verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . april 2009 learn how and when to remove this template message knxv tv phoenix arizona united states branding abc 15 general abc 15 news newscasts slogan taking action channels digital 15 uhf virtual 15 psip translators see below affiliations .1 abc .2 antenna tv .3 laff owner e. w. scripps company scripps broadcasting holdings llc first air date september 9 1979 ; 37 years ago 1979 09 09 call letters meaning new television corp. original owner xv 15 sister station s kgun tv & ktnv tv former channel number s analog 15 uhf 1979 2009 digital 56 uhf 2000 2009 former affiliations primary independent 1979 1986 fox 1986 1995 secondary fnn 1981 1985 ontv 1979 1985 abc 1994 1995 dt2 lwn 2011 2013 transmitter power 458 kws height 521 meters 1 709 ft facility id 59440 transmitter coordinates 33 19 59.9 n 112 3 48.4 w 33.333306 n 112.063444 w 33.333306 ; 112.063444 coordinates 33 19 59.9 n 112 3 48.4 w 33.333306 n 112.063444 w 33.333306 ; 112.063444 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website abc15.com knxv tv virtual and uhf digital channel 15 is an abc affiliated television station located in phoenix arizona united states . the station is owned by the e. w. scripps company . knxv maintains studio facilities located on the city s east side north of sky harbor international airport and its transmitter is located atop south mountain on the city s south side . its signal is relayed across northern arizona through a network of 15 low power translators . contents 1 history 1.1 abc affiliate 2 digital subchannels 3 programming 4 news operation 5 notable former on air staff 6 translators 7 references 8 external links history edit in february 1975 pioneering uhf broadcaster edwin cooperstein announced that the federal communications commission had granted a construction permit to his company new television corp. to build a television station in phoenix on uhf channel 15 . 1 it was expected to begin broadcasting within a year and was intended to place a heavy emphasis on news programming airing three 90 minute newscasts at different times between 4 p.m. to midnight . 2 plans were soon delayed by the inability to secure financing in a difficult economy and by the end of 1976 the station still had not been built . 3 finally on september 9 1979 more than four and a half years after the construction permit was granted knxv tv signed on the air . its programming originally consisted of first run and off network syndicated shows and children s programs during the day with the subscription television service ontv being broadcast during the nighttime hours . one of the station s most memorable early promotions was the bluebird of happy news with the voice of elroy buzz towers who was voiced by an early station master control videotape operator in a helicopter taking jabs at local news on other stations . ontv lasted a few years until cable television began to prosper across the phoenix area . knxv eventually became a full time general entertainment independent station and ran a number of cartoons older off network sitcoms classic movies and drama series . the station pulled in mediocre ratings and lagged behind longtime independent station kpho tv channel 5 . despite this cooperstein was able to sell the station to the e. w. scripps company in late 1984 with the sale being finalized in 1985 . under scripps knxv began to purchase more recent sitcoms often outbidding kpho for strong shows . the station also became the over the air broadcaster of the nba s phoenix suns ; it lost the rights to televise the team s games to kutp channel 45 in 1988 . after kpho turned down an offer to affiliate with the fledgling fox network it approached knxv . after scripps promised to launch a news department knxv joined fox at the network s inception on october 6 1986 with the first fox program airing on the station being the late night talk show the late show with joan rivers which was at that time the only program fox offered so knxv still essentially remained independent . knxv kicked promoted its new affiliation with a campaign centered around the slogan light up the night with late night fireworks . also in 1986 knxv began producing friday night at the frights starring edmus scarey portrayed by ed muscare a series of decidedly campy b movie wraparounds . ed muscare had previously hosted shows for knxv sister station kshb tv in kansas city . stuart powell general manager of knxv in the late 1980s coaxed muscare out of retirement . citation needed by 1990 knxv nearly tied kpho in the ratings even though the station still produced no local newscasts . abc affiliate edit knxv logo from 1995 to 1997 . it was the first logo to feature the abc network logo . knxv logo from 1997 to 2000 giving more prominence to the abc network logo . the abc portion was used as a globe or flipped over to reveal the station callsign both of which were done in the channel s newscast opens at this time . knxv logo from 2000 to 2002 . it featured the classic circle channel logo style reminiscent of the logos used by abc s owned and operated stations . main article 1994 united states broadcast tv realignment on may 22 1994 new world communications signed a long term groupwide affiliation agreement with fox 4 that would result in longtime cbs affiliate ksaz tv channel 10 which new world was in the process of acquiring from citicasters becoming the phoenix area s new fox affiliate . the cbs affiliation in turn moved to kpho leaving knxv without an affiliation and the likelihood of reverting into an independent prompting scripps to negotiate an affiliation agreement with abc . in order for scripps to keep abc on its two largest stations wxyz tv in detroit and wews tv in cleveland abc agreed to affiliate with knxv nbc station wmar tv in baltimore and fox affiliate wfts tv in tampa scripps flagship wcpo tv in cincinnati was also involved in the deal but had to wait for abc s affiliation contract with wkrc tv to expire in june 1996 to switch . locally this resulted in the displacement of abc from longtime affiliate ktvk channel 3 . as a condition of the deal knxv agreed to produce the same amount of local news programming as ktvk had been producing as an abc affiliate . knxv also agreed to not preempt any abc programming outside of coverage of breaking news events . 5 abc s affiliation agreement with ktvk did not expire until december 31 1994 ; however ktvk had already begun to drop abc shows from its schedule unhappy about losing its affiliation with the network after 41 years . as a result abc s programming migrated to knxv in stages and the station carried programming from both abc and fox for a while with abc as a temporary secondary affiliation . good morning america was the first abc program to move to knxv following the first round of changes at the end of august 1994 . knxv then picked up mike and maty world news now nightline and abc s saturday morning cartoons when the station officially dropped its fox affiliation on december 15 . the rest of abc s programming moved to knxv on january 9 1995 . knxv kept about one third of its syndicated programming with the rest moving to other area stations . knxv carried the majority of the arizona cardinals nfl games that were not subjected to blackouts in the meantime until those games returned to ksaz in december 1994 . the cardinals were part of the national football conference which aired their games on cbs until the end of the 1993 season before moving the following year to fox whose acquisition of the nfc television package from cbs was a major catalyst of fox s deal with new world . after becoming a full time abc affiliate knxv was limited to airing the cardinals games on monday night football the first of which would be in 1995 a christmas day contest in tempe against the eventual super bowl champions the dallas cowboys the cowboys won 37 13 to clinch home field advantage throughout the nfc playoffs ; coincidentally the super bowl was also played in tempe . over the years knxv has added more first run syndicated shows such as wheel of fortune and jeopardy . knxv has since become the home of preseason games for the arizona cardinals . today knxv is a typical abc affiliate producing a decent amount of local news programming and clearing nearly all of the network s programs in their intended time slots . however knxv has been one of abc s weakest affiliates since the 1994 switch . in stark contrast ktvk dominated the ratings when it was affiliated with abc . since abc lost nfl rights in 2006 the cardinals preseason games have been the only nfl games to be broadcast on knxv . the cardinals regular season games as well as any playoff games that the team appears in are split between kpho tv through cbs ksaz tv through fox kpnx channel 12 through nbc and ktvk through its over the air carriage of games televised by nfl network and espn . during the 2007 little league world series knxv s rights to the cardinals caused a conflict with abc s coverage of one of the preliminary round games . the plan was to move the baseball game to espn thereby interrupting the national feed on cox communications and other cable providers in the market . those getting knxv by way of satellite would watch the baseball game on an alternate channel . meanwhile knxv would air a preseason game between the cardinals and the houston texans at 1 p.m. that day . knxv would then rebroadcast the llws game on tape delay at about 4 30 p.m. that afternoon . 6 wikinews has related news two news helicopters crash in phoenix arizona on july 27 2007 two news helicopters leased to knxv and ktvk collided while covering a police pursuit in downtown phoenix . 7 all four people on both helicopters were killed including knxv pilot craig smith and photographer rick krolak . 8 prior to the 2009 digital transition that resulted in many stations historically broadcasting on the vhf band moving their channel assignments to uhf knxv was abc s largest affiliate on the uhf band it remains the largest affiliate to broadcast with a virtual channel number higher than 13.1 . knxv tv shut down its analog signal over uhf channel 15 at 12 01 a.m. on june 12 2009 the official date in which full power television stations in the united states transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate . at 2 a.m. on that date the station s digital signal relocated from its pre transition uhf channel 56 which was among the high band uhf channels 52 69 that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition to its analog era uhf channel 15 . 9 10 in 2011 knxv digital subchannel 15.2 began carrying the live well network . 11 the station changed the subchannel s affiliation on 15.2 to the classic television network antenna tv on january 1 2014 . 12 subchannel 15.3 was added with the launch of laff on april 15 2015 . on april 1 2015 scripps acquired journal communications owners of its two nearby abc affiliates las vegas abc affiliate ktnv tv channel 13 and tucson abc station kgun tv channel 9 becoming sister stations to knxv . outside of