Slogan Your Local News Leader Affiliations NBC | Subchannels (see article) | |
Branding KAMR Local 4 (general)
KAMR Local 4 News (newscasts) Channels Digital: 19 (UHF)
Virtual: 4 (PSIP) Owner Nexstar Media Group
(Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc.) | ||
KAMR-TV, virtual channel 4, is an NBC affiliate in Amarillo, Texas. The station was acquired by Nexstar Media Group after merging with KAMR's parent company, Quorum Broadcasting in 2003. This station operates shared services agreements with Mission Broadcasting's stations, KCIT and KCPN-LP. All three stations share studios and offices located on South Fillmore Street in downtown Amarillo (across the street from KVII-TV), and the station's transmitter is located on Dumas Drive (U.S. 87 and U.S. 287) in unincorporated Potter County.
Contents
History
The station went on the air on March 18, 1953 as KGNC-TV (for Globe-News Corporation (or Company)) and was co-owned by the Amarillo Globe-News along with KGNC-AM 710. It originally operated from studio facilities located on North Polk Street in Amarillo. The station has always been an NBC affiliate but also carried DuMont programming until the network closed in 1956. The Globe-News sold the station to Stauffer Communications in January 1966. In 1974, Stauffer sold KGNC-TV to Cannan Communications, who changed the station's call letters to the current KAMR-TV on November 5th of that year.
Concurrent to Cannan's purchase, the station unveiled a new "arrow 4 logo" that was modified in the early to mid-1980s, as well as the "Action News" branding. In October 1990, though, they retired the "arrow 4" logo and "Action News" branding in favor of the "News 4" branding and a distantly-similar logo to the "4" that they began using in 1998. However, these changes—as well as the adoption of the "Straight Facts, Straight to You" news slogan (the slogan was also used by KMOL-TV (now WOAI-TV) in San Antonio), did little to improve its ratings, as it slid from #2 in 1989 to an ever-more-distant #3 in 1990 (longtime #3 KFDA-TV took over the #2 spot and would surge to #1 by the end of the decade).
After 25 years of ownership, Cannan sold Channel 4 to Quorum Broadcasting in 1999. The station was acquired by Nexstar Broadcasting Group after merging with Quorum Broadcasting in 2003. In late 2005, the station began operating NBC Weather Plus on digital subchannnel 4.2 and until 2008, it was the only Nexstar-owned NBC affiliate to carry the service when it was replaced with a simulcast of MyNetworkTV affiliate KCPN-LP right after NBC Weather Plus shut down due to NBC Universal purchasing The Weather Channel.
KAMR celebrated 50 years of broadcasting in 2003. In 2013, the station celebrated 60 years of broadcasting.
Programming
Syndicated programming on KAMR includes: Entertainment Tonight, The Dr. Oz Show, Rachael Ray, and The Office.
Translators
KAMR serves a large portion of northern Texas, the Oklahoma Panhandle and northeastern New Mexico through many translators beyond its normal 50 mile effective radiated power.