KFTA-TV

KFTA-TV
	Fort Smith–Fayetteville, Arkansas; United States;
City	Fort Smith, Arkansas
Channels	Digital: 27 (UHF); Virtual: 24;
Branding	Fox 24
Programming
Affiliations	24.1: Fox; 24.2: NBC/KNWA-TV; 34.1: MyNetworkTV/KXNW; for others, see § Subchannels;
Ownership
Owner	Nexstar Media Group; (Nexstar Media Inc.);
Sister stations	KNWA-TV, KXNW
History
First air date	November 12, 1978
Former call signs	KLMN (1978–1982); KPOM-TV (1982–2004);
Former channel number	Analog: 24 (UHF, 1978–2008);
Former affiliations	CBS (1978–1980); NBC (1980–2006);
Call sign meaning	Fort (Smith), Arkansas
Technical information
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	29560
ERP	600 kW
HAAT	305 m (1,001 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	35°42′36″N 94°8′16″W / 35.71000°N 94.13778°W
Translator(s)	KNWA-TV 51.2 Rogers
Links
Public license information	Public file; LMS;
Website	www.nwahomepage.com

KFTA-TV (channel 24) is a television station licensed to Fort Smith, Arkansas, United States, serving as the Fox affiliate for the Arkansas River Valley and Northwest Arkansas. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Rogers-licensed NBC affiliate KNWA-TV (channel 51) and Eureka Springs–licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate KXNW (channel 34). The stations share studios at the Underwood Building on Dickson Street in downtown Fayetteville. KFTA-TV's transmitter is located on Cartwright Mountain, south of Artist Point; KFTA's programming is also broadcast from KNWA-TV's transmitter southeast of Garfield, Arkansas, as one of its subchannels and vice versa.

Channel 24 was the third commercial station to be activated in Fort Smith. It began broadcasting as KLMN on November 12, 1978, and was a CBS affiliate with studios on Kelley Highway, changing affiliations to NBC in 1980. Built by MCM Broadcasting, a company in which Jim and Rob Walton were part-owners, the station was sold to the Schindler family of Houston in 1980 and renamed KPOM-TV in 1982. From 1986 to 2003, KPOM-TV was owned and operated by Griffin TV. Griffin invested in the news department. To improve KPOM-TV's poor reception in fast-growing Northwest Arkansas, it acquired the construction permit for channel 51 in Rogers and built it as KFAA, a satellite station, in 1989. However, the station remained third in local news ratings. The original news department was disbanded in 1992, but Griffin relaunched news in 2000 in conjunction with opening a studio in downtown Fayetteville.

Nexstar took over management of KPOM–KFAA in 2004 before buying the stations outright from Griffin. It changed the stations' call signs to KFTA-TV and KNWA-TV, respectively, and concentrated its resources on the more populous, more affluent, and faster-growing Northwest Arkansas portion of the market. The Fort Smith operation was reopened from 2006 to 2011 in conjunction with KFTA splitting off as a Fox affiliate and a never-consummated sale to Mission Broadcasting. KNWA-TV produces 7 a.m. and 5:30 and 9 p.m. local newscasts for air on KFTA-TV.