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KSAS-TV, virtual channel 24 (UHF digital channel 26), is a Fox-affiliated television station located in Wichita, Kansas, United States. The station is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group; Sinclair also operates MyNetworkTV affiliate KMTW (channel 36) under a local marketing agreement with owner Mercury Broadcasting Company. The two stations share studio facilities located on North West Street in northwestern Wichita; KSAS maintains transmitter facilities located in rural northwestern Sedgwick County (east of Colwich). KSAS-TV serves as the flagship of Fox Kansas (which also serves as the station's main branding), a statewide network of three full-power and two low-power stations relaying Fox network programming across central and western Kansas. On cable, the station is available on Cox Communications channel 4 and AT&T U-verse channel 24 in standard definition, and in high definition on Cox digital channel 2004 and QAM channel 116.10. and U-verse channel 1024. ==History== The station first signed on the air on August 24, 1985; it was founded by a limited partnership known as Columbia-Kansas TV Ltd., which was restructured into Channel 24 Ltd. before it signed on. Originally operating as an independent station, channel 24 was the first such station licensed to Kansas as well as the first commercial television station to sign on in the Wichita market since KARD-TV (channel 3, now KSNW) debuted 30 years earlier in September 1955. The station became a charter affiliate of Fox when the network launched on October 9, 1986. However, like most Fox stations early on, it continued to program as a de facto independent for Fox's first eight years of existence. On April 3, 1988, KAAS-TV (channel 17) signed on in Salina as a full-time satellite of KSAS. The station later added repeaters in Western Kansas in 1995, with the launches of low-power stations KSAS-LP (channel 29) in Dodge City and KAAS-LP (channel 31) in Garden City. Channel 24 Ltd. filed for bankruptcy in the late 1980s, and was eventually bought out by Clear Channel Communications in August 1990. In 1998, per the suggestion of then-program director Michael Hochman, KSAS changed its branding from "Fox 24" to "Fox Kansas," in order to help position KSAS and its satellites as a regional "network" along the lines of the other major stations in the market (such as the Kansas State Network, the Kansas Broadcasting System, and the KAKEland Television Network). Two years later, when KBDK (channel 14, now KOCW) in Hoisington was added as another full-power satellite to serve Great Bend and Hays. The Wichita-Hutchinson market's four major network stations all require at least three full-power transmitters to cover the unusually large market, which covers over 70 counties stretching from the Flint Hills to the Colorado border (encompassing almost three-fourths of the state), making it the largest designated market area (DMA) by number of counties in the United States. In January 2001, Clear Channel entered into a local marketing agreement with the Mercury Broadcasting Company to provide services to upstart UPN affiliate KSCC (channel 36, now MyNetworkTV affiliate KMTW), which it had acquired from the Paramount Stations Group subsidiary of Viacom (now CBS Television Stations and owned by CBS Corporation) shortly before its sign-on (Mercury would not assume ownership until June of that year).〔(Broadcasters invest $5M to launch new TV Channel 36 ), ''Wichita Business Journal'', May 7, 2000.〕 In 2005, KSAS became a crucial location in the search for and apprehension of infamous Wichita serial killer Dennis Rader, known for decades as the anonymous BTK Killer. Rader's last known communication with the media and police was a padded envelope which arrived at KSAS' West Street studios (one of many stations in the Wichita market which Rader had contacted over the years) on February 16 of that year. Enclosed in the package was a purple, 1.44-MB Memorex floppy disk; a letter; a photocopy of the cover of a 1989 novel about a serial killer (''Rules of Prey''); and a gold-colored necklace with a large medallion. Police found metadata embedded in a Microsoft Word document on the disk that pointed to Wichita's Christ Lutheran Church and the document was marked as last modified by "Dennis". A search of the church website turned up Dennis Rader as president of the congregation council.〔(Police: FBI says letters are from BTK killer ), CNN.com, February 17, 2005.〕 On April 20, 2007, Clear Channel entered into an agreement to sell its television stations (including KSAS and its LMA with KMTW) to Newport Television, a holding company owned by private equity firm Providence Equity Partners;〔(Clear Channel Agrees to Sell Television Station Group to Providence Equity Partners ), Clear Channel Communications, April 20, 2007.〕 the deal closed on March 14, 2008. Longtime Wichita television broadcaster Sandy DiPasquale, the group's president and CEO, was part owner of Smith Broadcasting, and was the last local owner of CBS affiliate KWCH-TV from 1989 to 1994. DiPasquale moved Newport's headquarters to Kansas City in 2008 from his longtime base in Wichita.〔(DiPasquale moving Wichita business to Kansas City ), ''Wichita Business Journal'', August 3, 2007.〕 On July 19, 2012, Newport Television announced the sale of KSAS-TV to the Sinclair Broadcast Group as part of a group deal worth an estimated total of $1 billion involving the sale of 22 stations to Sinclair, the Nexstar Broadcasting Group and the Cox Media Group; the local marketing agreement with KMTW was included in the purchase.〔(Newport Sells 22 Stations For $1 Billion ), ''TVNewsCheck'', July 19, 2012.〕 The transaction was finalized on December 3.〔()〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「KSAS-TV」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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