97-452: KPLR may refer to: KPLR-TV , a television station (channel 26, virtual 11) licensed to St. Louis, Missouri, United States KPLR-LP , a defunct low-power radio station (96.9 FM) licensed to Poplar, Montana , United States St. Clair County Airport (ICAO: KPLR), a public use airport Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with
194-509: A hostile takeover attempt by Ted Turner the year before. CBS spent the latter portion of 1985 repurchasing a large portion of its stock to help block the Turner takeover. Once Turner sold his stock, CBS was saddled with significant debt and needed to raise money. Not long after Laurence Tisch became the company's chairman, CBS decided to sell KMOX-TV, at the time its smallest owned-and-operated television station by market size. On May 16, 1986,
291-541: A 2021 college football matchup between Illinois and Nebraska was moved to KPLR due to KTVI's obligation to air Green Bay Packers preseason games. KPLR-TV served as the home broadcaster of MLB 's St. Louis Cardinals (for two stints from 1959 to 1962 and 1988 to 2006 ), the NBA 's St. Louis Hawks ( 1959 – 1968 ) and the NHL 's St. Louis Blues (for three stints from 1967 to 1976 , 1982–83 and 1986 to April 21, 2009 ,
388-524: A CBS prime time show, usually only due to breaking news or severe weather. The station also resumed a 24-hour broadcast schedule in the early 1990s. From September 1989 until September 11, 2015, KMOV aired The Young and the Restless on a same-day delay at 3 p.m., and later, at 4 p.m. (serving as a lead-in for its early-evening newscasts), with The Price Is Right airing on a one-hour delay at 11 a.m.; KMOV also delayed The Late Late Show by
485-508: A blend of animated and live-action children's shows (including shows acquired via the syndication market as well as The Disney Afternoon block). For many years, even after joining The WB, KPLR was branded on-air as "St. Louis 11", often using a logo with the "O" in "St. Louis" converted into its "circle 11" numeric logo. At one point, KPLR almost picked up Fox Kids since KTVI (which was a part of an affiliation agreement between Fox and New World Communications ) declined to carry it, but Fox Kids
582-511: A charter affiliate of The WB (a venture between Time Warner and Chicago -based Tribune Broadcasting ), marking the first time it maintained an affiliation with a broadcast television network. Koplar had reached a deal to affiliate with The WB in November 1993, more than a year before the network's launch. The WB offered prime time programs only on Wednesday evenings during its first half-season of operation, but would gradually evolve into offering
679-523: A gutted complex where the station had been the only major tenant into a boutique hotel) to a new purpose-built studio facility in Maryland Heights. On January 24, 2006, UPN parent company CBS Corporation (which split from Viacom in December 2005) and WB network parent Time Warner (through its Warner Bros. Entertainment division) announced that they would dissolve the two networks to create The CW ,
776-504: A half-hour since 1997 under original host Tom Snyder (one of several CBS stations that have done this practice), in order to run syndicated programming after the Late Show with David Letterman (KMOV completely preempted The Late Late Show during the program's first two years on the air). On September 14, 2015, KMOV moved The Price Is Right , The Young and the Restless and The Late Late Show to their recommended network time periods with
873-507: A joint network venture that initially featured a mix of original first-run series and programs that originated on The WB and UPN. The network signed a ten-year affiliation agreement with Tribune Broadcasting for 16 of the 19 WB affiliates that the company owned at the time, including KPLR. Nearly one month after the CW launch announcement, on February 22, 2006, News Corporation subsidiaries Fox Television Stations and Twentieth Television announced
970-603: A larger initiative by Gray Television to launch regional sports networks , the MyNetworkTV subchannel was rebranded as "Matrix Midwest". Its new lineup includes a partnership with the Missouri Tigers to produce pre- and post-game shows for its football games ( Mizzou Live ) and a coach's show ( Tiger Talk ) with Eliah Drinkwitz . The channel continues to carry its existing syndicated (also joined by GMFB: Overtime ), lifestyle, and MyNetworkTV programming. In September 2024, it
1067-662: A local marketing agreement with Fox affiliate KTVI effective October 1, as a result of the formation of a "broadcast management company" that was created to provide management services to stations owned by both Tribune Broadcasting and KTVI owner Local TV . Although KTVI was the senior partner in the deal, it vacated its longtime studios in the Clayton-Tamm/Dogtown neighborhood on St. Louis' west side and moved its operations to KPLR's Maryland Heights facility. The LMA resulted in both stations combining their news departments and sharing certain syndicated programs. On November 1, 2008,
SECTION 10
#17328690196511164-507: A long-term affiliation agreement announced between New World and then-Fox network parent News Corporation on May 23, 1994. Channel 11 station management would later turn the offer down; ABC instead reached an agreement with River City Broadcasting in August 1994 to shift the affiliation to outgoing Fox affiliate KDNL, which swapped network affiliations with KTVI on August 7, 1995. Upon that network's launch, on January 11, 1995, KPLR-TV became
1261-399: A new anchor desk. Both stations now share the set but KPLR has a separate weather center. They also introduced new graphics and music package for both stations the same day. In mid-2019, both stations introduced The Power of Two: Midday , replacing Fox 2 News Midday and News 11 at Noon . The program is aired live at 11 a.m. on KTVI and KPLR. On January 30, 2020, both stations introduced
1358-456: A new graphics package and music package for each station. KPLR's simulcasts with KTVI uses the same music package, "Beyond", while KPLR-specific newscasts use "Inergy", both were created by Stephen Arnold Music. In spring 2020, both stations introduced The Power of Two at 6 am , which is simulcast on KTVI and KPLR. While branded for both stations, it is largely targeted towards the KTVI audience, as it
1455-629: A newly remodeled studio (which contained pieces from the KTVI's former "Studio B" set, along with a modernized news desk and a state-of-the-art weather center) that is located adjacent to the main news set now occupied by KTVI. Since KPLR and KTVI's news departments merged, there has been considerable sharing between the two stations in regards to news coverage, video footage and the use of reporters, although both outlets maintain their own primary on-air personalities (such as news and sports anchors) that only appear on one station. On April 6, 2009, KPLR debuted an hour-long midday newscast at noon on weekdays. This
1552-499: A ratings win over long-dominant KSDK, with the 10 p.m. newscast regularly winning at least a 20 percent share in viewership, while KSDK averaged about a 30 percent share. KMOV has seen significant ratings growth since 2004, and beat KSDK at 10 p.m. both during the November 2004 sweeps period – the first time in over a quarter-century that KSDK did not place first in any timeslot – and during the May and November 2006 sweeps periods; it also became
1649-552: A result of station sales ordered by the FCC as a result of Tribune's proposed acquisition by Sinclair Broadcast Group , owners of ABC affiliate KDNL-TV. If Sinclair's acquisition of Tribune and related station sales were approved, it would have created a duopoly between KMOV and KPLR-TV. However, on August 9, 2018, Tribune announced it would terminate the Sinclair deal, intending to seek other M&A opportunities. This came three weeks after
1746-585: A secondary affiliation in September of that year; WRBU then became a primary UPN affiliate on April 1, 2003. On December 30, 2002, Tribune Broadcasting announced it would purchase KPLR-TV and sister station KWBP in Portland, Oregon , from ACME Communications for $ 275 million; the sale was finalized on March 21, 2003. Also in 2003, KPLR moved its studios from the Chase Park Plaza (which by that time, went from
1843-407: A secured parking lot rather than the cumbersome mix of on-street and underground parking it had at Gateway Tower. The station had soft-launched a new branding, First Alert 4 (which has become a common brand for Gray's local newscasts) in the months before, which was solidified in full with the move to Maryland Heights. As a CBS-owned station, channel 4 cleared the entire network schedule and, after
1940-443: A separate facility adjacent to the hotel several years later. Starting in the mid-1960s, Harold's son Edward J. "Ted" Koplar began working behind the scenes at KPLR, producing sports programming and developing the station's first regular local newscast. Ted Koplar became president and chief executive officer of channel 11 in 1979, and gained complete control of the station upon his father's death in 1985. For most of its existence, KPLR
2037-609: A six-night-a-week schedule by September 1999; as such, for its first few years as a WB affiliate, KPLR continued to fill the 7–9 p.m. time slot with feature films and some first-run syndicated programs on nights when the network did not offer programming. During this period, alongside WB prime time programming and eventually animated series from the Kids' WB children's program block, KPLR carried recent and some older off-network sitcoms and drama series, movies on weekends as well as in prime time on weekdays, some first-run syndicated shows, and
SECTION 20
#17328690196512134-551: A third party to comply with ownership rules and alleviate potential antitrust issues. The deal received significant scrutiny over Sinclair's forthrightness in its applications to sell certain conflict properties, prompting the FCC to designate it for hearing and leading Tribune to terminate the deal and sue Sinclair for breach of contract . Following the Sinclair deal's collapse, Nexstar Media Group of Irving, Texas , announced its purchase of Tribune Media on December 3, 2018, for $ 6.4 billion in cash and debt. The sale
2231-494: Is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri , United States, affiliated with CBS . It is owned by Gray Television alongside low-power station KDTL-LD (channel 4.6). The two stations share studios on Progress Parkway in suburban Maryland Heights ; KMOV's transmitter is located in Lemay, Missouri . The station first signed on the air on July 8, 1954, as KWK-TV. At its launch, channel 4
2328-527: Is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri , United States, serving as the market's outlet for The CW . It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside Fox affiliate KTVI (channel 2). The two stations share studios on Ball Drive in Maryland Heights ; KPLR's transmitter is located in Sappington, Missouri . The station first signed on the air on April 28, 1959, as
2425-615: Is part of Fox 2 News in The Morning . In February 2021, both stations overhauled their set again with an expansion of the physical studio space with multiple venues and a larger video wall. KPLR no longer has a separate weather center, now just appearing on the same set as KTVI. The station's ATSC 1.0 channels are carried on the multiplexed signals of other St. Louis television stations: On May 31, 2006, KPLR added The Tube Music Network to digital subchannel 11.2; The Tube later abruptly suspended its operations on October 1, 2007. In 2010,
2522-532: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to build channel 11 in January 1957, prevailing over three other locally based competitors. But eight months later, CBS decided instead to purchase its existing St. Louis affiliate, KWK-TV (channel 4). As a condition of the channel 4 purchase, the FCC required CBS to relinquish the channel 11 license and construction permit. CBS did so by transferring it to
2619-525: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) transferred it to one of the failed applicants, a group led by St. Louis hotelier Harold Koplar , for no financial consideration. Almost immediately, the deal was held up after the St. Louis Amusement Company, another of the original applicants for channel 11, protested to the United States Court of Appeals in January 1958. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately upheld
2716-670: The Live Well Network , as Meredith planned on using the bandwidth utilized from digital channel 4.3 for the station's ATSC M/H mobile DTV signal. On November 17, 2014, KMOV relaunched 4.3 as "MyTV St. Louis", returning MyNetworkTV (and some syndicated programming) to the market after a nine-month absence due to former affiliate WRBU (channel 46)'s sale to Ion Media Networks and that station's wholesale conversion into an Ion Television owned-and-operated station. KMOV carried MeTV on their second subchannel from 2013 until February 1, 2018, when it moved to KNLC-TV (channel 24), which
2813-497: The Paramount Stations Group ; the two groups were formally consolidated in December 1995. However, in 1994, the company decided to divest itself of all of its major network affiliates to focus on stations that carried its then-upstart United Paramount Network ( UPN ), which would start up service on January 16, 1995. Dallas -based A. H. Belo Corporation acquired KMOV in a three-way deal also involving two stations in
2910-650: The Rams from 1998 (when CBS acquired the AFC broadcast package) to 2015 (usually home interconference contests), when the Rams returned to Los Angeles. KMOV aired games of the baseball St. Louis Cardinals from 1990 to 1993 as part of CBS ' national broadcast contract with Major League Baseball. KMOV was also served as the host of the 2005 Final Four which took place at the Edward Jones Dome . In 2003, KMOV began producing At
3007-491: The Seattle – Tacoma market. As part of the transaction, A. H. Belo (which spun off its broadcast holdings into a separate, similarly named company in 2008) sold KIRO-TV (then a UPN affiliate, which was included in the deal because the company had recently acquired that market's NBC affiliate KING-TV ) to Cox Enterprises , who concurrently sold its existing Seattle–Tacoma station, then-CBS affiliate KSTW , to Viacom. The deal
KPLR - Misplaced Pages Continue
3104-554: The Wrestling at the Chase banner, mostly offered to Midwestern stations who had previously aired Muchnick shows. Arguably KPLR's most notable wrestling moment came after it ceased airing locally produced content: on December 27, 1983, a Wrestling at the Chase taping contained the WWF debut of Hulk Hogan , who would become an international superstar with the promotion. KPLR produced a retrospective of
3201-467: The chief executive officer of The WB) for $ 146 million. Five days later, on October 1, ACME assumed operational responsibilities for the station under a local marketing agreement with Koplar. The sale was finalized on March 1, 1998, ending 38 years of local, family ownership and earning a handsome return on their original investment. It would be ACME's only station on the VHF band during the analog era, as all of
3298-429: The original iteration of Viacom , the former CBS Inc. subsidiary and future parent company, completed its $ 122.5 million purchase of the station; so as to comply with an FCC regulation in place at the time that prohibited TV and radio stations in the same market but with different ownership from having the same callsigns, KMOX-TV's callsign was slightly modified to the present KMOV almost a month later on June 18. Despite
3395-418: The 10 p.m. newscast. Many members of KMOV's on-air news staff have moved on to work for national news organizations ( Richelle Carey and meteorologist Reynolds Wolf , for example, both joined CNN in 2006). While it would seem like a positive aspect, the "revolving door" turnover rate of its anchors and reporters has been one of KMOV's weaknesses over the years (especially under CBS ownership, where it had
3492-564: The 11.2 subchannel became an affiliate of This TV . On January 1 , 2016, the 11.3 subchannel became a Comet affiliate. KPLR-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 11, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal continued to broadcast on its pre-transition UHF channel 26, using virtual channel 11. KMOV KMOV (channel 4)
3589-613: The Big Three stations airing network programming meant for older viewers and competition from KTVI's 9 p.m. newscast as reasons behind the move. In December 2008, KPLR moved production of its news programs to a temporary set in KTVI's Hampton studios as the Maryland Heights facility was being remodeled to accommodate both KPLR and KTVI's newscasts. On February 16, 2009, KPLR became the fourth St. Louis television station to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition (one day after KTVI converted its newscasts to HD), broadcasting from
3686-605: The Bruiser and Ted DiBiase , and is considered one of the wrestling industry's most historic programs. About 1,100 episodes were produced during the show's run, which ended on September 10, 1983, when Muchnick retired from promoting and handed the slot over to the World Wrestling Federation . Even after WWF took over the programming, they still taped matches at the KPLR studios and aired a variant of its syndicated programming under
3783-696: The Cardinals games to other stations in Arkansas, Iowa, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. On May 23, 1959, the station debuted Wrestling at the Chase , a professional wrestling program that was originally produced from Chase Park Plaza 's Khorassan Ballroom (until 1970). The show featured the most famous wrestlers in the National Wrestling Alliance , which was controlled in part by St. Louis promoter Sam Muchnick . Participants included Ric Flair , Harley Race , former NFL player Dick
3880-450: The Center , which features an inside look at attractions at the St. Louis Science Center . KMOV presently broadcasts 41 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 6 + 1 ⁄ 2 hours each weekday, five hours on Saturdays and 3 + 1 ⁄ 2 hours on Sundays). In addition, the station produces the half-hour sports wrap-up program Sports Sunday , which airs on Sundays after
3977-742: The FCC's July 18 vote to have the deal reviewed by an administrative law judge amid "serious concerns" about Sinclair's forthrightness in its applications to sell certain conflict properties. Tribune also filed a breach of contract lawsuit in the Delaware Chancery Court , alleging that Sinclair engaged in protracted negotiations with the FCC and the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division over regulatory issues, refused to sell stations in markets where it already had properties, and proposed divestitures to parties with ties to Sinclair executive chair David D. Smith that were rejected or highly subject to rejection to maintain control over stations it
KPLR - Misplaced Pages Continue
4074-594: The Fox Kids weekday and Saturday blocks ceding local advertising slots to air public service messages from Rice's ministry that discussed various controversial moral issues (such as the death penalty , same-sex marriage and abortion ), and reached an agreement with KTVI to carry Fox Kids starting in September 1996, making it the only New World-owned Fox station to carry the block. On September 26, 1997, Koplar Communications announced it would sell KPLR to ACME Communications (owned by Jamie Kellner , who then also served as
4171-705: The Gannett/Belo deal was approved and completed, Des Moines, Iowa –based Meredith Corporation – which already had a broadcasting presence in Missouri through its ownership of fellow CBS affiliate KCTV in Kansas City – announced that it would purchase KMOV, along with KTVK and KASW in Phoenix (the latter of which Meredith would later sell to the Nexstar Broadcasting Group ) for $ 407.5 million. The sale of KMOV
4268-510: The Koplar group, known as "220 Television, Incorporated", for no financial consideration. Almost immediately, the three-way deal was held up after the St. Louis Amusement Company, one of the original applicants for channel 11, protested to the United States Court of Appeals in January 1958. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately upheld the decision in November 1958, but CBS had already consummated its deal for channel 4 several months earlier, changing
4365-673: The Universe , Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs , and Denver, the Last Dinosaur . KPLR presently broadcasts 22 hours of locally produced newscasts each week; including a public affairs program on Saturday evenings called The Pulse of St. Louis , which airs over the final 45 minutes of the 7 p.m. newscast, and a weekly sports highlight program on Sunday evenings called Sunday Sports Extra , which also airs during that newscast. Channel 11 has aired local news programs since its sign-on, and
4462-523: The Zoo , a program that gives a behind-the-scenes look inside the St. Louis Zoo and was hosted by meteorologist Kent Ehrhardt (encore presentations of older episodes aired from 2009 to 2011). In September 2008, KMOV premiered Great Day St. Louis , an hour-long daytime talk show, mostly focusing on entertainment and lifestyle topics in the St. Louis area (the show is currently hosted by Matt Chambers, Kent Ehrhardt, and Laura Hettiger). In January 2011, KMOV debuted At
4559-436: The after-school children's program Captain 11's Showboat , which introduced The Three Stooges to St. Louis area television viewers. Captain 11 was played by longtime radio personality Harry Fender . Ted Koplar also diversified his family's entertainment holdings during his time at the helm of KPLR. This was most notably achieved through World Events Productions , which distributed three animated series Voltron: Defender of
4656-458: The deal would violate FCC regulations that disallow common ownership of two of the four highest-rated stations in a single market (KMOV and KSDK have ranked as the top two stations in the St. Louis market in total-day ratings for several years), Gannett would retain KSDK, while it would spin off KMOV to Sander Media, LLC (owned by former Belo executive Jack Sander). Gannett intended to provide services to
4753-500: The decision in November of that year. CBS had already taken control of channel 4's operations that March, and changed its call letters to KMOX-TV in reference to its new radio sister. The following April, channel 11 signed on as independent station KPLR-TV . In July 1968, CBS opened a new studio and office facility in downtown St. Louis to house the KMOX stations, which until that point had been operating from separate locations (KMOX radio
4850-416: The first independent station in Missouri. The station's call letters were derived from the name of its founding owner, St. Louis real estate developer and hotelier Harold Koplar . Despite losing in his quest to build the station from the ground up, events effectively outside his control would allow him to acquire the license for the station in 1958. CBS was originally granted a construction permit by
4947-459: The first full season under Meredith ownership, with the relocation of the former two shows occurring as a result of the launch of a half-hour 4 p.m. newscast. KMOX/KMOV served as the unofficial home station of the NFL's St. Louis Cardinals from their arrival in St. Louis in 1960 until the 1987 season , when the team relocated to Phoenix, Arizona. It also aired any games of the city's next NFL team,
SECTION 50
#17328690196515044-507: The last Blues telecast on KPLR being a Stanley Cup playoff loss to the Vancouver Canucks ). Both the Cardinals and Blues are now exclusive to Bally Sports Midwest , which formerly (as FSN Midwest) produced the games for the station throughout the late 90s and early 2000s. The production of the games before that time was from Bud Sports Productions, a division of Anheuser-Busch . During its WB years, KPLR-TV also syndicated its coverage of
5141-665: The launch of CBS News Nightwatch in 1982 adopted a 24/7 schedule as a result. When Viacom took over in 1986, this changed rather drastically. KMOV began signing off the air at night, thus preempting Nightwatch . A barrage of scattered prime time preemptions later followed that was so rampant, the station earned a mention in Ken Auletta 's 1991 book, Three Blind Mice . KMOV randomly replaced CBS prime time shows with programming such as Billy Graham Crusades and National Geographic specials, syndicated movie packages, and occasional local and regional sporting events , all of which allowed
5238-624: The launch of MyNetworkTV , a network created primarily to serve as a network programming option for UPN and WB stations that were left out of The CW's affiliation deals. Three weeks later, on March 9, WRBU was confirmed to be the St. Louis market's MyNetworkTV affiliate. KPLR-TV remained a WB affiliate until the network ceased operations on September 17, 2006; when the station affiliated with The CW upon that network's debut on September 18, KPLR began branding as "CW 11". (WRBU joined MyNetworkTV upon that network's launch on September 5.) On September 17, 2008, Tribune announced that it would enter KPLR into
5335-426: The local marketing agreement with KTVI, major changes were made to KPLR's news programming. First on September 8, 2008, KPLR shifted the flagship 9 p.m. newscast to 7 p.m. and expanded the program to one hour, trading timeslots with The CW's prime time schedule, which the station moved to 8–10 p.m. (instead of the network-recommended 7–9 p.m. Central Time slot) with the network's permission; this effectively resulted in
5432-519: The market until he was fired by the station in 2013 after a Facebook post questioning if he was being audited by the Internal Revenue Service in the wake of a contentious interview with President Barack Obama during the 2012 election cycle. In 1976, channel 4 became the second station to adopt Dick Marx's " WBBM Channel 2 News Theme", that eventually became the de facto official newscast music for CBS' owned-and-operated stations. The theme
5529-465: The market went to KDNL when that network launched on October 9, 1986. While this was part of a larger affiliation deal with KDNL's then-owner, Cox Broadcasting , most of the markets in KPLR's cable footprint had enough stations by this point to provide a local Fox affiliate. This would have made the prospect of KPLR as a multi-state Fox affiliate unattractive to the Koplars in any event. On January 17, 1994,
5626-441: The most-watched late evening newscast in the United States during the latter period. Most of the ratings growth at 10 p.m. was attributed to CBS' prime time ratings increases and NBC's large drop in viewership. However, KMOV also saw growth in all of its other newscast timeslots, even where the station does not benefit from a strong CBS lead-in. Starting in late 2013, KMOV started to dominate the news ratings in most newscasts, winning
5723-557: The network's affiliation on KDNL and the eight other ABC affiliates that Sinclair owned at the time for five years through August 2015. Sinclair—which has owned KDNL-TV since the group's 1996 acquisition of its previous corporate parent River City Broadcasting—entered into an agreement to acquire Tribune Media on May 8, 2017, for $ 3.9 billion, plus the assumption of $ 2.7 billion in Tribune debt. Prohibited from owning all three stations, Sinclair would have been required to sell KPLR to
5820-487: The network's children's program block, Disney's One Too . UPN programs had previously run on KDNL during overnight and weekend timeslots and then on KNLC (channel 24, which subjected the network to several program preemptions due to content objections by owner, Larry Rice). St. Louis was one of the few top-50 markets without a UPN affiliate. The station continued carrying UPN in off-hours until July 2002, leaving UPN with no St. Louis affiliate until WRBU (channel 46) carried
5917-412: The newscast being reduced to airing only on Monday through Friday evenings in part due to The CW airing a three-hour prime time lineup on Sundays at the time (although The CW turned its Sunday prime time slots over to the network's affiliates in September 2009, the 7 p.m. newscast would not expand to weekends until September 2012). The station cited an underserved younger audience in the 9 p.m. timeslot with
SECTION 60
#17328690196516014-465: The noon, 5, 6 and 10 p.m. time slots, while KSDK plummeted to third place at 5 and 6 p.m. for the first time in that station's history. Despite the firing of longtime anchor Larry Conners by the station in May 2013, KMOV has placed first among the market's 10 p.m. newscast in every demographic every month since that time. In February 2002, KMOV partnered with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to produce
6111-402: The official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 56, which was among the high-band UHF channels (52–69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to UHF channel 24 (which was previously used for
6208-584: The other stations they owned were on UHF. As part of the sale agreement, Ted Koplar signed a three-year contract to remain with KPLR-TV as the station's CEO, along with serving as a consultant to ACME, for an annual salary of $ 1 million. However, Koplar resigned from KPLR/ACME in October 1999 after one year, citing an irreconcilable rift with ACME management. In September 1998, KPLR changed its branding to "WB11". In 2000, KPLR began carrying UPN programming in off-hours, running select prime time shows and cartoons from
6305-446: The program and kept throughout the years. From April 9, 2006, to September 7, 2008, KPLR produced The Fan Show , a live sports talk program that was hosted by sports director Rich Gould, featuring audience-participation games and discussion. It was originally broadcast from The Casino Queen's Club Sevens for the first 20 months of its run, before the program relocated to AJ's Bar and Grill in December 2007. From 1959 to 1968, KPLR aired
6402-412: The program in 1999, consisting mostly of latter-era footage plus interview clips of Muchnick's wrestlers and other employees, as well as others associated with the St. Louis sports scene such as Bob Costas and Joe Garagiola , the latter the program's first host. Included were clips from the program's only known surviving early episode, from 1962, which Garagiola recorded as an audition tape before leaving
6499-563: The ratings. In the past, KPLR has attempted to format its newscasts to attract a younger audience, employing anchors under the age of 35 and featuring a more fast-paced reporting style. Nevertheless, KPLR has often been acknowledged by St. Louis Post-Dispatch television critics as a station strong on "sweeps stories", running one or more major investigative pieces during the November, February and May sweeps periods. KPLR's stories have also been seen as much more broad-based and less sensationalistic compared to other stations. After entering into
6596-428: The sale received FCC approval on December 20, and was completed on December 27, creating the first legal station duopoly in the St. Louis market between KTVI and KPLR. Tribune's direct purchase of KTVI to form a duopoly with KPLR was possible as, in recent years, KPLR and KDNL have rotated between fourth and fifth place in total day viewership due to the weaker viewership of KDNL's programming since its news department
6693-741: The sale, channel 4's operations continued to be based alongside KMOX radio at their downtown studios on Memorial Drive; KMOX would relocate from that building in 2012. The two stations still have a news partnership. Viacom announced its purchase of Paramount Pictures in 1993. The merger, completed in 1994, placed Viacom's existing five-station group (KMOV; WHEC-TV in Rochester, New York ; WNYT in Albany, New York ; WVIT in New Britain, Connecticut ; and KSLA-TV in Shreveport, Louisiana ) under common ownership with
6790-494: The same "farm team" talent development role WKYC in Cleveland played for NBC), leading to the unfamiliarity that many of the station's on-air personalities have in the market. Though this may have initially caused some issues for KMOV, ratings for channel 4's newscasts have since increased. Since the departure of Karen Foss from KSDK in December 2006, Larry Conners assumed the title of the longest-serving 10 p.m. news anchor in
6887-521: The spring of 2013, a lighted sign with the KMOV logo was installed on the top of the south face of Gateway Tower, which not only gave the station visibility on the St. Louis skyline, but was also visible in center field of wide shots of Busch Stadium during St. Louis Cardinals games. On June 13, 2013, the Gannett Company , owner of NBC affiliate KSDK (channel 5), announced that it would acquire Belo. As
6984-409: The station and Viacom full control of the ad time airing during the preemptions. According to Auletta, KMOV preempted 103 hours of CBS prime time programs in 1987, accounting for nearly 10 percent of the network prime time schedule. In the 1990s, the prime time preemptions eased as all networks began to tighten down contractually on heavy preemptions, and currently, the station only occasionally preempts
7081-554: The station began airing the Action Pack syndication block; the block's inaugural broadcast, the made-for-TV movie TekWar , earned locally an 11.2 rating/16 share, a 129% increase over that same time period during November 1993. In the summer of 1994, the station was approached by ABC to negotiate an affiliation agreement with the network to replace KTVI (channel 2) – which had been affiliated with ABC since it signed on as Belleville, Illinois –licensed WTVI on August 10, 1953 (when
7178-501: The station changed its on-air branding from "CW11" to "KPLR 11" as several Tribune-owned CW affiliates began shifting away from using references to the network within their station branding, and reincorporated the Gateway Arch into its logo (essentially, a revision of the logo that KPLR used following the Tribune purchase as a WB affiliate). Tribune bought KTVI outright on July 1, 2013, as part of its $ 2.75 billion acquisition of Local TV;
7275-684: The station through a shared services agreement , KMOV's operations were to remain largely separate from KSDK, including separate and competing news and sales departments. However, on December 16, 2013, the United States Department of Justice threatened to block the merger unless Gannett, Belo and Sander completely divested KMOV to a government-approved third-party company that would be barred from entering into any agreements with Gannett. The DOJ claimed that Gannett and Sander would be so closely aligned that Gannett would have dominated spot advertising in St. Louis. On December 23, 2013, shortly after
7372-514: The station's call letters to KMOX-TV – which were intended for channel 11 – and operated it for 28 years (it is now Gray Television -owned KMOV ). Meanwhile, Koplar went to work building channel 11 on his own, no longer in the face of opposition. KPLR originally operated from studios within the Koplar-owned Chase Park Plaza Hotel , located on Maryland Plaza in St. Louis' Central West End district. Channel 11 would move into
7469-634: The station's part-owners had competed individually for the channel 4 construction permit before agreeing to merge their interests only three months before the station went on the air. Upon signing on KWK-TV took the CBS affiliation from Belleville, Illinois –licensed WTVI (channel 54, now KTVI channel 2). Until 1955, it also aired ABC programs that WTVI declined to broadcast. The station's original studios, built by KWK radio in anticipation of television, were located on Cole Street in Downtown West . However, CBS
7566-502: The station, replacing their previous theme, the Gari-composed "The Edge". KMOX-TV was competitive in the ratings for most of the period from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. From the early 1980s until recently, KMOX-TV/KMOV was a solid, if distant, runner-up to KSDK. However, until the mid-1990s, the station had to fend off spirited competition from KTVI. Although KMOV's newscasts were critically favored, they were rarely rewarded with
7663-442: The station, then broadcasting on UHF channel 54, also maintained a primary CBS affiliation) – as its St. Louis affiliate. KTVI was among the thirteen "Big Three" network -affiliated television stations already owned or in the process of being acquired by New World Communications (and one of three out of the four stations that the group was acquiring from Argyle Television Holdings at the time) that were slated to switch to Fox under
7760-539: The title KPLR . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=KPLR&oldid=1027174925 " Categories : Disambiguation pages Broadcast call sign disambiguation pages Airport disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages KPLR-TV KPLR-TV (channel 11)
7857-452: The weekly news discussion program Extra Edition , hosted by now-former weekday morning anchor Marc Cox. On January 27, 2008, beginning with its 5:30 p.m. newscast, KMOV became the second television station in the St. Louis market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition (after KSDK, which has produced its newscasts in the format since 2006). The station's signal is multiplexed : On February 17, 2014, KMOV dropped
7954-467: Was a traditional independent station featuring cartoons , sitcoms , movies , drama series and locally produced newscasts. The station was also available on many cable systems in Missouri, Illinois and Arkansas as a regional superstation until the late 1980s. Locally, channel 11's first and only competitor came in June 1969, when Evans Broadcasting launched KDNL-TV (channel 30). The Fox affiliation for
8051-498: Was announced that the subchannel would also air Missouri Valley Conference basketball as part of an agreement between the conference and Gray, with a package of regular season games, and coverage of the opening round and quarter finals of the MVC men's basketball tournament . The games also stream on ESPN+ and the ESPN app. KMOV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 4, on June 12, 2009,
8148-431: Was completed on December 1. On December 3, 2023, with its 6 p.m. newscast, KMOV completed the on-air move from Gateway Tower to a remodeled and adapted facility in the St. Louis County suburb of Maryland Heights which had formerly been occupied by medical device manufacturer ERT , joining KTVI/KPLR in relocating to Maryland Heights, which provides much easier access to the area's freeway system via Interstate 270 and
8245-540: Was completed on February 28, 2014. More than a year later on September 8, 2015, Richmond, Virginia –based Media General announced that it would acquire Meredith for $ 2.4 billion. If it had been completed, it would have marked KMOV's third ownership shift since 2013. Media General would eventually shelve the Meredith deal in favor of a counter-offer by Nexstar. On April 24, 2018, it was announced that Meredith would be acquiring CW affiliate KPLR-TV from Tribune Media as
8342-631: Was completed on September 19, 2019. Since 2008, KPLR has aired CW network programming from 8 to 10 p.m. Central Time, one hour after the network-recommended timeslot for its programming in that time zone but consistent with its local airtimes in the Eastern and Pacific time zones, in order to air a 7 p.m. local newscast. This practice extends to programming such as WWE NXT which typically airs live on The CW's other Central Time affiliates. KPLR also airs Fox programs that are preempted for other broadcasts by KTVI, such as local newscasts. For example,
8439-424: Was consummated on June 1, 1997 (KIRO and KSTW swapped their affiliations on June 30, 1997, thus returning to its original affiliation). The station aired St. Louis Blues NHL games for one season, during the 1996–97 season until their over-the-air telecasts moved back to KPLR-TV for the 1997–98 season (all regular-season Blues games are now broadcast exclusively on cable locally on Bally Sports Midwest ). In
8536-530: Was dropped by the station in 1986 after Viacom took control, though from 2001 to 2008, the station used the Frank Gari -composed "CBS Enforcer Music Collection", which uses a music signature derived from the WBBM package. Ironically from 1989 to 1992, KMOV used Gari's "News Series 2000", which was traditionally associated with ABC stations, as its news theme. In July 2018, the "CBS Enforcer Music Collection" theme returned to
8633-413: Was followed on September 20, 2010, with the debut of an hour-long afternoon newscast at 4 p.m. On December 23, 2011, KPLR/KTVI opened a news bureau in the newly renovated Peabody Opera House in downtown St. Louis , to better serve the downtown and eastern portion of the St. Louis metropolitan area. On January 28, 2015, both stations introduced a new combined set with LED lighting , two video walls, and
8730-456: Was headquartered near Forest Park ). Channel 4 moved from Cole Street into the new facility, known as One Memorial Drive, and remained there until December 3, 2023; the Cole Street studio was soon acquired by KDNL-TV (channel 30), which operated that facility from its sign-on in June 1969 until 2022. By late 1985, CBS was in rough financial straits, an after-effect of successfully fending off
8827-572: Was one of the first independent stations in the country to have a functioning news department. Like most stations that are not affiliated with one of the Big Three networks, KPLR had traditionally aired a prime time newscast at 9 p.m. that ran one hour ahead of the late newscasts seen on the major network affiliates; for much of the time prior to 2008, KPLR's 9 p.m. newscast ran as a half-hour program. After KTVI moved its late evening newscast to 9 p.m. following its August 1995 switch from ABC to Fox, that station's prime time newscast consistently beat KPLR's in
8924-505: Was owned by a consortium which included Robert T. Convey (28%) and the now-defunct Newhouse Newspapers –published St. Louis Globe-Democrat (23%), who jointly operated KWK radio (1380 AM, now KXFN ); Elzey M. Roberts Sr., former owner of KXOK radio (630 AM, now KYFI ), which had to be sold as a condition of the license grant (23%); and Missouri Valley Television Inc., made up of Saint Paul, Minnesota –based Hubbard Broadcasting (23%) and several St. Louis residents (combined 3%). Each of
9021-484: Was planning to operate its own television station in St. Louis alongside its powerhouse radio station, KMOX (1120 AM). The network originally won the permit to build a new station on channel 11 – the last remaining commercial VHF channel assigned to St. Louis – in January 1957. But after being approached with an offer, CBS decided in August of that year to buy KWK-TV instead for $ 4 million. The agreement required CBS to give up its construction permit for channel 11, and
9118-466: Was required to sell. The deal was nullified, with Tribune eventually accepting another merger agreement with Nexstar that, due to other station spin-offs, retained the existing KTVI/KPLR duopoly and closed without issue in mid-September 2019. On May 3, 2021, Gray Television announced its intent to purchase the Meredith Local Media division, including KMOV, for $ 2.7 billion. The sale
9215-542: Was shut down by Sinclair in 2001 (KPLR ranked in fifth place in total day ratings at the time of the purchase, with KDNL ranking in fourth place). There have long been rumors that ABC has considered moving its affiliation to KPLR, in part because KDNL-TV has been one of the network's weakest affiliates since joining the network in 1995 (in stark contrast to KTVI's former status as one of ABC's strongest affiliates). However, on March 26, 2010, KDNL owner Sinclair Broadcast Group extended its affiliation agreement with ABC to retain
9312-406: Was sold in December 2017 to MeTV parent Weigel Broadcasting . This allowed Meredith to air Cozi TV for the first time in the St. Louis market (it had entered an agreement to air on Meredith stations in early 2016, but KMOV's circumstances with MeTV and MyNetworkTV under their previous Belo and Gannett ownerships prevented Cozi TV from being carried until that point). On August 22, 2024, as part of
9409-597: Was turned down by channel 11 station management (including its owner at that time Koplar Communications) because the owner felt that "they had a strong slate of children's programming and no room for the Rangers ", and KNLC (channel 24), a religious independent station in the St. Louis market had to pick the affiliation up. Ultimately, by the spring of 1996, due to objections to program content and accompanying national advertising, New Life Evangelistic Center/KNLC owner Rev. Larry Rice began refusing to sell local advertising during
#650349