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KTMJ-CD

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KTMJ-CD
Channels
BrandingFox 43 KTMJ; Fox 43 News
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
KSNT,KTKA-TV
History
FoundedAugust 8, 1986(1986-08-08)
First air date
October 31, 1989
(34 years ago)(1989-10-31)
Former call signs
  • K15BQ (1989–1994)
  • K43EO (1994–2001)
  • KTLJ-LP (2001–2003)
  • KTMJ-CA (2003–2012)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog:15 (UHF, 1989–1994), 43 (UHF, 1994–2012)
  • Digital:43 (UHF, 2012–2020)
Call signmeaning
Kansas, Topeka,Manhattan,Junction City
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID43649
ClassCD
ERP15 kW
HAAT399.9 m (1,312 ft)
Transmitter coordinates39°1′34″N95°55′2″W/ 39.02611°N 95.91722°W/39.02611; -95.91722
Translator(s)KSNT-DT27.2 Topeka
Links
Public license information
Websitewww.ksnt

KTMJ-CD(channel 43) is alow-power,Class A television stationinTopeka, Kansas,United States, affiliated with theFoxnetwork. It is owned byNexstar Media GroupalongsideNBCaffiliateKSNT(channel 27); Nexstar also provides certain services to dualABC/CW+affiliateKTKA-TV(channel 49) underjoint salesandshared servicesagreements (JSA/SSA) withVaughan Media,LLC.The stations share studios on Northwest 25th Street (US 24), near theunincorporated communityofKiro(with a Topeka mailing address); KTMJ-CD's transmitter is located along Southwest West Union Road west of Topeka.

Even though KTMJ-CD operates a digital signal of its own, the low-power broadcasting radius does not reach the northern and eastern fringes of the Topekamarket.Therefore, the station issimulcastinhigh definitionon KSNT's seconddigital subchannelin order to reach the entire market. This signal can be seen on channel 27.2 from KSNT's transmitter at the Northwest 25th Street studios.

History[edit]

Early history[edit]

KTMJ traces its roots to the March 31, 1983, sign-on of K06KZ inJunction City,anindependent stationwhich broadcast onVHFchannel 6. In 1987, the station changed its call letters to KTMJ-LP (representing the station's service area of Topeka,Manhattanand Junction City); however, the station was referenced as "KTMJ-TV 6" in theKansas Cityedition ofTV Guideand Topeka area newspapers. KETM-LP signed on the air on November 30, 1988, as K17CK; also operating as an independent station initially, it was eventually converted into a repeater of the Junction City station, which served as the main signal. On March 30, 2011, it surrendered its Class A designation and reverted to a standard LPTV license; at that time, the station changed its call letters to KETM-LP. KMJT-CA began operating on August 4, 1992, as K15DQ; it became a Class A repeater of the original Junction City signal on September 24, 2001. Channel 43 originally maintained studio facilities located on Southgate Drive in southwestern Topeka.

On January 16, 1995, KTMJ-LP became a primary affiliate of the United Paramount Network (UPN) and a secondary affiliate ofThe WB.While the station aired UPN's Monday and Tuesday night programming in pattern, KTMJ carried The WB's initial Wednesday lineup on a week-delayed basis on Sunday nights to accommodate thePrime Time Entertainment Network(PTEN) on Wednesday nights. In September 1995, KTMJ moved the delayed WB Wednesday lineup to Saturdays in order to carry the network's new Sunday schedule in pattern; it also added both networks' new children's programming blocks (UPN KidsandKids' WB), running their weekend lineups back-to-back on Sunday mornings and early afternoons as part of a seven-hour block of network and syndicated cartoons. On April 1, 1996, the station became a primary affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Company and shifted UPN to secondary status; this would leave the Topeka market without a local WB affiliate until the September 1998 launch of cable-onlyWB 100+affiliate "WBKS" (nowCW Plusaffiliate KTKA-DT3, and operated at the time by KSNT). Until then, area residents would have to rely on either thesuperstation feedof Chicago affiliateWGN-TVor, upon its September 1996 sign-on,Kansas Cityaffiliate KCWB (nowCWaffiliateKCWE) to view WB programming.

In 2001, then-owner Montgomery Communications reassigned the KTMJ-CA call letters to the repeater on UHF channel 43 in Topeka, converting that outlet—which was also re-designated as a Class A station—into theflagship stationof the group. At that time, channel 17 became a Class A station and changed its call letters to KETM-CA, subsequently becoming a repeater of channel 43. The Junction City station that originally held the KTMJ calls also had its call letters changed to KTLJ-CA. With the reassignment of the Topeka station as the originating station for KTMJ, Montgomery Communications relocated the station's operations from Junction City to facilities on Southgate Drive in southwest Topeka;master controloperations remained in Junction City, before moving to the Topeka facility in May 2004.[2]KTMJ-CA and its repeaters dropped the secondary UPN affiliation in 2003.

New Vision Television ownership[edit]

On July 7, 2008, New Vision Television (owner of NBC affiliate KSNT) announced its intention to buy KTMJ and its repeaters from Montgomery Communications.[3]The purchase was completed on September 1. As a result, KTMJ relocated its operations into KSNT's facilities on Northwest 25th Street. In November 2008, KSNT began providing a simulcast of KTMJ-CA on its second digital subchannel, replacingCW Plusaffiliate "Northeast Kansas CW 5" (which concurrently moved to present-day sister station KTKA-TV).

Sale to LIN Media, and then Media General[edit]

On May 7, 2012,LIN TV Corporationannounced that it would acquire the New Vision Television station group, including KSNT and KTMJ-CD, for $330.4 million and the assumption of $12 million in debt. Along with the outright ownership of KSNT and KTMJ, the agreement included the acquisition of New Vision's shared services agreement with PBC Broadcasting, giving LIN operational control of KTKA-TV.[4][5]LIN and Vaughan Media (which concurrently purchased the PBC stations) also entered into a joint sales agreement to provide advertising services for KTKA.[6]The sale of New Vision to LIN Media and KTKA's purchase by Vaughan Media was approved by the FCC on October 2,[7]with the transaction closing on October 12, 2012.[8]The deal marked a re-entry into Kansas for LIN, who briefly owned the licenses ofWichitaABC affiliateKAKEand its satellites in 2000, but never held operational control of the stations.

On March 21, 2014,Media Generalannounced that it would purchase the LIN Media stations, including KSNT, KTMJ-CD, and the SSA/JSA with KTKA-TV, in a $1.6 billion merger.[9]The FCC approved the merger on December 12, 2014, with the deal being consummated on December 19;[10]however as a condition of the sale's approval, Media General was originally required to terminate the joint sales agreement between KTKA-TV and KSNT within two years, due to the FCC's ban on agreements involving the sale of advertising encompassing more than 15% of a separately-owned station's airtime.[11]

The FCC canceled the licenses for KMJT-LP (on April 3, 2017) and KETM-LP (on April 27, 2017).

Newscasts[edit]

Further information:KSNT § News operation
KTMJ's own News Logo used since May 1, 2017.

KSNT presently produces13+1⁄2hours of locally produced newscasts each week for KTMJ-CD (consisting of2+1⁄2hours each weekday and a half-hour each on Saturdays and Sundays); the weekend editions of the 9 p.m. newscast are occasionally preempted on certain Saturday and/or Sunday evenings whenever Fox schedules sports programming in prime time that is expected to run into that hour, as KSNT cannot air the program ondelaydue to its late-evening news simulcast on KSNT and KTKA-TV.

KTMJ-CD, as a Junction City-based station, began broadcasting local news programming in 1988, running news updates focusing on Junction City and Manhattan; the station launched a half-hour prime time newscast at 9 p.m. in 1995. After KTMJ moved its call letters and operations to Topeka in 2001, the station canceled its prime time newscast, replacing it with 60- to 90-second news updates on an hourly basis from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m., anchored primarily by KTMJnews directorGary Brauer.[12]

In April 2007, KTMJ began airing newscasts from fellow Fox affiliateWDAF-TVin Kansas City, simulcasting that station's weekday morning and nightly 9 p.m. newscasts. Following New Vision's purchase of KTMJ-CA, KSNT decided to launch Topeka-focused newscasts produced specifically for the station; on October 31, 2008, KSNT replaced the WDAF morning news simulcast withGood Day Live,a two-hour weekday morning newscast at 7 a.m., using anchors and meteorologists seen on KSNT's morning newscast. Four months later on February 10, 2009, the prime time news simulcast from WDAF was replaced by a half-hour newscast at 9 p.m. on Monday through Friday evenings.[13]

As a result of KTKA's sale to PBC Broadcasting and local marketing agreement with then-KSNT owner New Vision Television, KSNT took over production of KTKA's newscasts, using existing staff from both stations. Newscasts on KSNT, KTKA and KTMJ were relaunched on July 30, under the uniform brandingKansas First News,consisting of the existing KTKA and KTMJ newscasts as well as news simulcasts between KTKA and KSNT;[14]On May 4, 2013, KSNT and KTKA respectively became the second and third (and last) television stations in the Topeka market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts inhigh definition;the morning and prime time newscasts on KTMJ were included in the upgrade.

On January 26, 2015, KSNT quietly dropped theKansas First Newsbrand, with the introduction of a new graphics package and news set, as well as a uniform logo scheme for all three stations (consisting of only the station's respective call letters and the logo of their affiliated network; the Foxwordmarkin the case of KTMJ-CD), with newscasts on KSNT, KTMJ and KTKA being rebranded asKSNT News.Subsequently, on January 30, KTMJ expanded its 9 p.m. newscast to Saturday and Sunday evenings.[15]

Technical information[edit]

Subchannels[edit]

The station's signal ismultiplexed:

Subchannels of KTMJ-CD[16]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
43.1 720p 16:9 KTMJ Main KTMJ-CD programming /Fox
43.2 480i Escape Ion Mystery
43.3 Grit Grit
43.4 Laff Laff

Analog-to-digital transition[edit]

On September 1, 2010, KTMJ-CA filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission to flash-cut its digital signal into operation on its existing analog allocation on UHF channel 43; the FCC granted aconstruction permitto build the digital transmitter facility for KTMJ on September 28.[17]On September 29, 2011, KTMJ-CA began broadcasting its programming in high definition.

Former translators[edit]

KTMJ-CD operated a translator station that relayed the station's signal to the majority of the Topeka market. KTLJ originally held the KTMJ-CA (originally K06KZ from 1982 to 1995 and KTMJ-LP from 1995 to 2001) call letters, before the channel 43 signal in Topeka took over as the main station. KTLJ-CA had an application to broadcast its digital signal on UHF channel 46 from a transmitter on a tower located off of Liberty Hall Road (west of Junction City) currently occupied byUniversity of Kansas–owned radio stationKANV(91.3 FM). The license was canceled on June 1, 2014.[18]

References[edit]

  1. ^"Facility Technical Data for KTMJ-CD".Licensing and Management System.Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^Hooper, Michael (May 13, 2004)."KTMJ relocates offices in Topeka".The Topeka Capital-Journal.Morris Communications.RetrievedAugust 19,2015.
  3. ^"New Vision Buying KTMJ Topeka, KS".TVNewsCheck.NewsCheck Media. July 7, 2008.RetrievedAugust 17,2015.
  4. ^Malone, Michael (May 7, 2012)."LIN Acquiring New Vision Stations for $330 Million".Broadcasting & Cable.NewBay Media.RetrievedMay 7,2012.
  5. ^Jessell, Harry A. (February 5, 2011)."Is An ABC-NBC Duopoly Coming To Topeka?".TVNewsCheck.NewsCheck Media.RetrievedAugust 17,2015.
  6. ^"Joint Sales Agreement"(PDF).Federal Communications Commission.May 4, 2012.RetrievedJanuary 26,2015.
  7. ^"FCC approves sale of New Vision Television to Lin Media"(PDF).Federal Communications Commission.October 2, 2012.[permanent dead link]
  8. ^"LIN Completes New Vision Stations Buy".TVNewsCheck.NewsCheck Media. October 12, 2012.RetrievedJanuary 26,2015.
  9. ^Blackwell, John Reid (March 21, 2014)."MG will combine with LIN TV chain".Richmond Times-Dispatch.BH Media.RetrievedMarch 22,2014.
  10. ^"Media General Completes Merger With LIN Media"(Press release).Media General.Archived fromthe originalon December 19, 2014.RetrievedDecember 19,2014.
  11. ^Eggerton, John (December 12, 2014)."FCC Okays Media General/LIN Merger".Broadcasting & Cable.NewBay Media.
  12. ^Lorenz, Jonna (March 14, 2001)."KTMJ moves newscast to Topeka".The Topeka Capital-Journal.Morris Communications.RetrievedAugust 19,2015.
  13. ^Anderson, Phil (February 7, 2009)."KTMJ pairs with KSNT for news program".The Topeka Capital-Journal.Morris Communications.RetrievedAugust 19,2015.
  14. ^"KSNT, KTKA combine news forces".The Topeka Capital-Journal.Morris Communications. August 1, 2011.RetrievedAugust 17,2015.
  15. ^Ortega, Roly (January 27, 2015)."A Topeka tri-cluster makes news changes in recent months and" Kansas First News "is one of them".Changing Newscasts Blog.WordPress.RetrievedAugust 18,2015.
  16. ^"RabbitEars TV Query for KTMJ-CD".RabbitEars.RetrievedAugust 17,2015.
  17. ^"Application for Authority to Construct or Make Changes or Make Changes in a Television Broadcast Station".U.S. Federal Communications Commission.August 31, 2010.
  18. ^"Station Search Details".licensing.fcc.gov.RetrievedDecember 11,2021.

External links[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=KTMJ-CD&oldid=1212714484"