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|---|---|
| Channels | |
| Branding | 3TV; Arizona's Family |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| KPHO-TV, KPHE-LD | |
| History | |
First air date | February 28, 1955 |
Former channel number(s) |
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Call sign meaning | "Because TV will be our middle name" —Ernest McFarland[1] |
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 40993 |
| ERP | 1,000 kW |
| HAAT | 501 m (1,644 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 33°20′1″N 112°3′48″W / 33.33361°N 112.06333°W |
| Translator(s) | see § Translators |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
KTVK (channel 3) is an independent television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. It is owned by Gray Television alongside CBS affiliate KPHO-TV (channel 5) and low-power station KPHE-LD (channel 44), a grouping known as "Arizona's Family". The three stations share studios on North Seventh Avenue in Uptown Phoenix; KTVK's transmitter is located on South Mountain on the city's south side. The station's signal is relayed across northern Arizona on a network of translator stations.
KTVK signed on in 1955 as the fourth and last commercial VHF station in Phoenix. Owned by a syndicate fronted by former U.S. Senator and newly-elected Governor Ernest McFarland, it took over as Phoenix's ABC affiliate. After spending its first three decades as an also-ran, it poached several employees from then-dominant KTSP-TV in 1985, beginning a surge that made it the market leader by 1990. It lost its ABC affiliation as part of a shuffle of networks in 1994 and 1995 but has since prospered as an independent. It was one of the last family-owned major-market TV stations, being owned in part or whole by the McFarland-Lewis family from its inception until 1999.
The Belo Corporation acquired KTVK in 1999 and also took over KASW (channel 61), which KTVK had been programming since it began broadcasting four years prior. After Belo merged with Gannett, owner of KPNX and The Arizona Republic, the station was briefly owned by former general manager Jack Sander but was sold to the Meredith Corporation, separating it from KASW and merging it with KPHO-TV. KPHO-TV moved into the newer, larger KTVK studios; the "Arizona's Family" brand associated with channel 3 was extended to cover both stations, which began sharing news resources. In 2023, Gray Television's Phoenix stations became the new television home of the Phoenix Suns of the NBA.
- ^ "NewsChannel 3 History". azfamily.com. Archived from the original on February 2, 2007. Retrieved February 15, 2007.
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for KTVK". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.