KFSM-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for the Arkansas River Valley and Northwest Arkansas that is licensed to Fort Smith. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 18 from a transmitter northwest of Winslow. Owned by Local TV, the station has studios on North 13th Street in Downtown Fort Smith. It also operates facilities on North Shiloh Drive in Fayetteville along U.S. 71 Bus. Syndicated programming on KFSM includes: Wheel Of Fortune, Jeopardy!, Inside Edition, and Dr. Phil. KFSM operates a low-power analog translator, K62DQ channel 62, licensed to Fayetteville with a transmitter in Johnson along I-540/U.S. 62/U.S. 71. It has a construction permit to air on channel 44.

It operates the area's MyNetworkTV affiliate on a second digital subchannel. Known on-air as My 5.2, this can also be seen on Cox digital channel 661. Syndicated programming on KFSM-DT2 includes: Family Guy, King of the Hill, Extra, and Seinfeld. Overnight, it re-airs the main channel's 10 p.m. broadcast in a repeating cycle.

History[link]

KFSM is one of the oldest television stations in Arkansas. It signed on for the first time on July 9, 1953 as KFSA-TV on channel 22. It was owned by Donald W. Reynolds who also owned Fort Smith's two major newspapers, the Southwest American and Times Record (later merged as the Southwest Times Record) and KFSA-AM 950. KFSA radio personality Pat Porta hosted the first broadcast. The station's studios and transmitter were located in the Times Record/Southwest American building at 920 Rogers Avenue in downtown Fort Smith. It carried programming from all four networks of the time--NBC, CBS, ABC and DuMont--but was a primary NBC affiliate.

Initially, KFSA-TV relied on kinescopes of network programming and various live performers in the Fort Smith area. Local talent included Clint Fisher, Freddie Rose and programs from Camp Chaffee (later Fort Chaffee). Most commercials were live since video tape was not yet available.

At the time, the network live signal reached only as far as Memphis, Tennessee. However in 1957, the networks extended the AT&T coaxial cable to Little Rock in order to provide live coverage of the Little Rock Crisis. Reynolds then built a microwave transreceiver on Mount Magazine to relay live programming from the Little Rock stations. Although the system was less than dependable, it was far better than kinescopes which aired as many as three weeks after the original air date. Many old timers remember the station's microwave problems which disrupted several games of the 1954 World Series.

In 1956 KNAC-TV signed on channel 5 and became a CBS affiliate, from studios in Van Buren. CBS was the top network at the time with such hits as Red Skelton, Jackie Gleason and the Ed Sullivan's "Toast of the Town" and later, "Your Show of Shows." The network was number one in viewers and KNAC-TV quickly became a favorite because of its VHF signal and CBS affiliation. Meanwhile, channel 22's UHF signal didn't reach much farther than 30 miles from downtown Fort Smith, leaving many homes without clear television reception. The Fort Smith market is a fairly large market geographically, spilling across a large swath of Arkansas and Oklahoma. Much of this area is mountainous. UHF stations do not get good reception over large areas or in rugged terrain. It didn't help that viewers in Fort Smith could receive television stations from Tulsa and Little Rock by using large masts and rotary antennas.

During the late 50s, both KFSA-TV and KNAC struggled for advertising and viewers. By 1958 it became apparent the Fort Smith market (which soon merged with Fayetteville) could not support two television stations. Talks between Reynolds and KNAC's owner, businessman Hiram Nakdeiman, resulted in an agreement to merge the two stations. The merged station would operate under the KFSA license, but use the stronger channel 5 facility. However, under the terms of an agreement with the FCC, it would operate under the KNAC-TV call letters until the sale formally closed.

KFSA-TV, Channel 22, signed off permanently on August 16, 1958. The two stations' operations were merged at a converted furniture warehouse in downtown Fort Smith at North 5th and B Streets that had originally been renovated for KNAC. After the license transfer was finalized in January 1959, the KFSA-TV calls were assigned to channel 5.

Many of the personnel at channel 22 (Pat Porta, Harry Freeman, John Candler, wrestling promoter Jimmy Lott) made the transition to channel 5. KNAC's weathermen LeRoy Stollard and Cy Spicer were also staff members of the new operation. All became icons in Fort Smith broadcasting history. Many had started their broadcasting careers at KFSA radio just after the war.

Until 1964, the station operated without a news department, instead relying on reports from its sister newspapers. However, that would change with the addition of Cliff Walker who became the outlet's first news director. Walker had worked for KFSA radio and had earlier worked for Nakdieman^[who?] at KWHN.

In 1969, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) barred common ownership of newspapers and broadcasting outlets. Donrey owned one other newspaper/broadcasting cluster, the Las Vegas Review-Journal and KORK-TV (now KSNV-DT). While Reynolds was able to get grandfathered protection for his Las Vegas cluster, he was unable to get it for his flagship cluster in Fort Smith. As a result, KFSA was sold to Buford Television in 1973 and renamed KFSM-TV (after the airport designation for Fort Smith Regional Airport). The station was purchased by the New York Times Company in 1979.

Aside from KNAC's brief time on-the-air, KFSA/KFSM was the only station in Fort Smith for 18 years. However, the Fayetteville area was served by KGTO (TV) in the late-1960s and 1970s. The station lost its CBS affiliation when KFPW-TV (now KHBS) signed on in 1971. It lost ABC in 1978 when KFPW-TV surrendered its CBS affiliation to new sign-on KLMN-TV (now KFTA-TV). KFSM swapped affiliations with KLMN in 1980 and became a CBS affiliate, which it remains today. At some point in March/April 2010, KFSM added MyNetworkTV to its second digital subchannel. Previously, the subchannel had served as a local news repeat channel. Eventually, new newscasts and sports call-in shows will be added. The area's original affiliate, KPBI-CA which was repeated on full-power KPBI, went silent after its owner Equity Media Holdings went bankrupt. Full-power KPBI, at one point a standalone RTV affiliate, officially became KFSM's sister station on January 5, 2012 with an FCC "failing station" waiver and changed its call letters to KXNW; at that time, KXNW dropped all remaining RTV programming in favor of a simulcast of KFSM-DT2, which now also carries a part-time affiliation with Antenna TV in addition to its primary MyNetworkTV affiliation.

The New York Times Company sold its entire broadcasting division, including KFSM, to Local TV in 2007.^[1] During the analog television era, KFSM was the only big three affiliate that did not need a second full-power station to reach the entire market.

On September 1, 2010, the FCC granted KFSM a construction permit for a fill-in translator in Van Buren on channel 24.^[2]

News operation[link]

KFSM currently provides five newscasts each weekday, and three broadcasts on Saturdays and Sundays, a considerable amount for a station in the 100th market. It also provides a 24-hour local newscast seven days a week on Cox channel 55 in Springdale and Fort Smith. This has since moved to digital channel 661. The station launched a mobile application in 2005.

Over the years, KFSM has been the ratings leader in the area. It was the only full-powered commercial station on VHF in the market due to a quirk in the FCC's original television allocation plan. Most markets received two commercial VHF licenses plus a noncommercial VHF license. However, Fort Smith and Fayetteville are sandwiched between Little Rock to the east, Shreveport and Texarkana to the south, Springfield and Pittsburg/Joplin to the north, and Tulsa to the west. This created a large "doughnut" in Northwestern Arkansas where there could be only one commercial VHF license plus a noncommercial license (eventually occupied by AETN's KAFT).

Until January 2012, KFSM-DT2 simulcasted the weekday morning show and then re-aired it in a rotating cycle. It also simulcasted the weekday noon and nightly broadcasts. The simulcasts were discontinued shortly after Local TV consummated on its purchase of the former KPBI and changed its call letters to KXNW, and were replaced with Antenna TV and syndicated programming as KXNW began to simulcast KFSM-DT2. On March 12, 2012, KXNW/KFSM-DT2 began airing a new hour-long 7 am newscast on weekday mornings and a 30-minute newscast at 9 pm nightly. On weeknights, the latter newscast competes with the prime time newscast which airs on Fox affiliate KFTA-TV; KXNW is the only station which airs a 9 pm newscast on weekends.

As of April 23, 2012, with Salt Lake City's KSTU having upgraded to high definition local newscasts, KFSM is now the only remaining Local TV-owned station which has yet to upgrade its newscasts to high definition or 16:9 enhanced definition widescreen. Even if KFSM were to upgrade its own newscasts to a widescreen format, the shows on KXNW would remain in pillarboxed 4:3 standard definition since its main signal is transmitted in that format.

News team[link]

[edit] Current on-air staff^[3]

Anchors

• Ashley Beck – weekday mornings and noon
• Daren Bobb – weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
• Ashley Ketz – weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
• Mitch Roberts – weekday mornings
• Allison Woods – Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5:30 and weekends at 10 p.m.

Max 5 Weather

• Garrett Lewis (NWA and AMS Seals of Approval) – chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
• Jason Adams – meteorologist; weekday mornings and noon
• Joe Pennington – meteorologist; weekend mornings, Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5:30 and weekends at 10 p.m.

Sports team

• John Engleman – sports director; weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.
• Jonathan Huskey – sports anchor; Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5:30 and weekends at 10 p.m., also sports reporter
• Mike Irwin – Arkansas Razorbacks reporter

Reporters

• Kumasi Aaron – general assignment reporter
• Robert Boyd – general assignment reporter
• Jared Broyles – weekday reporter
• Mallory Cooke – general assignment reporter

References[link]

• About 5News KFSM.com, retrieved July 12, 2009
• [1]

External links[link]

• 5NewsOnline.com (Official Website)
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KFSM
• Query the FCC's TV station database for K62DQ