The station is owned by Tegna Inc. and maintains studios on South Izard Street in downtown Little Rock and a transmitter atop Shinall Mountain, near the Chenal Valley section of the city.

Despite a major change in control of the company in 1977 including the hiring of a successful general manager, KTHV remained deep in third place in its local news ratings.

In August 1953, the Little Rock Television Company pulled out so its lead shareholder, J. D. Wrather, could focus on an application he had filed in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Three months later, Radio Broadcasting sold its 42-percent interest to several stockholders as well as new KTHV general manager Robert L. Brown Sr. after Gannett acquired The Shreveport Times.

[9] The key players were Stanley Berry and Marcus George, who were executors of the stock eventually held by the K. A. Engel Trust, set up by the former owner of the Democrat.

He had hired many of the market's most popular TV personalities when he ran KARK-TV in the late 1960s and early 1970s prior to being promoted by Combined Communications to the position of general manager at KPNX in Phoenix, Arizona.

[12] By 1990, it was the only one of the three major stations without a local newscast at 6 a.m. or 5 p.m.[13] Rumors began to circulate in August 1994 that Gannett was about to buy KTHV; the deal would mark a return to the city for the company, which in addition to once owning KARK-TV shuttered the Arkansas Gazette in 1991.

KTHV management denied the station had been sold but noted that interest had picked up in a purchase, with more suitors in six months than the preceding six years;[14] the deal was not officially announced until late September and consisted of a $27 million stock swap.

The resulting rebrand to "Today's THV", implemented despite a negative response from a Gannett executive, also reduced call letter misspellings that brought KTHV closer to KATV.

[18] Other changes included new weekend sports coverage and a new male anchor, Larry Audas, to be paired with station stalwart Anne Jansen.

[20] Ratings began to rise in 1997,[21] and in April 1999, KTHV surpassed an ailing KARK at 10 p.m. to pull into second place in late news for the first time in nearly 30 years.