KPHO-TV

KPHO-TV

Phoenix, Arizona United States
Channels	Digital: 17 (UHF) Virtual: 5
Branding	CBS 5; Arizona's Family
Programming
Affiliations	5.1: CBS for others, see § Subchannels
Ownership
Owner	Gray Television (Gray Television Licensee, LLC)
Sister stations	KTVK, KPHE-LD
History
First air date	December 4, 1949 (74 years ago) (1949-12-04)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 5 (VHF, 1949–2009)
Former affiliations	CBS (1949–1955) NBC (secondary, 1949–1953) ABC (secondary, 1949–1954) DuMont (secondary, 1949–1955) Independent (1955–1994) NTA (secondary, 1956–1961)
Call sign meaning	"Phoenix"
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	41223
ERP	1,000 kW
HAAT	507 m (1,663 ft) 530 m (1,739 ft) (CP)
Transmitter coordinates	33°20′2″N 112°3′43″W / 33.33389°N 112.06194°W / 33.33389; -112.06194
Translator(s)	see § Translators
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	www.azfamily.com

KPHO-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Gray Television alongside independent stations KTVK (channel 3) and KPHE-LD (channel 44), a group known together as "Arizona's Family". The three stations share studios on North Seventh Avenue in Uptown Phoenix; KPHO-TV's transmitter is located on South Mountain on the city's south side.

KPHO-TV signed on in 1949 as Arizona's first television station and the only one approved prior to a nearly four-year freeze on new TV stations. It initially aired programming from all of the national networks, though it gradually lost them from 1953 onward as new stations signed on in the Phoenix area once the freeze ended. After losing CBS to KOOL-TV (channel 10) in 1955, channel 5 operated as an independent station for nearly 40 years, during which time it sometimes measured as the most-watched independent within its market in the United States; one of its productions, The Wallace and Ladmo Show, was among the longest-running local children's programs in the country. However, in the 1980s and early 1990s, it faced stiff competition in the guise of new independent outlets KNXV-TV and KUTP and saw declining ratings.

The station rejoined CBS in 1994 as the result of a group affiliation deal between the network and the Meredith Corporation, which owned the station for nearly 70 years, in the wake of channel 10 dropping CBS to affiliate with Fox. Though it had lower ratings than KTVK, CBS chose KPHO because of ties to Meredith in other cities. The CBS affiliation also forced the expansion of what had been a small news department into one broadcasting dozens of hours of local news a week.

In 2014, Meredith acquired KTVK as a spin-off of the merger of Gannett and the Belo Corporation; the two stations were combined under the Arizona's Family moniker, long associated with channel 3, in the KTVK studios but under KPHO-TV's management. Gray Television acquired Meredith's television division in 2021.