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The Triad Center, in downtown Salt Lake City, with the KSL Broadcast House at far left.

KSL-TV, virtual channel 5 (UHF digital channel 23), is an NBC-affiliated television station licensed to Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It is the flagship television property of Bonneville International, the for-profit broadcasting arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), and is a sister station to KSL radio (1160 AM and 102.7 FM). The three stations share studios at the Broadcast House building in Salt Lake City's Triad Center; KSL-TV's transmitter is located on Farnsworth Peak in the Oquirrh Mountains, southwest of Salt Lake City. The station has a large network of broadcast translators that extend its over-the-air coverage throughout Utah, as well as portions of Arizona, Idaho, Nevada and Wyoming.

History

As a primary CBS affiliate

The station first signed on the air on June 1, 1949, operating from studios in the Union Pacific Building on Main Street. It was owned by the Deseret News, who also owned KSL radio (1160 AM and 100.3 FM, call letters KSFI). It originally operated as a CBS affiliate, owing to its sister radio station's longtime affiliation with the CBS Radio Network. In addition to its primary CBS affiliation, the station also shared ABC programming with NBC affiliate KDYL-TV (channel 4, now KTVX). The two stations continued to share ABC programming until KUTV (channel 2) signed on in September 1954 as the market's full-time ABC affiliate. The station also broadcast some programming from the DuMont Television Network, and during the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network.[1]

A few months after its sign-on, KSL moved its operations to studio facilities at the Broadcast House on Social Hall Avenue. In 1952, a 370-foot (110 m) transmission tower was constructed on Farnsworth Peak to improve the station's signal coverage along the Wasatch Front and into Tooele County. It also began building a massive translator network that eventually stretched across five states, and now claims the largest signal coverage of any station in the United States.[citation needed]

KSL-AM-FM-TV operated as a division of the Deseret News until 1964, when Bonneville International was formed as the parent company for the LDS Church's broadcasting holdings. Soon afterward, channel 5 began broadcasting its programming in color. In 1984, the station moved its Broadcast House facilities to the Triad Center.[2]

As an NBC affiliate

Further information: 1994 United States broadcast TV realignment

In July 1994, CBS and Westinghouse Broadcasting (Group W) agreed to a long-term affiliation deal that saw longtime ABC affiliate WJZ-TV in Baltimore and longtime NBC affiliates KYW-TV in Philadelphia and WBZ-TV in Boston become CBS affiliates. Westinghouse's other two stations, KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh and KPIX-TV in San Francisco, were already longtime CBS affiliates.[3] That November, NBC traded KCNC-TV, which was the network's owned-and-operated station at the time, to CBS in return for CBS' former O&O in Philadelphia, WCAU-TV, as a result of a complex ownership deal between the network, Westinghouse and NBC.[4] CBS had originally planned to sell WCAU-TV to NBC as part of its plan to move its affiliation to KYW-TV, but discovered that an outright sale would incur heavy capital gains taxes on proceeds from the deal. To make the transaction a legal trade, the network swapped ownership of KCNC-TV and KUTV (which was acquired by NBC earlier that year), along with the VHF channel 4 frequency and transmitter in Miami (then home to WTVJ), to CBS in exchange for WCAU-TV and the channel 6 frequency in Miami (then home to WCIX, which subsequently became WFOR-TV).[4] The deal took effect on September 10, 1995, resulting in the first network affiliation switch in Salt Lake City since KTVX swapped affiliations with KUTV and became an ABC affiliate in 1960. Initially, NBC sought to reaffiliate with KTVX; but after that station renewed its affiliation agreement with ABC, NBC then secured an affiliation deal with KSL-TV.

On January 14, 1999, a shooter entered the station's Broadcast House facility, allegedly looking for a KSL-TV reporter. Anne Sleater, an employee of another company that was housed in the building, AT&T Wireless Services, was shot during the incident and later died from her injuries. De-Kieu Duy, a 24-year-old female, was arrested in connection with the shooting. Duy was later found mentally incompetent to stand trial and is currently housed in the Utah State Hospital.[5]

In 2002, Bruce Christensen was named the president of KSL-TV; Christensen was a former president of PBS, the former dean of the BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications, as well as a former KSL-TV reporter. During the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, KSL-TV was very influential in bringing coverage and technology to NBC. The station heavily lobbied to NBC that the ceremonies be broadcast live.

In July 2010, KSL-TV entered into a local marketing agreement (LMA) with independent station KJZZ-TV (channel 14), after the LMA between that station and KUTV concluded after five years; the LMA was terminated in 2016, after KUTV's owner, Sinclair Broadcast Group, purchased KJZZ.[6]

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[7]
5.1 1080i 16:9 KSL-HD Main KSL-TV programming / NBC
5.2 480i COZI-TV Cozi TV[8]
5.3 thisTV This TV

On January 1, 2009, KSL ended its affiliation with NBC Weather Plus on its 5.3 subchannel due to the service's discontinuation by NBC, and relaunched the subchannel as a locally compiled automated weather channel, the Live 5 Weather Channel, which was one of the first local digital weather subchannels in the country to be presented in 480i widescreen. KSL-TV also carried Universal Sports on its 5.2 subchannel until it began to be exclusively distributed through cable and satellite television in January 2012; it was replaced by Live Well Network in 2013.[9] On January 1, 2014, KSL replaced Live Well Network with Cozi TV on digital subchannel 5.2.

Analog-to-digital conversion

KSL-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 5, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[10] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 38,[11] using PSIP to display KSL-TV's virtual channel as 5 on digital television receivers. Effective September 17, 2018, the station moved its digital signal from channel 38 to channel 23, as part of the broadcast spectrum repacking.

Programming

In addition to locally produced news and sports programs, and syndicated shows, KSL broadcasts most of the programs seen on NBC's schedule; although it airs Today in two blocks—with Rachael Ray, a locally produced lifestyle program called Studio 5 and the station's hour-long noon newscast airing after the first three hours of Today—the fourth hour of the program then follows those shows.

Due to its ties to the LDS Church, KSL-TV also airs programs relevant to Mormonism, such as History of the Saints, Music and the Spoken Word and Mormon Times, and preempts regularly scheduled programming to carry the twice yearly LDS General Conference.[12] KSL-TV is one of the few remaining television stations in the United States that still "signs off" at night (though only nominally, because programming immediately continues afterward), doing so at 3:30 a.m. on Sundays.[citation needed]

As a CBS affiliate, KSL-TV aired the drama Picket Fences at 11 p.m. on Saturdays instead of 9 p.m. on Fridays in the mid-1990s.[13] The station has also been known to occasionally preempt some programs due to content that station management deems objectionable (many of these preempted programs are picked up for broadcast on CW affiliate KUCW, channel 30). The station has in the past declined to air the short-lived sitcom Coupling because of its sexual content, as well as much of NBC's poker programming such as Poker After Dark (which has since been canceled due to legal complications) due to ownership, Church and viewership objections against gambling. KSL-TV also preempted The Playboy Club upon its September 2011 debut (replacing it with the locally produced newsmagazine We Are Utah, which resembles WCVB-TV/Boston's Chronicle in format),[14] on grounds that the series was "completely inconsistent" with the station's own mission and branding;[15] KSL sponsors the "Out in the Light Campaign," which educates people on problems associated with viewing pornography, and the station did not want to be associated with the Playboy brand, even though the program did not specifically focus on the magazine nor include any nudity.[16] The program aired on MyNetworkTV affiliate KMYU (channel 12)/KUTV-DT2 (channel 2.2) in its Monday 9 p.m. MT time slot[17] until NBC canceled the show after three episodes. KSL continued to air already filmed episodes of We Are Utah in the 9 p.m. slot until the October 31, 2011 premiere of Rock Center with Brian Williams.[18]

On August 24, 2012, KSL-TV announced it would not air The New Normal due to objections regarding the sitcom's storyline surrounding gay parenting, crude dialogue and potentially offensive characterizations. The New Normal instead ran on KUCW, which aired the show on Saturday nights, while KSL-TV aired the Live Well Network series My Family Recipe Rocks! in the sitcom's Tuesday timeslot.[19][20] In a twist, although the show was canceled after its first season in May 2013, The New Normal was the first NBC primetime show that KSL has declined to air since it joined the network in 1995, that lasted at least a full season (other primetime series that the station declined to air citing objectionable content have, by coincidence, been pulled by the network early on as the first cancellations in their seasons due to low viewership). On April 29, 2013, KSL-TV stopped airing Hannibal after four episodes, due to the drama's graphic violent and content revolving around the Hannibal Lecter series of novels and films. The program moved to Saturdays following Saturday Night Live on KUCW (11 p.m. Saturdays for the show's second season), while Hannibal's timeslot was occupied by KSL In Depth, a weekly local newsmagazine program.[21][22] Hannibal was cancelled after its last episode in August 2015, and the station cleared the entire NBC schedule throughout a season for the first time in the 2015–16 season.

The only preemption that did not necessarily involve objectionable program content was the long-running Saturday Night Live, which the station had preempted since joining NBC; the station did carry all primetime "best-of" compilations, actor tributes, and documentary programming involving the series offered by the network, along with primetime repeats. KSL elected to keep its popular local sports discussion and highlight program, SportsBeat Saturday, with SNL airing on KUCW instead. However, in June 2013, after revealing that SportsBeat's viewership had declined in recent years (and was also being beaten by a similar sports show on KUTV), KSL announced that it would start airing SNL beginning in the fall of 2013.[23]

On September 4, 2013, KSL announced it was moving Days of Our Lives from 2 p.m. (NBC's designated alternate timeslot for the soap opera) to a late-night 1:05 a.m. timeslot starting on September 9 and replaced with a local lifestyle program. While the station's reasoning was not explicitly stated despite KSL's airing of locally originated programming in the daytime hour meant they would retain ad revenue, another theory of the move was a storyline involving openly gay and romantically involved characters Will Horton and Sonny Kiriakis prompted the move (though it remained in late night even after Will Horton's character was killed off in October 2015).[24]

Even with its tradition of screening possibly objectionable programs, some, such as The Book of Daniel (which was not shown by several other NBC affiliates, especially in Bible Belt states) and a paid political message criticizing the Iraq War (which featured Cindy Sheehan) have been aired by the station.[25][26]

Sports programming

Owing to NBC's longstanding contract with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), KSL-TV was the local broadcaster for the 2002 Winter Olympics held in Salt Lake City. It also aired Utah Jazz games selected for national broadcast, first through CBS Sports from the team's move to Salt Lake City in 1979 until 1990, then NBC Sports from 1995 to 2002. The NBC years saw two Jazz appearances in the NBA Finals (1997 and 1998), both ending in losses to Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.

News operation

KSL ENG SUV at the Utah State Capitol.

KSL-TV presently broadcasts 30½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 5½ hours each weekday and 1½ hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). Despite its roots in the Deseret News and its link to KSL radio, channel 5 was initially an also-ran in news. That changed in 1965, when the station poached sportscaster Paul James (better known as the voice of BYU football and basketball) and weatherman Bob Welti from KCPX-TV and teamed them with anchor Dick Nourse. Within a few months, channel 5 had rocketed into first place. It would be the dominant news station in Utah for most of the next 45 years, garnering some of the highest ratings in the country. Nourse, James and Welti would remain together until 1991, with Nourse staying on as top anchorman until 2007. In 2008, KSL-TV became the second television station in the Salt Lake City market (after KUTV, which converted in April of that year) to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. For a long time, the station's newscasts were branded as Eyewitness News; the name was scrapped in 2009 in favor of KSL 5 News, and is now known simply as KSL News.

In November 2010, KUTV, long a distant runner-up, unseated KSL-TV in most timeslots, though channel 5 remained ahead at 10 p.m. However, in February 2011, KSL-TV lost the lead at 10 p.m. for the first time in recent memory. In December 2011, KSL-TV restored its lead in every time slot in the Nielsen ratings except one—the early morning news slot on weekdays (in the 25- to 54-year-old demographic), where the station finished in third place.[27] Since then, however, KSL-TV has dropped back to a distant runner-up behind KUTV in most time slots. According to media observers, channel 5's ratings slumped after Mark Willes became president of Deseret Management Corporation, the for-profit arm of the LDS Church and Bonneville's parent company, and abandoned the station's longtime focus on hard news in favor of "values-based" reporting. Willes was fired in 2012, but the station's ratings have yet to recover.[28]

It has used the slogan, "News Specialists" or "The News Specialists" in some variation or form since at least the 1980s, while still affiliated with CBS.

Notable current on-air staff

Notable former on-air staff

Translators

KSL-TV extends its coverage throughout Utah, plus parts of Arizona, Idaho, Nevada and Wyoming, using a network of more than 115 community-owned translator television stations listed below.

List of translators
City Callsign City Callsign City Callsign
Green River, Utah K05BK
K13DB 		Nephi, Utah K23KB-D
Antimony, Utah K38JS-D Orangeville, Utah K24FI
Beaver, Utah, etc. K13CV
K24FE-D 		Hanksville, Utah K21IF-D Orderville, Utah K47MF-D
Big Piney, Wyoming, etc. K10HO
K22IY 		Heber & Midway, Utah K27GC-D Panguitch, Utah, K16MG-D
Bigelow Bench Area, Wyoming K36DD Helper, Utah K09BQ Park City, Utah, K27GD-D
Blanding & Monticello, Utah K42AD-D Henrieville, Utah K16MH-D Parowan, Utah K36AI-D
Bloomington, Utah K20GJ-D Hildale, Utah, etc. K11QQ-D Pine Valley, Washington County, Utah, etc. K08EN-D
Caineville, Utah K34OF-D Huntsville, Utah, etc. K32HD Preston, Idaho K23GR
K33GF
K40GZ-D
Capitol Reef National Park, Utah K34OA-D Kanarraville, Utah K12CD Randolph K09BA
K36FS-D
Carlin, Nevada K13BB Laketown, Utah K12MI
Cedar Canyon, Utah K10MF-D Richfield, Utah, etc. K16ME-D
Cedar City, Utah K13CP
K47IS 		Loa, Utah, etc. K28OL-D Rockville, Utah K05AR-D
Cedar City, Utah, etc. K35HG-D Logan, Utah K45GL-D
K47HW 		Roosevelt, Utah, etc. K08CS
Circleville, Utah K14RG-D Long Valley Junction, Utah K04RU-D Rural Juab County, Utah K47BD-D
Lund & Preston, Nevada K12DE-D Rural Sevier County, Utah K16MC-D
Malad, Idaho K20OF-D Ruth, Nevada K11ED-D
Delta, Utah, etc. K39FR Malad City, Idaho, etc. K50DH
Dingle, Idaho, etc. K13QY-D Manila, Utah, etc. K05FJ Santa Clara, Utah, etc. K35FS-D
Duchesne, Utah, etc. K12DL
Duckwater, Nevada, etc. K29GM Manti, Utah, etc. K26IH-D Scofield, Utah K12CE
East Price, Utah K05GX Marysvale, Utah K09ZQ-D Sigurd & Salina, Utah K09ZP-D
Elko, Nevada Spring Glen, Utah, etc. K12AZ
Ely, Nevada K30CN-D
K36LU-D
Emery, Utah K41GV
K49GB 		Summit County, Utah K49FY-D
Minersville, Utah K17HX-D Teasdale, Torrey, Utah K16MD-D
Enterprise, Utah K07ED-D Mink Creek, Idaho K13HA-D
Escalante, Utah K32MR-D Modena, Utah K29FA-D Toquerville, Utah K07CG-D
Fishlake Resort, Utah K30OW-D Montezuma Creek & Aneth, Utah K05JN
K33JN-D 		Tropic, Utah, etc. K34OD-D
Montpelier, Idaho K19DQ-D Utahn, Utah K11TL
Morgan, Utah, etc. K12GI Vernal, Utah, etc. K11DF
Garfield, etc., Utah, etc. K17MT-D
K33OJ-D 		Murray Canyon, Nevada K11EE-D Virgin, Utah K08BO-D
Garrison, etc., Utah K40JH-D Myton, Utah K21FT-D

References

  1. ^ "Require Prime Evening Time for NTA Films", Boxoffice: 13, 10 Nov 1956, archived from the original on June 14, 2009
  2. ^ "Broadcast House at Triad Center-A Reflection of KSL's Commitment to the Future". Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 12 Jul 1984.
  3. ^ Carter, Bill (July 15, 1994). "CBS to Add Three Affiliates in Deal With Westinghouse". The New York Times. Retrieved July 12, 2012.
  4. ^ a b CBS, NBC Changing Channels, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, November 22, 1994.
  5. ^ Ogata, Wendy (13 Feb 2007). "Infamous shooting incidents in Salt Lake County". Deseret Morning News. Salt Lake City: Deseret Digital Media. Retrieved 5 Apr 2013.
  6. ^ Pierce, Scott (April 28, 2016). "KUTV's parent buys KJZZ from Millers". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved June 20, 2016.
  7. ^ RabbitEars TV Query for KSL
  8. ^ "KSL.com". Twitter. Salt Lake City. 29 Dec 2013. Retrieved 1 Jan 2014.
  9. ^ "Live Well Adds Salt Lake City, Boston Market". Broadcasting & Cable. New York City. 13 Dec 2011. Retrieved 5 Apr 2013.
  10. ^ List of Digital Full-Power Stations Archived 2013-08-29 at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ Horiuchi, Vince (9 Feb 2009). "KUCW changes digital deadline". The Salt Lake Tribune. Salt Lake City. Retrieved 5 Apr 2013.
  12. ^ Arave, Lynn (2 April 2010). "Broadcast, transit information for Mormon general conference". Deseret News. Salt Lake City: Deseret Digital Media. Retrieved 5 Apr 2013.
  13. ^ "NBC finalizes Salt Lake station deal." - Adweek Western Edition 2 Jan 1995.
  14. ^ Gauthier, Andrew (20 Sep 2011). "KSL Airs Local Show in Place of 'Playboy Club'". TVSpy.com. Retrieved 5 Apr 2013.
  15. ^ "KSL removes Playboy Club from fall TV schedule". ksl.com. Salt Lake City: Deseret Digital Media. 12 Jun 2011. Retrieved 13 Jun 2011.
  16. ^ de Moraes, Lisa (13 Jun 2011). "NBC's Playboy bunnies bounced in Salt Lake City". The Washington Post. Washington, D.C. Retrieved 5 Apr 2013.
  17. ^ Schneider, Michael (28 Jun 2011). "Exclusive: The Playboy Club Lands New Home in Salt Lake City". TV Guide.com. Retrieved 29 Jun 2011.
  18. ^ Pierce, Scott (4 Oct 2011). "NBC axes "The Playboy Club," much to KSL's relief". Salt Lake Tribune. Salt Lake City. Retrieved 4 Oct 2011.
  19. ^ Pierce, Scott (24 Aug 2012). "KSL won't air gay-themed NBC sitcom 'New Normal'". The Salt Lake Tribune. Salt Lake City. Retrieved 5 Apr 2013.
  20. ^ "TV Tonight: My Family Recipe Rocks!". Salt Lake City Weekly. Salt Lake City. 10 Sep 2012. Retrieved 5 Apr 2013.
  21. ^ Pierce, Scott D. (April 29, 2013). "KSL yanks violent "Hannibal" off its schedule". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved April 30, 2013.
  22. ^ Ivins, Jessica (April 29, 2013). "KSL no longer airing NBC's 'Hannibal'". KSL.com. Retrieved April 30, 2013.
  23. ^ "TV shocker — KSL will start airing "Saturday Night Live" in the fall". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
  24. ^ "KSL won't be airing 'Days of Our Lives' during day". The Salt Lake Tribune. Archived from the original on 7 September 2013. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
  25. ^ "KSL-TV airs 'The Book of Daniel'". Deseret News. Salt Lake City: Deseret Digital Media. 7 Jan 2006. Retrieved 26 Aug 2012.
  26. ^ "TV station refuses to air anti-war ad days before Bush visit". USA Today. Tysons Corner, Virginia. 21 Aug 2005. Retrieved 26 Aug 2012.
  27. ^ "KSL TV dominates 'core demos' in November". ksl.com. Salt Lake City: Deseret Digital Media. 21 Dec 2011. Retrieved 5 Apr 2013.
  28. ^ "Utah TV viewers continue to abandon KSL Ch. 5". Salt Lake Tribune. Salt Lake City. March 3, 2013. Retrieved May 8, 2013.
  29. ^ "Jim Nantz bio". CBSSports.com. Retrieved 13 Mar 2013.
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