded from acquiring KFSM and KXNW directly or indirectly, as KFSM and KNWA both fall within FCC criteria prohibiting common ownership of two of the four highest-rated television stations in any market nor does it allow ownership of more than two stations in the same media market. Therefore, Nexstar will be required to sell either KNWA/KFTA or KFSM/KXNW to a separate, unrelated company to address the ownership conflict.[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] On March 20, 2019, Tysons, Virginia-based Tegna Inc. announced it would purchase KFSM-TV from Nexstar upon consummation of the merger, as part of the company's sale of nineteen Nexstar- and Tribune-operated stations to Tegna and the E. W. Scripps Company in separate deals worth $1.32 billion. KXNW was not named in the sale, which opens the possibility of either the formation of a de facto triopoly between KFTA and KNWA (which Nexstar plans to retain through an existing satellite station waiver that predated KFTA's conversion into a separately programmed Fox affiliate in 2006) or the retention of its existing duopoly partnership with KFSM, pending disclosures by Nexstar in subsequent paperwork concerning the deal.[33][34] The sale was completed on September 19, 2019; this made KFSM a sister station to fellow CBS affiliate KTHV in Little Rock.[35]

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[36]
5.11080i16:9KFSM-DTMain KFSM-TV programming / CBS
5.2480iJusticeTrue Crime Network
5.34:3AntTVAntenna TV
5.416:9Quest (soon)

Analog-to-digital conversion

KFSM-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 5, 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. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 18,[37] using PSIP to display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 5.

Programming

Syndicated programming on KFSM includes Rachael Ray, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, Inside Edition, and Dr. Phil, all of which are distributed by the corporate cousin of KFSM's affiliate network, CBS Television Distribution.

News operation

KFSM currently broadcasts 35½ hours of newscasts each week (with six hours each weekday, 2½ hours on Saturdays and three hours on Sundays),[38] a considerable amount for a station in the 100th market. It also provides a 24-hour local newscast seven days a week on Cox channel 55 in Springdale and Fort Smith. This has since moved to digital channel 661. The station launched a mobile application in 2005.

Over the years, KFSM has been the ratings leader in the area, mainly due to the fact that it was the only commercial VHF station on the air in the Fort Smith–Fayetteville market during the analog television era.

On April 21, 1996, a large tornado, part of the April 1996 tornado outbreak sequence, destroyed and heavily damaged much of historic downtown Fort Smith around the Garrison Avenue Bridge. The storm left four people dead in western Arkansas. KFSM-TV covered the tornado and produced a documentary of the event shortly after called "Sunday's Fury". Days later, the Eads Brothers Furniture Building was destroyed by one of largest fires in Fort Smith's history.

Until January 2012, KFSM-DT2 simulcasted the weekday morning show and then re-aired it in a rotating cycle. It also simulcasted the weekday noon and nightly broadcasts. The simulcasts were discontinued shortly after Local TV consummated on its purchase of the former KPBI and changed its call letters to KXNW, and were replaced with Antenna TV and syndicated programming as KXNW began to simulcast KFSM-DT2. On March 12, 2012, KXNW/KFSM-DT2 began airing a new hour-long 7 a.m. newscast on weekday mornings and a 30-minute newscast at 9 p.m. nightly. On weeknights, the latter newscast competes with the prime time newscast which airs on Fox affiliate KFTA-TV; KXNW was the only station which airs a 9 p.m. newscast on weekends until August 2012 when KHBS/KHOG began producing a nightly 9 p.m. newscast for their CW Plus-affiliated digital subchannels.

At some point during summer 2012, KFSM became the first station in the Fort Smith–Fayetteville market and the last primary Local TV-owned station to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition.

In fall 2017, KFSM began airing a 30-minute newscast at 4 p.m., titled 5 News First At Four. This was the first (and currently the only) 4 p.m. newscast in the Fort Smith–Fayetteville market.

In March 2020, KFSM temporarily scaled back its broadcast schedule in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. On weekdays, 5 News This Morning was shortened 30 minutes, beginning at 5 a.m. instead of 4:30 a.m. A replay of the previous night's edition of 5 News at 10 was played to fill the time slot. Additionally, on Saturdays, 5 News This Morning was sometimes replaced by a simulcast of sister station KTHV's Saturday morning newscast. In November 2020, KFSM returned to its normal broadcast schedule with 5 News this Morning weekdays beginning at 4:30 a.m. and 5 News this Morning Saturday originating as a KFSM broadcast rather than a KTHV simulcast.

References
  1. NY Times CO. Sell TV Group to Equity Firm for $530M; Second equity group to buy a media business in two weeks., NewsInc. (via HighBeam Research), January 8, 2007.
  2. http://licensing.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/pubacc/Auth_Files/1392679.pdf
  3. http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/sta_det.pl?Facility_id=66466
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  5. Company Completes Final Steps of Transaction Announced in July Archived 2013-12-28 at the Wayback Machine, Tribune Company, 27 December 2013
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  35. https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2019/9/19/nexstar-takes-control-of-tribune
  36. RabbitEars TV Query for KFSM
  37. "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-08-29. Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  38. https://www.5newsonline.com/tv-listings
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