KMOV

KMOV

St. Louis, Missouri
Branding	KMOV 4 (general) News 4 St. Louis (newscasts)
Slogan	News 4 Never Stops Watching Out For You
Channels	Digital: 24 (UHF) Virtual: 4 (PSIP)
Subchannels	(see article)
Affiliations	CBS
Owner	Belo Corporation (KMOV-TV, Inc.)
First air date	July 8, 1954
Call letters' meaning	none; disambiguation of former KMOX-TV callsign
Former callsigns	KWK-TV (1954-1958) KMOX-TV (1958-1986)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 4 (VHF, 1954-2009) Digital: 56 (UHF, ?-2009)
Former affiliations	ABC (secondary, 1954-1955)
Transmitter power	1000 kW
Height	341 m
Facility ID	70034
Transmitter coordinates	38°31′47″N 90°17′58″W
Website	www.kmov.com

KMOV, virtual channel 4, is the CBS-affiliated television station in St. Louis, Missouri. KMOV is owned by the Dallas-based Belo Corporation, with its studio and office facilities in St. Louis and transmitter located in Lemay, Missouri.

Digital television

KMOV's digital signal on UHF 24 is multiplexed:

Channel	Video	Aspect	Programming
4.1	1080i	16:9	Main KMOV programming / CBS
4.2	480i	4:3 (letterboxed)	Live Well Network

Analog-to-digital conversion

KMOV shut down its analog signal for the 2009 DTV transition with digital broadcasts remaining on channel 24. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers will continue to display KMOV's virtual channel as 4.1.

History

The station began broadcasting on July 8, 1954 as KWK-TV, owned by the Convey family along with KWK radio (1380 AM, now KSLG). It took the CBS affiliation from WTVI (channel 54, now KTVI on channel 2). Until 1955, it also aired whatever ABC programs that WTVI turned down.

However, CBS wanted its own television station in St. Louis to run alongside its powerhouse radio station, KMOX (1120 AM). It originally won a construction permit for channel 11—the last remaining commercial VHF license in St. Louis—in 1955. CBS decided two years later to instead buy KWK-TV, and transferred the channel 11 license to St. Louis hotelier Harold Koplar for no financial consideration. Almost immediately, the deal was held up after the St. Louis Amusement Company, one of the applicants for channel 11, protested to the United States Court of Appeals in January 1958. The appeal was dropped in November 1958. CBS officially took control of channel 4 later that month, and changed its calls to KMOX-TV after its radio sister. The following April, channel 11 signed on as independent station (and now CW affiliate) KPLR-TV.

By 1986 CBS was experiencing rough financial straits, an after-effect of successfully fending off a hostile takeover attempt by Ted Turner the previous year. 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 cash. Not long after Laurence Tisch became the company's chairman CBS made the decision to sell KMOX-TV, at the time its smallest owned-and-operated television station. On May 16, 1986, former CBS subsidiary and future parent company Viacom purchased the station and renamed it KMOV.

As part of a sale of Viacom's non-UPN affiliated stations (brought about after they purchased Paramount Pictures in 1994), Belo acquired KMOV in a three-way deal also involving two television stations in the Seattle-Tacoma market. As part of the transaction, Belo sold KIRO-TV (included in the deal because Belo had recently acquired that market's NBC affiliate KING-TV) to Cox Enterprises, who concurrently sold its existing Seattle-Tacoma station, KSTW, to Viacom. The deal was consummated on June 1, 1997.

As a CBS-owned station, channel 4 cleared the entire network schedule. When Viacom took over in 1986, this changed rather drastically. KMOV began signing off the air at night, thus pre-empting the overnight news program CBS News Nightwatch. A barrage of scattered primetime pre-emptions 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 sporting events. According to Auletta, KMOV preempted 103 hours of CBS prime-time programming in 1987, accounting for nearly 10 percent of the network prime-time schedule. In the 1990s, the prime-time pre-emptions eased, and currently, the station only occasionally pre-empts a CBS prime-time program. The station also resumed a 24-hour broadcast schedule in the early-1990s.

In February 2002, KMOV and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch launched the weekly news discussion program Extra Edition hosted by weekday morning news anchor Marc Cox. In 2003 KMOV began producing and airing At the Zoo, a program that gives behind-the-scenes look at the St. Louis Zoo, but is on encore editions currently in 2009, was hosted by meteorologist Kent Ehrhardt. In late 2010, KMOV began producing "At the Center", a program that gives behind-the-science looks at the Saint Louis Science Center. Airings are scheduled to begin in January 2011.

In September 2008, KMOV premiered Great Day St. Louis, a one-hour daytime show, mostly focusing on entertainment and lifestyle topics in the St. Louis area. The show is hosted by Carol Daniel. Stephanie Simmons was the co-host, until Matt Chambers replaced her in March 2009.

News operation

Currently, KMOV airs 24.5 hours of local news each week (with five hours on weekdays, and an hour-and-a-half on Saturdays and Sundays).

Many KMOV on-air staff have moved on to jobs in the national spotlight (both Richelle Carey and meteorologist Reynolds Wolf moved to CNN in 2006). While this would initially seem like a positive, the "revolving door" and the unfamiliarity many of the station's personalities have in the market has been one of KMOV's weaknesses. Though this may have initially caused some hiccups for KMOV, the ratings now seem to be increasing. Since the departure of Karen Foss from KSDK in December 2006, Larry Conners assumed the mantle of longest-serving 10 p.m. news anchor in the market.

On January 27, 2008 at 5:30 p.m., KMOV became the second station in St. Louis to broadcast in 1080i High Definition behind KSDK which has been in HD since 2006. With the switch to HD came a new set by FX Group and new graphics which is a red and blue version of the graphics used on sister Belo Stations KING-TV, KREM-TV, KTVB/KTFT, WCNC-TV, KGW-TV, and Northwest Cable News.

In 1976, it was the second station to adopt the "Channel 2 News" theme that eventually became the de facto official theme music for CBS' O&Os. It dropped the tune in 1986 after Viacom took control, but it later used another "Channel 2 News"-derived tune, The CBS Enforcer Music Collection from 2001 to 2008. Ironically, for a time in the late 1980s, it used News Series 2000 - a tune traditionally associated with ABC stations — as its theme song.

Ratings

KMOX-TV led the ratings in St. Louis for most of the time from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, in common with most of its CBS stablemates. From the early 1980s until recently, KMOX-TV/KMOV was a solid, if distant, runner-up to KSDK. However, until the mid-1990s it had to fend off a spirited challenge from KTVI. Although KMOV's newscasts won much critical acclaim, such acclaim was rarely rewarded with a ratings win over long-dominant KSDK. The 10 p.m. newscast regularly won at least a 20% share in viewership, while KSDK averaged about 30% share.

Since 2004, KMOV has seen significant growth in viewership. The station initially beat out KSDK at 10 p.m. in November, 2004--the first time in over a quarter-century that KSDK had lost in any timeslot. KMOV won at 10 p.m. again in May 2006. In November 2006, KMOV's 10 p.m. newscast not only beat out KSDK's, but also became the most-watched late newscast in the country. Most of the 10 p.m. growth can be attributed to CBS' primetime ratings increases and NBC's large drop in viewership. However, KMOV has also seen growth in all of its other newscasts, at times where the station does not benefit from a strong CBS lead-in.

News/Station Presentation

Newscast titles

• Big 4 News (circa 1968-early 1970s)
• Channel 4 Newsroom (mid 1970s-early 1980s)
• News 4 St. Louis (early 1980s-1992 and 1993–2007)
• Channel 4 News (1992–1993)
• News 4 in High Definition (2008–present)

Station Slogans

• Your 24-Hour News Source (1989–1992)
• The Vision of St. Louis (1992–1996)
• Your News, News 4 (1992–1999)
• This is 4, This is Your News (1995–1999; used as image campaign for Frank Gari's "This is Your News")
• Where There's Always Something Extra (2004–2007)
• News 4 Never Stops (2007–2010)
• News 4 Never Stops Watching Out For You (2010–present)

On-air staff

Current on-air staff

News 4 Anchors

• Larry Conners - weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
• Carol Daniel - "Great Day St. Louis" host
• Jasmine Huda - Sundays at 5:30 and 10 p.m., and Monday-Thursdays at 6 p.m.
• Virginia Kerr - "Great Day St. Louis" host
• Russell Kinsaul - Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5:30 and weekends at 10 p.m.; also reporter
• John Knicely - weekday mornings "Awake with News 4"
• Vickie Newton - weeknights at 5 and 10 p.m., and Fridays at 6 p.m.
• Robin Smith - weekdays at noon; also morning traffic and breaking news reporter
• Claire Kellett - weekday mornings "Awake with News 4"

4 WARN Storm Team
In addition to providing forecasts on KMOV, the 4 WARN Storm Team also provides forecasts for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and KEZK-FM.

• Steve Templeton (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist and NWA Seals of Approval) - Chief Meteorologist; weeknights at 5 and 10 p.m.
• Kent Ehrhardt (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - Meteorologist, Weekdays at Noon and 6 p.m.
• Matt Chambers (AMS Seal of Approval; NWA Member) - Meteorologist; weekday mornings "Awake with News 4"; also co-host of Great Day St. Louis and heard on KFTK-FM
• Kristen Cornett (AMS Seal of Approval) - Meteorologist, Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5:30 and weekends at 10 p.m.

News 4 Sports team

• Steve Savard - Sports Director; Sundays at 5:30, Monday-Thursdays at 6 and Sunday-Fridays at 10 p.m., also "Sports Friday" and "Sports Sunday" host
• Doug Vaughn - Sports Anchor; Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5:30 and weekends at 10 p.m., also sports reporter
• Jeff Abeln - Sports Anchor/Reporter; Saturday & Sunday Fill-in

News 4 Reporters

• Craig Cheatham - investigative reporter
• Marc Cox - general assignment reporter; also fill-in anchor
• Maggie Crane - general assignment reporter
• Brian Feldman - general assignment reporter
• Chris Nagus - general assignment reporter
• Ray Preston - general assignment reporter
• Mark Schnyder - weeknight reporter; also fill-in anchor
• Matt Sczesny - general assignment reporter
• Laurie Waters - general assignment reporter
• Nick Zervos - "SkyZoom 4" pilot/photojournalist
• Diana Zoga - general assignment and investigative reporter

KMOV.com Web Center

• Bryce Moore - Website Manager and Head Honcho of all things Internet.
• Lakisha Jackson - web producer
• Afton Spriggs - online news producer, seen weekday mornings "Awake with News 4"

Notable former on-air staff

• Roger Grimsby - reporter/news correspondent (1959–1961; deceased)
• Linda Lorelle - reporter (late 1980s; later worked at KPRC-TV in Houston)
• Russ Mitchell - anchor/reporter (late 1980s; later with CBS News and currently at WKYC-TV in Cleveland)
• Regis Philbin - hosted one of his early syndicated shows from the KMOX-TV studios (1972–1975), before moving to Los Angeles (currently host of syndicated talk show "Live with Regis and Kelly" in NYC)
• Reynolds Wolf - meteorologist (2005–2006; currently at CNN)
• Barry Serafin - weekend anchor and reporter promoted to CBS News, Washington in 1971. Later moved to ABC News.
• Jim Hart - the St. Louis football Cardinals quarterback was a weekend sports anchor at the station.

External links

• 4 KMOV.com - St. Louis Official Website
• Great Day St. Louis Official Website
• KMOV-TV Old Studio Design
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KMOV
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KMOV-TV