KMTV-TV

KMTV-TV

Omaha, Nebraska
Branding	KMTV Action 3 News
Slogan	Breaking News. First Warning Weather.
Channels	Digital: 45 (UHF) Virtual: 3 (PSIP)
Subchannels	3.1 CBS 3.2 Live Well Network
Affiliations	CBS (1949-1956, 1986-present)
Owner	Journal Broadcast Group, Inc. (Journal Broadcast Corporation)
First air date	September 1, 1949
Call letters' meaning	May Broadcasting (the original owner) TeleVision
Former callsigns	KMTV (1949-2009)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 3 (VHF, 1949-2009)
Former affiliations	Primary: NBC (1956-1986) Secondary: ABC (1949-1953 and 1954-1957) DuMont (1949-1955) [1]
Transmitter power	1000 kW
Height	393.4 m
Facility ID	35190
Transmitter coordinates	41°18′25″N 96°1′37″W / 41.30694°N 96.02694°W / 41.30694; -96.02694
Website	www.action3news.com/

KMTV-TV is the CBS television station in Omaha, Nebraska. Owned by the Journal Broadcast Group, it broadcasts a digital television signal on UHF channel 45, which remaps to former analog channel 3 via PSIP.

History

KMTV is the second oldest station in Nebraska; it began broadcasting on September 1, 1949 as a CBS affiliate, but it also carried ABC and DuMont programming [1]. The station was supposed to have the call letters KMA-TV, reflecting its first owner, May Broadcasting of Shenandoah, Iowa. There was already a KMA-AM in Shenandoah (also owned by May), but the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would not allow channel 3 to use those call letters since Shenandoah was not considered part of the Omaha market at the time.

KMTV briefly dropped ABC when KOLN-TV signed on from Lincoln in 1953, but picked it back up when the FCC made Lincoln its own market a year later. In 1956, KMTV switched affiliations with WOW-TV (now WOWT-TV) and became an NBC affiliate. It also stopped carrying the DuMont programming the same year when DuMont ceased operations. In 1957, KMTV dropped its secondary ABC affiliation when KETV signed on as an ABC affiliate.

In 1986, KMTV and WOWT entered into an agreement which allowed them to return to their original affiliations. As a result, KMTV rejoined CBS after 30 years with NBC on June 29, 1986. A few months after the return to CBS, May sold both of its television stations—KMTV and KGUN-TV in Tucson--to Lee Enterprises after over 37 years of ownership. Lee sold all of its stations to Emmis Communications in October 2000. In 2005, Emmis announced its exit from television station ownership, selling most non-license assets of KMTV as well as outright ownership of KGUN to Journal. The sale closed in late December of that year. At that point Journal took over control of KMTV through a time brokerage agreement.

Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune both were long stay syndication programs on KMTV where they were carried at 4:30 and 6:30 weekdays respectively until Jeopardy! went to WOWT in September of 1994 and Wheel of Fortune went to KETV at the same time. Initially, Jeopardy! ran on KETV from 1984 to 1986 then moved to KMTV. KMTV began airing Wheel of Fortune in January 1984 and then carried both from 1986 to 1994.

In late January 2007, Journal announced the sale of radio station KOMJ-AM 1490 to Cochise Broadcasting LLC [2] in order to complete the outright purchase of KMTV. The sale of KOMJ was necessary because Journal already owned the maximum FCC-mandated number of broadcasting properties in the Omaha media market. The transactions were completed on March 27, 2007. [3] Also in early 2007, KMTV's website was redesigned; like the websites of several other Journal-owned stations, it was maintained by the Local Media Network division of WorldNow until June of 2011 when KMTV redesigned their website once again to the current layout. The current layout was designed to be much easier to navigate and provide quicker access to weather and news information.

KMTV's studios are located near 108th and Mockingbird Drive in southwest Omaha. KMTV is the only Omaha station to have moved its studios from the downtown area. From 1949 to 1978 the station was located at 27th & Farnam Streets, just south of KETV channel 7 (at 2665 Douglas), and 7 blocks east of WOWT channel 6 (at 3501 Farnam). The station's auxiliary transmitter still stands at their former location. The main transmitter tower is located on a "tower farm" near North 72nd Street & Crown Point Avenue in north central Omaha. KMTV has 3 live trucks and 1 satellite truck along with a large fleet of news vans.

Digital television

Analog-to-digital conversion

KPTM, KMTV and KETV's programming became digital-only on June 12, 2009.^[2] Although KMTV never had a suffix affixed to its call sign from the beginning, it (along with other Journal-owned television stations which previously did not have a -TV suffix in their calls) officially added the -TV suffix on June 19.

Programming

Many nationally syndicated shows on KMTV include Dr. Phil, The Oprah Winfrey Show and Entertainment Tonight. The CBS Evening News airs between the stations 5 and 6 newscasts at 5:30. KMTV also broadcasts the MDA Telethon and a long running bible study show called "Ms. Jean's Story-time." After a 50 year run "Jean's" will be ending in September of 2011.

"The Morning Blend" also runs on KMTV at 9:00am local time. "The Blend" is multi-topic talk show that performs like a local market Early Show and is a staple among Journal Broadcast Group owned stations.

"Sports Sound-Off" is a weekly sports call in show that airs live after the 10p.m. newscast. It is hosted by sports director Travis Morgan and former Nebraska football player Clester Johnson. The program features four segments. The first three are the call in segments where the hosts discuss an issue and take calls from viewers; a guest usually joins the set for the third segment to discuss the issue with the hosts. The fourth segment for awarding the "Caller of the Night" honor, given to the caller with the best argument of the night. The program is sponsored by Godfathers Pizza and Sid Dillion Automotive Dealerships.

KMTV was the last television station in the market to add a digital subchannel; It began airing TheCoolTV in late 2010 or early 2011, but dropped that network on October 1st, 2011, in favor of Live Well Network.

News operation

Over the years, KMTV underwent many identity changes to keep up with broadcasting trends, as well to keep up in the local ratings race. The station's newscasts were once known as KMTV News; NewsCenter 3; Channel 3 News; KMTV News 3 and most recently KM3 News; today they are known as Action 3 News. Tom Brokaw was a reporter at the station from 1962 to 1965.^[3]

In 2002, KMTV dropped its 6 p.m. newscast and replaced it with syndicated tabloid shows. That same year, sports were dropped from its 10 p.m. newscasts, to be replaced with a nightly commentary segment hosted by then sports director Travis Justice. In late 2005, KMTV retired "For What It's Worth," returning to the traditional sports segment.

KMTV relaunched a 6 p.m. edition of Action 3 News on September 5, 2006, the same day as Katie Couric's debut as anchor of the CBS Evening News. The station has also taken on the glossy imaging and graphics packages seen on most other Journal stations, though with differing fonts and colors. On December 22, 2006, the station announced it would not be renewing the contracts of evening news anchors Deborah Ward and Greg Peterson. New anchors Carol Wang and Carlo Cecchetto debuted on January 22, 2007.

On Saturday, July 11, 2009, KMTV became the first commercial station in Omaha to present local news in a 16:9 widescreen format, and the second commercial station in the state of Nebraska to do so (after KOLN and PBS affiliate NET, both in Lincoln).

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

• All The News (1949–1953)
• The Coca-Cola Report (1953–1959)
• KMTV News (1959–1980)
• NewsCenter 3 (1980–1995)
• Channel 3 News (1995–2000)
• KMTV News 3 (2000–2002)
• KM3 News (2002–2006)
• (The KMTV) Action 3 News (2006–present)

Station slogans

• The Midland's NewsChannel (1990s-2000s)
• In Your Corner (2000–2002)
• Clearly to the Point (2002–2004)
• Clear. Accurate. To the Point. (2004–2006; variant of previous slogan)
• Your Action 3 News Station (2006–present)
• Breaking News. First Warning Weather. (2006–present; variant of slogan used by sister station WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee)

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On-air staff

Current on-air staff

Anchors

• Deanne Brink - weekday mornings and noon
• Craig Nigrelli - weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
• Carol Wang - weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
• Dave Roberts - weekends at 5:30 and 10 p.m; also weekday reporter
• Kandiss Crone - weekends at 5:30 and 10 p.m; also weekday reporter

First Warning Weather Team

• Ryan McPike - (AMS Seal of Approval) - Chief Meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
• C.T. Thongklin - (AMS Seal of Approval) - Meteorologist; weekday mornings and noon
• John Walsh - Meteorologist; weekends at 5:30 and 10 p.m.

Sports team

• Travis Morgan - Sports director; weeknights; anchors Sunday night call in show "Sports Sound-Off"
• Garrett Gordan - weekend sports anchor/weekday sports reporter

Reporters

• Liz Dorland- general assignment reporter (also fill-in meteorologist)
• Paul Gutierrez- general assignment reporter
• Meghan Matthews - morning reporter
• Adam Racusin - general assignment reporter
• Sarah Te Slaa - general assignment reporter

Notable former on-air staff

• Tom Brokaw - reporter (1960s; former anchor of the NBC Nightly News, now contributor at NBC News)
• Dick Fletcher - Meteorologist (late 1970s; moved to WTSP in St. Petersburg in 1980; died February 26, 2008)
• Dale Hansen - sports reporter (1970s; now sports director for WFAA-TV in Dallas)
• Mary Hart - anchor (mid 1970s; later co-anchor of syndicated entertainment news show Entertainment Tonight)
• Floyd Kalber - anchor (1950s)
• Jon Kelley - reporter (1990–1991; later weekend co-host of syndicated entertainment news show Extra and host of The Mole on ABC)
• Chuck Roberts - anchor (1975–1981; later at HLN)

Production Staff

• News Director - Al Carl
• Assignment Editor - Carrie Murphy
• Production Supervisor - Ryan Nissen
• Directors - Brian Schmitt, Sue Ladd, Ryan Nissen, Laura Klein, Aaron Reeves
• Production Staff - Adam Hilt, Evan Korf, Chris Boehm, Rachel Gibbs, Kevin Beacom, Matt Juhnke
• Audio Staff - Ryan Holt, Mike Zimmerman

External links

• action3news.com
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KMTV
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KMTV-TV

References

1. ^ http://web.archive.org/*/members.aol.com/jeff99500/1952tv.html
2. ^ http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1219&u_sid=10557376 Digital delay muddles broadcasters' plans, BRYAN REDEMSKE, Omaha WORLD-HERALD, February 6, 2009
3. ^ Brokaw, Tom