KJTM-TV: Early years
The construction permit for channel 38 in Pine Bluff was filed for on January 14, 1983, and granted on May 18 of that year to Pine Bluff Broadcasting Inc. This company represented the merger of two applicants: one headed by siblings A.G. Kasselburg and Chloee Poag and American Satellite & Television of Gainesville, Florida.[1] Pine Bluff Broadcasting was unable to arrange financing to build the station. As a result, on March 14, 1985, Pine Bluff Broadcasting sold 80 percent of the construction permit, bearing the call sign KMJD-TV, to Virginia Beach–based Television Corp. Stations (subsequently renamed TVX Broadcast Group) for $200,000; the FCC granted approval of the purchase on May 15.[2][3][4]
In December 1985, TVX announced its plans for channel 38. Under new KJTM-TV call letters, it would operate as an independent station, the market's second after KLRT-TV, with studios in the Little Rock area and in Pine Bluff.[6] Construction of the new station's tower at Redfield, midway between Little Rock and Pine Bluff, was beset by a shortage of guy wire[9] and later by persistent rains that thwarted attempts to start on three consecutive Mondays. TVX sent postcards to the local news media featuring a story about the station's efforts to go on air being thwarted by the rain and a drawing of ducks around an unfinished tower, declaring that the rain was "why ducks like Arkansas".[10]
KJTM-TV finally began broadcasting on June 17, 1986.[11] A month later, the station scored a coup over its established competitor when it beat out KLRT-TV to become the region's Fox affiliate upon the network's October 1986 startup.[12] Despite this, KLRT-TV continued to remain the leading independent station in the Little Rock market.
KASN: Loss of Fox affiliation
Amid a shift by TVX to operating in markets larger than Little Rock, TVX put KJTM-TV up for sale. It initially reached an agreement to sell to Detroit-based Barden Communications; the $6 million transaction was terminated in late March 1988.[15][16][17] By this time, the Pine Bluff studio had been closed, with all operations being handled from studios in Little Rock along Interstate 30.[18]
After the Barden transaction failed to materialize, TVX sold the station to Evanston, Illinois–based MMC Television Corp. (principally owned by Paula Baird Pruett) for $6 million; the sale received FCC approval on June 15, 1988.[19] Paula Pruett's husband, Steven, was a former Arkansan, and their company ran Fox affiliate WMSN-TV
UPN affiliation
On January 16, 1995, KASN became a charter affiliate of the United Paramount Network (UPN) as part of a 1994 affiliation deal for four stations owned by Clear Channel and Mercury.[33][34][35]
After the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Clear Channel acquired five local FM stations in 1996 and 1997;[36][37] upon the legalization of duopolies in December 1999, it purchased KASN and three other stations outright in a deal worth $11.6 million (equivalent to $ in ).[38][39]
CW affiliation
In January 2006, UPN and The WB announced they would merge that fall to form The CW.[46] Clear Channel affiliated three stations with the network that April, in Cincinnati, Salt Lake City, and KASN in Little Rock.[47] KASN affiliated with The CW when that network launched on September 18.[48]
KLRT and KASN were included in the sale of Clear Channel's television station portfolio to Newport Television, controlled by Providence Equity Partners, for $1.2 billion on April 20, 2007 (equivalent to $ in ). The sale was made so Clear Channel could refocus around its radio, outdoor advertising and live event units.[49][50]
