channel 3 is a
NBC affiliate based in
Wichita, Kansas . It is owned by the
Montecito Broadcast Group . KSNW is also the flagship station of the '''Kansas State Network,''' (KSN) the state's chain of NBC affiliates. KSNW's transmitter is located near
Colwich, Kansas .
KSNW's programming is also seen on translator in
Salina .
KSNW signed on the air on
September 1 ,
1955 as , the third television station in Wichita. This made Wichita one of the smallest cities in the country with three network-affiliated stations.
In
1962 , after the
FCC ruled that central and western Kansas was part of the Wichita market, KARD merged with KCKT-TV, channel 2 in
Great Bend and its satellites in
Garden City and '''KOMC-TV''', channel 8 in
Oberlin . The three stations, known as the "Tri-Circle Network," brought NBC programming to central and western Kansas. The Tri-Circle Network then changed its name to the Kansas State Network, with KARD as the flagship station of the new four station group. The stations eventually expanded their signals to reach 75% of Kansas plus portions of
Nebraska . The stations changed their calls on
August 16 ,
1982 to help viewers think of the four stations as parts of one large network. KARD became '''KSNW''', KCKT became '''
KSNC ''', KGLD became '''
KSNG ''' and KOMC became '''
KSNK '''. The KARD call letters ended up with
KARD-TV in
Monroe, Louisiana .
In
1988 , SJL Broadcast Management acquired the KSN stations. They were then sold to
Lee Enterprises in
1995 .
Emmis Communications bought most of Lee Enterprises' stations in
2000 .
Montecito Broadcast Group , a newly-formed partnership between SJL and the Blackstone Group, acquired the KSN stations from Emmis on
January 27 2006 .
In January
2006 , the station hired former general manager Al Buch as the station's new GM, under the then-pending ownership of Montecito Broadcast Group. The CEO/founder of Montecito is George Lilly.
KSN claims to reach half of the television households in Kansas. However, the station's newscasts have lagged far behind those of rival stations
KWCH and
KAKE for several decades.
On
July 24 ,
2007 , Montecito announced the sale of all of its stations (KSNW and its satellites, plus
KHON-TV in
Honolulu and its satellites,
KOIN in
Portland and
KSNT in
Topeka ) to
New Vision Television . The sale is subject to
FCC approval.
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-- off, Buzz!" The station apologized for the incident and Kobbe was suspended for two days before returning to work the following Tuesday.
- ''NewsCenter 3'' (Early-Mid 1980s)
- ''KSN NewsCenter'' (Late 1980s)
- ''Channel 3 News'' (late 1980's/early 1990's)
- ''NewsChannel 3'' (Early 1990s-1998)
- ''KSN News'' (1998-present)
- ''Hello Wichita''
- ''Hello Kansas''
- ''It's Time To Go 3''
- ''Turn To 3/Turn to KSN''
- ''Newschannel 3, Where the News Comes First'' (1990-1993)
- KSNT Topeka : also owned by Montecito; but its schedule and news department are different and unrelated from KSNW's and no longer simulcasts KSN's programming from Wichita.
- KSNF Joplin, Missouri / Pittsburg, Kansas : No longer associated with KSNW; owned by Nexstar, but still uses "KSN" name in its "KSN 16" moniker
