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KSNT (channel 27) is a television station in Topeka, Kansas, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside low-power, Class A Fox affiliate KTMJ-CD (channel 43); Nexstar also provides certain services to dual ABC affiliate/ de facto CW+ owned-and-operated station KTKA-TV (channel 49) under joint sales and shared services agreements (JSA/SSA) with Vaughan Media, LLC. The stations share studios on Northwest 25th Street (US 24), near the unincorporated community of Kiro (with a Topeka mailing address), where KSNT's transmitter is also located.
In 1982, George Hatch—owner of the Kansas State Network, a chain of NBC-affiliated stations originating at KARD-TV (now KSNW) in Wichita—purchased the station from Wilson. Later that year on August 16, the station changed its call letters to KSNT, as part of an effort to help viewers think of the KSN stations as part of one large network. Over the next few years, the station branded itself under the "KSN" name, but only provided limited with KSNW and its three full-time satellite stations in western Kansas (KSNG in Garden City, KSNC in Great Bend and KSNK in McCook, Nebraska); as such, KSNT essentially acted as a de facto semi-satellite of KSNW.
SJL Communications (owned by George Lilly) purchased the station, along with KSNW, from Hatch in 1988; Lilly eventually had part of the microwave system that linked the two stations dismantled in a cost-cutting effort. In 1995, Davenport, Iowa–based Lee Enterprises acquired the Kansas State Network group as well as KSNT. On March 9, 2000, Lee Enterprises announced that it would sell its 16 television station properties, in order to focus on its newspaper and online businesses. Exactly two months later on May 9, 2000, Lee sold KSNT to Indianapolis-based Emmis Communications, as part of a $562.5 million group deal involving KSNW and its satellite stations, and CBS affiliate KMTV-TV in Omaha, Nebraska.
On May 15, 2005, Emmis Communications announced that it would sell its 16 television stations in order to concentrate on its portfolio of radio stations. On September 15, Emmis sold KSNT, KSNW and its satellites as well as CBS affiliate KOIN in Portland, Oregon, and Fox affiliate KHON-TV in Honolulu, Hawaii, to the Montecito Broadcast Group (formerly SJL Broadcast Group) for $259 million; the sale was finalized on January 27, 2006.
On February 4, 2011, Free State Communications announced that it would sell KTKA to Los Angeles–based PBC Broadcasting for $1.5 million. As part of the deal, New Vision Television – then-owner of KSNT, and which already maintained shared services and local marketing agreements with PBC-owned stations in WYTV, and WTGS, would operate KTKA-TV under a local marketing agreement. Despite objections to the sale by the American Cable Association that alleged the sale could give the virtual triopoly involving KSNT, KTKA and KTMJ-CA too much leverage in negotiations for retransmission consent agreements, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the sale on July 21, 2011. PBC officially consummated on the purchase one week later on July 28. Two days later on July 30, KTKA relocated from its existing studio facility on 21st Street and Chelsea Drive in southwestern Topeka, and merged its operations with KSNT and KTMJ-CA at the two stations' facilities on Northwest 25th Street.
On March 21, 2014, Media General announced that it would purchase the LIN Media stations, including KSNT, KTMJ-CD, and the SSA/JSA with KTKA-TV, in a $1.6 billion merger. The FCC approved the merger on December 12, 2014, with the deal being consummated on December 19; however as a condition of the sale's approval, Media General was originally required to terminate the joint sales agreement between KTKA-TV and KSNT within two years, due to the FCC's ban on agreement involving the sale of advertising encompassing more than 15% of a separately-owned station's airtime. On September 28, 2015, Nexstar Broadcasting Group announced it had offered to purchase Media General and its stations, including KSNT and KTMJ. On January 27, 2016, Nexstar announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire Media General. The deal was approved by the FCC on January 11, 2017, and completed on January 17, marking Nexstar's entry into the Topeka market and reuniting KSNT with former sister station and fellow NBC affiliate KSNF in Joplin, Missouri.
On November 1, 2008, KSNT-DT2 disaffiliated from The CW Plus, which moved to the third digital subchannel of ABC affiliate KTKA-TV, replacing it with a standard-definition simulcast of Fox affiliate KTMJ-CA to provide a digital signal for the low-power station and to extend its programming to the far northern and eastern fringes of the Topeka market.
From its sign-on, KSNT's newscasts have traditionally placed second behind the longer-established WIBW-TV, although it placed far ahead of the perennial third place KTKA-TV after that station signed on in 1983 as KLDH. As a part-time member of the Kansas State Network, KSNT was one of only two stations in the group (along with KSNF in Joplin, Missouri, another former KSNW semi-satellite) that maintained a full in-house news department separate from KSNW; however, KSNT provided news content focusing on northeast Kansas to KSNW and the other KSN stations, while KSNW provided news stories focusing on central and western Kansas to KSNT in turn. While in its role as airing partial simulcasts of KSNW programming, the station used the "Hello News" music package by Frank Gari for its newscasts and station imaging from 1982 to 1986.
In September 2003, KSNT gradually scaled back its sports department, with the departures of sports director Leo Doyle, and later, weekend sports anchor Katrina Hancock; during this time, the station's evening anchors provided sports-related stories on Monday through Thursday evenings, while sports content aired in the form of a standalone segment within the newscasts on Friday through Sunday evenings; this lasted until April 2004, when Lance Veeser was hired as KSNT's sports director. In April 2009, following that station's purchase by New Vision Television, KSNT began producing a two-hour weekday morning newscast at 7 a.m. and a half-hour newscast at 9 p.m. weeknights for Fox affiliate KTMJ-CA, replacing news simulcasts from fellow Fox station WDAF-TV in Kansas City in those timeslots.
As a result of KTKA's sale to PBC Broadcasting and local marketing agreement with New Vision Television, KSNT took over production of channel 49's newscasts, using existing staff from both stations. KSNT started producing channel 49's newscasts the following day on July 30 – beginning with the 6 p.m. newscast – under the uniform branding Kansas First News (which also encompassed the prime time newscast on KTMJ, in an arrangement similar to other joint news operations involving virtual triopolies such as Hawaii News Now involving Raycom Media and American Spirit Media–owned stations in Honolulu and Granite Broadcasting/Malara Broadcast Group's Indiana's NewsCenter operation in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Northland's NewsCenter operation in Duluth, Minnesota), with the two stations initially simulcasting newscasts on weekday mornings and at 6 and 10 p.m., while KSNT aired a 5 p.m. newscast that is exclusive to the station; On May 4, 2013, KSNT and KTKA respectively became the second and third (and last) television stations in the Topeka market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition.
Beginning with the 5 p.m. newscast on January 26, 2015, KSNT quietly dropped the Kansas First News brand, with the introduction of a new graphics package and news set, as well as a uniform logo scheme for all three stations (consisting of only the station's respective call letters and the logo of their affiliated network), with newscasts on KSNT, KTMJ and KTKA being rebranded as KSNT News. KTMJ has been rebranded as Fox 43 News @ 9.
On March 25, 2022, KSNT introduced a new logo and revived the 27 News brand across newscasts seen on both KSNT and KTKA. Newscasts continued to use the previous graphics and music from the KSNT News brand at the time.
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