Construction and early years
Though channel 8 was assigned to Jonesboro in 1952, it went unused for a decade. Jonesboro radio station KBTM applied for channel 8 in 1954[1] and was granted a construction permit for KBTM-TV in 1955,[2] only to seek to transfer it the next year to the owner of KATV in Pine Bluff.[3] KATV intended to use KBTM-TV to broadcast its ABC programming and shows aired by the Pine Bluff station as well as local shows, which would be produced by KBTM radio staff.[4] Construction never started, and the permit was surrendered in late October 1957.[5] The surrender followed the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issuing a letter to the station asking why it should not have its permit stripped.[6]
Radio station KXJK in Forrest City, Arkansas, asked the FCC in May 1958 to move channel 8 there. The proposal was rebutted by George Hernreich, a Fort Smith businessman, who declared his intention to apply for channel 8 at Jonesboro.[7] The FCC denied the KXJK move request in February 1959[8] and granted Hernreich's application for channel 8 on April 8, 1960,[9] after KBTM (by this time under new ownership) withdrew a competing application.[10]
Construction of KAIT-TV began in early 1963 at a site 4 mi north of Jonesboro.[11] During erection of the 300 ft tower, the large antenna crashed to the ground.[12] After weeks of test patterns and sporadic other broadcasts,[13] KAIT-TV began regular programming on July 15, 1963. It was an independent station, airing local features including news and a children's show as well as movies.[14]
ABC affiliation and FCC hearing
The station joined ABC on October 1, 1965, enabling it to present color network programming and lengthen its broadcast day.[15] Network affiliation provided resources that KAIT had instead been obtaining without permission. The station had previously rebroadcast programs from other stations without authorization, including coverage of the Watts riots and two Project Gemini launches, as well as excerpts from NBC's Huntley-Brinkley Report. In 1966, the FCC fined Hernreich $1,000 for this and other violations.[16] KAIT renewed its ABC affiliation in 1967, and Hernreich sought increases in the network compensation rate ABC paid it to air network programming. Hernreich was successful in seeking these increases after he made two bribes to Thomas G. Sullivan, a regional station relations manager for the network.[17]
In March 1970, the FCC began a private investigation into allegations of station owners bribing ABC for network affiliation after ABC accused Sullivan of accepting a bribe from WKTR-TV serving Dayton, Ohio.
Channel and Cosmos/Liberty ownership
After KAIT-TV's license was renewed, George Hernreich stepped down as chairman of Hernreich Broadcasting Stations in 1980.[23] In 1981, the station installed a new transmitter, increasing its coverage area. Three years later, his son Bob—citing the distance between Jonesboro and Fort Smith and an interest to pursue other business ventures—sold KAIT for $22 million to Channel Communications, Inc. of Nashville, Tennessee. Channel was a subsidiary of NASCO, Inc., a maker of licensed goods for the National Football League diversifying into the broadcasting business.[24] KAIT was the second of three stations Channel purchased between August 1983 and May 1984, after KPLC in Lake Charles, Louisiana, but before WCLQ-TV in Cleveland.[25]
After two years, Channel Communications exited broadcasting. It agreed to sell KAIT and KPLC to Cosmos Broadcasting Inc., the broadcasting arm of South Carolina–based insurer Liberty Corporation
Liberty exited the insurance business in 2000 and merged with Raycom Media in 2006.[32][33] Under Raycom, KAIT added two digital subchannels offering additional national networks. On January 26, 2015, it launched an NBC affiliate on its 8.2 subchannel,[34] previously used to broadcast weather and occasional local sports coverage.[35] KAIT, which had garnered nearly 97 percent of all television advertising revenue in Jonesboro in 2013, received competition later in 2015 when Waypoint Media launched in-market Fox and CBS affiliate KJNB-LD.[36][37]
