KPHO Phoenix

Meredith Corp. on Monday announced new station manager roles and responsibilities at its television stations in Phoenix; Portland, Ore.; and Las Vegas. They are: Blanca Esparza Pap is promoted to station manager at independent-CBS duopoly of KTVK-KPHO in Phoenix. She was most recently marketing director and a key architect of the Arizona’s Family brand, the […]

Anticipating FCC authorization of the ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard on Thursday, the consortium of leading station groups is planning to set up experimental 3.0 station next spring to explore service enhancement and business opportunities. The project will also include creatng a “lighthouse” station to continue regular digital service to existing sets. Joining Pearl (Cox Media, E.W. Scripps, Graham, Hearst, Meredith, Nexstar, Raycom and Tegna) in the effort will be Fox, NBCUniversal and Univision.

The new agreement extends affiliation for Meredith’s stations in Atlanta, Phoenix, Kansas City and Flint, Mich. In addition, all seven of Meredith’s CBS Affiliates renew for local live streams on CBS All Access and commit to Hulu Live multichannel digital service and some future digital distribution deals.

With the inclusion of Meredith’s KPHO and KTVK in Phoenix and KMOV in St. Louis, the national service providing local news via app has grown to 141 stations in 99 markets covering 48 of the top 50 markets and 80% of the U.S. population. Meredith says more of its stations could come on board in the coming months.

Dan Wilson, current ND of Scripps’ WPTV West Palm, Fla., has been tapped by Meredith’s Phoenix duopoly of KPHO (CBS)-KTVK (ind.) to head news operations.

KPHO News Director Leona Wood told her staff that she is leaving the Meredith-owned CBS affiliate in Phoenix at the end of the month.

Meredith Corp.’s CBS affiliate KPHO Phoenix (DMA 11) has hired Kris Pickel to anchor its evening newscasts alongside Sean McLaughlin starting in June. Pickel comes to Arizona from WKYC Cleveland where she was the main news anchor. Prior to Cleveland, Pickel worked as a main anchor in her hometown of Sacramento, Calif. For almost 10 […]

Phoenix CBS affiliate KPHO is being accused of unethical journalism by the Pinal County Sheriff’s department over the way it’s showing video of a deadly police shooting.

Tara Hitchcock, formerly of KTVK Phoenix, is returning to television after a two-year break to pursue public relations, joining former rival KPHO, the market’s CBS affiliate. Starting next week, she will host “Tara’s Reel Travels” on CBS 5 Start Smart. The weekly entertainment reports will showcase sit-down interviews with movie stars. Hitchcock’s reports will air each […]

This article has been updated to reflect new information. A transmitter failure at Meredith’s Phoenix CBS affil had transmitter problems yesterday that took it off the air as the basketball tournament kicked off. A station GM hopes to have the signal restored by early this afternoon.

The Meredith CBS affiliate in Phoenix says it’s been unable to reach a retransmission consent contract with the MSO and expects its signal will be dropped after Dec. 31.