KFSM Celebrates 60 Years on Air

Local CBS affiliate KFSM-TV, Channel 5, of Fort Smith celebrated its 60th anniversary on July 22.

The station signed on in 1953, founded by local media magnate Donald W. Reynolds, as the first TV station licensed to Fort Smith, serving western Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma.

The station was initially KFSA-TV and was the first station to open a newsroom in Northwest Arkansas in 1968. The station changed its call letters to KFSM in 1973.

At one time in its history, the station carried all three networks — ABC, NBC, and CBS — and selected the best programming for its viewers.

KFSM still broadcasts from the old Carnegie Library on 13th Street in Fort Smith, and from the Northwest Arkansas Mall in Fayetteville.

On July 1, it was announced that KFSM was one of 19 television stations to be sold to the Chicago-based media giant Tribune Co., in a cash deal worth $2.73 billion.

Tribune and the seller, Local TV Holdings LLC of Ohio, announced July 1 a definitive agreement had been reached for the acquisition, which is expected to close by the end of the year.