Television Articles

KPLR-TV was founded by Harold Koplar, owner of St. Louis’ famed Chase Park Plaza Hotel. (Per FCC regulations, radio and TV stations east of the Mississippi have call letters that begin with the letter “W.” All stations west of the Mississippi have call letters beginning with “K.”) Our call letters, KPLR, represent the Koplar family name without the vowels.

Harold Koplar signed his new station on the air on April 28, 1959 with the first-ever live telecast of a Cardinal Baseball game in the St. Louis area. (This is disputable. Ed.)

KPLR was the first VHF independent station in St. Louis, located for 40 years in the Central West End at 4935 Lindell Boulevard – next to the Chase Park Plaza Hotel.

Edward J. (Ted) Koplar, Harold’s son, became a full-time employee in the mid-1960s and soon after developed KPLR’s first newscast. Within three years after its inception, “KPLR Newswatch” was the number one rated Independent television newscast in the country.

Ted was named President, Koplar Communications in April 1979. The company continued to grow and expand its tradition of innovation in programming and technology.

KPLR installed a satellite receive dish (completed in 1976) making KPLR the first broadcast facility in the county licensed by the FCC to own and operate a satellite earth station.

In 1983, the station installed the area’s first and only satellite uplink transmission facility making KPLR one of the busiest teleports in the Midwest for news and sports transmissions.

In 1984, KPLR became the first station in St. Louis and one of the first in the country to convert to full stereo sound.

One of the most important days for our history occurred in 1988 when Ted Koplar headed the effort to win back exclusive rights to telecast St. Louis Cardinals Baseball on KPLR. This put us back on the map as a strong and major player in the marketplace!

KPLR was one of the original “charter” members of the WB Network headed by Jamie Kellner. The WB did whatever they could to secure KPLR – not because KPLR needed the affiliation, but because the WB needed a strong station that brought with it a rich and credible history. In January 1995, the WB officially “launched” the network and KPLR soon became known as their “crown jewel.” KPLR’s network affiliation basically involved prime programming with shows primarily targeted to young adults and ethnic audiences.

ACME Television Holdings, also created by Jamie Kellner, purchased KPLR in 1977. So after a history of family ownership, KPLR moved into the future as a privately held company. By this time, KPLR was recognized as one of the top WB affiliates in the nation. (During that era we usually ranked as the #1 WB affiliate but never dropped under one of the top three.)

In March, 2003, Tribune purchased KPLR to add to the strength of their television empire. It was under this new ownership and umbrella that the CW Television Network launched its 2006 inaugural television season. “The New CW” featured a mixture of programming from both the UPN and The WB television networks, The CW was no more than a joint venture between CBS Corporation, owner of UPN, and Warner Bros. Entertainment, a subsidiary of Time Warner, majority owner of the WB. Its name derived from the first letter of the names of these two giants (CBS and Warner Bros.) In trade magazines like Variety, the CW is referred to as the green network, most likely since its first logos and campaigns were in green.

In 2007 Sam Zell agreed to take Tribune private in an $8.2 billion deal that values the company at $13 billion.

(Provided by KPLR)

Pulitzer Divests Itself of the Local Station

The Federal Communications Commission unanimously approved on February 17 [1983], the transfer of television station KSDK, St. Louis, from the Pulitzer Publishing Company to Multimedia, Inc., in exchange for WFBC-TV, Greenville, S.C., and WXII-TV, Winston-Salen, N.C.

Multimedia will pay the Pulitzer Company $5,250,000 and reimburse the Pulitzer Company $3,000,000 for equipping the new KSDK studios at 1000 Market Street.

The seven FCC commissioners denied petitions objecting to the transfer submitted by the Black Media Coalition and the St. Louis Broadcasting Coalition. They said the petitioners failed to provide a basis for denying the application.

Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of the Pulitzer Publishing Company, said, “KSDK has a long and illustrious history under our management as a pioneer TV station west of the Mississippi.” He added that the Pulitzer Company entered into the agreement to comply with FCC policies opposing media concentration in individual markets. The agreement had been reached in principal two years ago.

(Originally published in Ad/Mag 3/1983).

Network is Switching Stations in St. Louis

KSD-TV, the St. Louis area’s first television station, announced it has begun an orderly process of discontinuing CBS programs it has been carrying for the last five years. The move follows inauguration of service on July 8 of KWK-TV, with which CBS made an interim primary affiliation.

Both stations are VHF outlets, KSD-TV on channel 5 and KWK-TV on channel 4. CBS, itself an applicant for VHF channel 11 in St. Louis, is expected to exercise its 60-day cancellation clause in its KWK-TV affiliation should the network’s application be granted.

KSD-TV became a primary NBC-TV affiliate when television network service was made available to St. Louis in 1948, a year after the station went on the air. KSD-TV also made affiliation agreements with other TV networks, including CBS, in order to provide more comprehensive service for the St. Louis television audience.

CBS has requested KSD-TV to continue telecasting its Monday through Friday daytime shows until September 24. Certain Saturday, Sunday and evening programs which KSD-TV carries “live” from CBS will continue to be telecast by the station until termination of their current 13-week cycles. Periods which these programs occupied on KSD-TV will be reassigned to local, national and other network advertisers.

(Originally published in the Ad Club Weekly 8//2/1954).

Better Communications, Inc., announced that its affiliated partnership, Atlantic Broadcasting Company and River City Television Partners, L.P. has completed the acquisition of KDNL-TV, Channel 30.

The acquisition of the Fox Network affiliate was from Cox Enterprises, Inc., of Atlanta, Georgia.

Better Communications, which will manage the station, was founded in early 1989 by broadcast veterans Barry Baker and Larry Marcus. Atlantic Broadcasting is a company formed in conjunction with certain executives of Communications Equity Associates.

Baker, chief executive officer, said, “This first acquisition is the cornerstone of the radio and television group that Atlantic will be developing.”

(Originally published in Ad/Mag 9/1989).

The firm of Richard W. Hubbell and Associates has been engaged as television and facsimile consultants by KXOK, according to C.L. Thomas, general manager of the St. Louis station. This is the first step in KXOK’s carefully planned entry into the television field. The station is already active in facsimile and frequency modulation.

(Originally published in the St. Louis Advertising Club Weekly 9/8/1947).
 

Application for a commercial television station has been made by KXOK, according to C.L. Thomas, general manager of the St. Louis station. The application was filed on February 18 for television channel 4, with video power of 14.22 kilowatts and audio power of 7.11 kilowatts. In September of last year, KXOK engaged the television consultant firm of Richard W. Hubbell and Associates…In the announcement of the television application, Thomas said that no date could be announced at this time for inauguration of the new service by KXOK.

(Originally published in the St. Louis Advertising Club Weekly 3/15/1948).