April 5, 1953

Television came to Arkansas when KRTV, a UHF station in Little Rock (Pulaski County), made its debut. Announcer Bob Lawrence is thought to have been the first person seen on an Arkansas television station. There are now more than one million television households in modern-day Arkansas. There are twenty-three commercial television stations in the state, sixteen owned by media groups. Those groups include Equity, Gannett, Allbritton, Nexstar, Liberty, Hearst-Argyle, New York Times Company, and Clear Channel. It is not surprising that most of the television stations are located in the largest population centers of the state: Little Rock, Fort Smith, Fayetteville, Jonesboro, Rogers, and Hot Springs.