KTVK

KTVK, virtual channel 3 (UHF digital channel 24), is an independent television station located in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. The station is owned by Meredith Corporation, as part of a duopoly with CBS affiliate KPHO-TV (channel 5). Its studio facilities are located on the northwest end of the Central Avenue Corridor in Phoenix; KTVK's transmitter is located on South Mountain. Its signal is relayed across northern Arizona on a network of translator stations.

History

As an ABC affiliate

Former U.S. Senator Ernest McFarland, author of the GI Bill, was awed by the new medium of television. With a few friends, he formed the Arizona Television Company and applied for a television station license with the Federal Communications Commission. KTVK signed on the air as Phoenix's fourth television station on February 28, 1955 – shortly after McFarland was elected governor of Arizona – immediately becoming an ABC affiliate. McFarland quoted that he chose the KTVK call letters "because TV will be our middle name."