News Operation
KARK broadcasts a total of 25 hours of local news and sports programming per week. They also broadcast 12.5 hours of news programming on sister station KARZ. Between the two stations, the news operation broadcasts about 37.5 hours of news programming a week. Monday through Fridays, a two-hour weekday morning news program known as KARK 4 News HD Today broadcasts from 5 until 7 a.m. They air additional two-hour morning news show on sister station KARZ from 7-9 a.m. The midday newscast airs from 12-12:50 p.m. Monday through Friday (from 12:50-1:00 p.m., KARK airs Tracey & Company). During the evening KARK broadcasts newscasts at 5 p.m. Sunday through Friday, at 6 p.m. Monday through Saturdays, and every night at 10 p.m. The station also produces a half-hour primetime newscast at 7 pm on sister station KARZ. Sunday programming also includes the weekly sports program Razorback Nation Pig Trail (produced in conjunction with KNWA).
For many years, KARK was the top-rated station for news in Little Rock. However, its newscast ratings plummeted in the mid-1990s as ABC affiliate KATV took the lead in the market. Even with the decrease, KARK remained in second place through most of the latter half of the 1990s then fell to third for a brief period in the early-2000s. This station has since regained many of its viewers and is a very competitive television station today. A significant aspect of its broadcasts today is emphasis of Arkansas-oriented content over national stories. As mentioned above, both KARK and KARZ converted to a high definition news presentation as of April 20, 2011.
In recent years, due to NBC's prime-time struggles in the Nielsen ratings, KARK's newscasts have remained in third place for the most part although close enough to remain competitive with KATV, KLRT, and KTHV.
At the beginning of the 2010–11 television season, Nexstar took the first step of preparing the station for high definition news broadcasting through the purchase of JVC HD cameras for studio broadcasting, and then the build-out of a new set in early April. On April 20, 2011, KARK became the third station in the market, and the first Nexstar-owned station to broadcast its newscast in high definition. The station's former logo, which was reminiscent of that currently used by Nashville NBC affiliate WSMV since 1994, was also changed at the same time.
On April 2, 2012, KARK debuted a half-hour weekday noon newscast titled Arkansas Today, anchored by Mallory Hardin and meteorologist/co-host Greg Dee (who also appear on the station's weekday morning newscast); the statewide newscast features news stories filed by reporters from all four Nexstar-owned NBC stations serving Arkansas as well as a sports segment produced by Fayetteville sister station KNWA-TV, focusing on University of Arkansas athletics, called Razorback Nation. KNWA, along with KTAL-TV/Shreveport-Texarkana and KTVE/Monroe-El Dorado simulcast the program and utilize their own on-air weather staff to provide local weather inserts during the broadcast that target their specific viewing areas (the coverage areas of KTVE and KTAL include several counties in southern Arkansas (ten in KTAL's viewing area, fourteen in KTVE's), though both stations primarily serve parts of northern Louisiana and KTAL also serves parts of northeast Texas).
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Famous quotes containing the words news and/or operation:
“I have a piece of great and sad news to tell you: I am dead.”
—Jean Cocteau (1889–1963)
“Waiting for the race to become official, he began to feel as if he had as much effect on the final outcome of the operation as a single piece of a jumbo jigsaw puzzle has to its predetermined final design. Only the addition of the missing fragments of the puzzle would reveal if the picture was as he guessed it would be.”
—Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)