KPNX

'KPNX' is the NBC television affiliate in Phoenix, Arizona. It is licensed to Mesa but its studios and offices are in Phoenix. Its transmitter and tower are located on South Mountain in Phoenix; the station broadcasts on analog channel 12. Owned by Gannett, it operates a full-power satellite, KNAZ channel 2 in Flagstaff, and numerous other translators throughout northern Arizona.

Contents

History

Digital Television

News Operation

Current News Personalities

12News Today

Arizona Midday

12News at Noon

12News UpFront

12News at 5:00

Arizona Nightly News

12News at 10:00

12News Weekend Today

12News Weekend

Arizona Highways

12Sports Team

12News Weather Plus+

Call 12 For Action (Consumer/Investigative News Team)

General Assignment Reporters

Former Personalities

Slogans

Logos

Translators

References

External links

History

KPNX is the only station in Phoenix to never change its primary affiliation. The station was founded in 1953 as 'KTYL-TV', sister-station to KTYL 1490 (now KXAM 1310) and KTYL-FM 104.7 (now KZZP), owned by the Harkins Theatre Group. Its appearance brought the metro Phoenix area a fulltime NBC affiliate; the other three networks were jammed into KPHO-TV, with CBS primary and ABC and DuMont secondary, as was NBC prior to 1953. The original studio was located in Mesa. Some DuMont programming was also carried on KTYL-TV prior to that network's demise in 1956.
The station changed its call letters to 'KVAR' in 1955 after its sale to John J. Louis, owner of KTAR-AM 620, and then became 'KTAR-TV' four years later. It moved into its current facility in Phoenix in 1959, after the FCC allowed stations to locate their studios in a different city than the one that it's licensed to. It is still officially licensed to Mesa, identifying as "Phoenix-Mesa" on the air - unusual since the city of license is normally listed first.
Over the years, the Louis family bought several other broadcasting outlets, including WQXI-TV in Atlanta (now WXIA-TV) and WPTA-TV in Fort Wayne. Eventually, the Louis family's broadcasting interests became known as Pacific & Southern Broadcasting, headquartered in Phoenix with KTAR-AM-TV as the flagship stations.
Pacific & Southern was bought by advertising mogul Karl Eller in 1968, who then combined it with his existing business to form Combined Communications. Combined merged with Gannett in 1979, in what was at that time the biggest media merger in U.S. history. The FCC did not allow the newly merged company to keep both KTAR-TV and KTAR-AM, so it opted to sell the radio station. KTAR-TV then renamed itself KPNX. The reason for this was that radio station had held the call letters first (since 1929 - they stood for "Keep Taking (the) Arizona Republic," the station's owner from 1928 to 1946).
Eller was also one of the original founding owners of the city's first major professional sports team, the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association. Channel 12 carried Suns games for years, from the team's 1968 inception until the 1980s, when Suns telecasts moved to KNXV (Channel 15).
The station had ranked third in the ratings for many years behind KTVK and KSAZ until a massive shift in network affiliations in Phoenix occurred in 1994. All of the market's major English-language commercial stations traded affiliations except KPNX (and PBS affiliate KAET). At that point, the station finally reached the number-one position, knocking former leader KTVK down to second place in the ratings. Gannett purchased Central Newspapers, owner of the ''Arizona Republic and the Indianapolis Star,'' in 2000. Central Newspapers had sold KTAR radio when they bought the Republic (which owned KTAR) in 1946.
On 29 December 2005, the station began carrying NBC Weather Plus+ on subchannel 12.2 (digital channel 36). The subchannel is carried by Cox Communications on cable channel 83.
MSNBC and Weekend Today WEATHER PLUS+ Chief Meteorologist Sean McLaughlin worked at this station before going national. He now works at rival KPHO, Phoenix's CBS affliate, with his fellow partner from KPNX, Kent Dana.

Digital Television

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
'Digital channels'

Channel	Programming
12.1 / 36.1	Main KPNX programming / NBC HD
12.2 / 36.2	NBC Weather Plus

News Operation

KPNX's news operations (12News) is among one of the highest rated news operations in Arizona during primetime news hours^[1].
KPNX (then KTAR-TV) was the Phoenix pioneer of what some call "happy-talk" news when it debuted "Action News" in late 1973, with long-time anchor Ray Thompson paired up with Bob Hughes (who later was the anchorman for WSBT-TV, the CBS affiliate in South Bend, IN and Pat Robertson's CBN cable network), weatherman Dewey Hopper (lately with KPHX 1480, the Phoenix affiliate of Air America Radio, and a long-time weather forecaster in Sacramento) & sportscaster Ted Brown (no relations to the former NFL football player of the same name). All but Hughes later spent time at KTVK.
The station had ranked third in the ratings for many years behind KTVK and KSAZ until a massive shift in network affiliations in Phoenix occurred in 1994. All of the market's major English-language commercial stations traded affiliations except KPNX (and PBS affiliate KAET). At that point, the station finally reached the number-one position, knocking former leader KTVK down to second place in the ratings. Gannett purchased Central Newspapers, owner of the Arizona Republic and the Indianapolis Star, in 2000. Central Newspapers had sold KTAR radio when they bought the Republic (which owned KTAR) in 1946.
While KSAZ and KTVK produce more individually separate local newscasts, KPNX airs the largest amount of news (local and national) in the market, running about 30 hours a week of local news, along with 25 hours a week of national news from NBC (Today Show, NBC News, etc). It also runs syndicated first-run talk and reality shows (''Live with Regis & Kelly'' being one of them, which has aired on Channel 12 since its debut [as ''Live with Regis & Kathie Lee''] in the 1980s) along with the entire NBC schedule.
On 2 November 2006, KPNX became the first station in Arizona to begin broadcasting local news programming in high definition, like its 6 Gannett sister stations, e.g. KARE, KUSA, KSDK, WKYC, and WUSA. The graphics and set were also redesigned by Giant Octopus and Production Design Group, respectively.

Current News Personalities

12News Today

★ Tram Mai

★ Scott Light

★ Meteorologist Sarah Walters

★ Beat the Traffic Reporter Anna Laurel

Arizona Midday

★ Jan D'Atri

★ Destry Jetton

12News at Noon

★ Tram Mai or Scott Light

★ Meteorologist Sarah Walters

12News UpFront

★ Mark Curtis

★ Fay Fredricks

★ Chief Meteorologist Bill Kelly

12News at 5:00

★ Mark Curtis

★ Lin Sue Cooney

★ Chief Meteorologist Bill Kelly

Arizona Nightly News

★ Mark Curtis

★ Lin Sue Cooney

★ Chief Meteorologist Bill Kelly

★ Luis Trujilo (SAP Spanish Translator)

★ Brenda Durazo (SAP Spanish Translator)

12News at 10:00

★ Mark Curtis

★ Lin Sue Cooney

★ Chief Meteorologist Bill Kelly

12News Weekend Today

★ Melissa Gonzalo

★ Joe Dana (Saturday)

★ Brahm Resnik (Sunday)

★ Weather Forecaster Caribe Devine

12News Weekend

★ Brahm Resnik

★ Kim Covington

★ Robin Sewell (special segments reporter for 12News Weekend; substitute anchor)

★ Weather Forecaster Caribe Devine

Arizona Highways

★ Robin Sewell -- hostess and executive producer

12Sports Team

★ Sports Director Kevin Hunt

★ Bruce Cooper

★ Chris Holden

★ Joe Pequeno

12News Weather Plus+

★ Weather Plus+ Meteorologist/Department Manager Ron Merritt (in charge of Weather Plus+ Department and President/Chief Media Buyer at PRFect Media Public Relations)

★ Weather Plus+ Chief Meteorologist Bill Kelly

★ Weather Plus+ Meteorologist Sarah Walters

★ Weather Plus+ Forecaster Caribe Devine

★ Weather Plus+ Meteorologist Jerrid Sebesta

★ Weather Plus+ Chief Meteorologist Lee Born (Substitute Meteorologist; Chief Meteorologist at sister station KNAZ-TV)

Call 12 For Action (Consumer/Investigative News Team)

★ Dave Cherry

★ Rick DeBruhl

General Assignment Reporters

★ Melissa Blasius

★ Nick Calderone

★ Dave Cherry

★ Rick DeBruhl

★ Rich Dubek

★ Fay Fredricks

★ Melissa Gonzalo

★ Andy Harvey

★ Kevin Kennedy

★ Anna Laurel

★ Nicole McGregor

★ Brahm Resnik

★ Syleste Rodriguez

★ Tammy Rose

★ Veronica Sanchez

★ Sarah Sevier

★ Jennifer Vogel

Former Personalities

★ Kent Dana, Anchor (until 2004, now at KPHO-TV, CBS affiliate in Phoenix)

★ Jineane Ford, Anchor from 1991 to 2007, most recently anchored ''Arizona Midday''^[2]

★ Sean McLaughlin, Chief Meteorologist (1992-2004, moved at first to MSNBC/NBC Weather Plus, now at KPHO)

★ Ron Hoon originally at KSAZ-TV then KOOL-TV; went to KPNX-TV Channel 12; went to KSAZ-TV due to contract obligations

★ Marianne McClary, Morning anchor (1990-1995 now at KMAX/KOVR Good Day Sacramento in Sacramento, CA)

★ Dave Marquis, Reporter (198_-1993, now at KXTV 10 in Sacramento, CA

★ Blair Meeks, General Assignment Reporter (until 2003, now at WXIA-TV)

★ Deiah Riley, Anchor/Reporter (until 1999, now at WFTS-TV)

★ Linda Alvarez, Anchor (late '70s, early '80s now at KCBS-TV)

★ Rick Crabbs (moved to KSAZ-TV; pilot of SKYFOX; originally worked at FOX 10)

★ Aubrey Aquino (Morning Beat the Traffic Reporter)

★ Kim Holcomb, Reporter (until 2006)

★ Al Owen, Reporter and Entertainment Editor (1980-1984) Moved from KPNX to Entertainment Tonight^[3]

Slogans

★ "Come Home to the Best, Only on Channel 12" (1988-1990 using NBC's ''Come Home to the Best, Only on NBC'' campaign)

★ "The 1-2 (pronounced like one-to) watch for NBC" (Used in radio promos for primetime shows, used infrequently for TV promos)

★ "12 Stands for Local News"

★ "The Leader in HD, Local Television Redefined"

★ "Clearer, Sharper, Better"

Logos

Translators

★ 'K24FA' Blythe, California

★ 'K09KG' Bullhead City

★ 'K13XA' Carrizo

★ 'K13XB' Cedar Creek

★ 'K42CQ' Chloride

★ 'K13XE' Cibecue

★ 'K35EI' Dolan Springs

★ 'K56FT' Fort Apache

★ 'K61FB' Globe/Miami

★ 'K50CY' Kingman

★ 'K46GI' Lake Havasu City

★ 'K23DK' Meadview

★ 'K30BQ' Needles, California / Bullhead City

★ 'KPSN-LP 22' Payson

★ 'K26GF' Peach Springs

★ 'K06AE' Prescott

★ 'K57DC' Verde Valley/Camp Verde

★ 'K13XC' Whiteriver

References

1. News Ratings: May 2007 M. Hagerty
2. Signing off R. Cordova
3. About AOIP - Al Owen in print

External links

★ KPNX Website

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