Arkansas Television Company ownership
The Arkansas Television Company, a consortium of various equity interests including KTHS (1090 AM), then located in Hot Springs; Radio Broadcasting Inc., a subsidiary of The Shreveport Times newspaper in Louisiana; the Arkansas Democrat Company; Clyde E. Lowry; and the National Equity Life Insurance Company of Little Rock, filed in July 1952 with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for the construction permit to build a new station on channel 4.[1] In February 1953, however, Arkansas Television Company changed its application from channel 4 to channel 11, an action that left station KARK-TV alone in seeking channel 4.[2] The field of competing applicants for the channel slowly winnowed. In August 1953, the Little Rock Television Company pulled out so its lead shareholder, J. D. Wrather, could focus on an application he had filed in Corpus Christi, Texas.[3] Arkansas Telecasters withdrew on October 8, 1954, believing that its move would expedite the establishment of the station.[4] The withdrawal left Arkansas Television Company unopposed, and the FCC granted a construction permit for the station on January 4, 1955.[5]
KTHV began broadcasting on November 27, 1955. It served as an affiliate of CBS and ABC until April 1, 1956, when it became the exclusive CBS station as KATV's network affiliation contract expired. It provisionally occupied studio space in the KTHS building on Main Street until a new two-story facility housing KTHS and KTHV at Eighth and Izard streets were completed in March 1956.[6][7]
Ownership in the Arkansas Television Company changed in 1977 as the result of two transactions. In May, the Democrat Company—which had sold the newspaper of the same name to WEHCO Media in 1974—acquired shares from Lowry's estate. Three months later, Radio Broadcasting sold its 42-percent interest to several stockholders as well as new KTHV general manager Robert L. Brown Sr. after Gannett acquired The Shreveport Times. With these transactions, the Arkansas Television Company became fully owned by Arkansas interests.[8] The key players were Stanley Berry and Marcus George, who were executors of the stock eventually held by the K. A. Engel Trust, set up by the former owner of the Democrat.
The new management was led by Brown, who had set up KTHV's strong competition in the past. He had hired many of the market's most popular TV personalities when he ran KARK-TV in the late 1960s and early 1970s prior to being promoted by Combined Communications to the position of general manager at KPNX in Phoenix, Arizona. Brown hoped to reduce turnover in personnel by raising its traditionally lower salaries and pull the station out of its status as a distant third behind KATV and a dominant KARK; one joke circulated that the station was in fourth place, even though Little Rock only had three commercial TV stations.[9]
However, under Brown, KTHV never achieved the desired improvement, remaining a distant third in local news in Little Rock, though it was slightly more competitive in the Little Rock metro area as opposed to the full area of dominant influence.[10] By 1990, it was the only one of the three major stations without a local newscast at 6 a.m. or 5 p.m.[11]
Gannett acquisition
Rumors began to circulate in August 1994 that Gannett was about to buy KTHV; the deal would mark a return to the city for the company, which in addition to once owning KARK-TV shuttered the Arkansas Gazette in 1991. KTHV management denied the station had been sold but noted that interest had picked up in a purchase, with more suitors in six months than the preceding six years;[12] the deal was not officially announced until late September and consisted of a $27 million stock swap.[13] By this time, KTHV was a moneymaker, with no debt and making an estimated $6.2 million to $6.8 million in revenue a year.[14] At the time, KTHV made Little Rock Gannett's second-smallest market, behind Austin, Texas, which had higher revenue. When Gannett took over on December 1, 1994, general manager and minority owner Bob Brown immediately retired; he was 68, and Gannett had a mandatory retirement policy at 65. He was replaced by Paul Trelstad, who had been general sales manager of KPNX.[15]
Gannett's first priority was to turn around the station's newscasts, which had been in third place for decades. Despite competent newsgathering and talent, the lack of resources for the newsroom resulted in a product few watched.
