Early history
On March 4, 1948, a consortium of four men doing business as the Phoenix Television Company—R. L. Wheelock, W. L. Pickens, H. H. Coffield, and John B. Mills—filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission for a construction permit to build a new television station on channel 5, which was granted on June 2.[1] This was the first application—and permit—for a television station in Arizona. The venture united Mills, the owner of downtown Phoenix's Westward Ho hotel, with three Texas oilmen.[2] By the time it incorporated with the state in June 1949, Phoenix Television, Inc. had gained several new shareholders, notably including John Mullins, who later owned other radio and television properties.[3] Another was Rex Schepp, the owner and manager of KPHO (then at 1230 AM; it moved to 910 kHz in 1949), which was Phoenix's ABC radio outlet; Mills then bought a 29 percent interest in KPHO.[4]
By summer, construction had begun on a building adjacent to the Westward Ho, at 631 N. First Avenue, to house offices and studios for the station, which initially had the call letters KTLX. Phoenix Television also began work on a steel mast to be affixed to the structure for its antenna.[5] The KTLX call sign was dropped on October 4 in favor of KPHO-TV, to match the radio station.[6] Arizona's first television station began broadcasting on December 4, 1949; network coaxial cables had not reached Phoenix, so all programs were either on film or live.[7]
For the next three and a half years, while the FCC froze all new awards of TV station construction permits, KPHO-TV remained the only television station in Phoenix and the state. In 1952, Phoenix Television sold the KPHO stations for $1.5 million to the Meredith Corporation of Des Moines, Iowa, whose only broadcast holdings at the time consisted of WHEN-TV in Syracuse, New York, and WOW radio and television in Omaha, Nebraska.[8] Loretta Young and Irene Dunne were reported to be interested in the months leading up to the sale, offering $1.25 million, but the owners of KPHO were looking for $2 million at the time, only lowering their price because of the impending arrival of new TV stations.[9] By 1953, KPHO-TV was programming 100 hours a week of network programming, with all four major networks of the time—CBS, NBC, ABC, and DuMont—represented.[10]
Local programming of the time included, at one point, three different live variety shows, as well as a show hosted by a young Marty Robbins.[11] Other shows catered to women, kids, and sports fans. In the station's last year as a network affiliate, another major event occurred in station history. Ken Kennedy had created a character called "Gold Dust Charlie" to host Western movies. A sidekick was added when Bill Thompson, a 23-year-old artist, joined Charlie in the role of Wallace Sneed, Charlie's eastern cousin. Wallace soon became so popular that he received his own show of comedy sketches, It's Wallace. A studio cameraman, Ladimir Kwiatkowski, joined the show with his character Ladmo, and what would become known as The Wallace and Ladmo Show—a KPHO-TV fixture for decades—was born.
The independent years
The end of the FCC freeze in 1952 started the process that would bring to the Phoenix area three new television services within less than two years. The first of these stations launched on May 2, 1953: KTYL-TV channel 12 in Mesa. KTYL-TV took on NBC programming from KPHO-TV; it was speculated that Meredith might have let that network go on purpose, reasoning it was likely to lose it anyway if KTAR radio, the Phoenix NBC radio affiliate, had its proposed television station approved.[12] Phoenix got a second channel in October 1953, shared by KOOL-TV and KOY-TV, but channel 10 did not have a network affiliation; at the same time, CBS added KPHO-TV to the "must-buy" list on the rate card, which meant that the station would begin carrying some CBS programs (such as See It Now) whose sponsors did not buy into Phoenix.[13] However, channel 10 took on ABC programming in early 1954.[14] KOOL-TV then relinquished ABC to KTVK, which went on the air in February 1955, and became the new CBS affiliate on June 15 of that year—starting nearly four decades of independent television at channel 5.[15]
Returning to CBS
On May 23, 1994, New World Communications signed an agreement with Fox to convert twelve of its stations to the network, resulting in a massive wave of affiliation switches throughout the country;[27] locally, KSAZ-TV—which New World was in the process of acquiring from Citicasters—was included in the deal. A month later, seeking to head off what would have been a disastrous outcome for the network, ABC renewed its affiliation agreement with the Scripps-owned ABC affiliates in Detroit and Cleveland and moved to Scripps stations in Tampa, Baltimore and Phoenix; Scripps successfully pressured ABC, which wanted to remain with top-rated KTVK, to move over to soon-to-be former Fox affiliate KNXV.[28]
CBS now had two choices for a new Phoenix affiliate: KTVK and KPHO-TV. While the former was higher-rated, the latter had several strategic advantages relating to Meredith's ownership of other stations. It owned KCTV in Kansas City, Missouri, a longtime CBS affiliate in a market where the NBC affiliation had become available, and it owned WNEM-TV in Bay City, Michigan, an NBC affiliate whose signal covered the outer fringes of Detroit—a market where the network was about to be relegated to the UHF band. On June 30, 1994, CBS announced it had affiliated with KPHO-TV and WNEM-TV; Tony Malara, the head of CBS affiliate relations, noted that the Meredith–CBS partnership was a factor in the decision and denied that it had been pressured by threats from Meredith to change network affiliations in Kansas City.
Becoming part of the "Family"
In 2013, Gannett—owner of KPNX and The Arizona Republic—announced it would merge with Belo, which owned KTVK and KASW (channel 61). As FCC rules restrict one company from owning more than two television stations in the same market, Gannett announced that it would spin off KTVK and KASW to Sander Media, LLC, a company operated by former Belo executive Jack Sander, with their operations to remain largely separate from KPNX and The Republic.[32] However, in St. Louis, Gannett owned NBC affiliate KSDK while Belo owned CBS affiliate KMOV. The Department of Justice required the outright sale of one of the two St. Louis stations in lieu of a transfer to Sander, noting a combination of the two would put Gannett in a dominant position in the local advertising market.[33]
Concurrent with the closure of the merger on December 23, 2013, Meredith announced it would acquire KMOV, KTVK, and assets used in KASW's operation, with the KASW license being transferred to SagamoreHill Broadcasting.[34]
Sale to Gray Television
On May 3, 2021, Gray Television announced its intent to purchase the Meredith Local Media division, including KPHO and KTVK, for $2.7 billion. In Arizona, Gray already owned CBS affiliate KOLD-TV in Tucson. The sale was completed on December 1.[38]
In 2024, Gray became the official television partner of the Arizona Cardinals, taking over from KPNX. KPHO-TV and KOLD-TV will air preseason games, while the Arizona's Family group will offer additional team-related programming as well as high school football and flag football.[39]
