KCCI

Add links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other uses, see KCCI (disambiguation).

KCCI
kW
HAAT596.5 m (1,957 ft)
Transmitter coordinates41°48′35″N 93°37′17″W / 41.80972°N 93.62139°W / 41.80972; -93.62139
Links
Public license information
Websitewww.kcci.com

KCCI (channel 8) is a television station in Des Moines, Iowa, United States, affiliated with CBS. Owned by Hearst Television, the station maintains studios on Ninth Street in downtown Des Moines and a transmitter in Alleman.

History

KCCI started on the air on July 31, 1955, as KRNT-TV, the third television station in Des Moines and the ninth in Iowa.

Des Moines Register and the defunct Des Moines Tribune newspapers, along with KRNT radio (AM 1350
and the original KRNT-FM at 104.5, which went dark). The calls stood for the papers' nickname in central Iowa, "the R 'n T".

The Cowles family and rival KSO radio (now

CBS Radio Network
.

The FCC tightened its ownership rules in the 1970s, forcing the Cowles interests to sell one of their Des Moines broadcast outlets. They opted to sell KRNT radio and KRNQ-FM (KSTZ, originally the second KRNT-FM) to Stauffer Communications in 1974 and retain both newspapers and KRNT-TV, with the callsign changing to KCCI-TV on February 25; the new calls standing for owner Cowles Communications, Inc. (FCC rules at the time had a restriction on call letters being used by TV and radio stations in the same market, but with different ownership, which led to the TV station changing its callsign.)[2]

Over the years, Cowles Communications bought several other media outlets, including KTVH (

WESH-TV in Daytona Beach, Florida, and WQAD-TV in the Quad Cities
area.

In 1983, the Cowles family announced it was breaking up its vast media empire, selling off most of its assets except the

Gannett Company and the Register and Tribune Syndicate (best known as syndicators of The Family Circus) went to the Hearst Corporation's King Features Syndicate division, KCCI and WESH went to H&C Communications. The two stations were sold again in 1993, this time to Pulitzer (an attempt to sell both stations to Young Broadcasting the previous year was unsuccessful).[3][4]
What was then known as Hearst-Argyle Television bought all of Pulitzer's television holdings in 1998.

KCCI began broadcasting in high-definition television on channel 8.1 in 2002. On July 24, 2006, KCCI launched "Weather Now", a 24-hour local weather channel that appeared on digital subchannel 8.2 as well as local Mediacom digital cable channel 247, and the station's website until June 30, 2011. On July 1, 2011, KCCI replaced the weather channel with MeTV on subchannel 8.2.

The station operates a website at www.kcci.com. For several years the station's website was known as www.theiowachannel.com, following the practice of other Hearst-Argyle stations, and people going to kcci.com were redirected to theiowachannel.com. In October 2005, the station switched back to the kcci.com name for its web site, with theiowachannel.com serving as a redirect to kcci.com.

On December 10, 2008, KCCI President and General Manager Paul Fredericksen announced a staffing reorganization which eliminated six positions, including on-air talent.

Weather beacon

A 200-foot (61 m) weather beacon was once affixed to the auxiliary tower atop the station's downtown Des Moines studios and was a landmark of the Des Moines skyline. The lighted beacon changed colors depending on the forecast:

Weather Beacon red, warmer weather ahead.
Weather Beacon white, colder weather in sight.
Weather Beacon green, no change in forecast foreseen.
Weather Beacon flashing night or day, precipitation is on the way.[5]

The beacon was active until the 1970s energy crisis, then powered back up by the station in 1987. An ice storm in January 2010 damaged the weather beacon, but it was repaired later that year.[6]

The weather beacon was permanently shut down on the morning of Thursday, September 27, 2012.[7]

News operation

KCCI broadcasts 29+1⁄2 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 4+1⁄2 hours each weekday, three hours on Saturdays and four hours on Sundays).

Although it was the last

WOI-TV combined. However, in the February 2010 sweeps period, KCCI fell to second behind WHO in the mornings and at 6 p.m. The latter was significant, as it was the first time KCCI had lost the lead in that timeslot in memory. In the May 2011 sweeps, KCCI lost the lead at 5 p.m. as well, but still held a narrow lead at 10 p.m. After tight ratings races in 2011 and 2012, in July 2013, KCCI won every time slot, among all audiences as well as the 25- to 54-year-old age group. KCCI also widened its lead over WHO in many slots, including midday and evenings, compared with the year prior.[8]

On April 20, 2009, KCCI became the first station in Des Moines to broadcast local news in 16:9

enhanced definition
widescreen until April 26, 2011, when it became the last major station in Des Moines to upgrade its local newscasts to high definition beginning with the 5 p.m. newscast.

In 2009, KCCI won National Edward R. Murrow Awards for Best Newscast and Overall Excellence. In 2010, KCCI won Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards for Best Newscast and Overall Excellence. In 2009 and 2011, KCCI won the Photography Station of the Year award in the small market division from the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA). The NPPA also named Photojournalist Cortney Kintzer as the Photographer of the Year in Region 5 (Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois).

KCCI added a 9 p.m. newscast to its MeTV subchannel on March 21, 2016, to compete with the WHO-produced news airing on KDSM-TV. In some instances, such as live CBS Sports coverage on weekends, other newscasts will move to MeTV.[10]

Former sports director Heidi Soliday had the distinction of being the first female local sports director in the United States.[11]

Former on-air staff

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is

multiplexed
:

Subchannels of KCCI[12]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
8.1 1080i
16:9
 KCCI-HD Main KCCI programming / CBS
8.2 480i KCCI-SD MeTV[13]
8.3 KCCI-MY MyNetworkTV & H&I[14]
8.4 Story Story Television
17.4 480i 16:9 TBD TBD (KDSM-DT4)
  Broadcast on behalf of another station

Analog-to-digital conversion

KCCI shut down its analog signal, over

UHF channel 31 to its analog-era VHF channel 8.[15][16]

Some viewers have had trouble receiving KCCI's channel 8 VHF digital signal, so KCCI has applied for authority to construct a fill-in translator station on its pre-transition channel 31.[17] But on June 12, 2013, the station canceled the permit.[18]

References

  1. ^ "Facility Technical Data for KCCI". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^ a b FCC History Cards for KCCI. Federal Communications Commission.
  3. ^ "Hobby family sells most of media empire". UPI. May 20, 1992. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  4. ^ Burnett, Richard (February 19, 1993). "PULITZER PUBLISHING PLANS TO BUY WESH-CHANNEL 2". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  5. ^ KCCI. "KCCI Weather eacon". Retrieved February 17, 2007.
  6. YouTube
  7. ^ KCCI (September 27, 2012). "KCCI weather beacon goes dark".
  8. ^ "KCCI sweeps July ratings | des Moines Register Staff Blogs". Archived from the original on October 1, 2013. Retrieved October 1, 2013.
  9. ^ KCCI First To Have Widescreen News
  10. ^ KCCI to add over three hours of live news every week
  11. ^ "Iowa woman, first female local television sports director in nation, bikes for climate change. - Climate Ride". Climate Ride. July 12, 2018. Retrieved September 21, 2018.
  12. ^ RabbitEars TV Query for KCCI
  13. ^ KCCI set to launch Me-TV
  14. ^ "KCCI launches 3rd channel with classic dramas, hit shows". KCCI. November 26, 2014. Retrieved November 28, 2014.
  15. ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
  16. ^ [hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-09-221A5.pdf FCC document: "Appendix B: All full-power television stations by DMA, indicating those terminating analog service before, on, or February 17, 2009."]
  17. ^ "Application View ... Redirecting".
  18. ^ http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getimportletter_exh.cgi?import_letter_id=41617 [bare URL PDF]

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=KCCI&oldid=1219975356"
This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article: KCCI. Articles is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license; additional terms may apply.Privacy Policy