KMOV
kW | |
HAAT | 341 m (1,119 ft) |
---|---|
Transmitter coordinates | 38°31′47″N 90°17′58″W / 38.52972°N 90.29944°W |
Links | |
Public license information | |
Website | www |
KMOV (channel 4) is a
History
Early history
The station first signed on the air on July 8, 1954, as KWK-TV. At its launch, channel 4 was owned by a consortium which included Robert T. Convey (28%) and the now-defunct
Each of the station's part-owners had competed individually for the channel 4
As a CBS owned-and-operated station
However, CBS was planning to operate its own television station in St. Louis alongside its powerhouse radio station,
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 was headquartered near Forest Park).[12] 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.
Viacom ownership
By late 1985, CBS was in rough financial straits, an after-effect of successfully fending off a
Viacom announced its purchase of
Belo Corporation ownership
The station aired
In 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.[23]
Changing hands
On June 13, 2013, the
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.[29][30] Media General would eventually shelve the Meredith deal in favor of a counter-offer by Nexstar.[31][32]
On April 24, 2018, it was announced that Meredith would be acquiring CW affiliate KPLR-TV from
Sale to Gray Television, move to St. Louis County
On May 3, 2021, Gray Television announced its intent to purchase the Meredith Local Media division, including KMOV, for $2.7 billion. The sale was completed on December 1.[47]
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
Programming
Past programming preemptions and deferrals
As a CBS-owned station, channel 4 cleared the entire network schedule and, after the launch of
From 1989 until September 11, 2015, KMOV aired
Sports programming
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, 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
Locally produced non-news programming
In 2003, KMOV began producing At the Zoo, a program that gives a behind-the-scenes look inside the
News operation
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 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 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 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.[51]
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 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 the station, replacing their previous theme, the Gari-composed "The Edge".[52]
KMOX-TV was competitive in the ratings for most of the period from the late 1960s to the early 1980s.[citation needed] 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 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[53] and November 2006 sweeps periods; it also became 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.[54] Starting in late 2013, KMOV started to dominate the news ratings in most newscasts, winning 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 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).
Notable former on-air staff
- Joe Buck – reporter; now at ESPN
- Richelle Carey – reporter (2003–2006); later at Al Jazeera English
- ABC Sports and currently Michigan Wolverines football
- Roger Grimsby – reporter/news correspondent (1959–1961); deceased
- NFL's St. Louis Cardinals)
- Linda Lorelle – reporter (late 1980s); later worked at KPRC-TV in Houston
- Russ Mitchell – anchor/reporter (late 1980s); later with CBS News, now at WKYC in Cleveland
- Regis Philbin – hosted one of his early syndicated shows from the KMOX-TV studios (1972–1975); deceased
- Steve Savard – sports anchor (1997–2013) and news anchor (2013–2020); now lead anchor at KOLR in Springfield, Missouri
- Barry Serafin – anchor/reporter (1967–1971) became Washington, D.C. correspondent for CBS News in 1971; later with ABC News
- Reynolds Wolf – meteorologist (2005–2006); later at CNN and at WSB-TV in Atlanta; now with The Weather Channel
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's signal is
Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
---|---|---|---|---|
4.1 | 1080i | 16:9 |
KMOV-HD | CBS |
4.2 | MY-TV | MyNetworkTV | ||
4.3 | 480i | COZI-TV | Cozi TV | |
4.4 | Mystery | Ion Mystery | ||
4.5 | KMOV365 | The365
| ||
11.4 | 480i | 16:9 | Rewind | Rewind TV (KPLR-DT4) |
On February 17, 2014, KMOV dropped the
KMOV carried
Analog-to-digital conversion
KMOV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 4, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States
References
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for KMOV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
- Broadcasting – Telecasting, July 12, 1954, pg. 68.
- ^ "St. Louis Ch. 4 grant proposed after merger."[permanent dead link] Broadcasting – Telecasting, April 19, 1954, pg. 60.
- ^ "KWK celebrates 23rd anniversary." St. Louis Advertising Club Weekly, March 20, 1950.
- ^ "FCC acts to clear key market V's." Broadcasting – Telecasting, January 21, 1957, pp. 35-37. [1][permanent dead link][2][permanent dead link][3][permanent dead link]
- ^ "CBS buys KWK-TV for $4 million."[permanent dead link] Broadcasting – Telecasting, September 30, 1957, pg. 48.
- ^ "New alignment set for St. Louis TV."[permanent dead link] Broadcasting – Telecasting, October 28, 1957, pg. 73.
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- ^ "Supreme Court refuses plea to upset St. Louis TV grant."[permanent dead link] Broadcasting – Telecasting, November 24, 1958, pg. 79.
- ^ "CBS-TV takes over KWK-TV."[permanent dead link] Broadcasting – Telecasting, March 3, 1958, pg. 10.
- ^ "Pressed into service."[permanent dead link] Broadcasting, May 18, 1959, pg. 80.
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- ^ "Meredith Buying Three Stations From Gannett". TVNewsCheck. December 23, 2013. Retrieved December 23, 2013.
- ^ Brown, Lisa (February 28, 2014). "Meredith Corp. closes on $177 million purchase of KMOV". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Retrieved February 28, 2014.
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- ISBN 0307766330.
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- ^ Belo Corp. | Press Releases Archived September 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
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- ^ "KMOV Facebook Page". KMOV. Retrieved February 17, 2014 – via Facebook.
- ^ "Welcome to MYTV St. Louis!". Archived from the original on November 29, 2014. Retrieved November 19, 2014.
- ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
- ^ Digital Television Transition Problematic For Some, Don Corrigan, Webster-Kirkwood Times, January 23, 2009, indicates both KMOV and KNLC as digital-only