KSNF


KSNF, virtual channel 16, is an NBC-affiliated television station licensed to Joplin, Missouri, United States and also serving Pittsburg, Kansas. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also operates ABC affiliate KODE-TV under joint sales and shared services agreements with owner Mission Broadcasting. The two stations share studios and transmitter facilities on South Cleveland Avenue in Joplin.
On cable, KSNF is available on Mediacom and Suddenlink channel 3, and on channel 2 or channel 16 on other cable systems in the area.

History

The station first signed on as KUHI-TV on January 4, 1968, as a CBS affiliate. KSNF was the first station in the Joplin-Pittsburg market to broadcast on the UHF band.
It was originally owned by Marvin Caldwell & Associates. Mid-America Broadcasting sold the station to the owners of the Kansas State Network in 1975. The station changed its call letters to KTVJ in 1976. On August 23, 1982, the station then changed its call letters to KSNF, and almost two weeks later on September 5, swapped affiliations with KOAM-TV to become an NBC affiliate. The station did limited simulcasting with Wichita NBC affiliate KSNW. KSN then sold KSNF to Price Communications in 1986, but the station continued the partial simulcast with KSNW. It stopped simulcasting KSNW completely after George Lilly acquired the KSN stations and, in a cost-cutting effort, cut the microwave links to KSNT and KSNF.
The "KSN" brand had become solidified in the market and continued to be used even though KSNF was no longer a part of the Kansas State Network nor made any references to it, although the KSN stations and KSNF were reunited under the same ownership in 2017 when Nexstar acquired the Kansas State Network stations.
Price sold KSNF along with two of its stations—KFDX-TV in Wichita Falls, Texas and KJAC-TV in Beaumont, Texas—to the U.S. Broadcast Group in 1995.
Nexstar acquired the station from the U.S. Broadcast Group in 1998, with its digital signal on channel 46 signing on in 2003.
In 2002, it was announced KSNF and ABC affiliate KODE would merge, with building expansion planned at the KSN studios. Although some departments did in fact move to KSNF, by 2009 the process was not yet completed, leaving the Joplin market as the only one of the several Nexstar-owned duopolies to have failed to completely merge. In June 2008, KSNF began broadcasting NBC high definition programming to digital cable and satellite customers in the Joplin market. At the time, only NBC programming was provided in high definition, while local news and syndicated programs were still in standard definition, pending the upgrade of KSN's production systems and equipment to accommodate high definition content for non-network programming.
On May 8, 2009, severe thunderstorms affected the Joplin area. KSNF's tower was destroyed and the studio was heavily damaged. KSNF could not broadcast due to this tower collapse, so viewers could only receive NBC programming from stations airing on the fringes of the viewing area. However, several five- to ten-minute news updates were aired on fourstateshomepage.com each day until broadcasting resumed. The station returned to the air on June 17, 2009. It constructed a news set inside of the studios of its sister station KODE-TV where it was temporarily housed. It was made public in February 2010 that both KSNF and KODE would be moving to the remodeled KSNF studios at 1502 Cleveland, just down the road from the current KODE building.
On June 15, 2016, Nexstar announced that it has entered into an affiliation agreement with Katz Broadcasting for the Escape, Laff, Grit, and Bounce TV networks, bringing the four networks to 81 stations owned and/or operated by Nexstar, including KSNF and KODE-TV.

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP short nameProgramming
16.11080iKSNF-DTMain KSNF programming / NBC
16.2480iLaffLaff
16.3480iEscapeCourt TV Mystery
16.4480iCoziCozi TV

Programming

KSNF currently broadcasts the majority of the NBC schedule, although the station currently does not clear NBC's overnight rerun and lifestyle lineups, preferring to carry some syndicated programming in the designated time period. The station airs A Little Late with Lilly Singh on a 3½-hour delay; it also does not clear the Sunday edition of Today. Syndicated programs broadcast by KSNF include Maury, The Real, Rachael Ray, AgDay, and Jeopardy!. Wheel of Fortune airs on CBS affiliate KOAM-TV, making Joplin–Pittsburg one of only a few markets where the programs are carried on separate stations.

News operation

While in its role as airing partial simulcasts of KSNW programming, it used the "Hello News" music package until 1990. In November 2005, a graphics and music change took place. As part of the update the "16" was removed from KSN's logo, opens, and all other images, including station vehicles. In the fall of 2010, KSNF debuted the Four State area's first and only hour-long 6 p.m. newscast. In August 2011, KSNF dropped its 5 p.m. newscast in favor of a new, hour-long 4 p.m. lifestyle program called Living Well making that the area's first and only 4 p.m. newscast. On December 19, 2012, KSNF launched its local newscasts in 1080i high definition - and for the first time since the late 90s, re-branded itself as KSN Local News dropping Your Hometown News after 15 years.

Notable former on-air staff