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KATV history
KATV company history timeline
The station first signed on the air on December 19, 1953.
The studios were damaged in a fire that occurred on October 31, 1957.
The television station called the building home for about seven years; during this period, in 1959, Robert Doubleday became one of the youngest television station managers in the country at the age of 26.
KATV originally transmitted its signal from a tower near Jefferson, until a taller tower was built farther north in Redfield in 1965.
In April 1969, Griffin-Leake TV announced that it would break up its holdings into two separate companies.
The station gained some national attention in 1969 when they had to air Turn-On, which among viewers, "jam[med] the station's switchboard" with complaints.
In February 1999, KATV aired commercials for the Walt Disney Pictures animated film Doug's 1st Movie during an ABC network broadcast of Disney's Doug.
In 2009, KATV donated approximately 300 hours of film and 26,000 hours of video tape to the University of Arkansas David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History.
KATV appealed the fine, claiming the error was due to a last-minute insertion order from ABC. However, it lost the appeal in April 2010.
On July 29, 2013, Allbritton announced that it would sell its seven television stations, including KATV, to the Hunt Valley, Maryland-based Sinclair Broadcast Group for $985 million, to concentrate the company's operations exclusively around its political news website, Politico.
After nearly a year of delays, Sinclair's deal to acquire Allbritton was approved by the FCC on July 24, 2014, and was completed on August 1, 2014.
As of August 2019, the first digitized images are available on the Pryor Center's website.
© 2022 Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.
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KATV competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KWWL | 1953 | $18.0M | 350 | - |
| Mel Wheeler | - | $16.0M | 200 | - |
| KJRH | 1954 | $9.5M | 110 | - |
| Citizen Pictures | 1984 | $4.6M | 50 | - |
| Granite Broadcasting | 1990 | $8.5M | 37 | - |
| KAIT 8 | 1963 | $6.9M | 75 | - |
| Local3News.com | - | - | - | - |
| News Channel | - | $3.2M | 49 | - |
| ABC27 News | - | $2.9M | 12 | - |
| WBTV News | 1949 | $39.5M | 99 | - |
KATV history FAQs
Zippia gives an in-depth look into the details of KATV, including salaries, political affiliations, employee data, and more, in order to inform job seekers about KATV. The employee data is based on information from people who have self-reported their past or current employments at KATV. The data on this page is also based on data sources collected from public and open data sources on the Internet and other locations, as well as proprietary data we licensed from other companies. Sources of data may include, but are not limited to, the BLS, company filings, estimates based on those filings, H1B filings, and other public and private datasets. While we have made attempts to ensure that the information displayed are correct, Zippia is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of this information. None of the information on this page has been provided or approved by KATV. The data presented on this page does not represent the view of KATV and its employees or that of Zippia.
KATV may also be known as or be related to KATV, KATV LLC and KATV, LLC.