KDNL-TV
Encyclopedia
KDNL-TV is the ABC
-affiliated television station
for St. Louis, Missouri
. It broadcasts a high definition
digital signal on UHF channel 31 from a transmitter in Shrewsbury
. The station can also be seen on Charter
channel 12 and in high definition on digital channel 780. Owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group
, KDNL has studios on Cole Street in the Downtown West
section of St. Louis. Syndicated
programming on the station includes: The Simpsons
, Judge Mathis
, Maury
, and Swift Justice with Nancy Grace
. The station broadcasts in stereo
and features a Secondary Audio Program channel used mainly for Descriptive Video Service
.
KDNL's digital signal on UHF 31 is multiplexed:>
Channel
Video
Aspect
Programming
30.1
720p
16:9
Main KDNL programming / ABC
30.2
480i
4:3
TheCoolTV
30.3
480i
4:3
The Country Network
Beginning on October 1, 2010, KDNL began carrying TheCoolTV on digital subchannel
30.2. The service is a 24-hour channel broadcasting in 480i
standard definition featuring an all-music video lineup interrupted only by three hours per week of FCC
-required E/I
children programming on Saturday mornings. KDNL-DT2 is available on Charter
digital channel 158.
By October 28, Sinclair reached an agreement with The Country Network to broadcast country music videos on company-owned stations. KDNL began airing this service on digital subchannel 30.3 in standard definition as well.
programming for two weeks before it permanently shut-off analog service.
. It began as an independent station owned by Evans Broadcasting. KDNL ran a format of business news, religious shows, rejected network programming from KSDK
and KTVI
, and old movies. Several years later, it offered Japanese
live-action and cartoons dubbed into English
including: Johnny Sokko
, Speed Racer
, Marine Boy
, and Ultraman
.
By 1976, the station ran religious shows in the early-morning, rejected network shows in the late-morning, and business news in the early-afternoon. This was followed by a couple of cartoons in the late-afternoon, westerns and some old sitcoms in the evening, and a few older movies during prime time and late night. Also in 1976
, KDNL began televising St. Louis Blues hockey games for five seasons.
In 1977, the business news was gradually eliminated and made way for a few more second-hand classic sitcoms. The Japanese English dubbed shows were phased out as well. The station finally moved to a more conventional independent station but far behind KPLR
(channel 11). Its big disadvantage was that the station was on UHF. Evans sold the station to Cox Enterprises
in 1981. Programming continued to consist of classic sitcoms, a couple rejected network shows, and some religious programs during the day. Some of the shows during this time included The Brady Bunch
, The Little Rascals, I Love Lucy
, The Andy Griffith Show
, Good Times
, What's Happening!!
, and The Honeymooners
.
Beginning on June 1, 1982, Preview ran on KDNL during the nighttime hours leaving KPLR as the only full-time independent station in the St. Louis market. Nine months later, Preview was dropped and the station resumed running the usual primetime fare of movies and classic sitcoms until 1 or 2 a.m. KDNL regained the rights to the Blues games in 1983
for an additional three seasons. In 1984, cartoons had been added to the lineup and the station cut back on the religious shows. Also under Cox ownership, the station won bids for stronger off-network sitcoms. On October 6, 1986, KDNL joined Fox
as a charter affiliate (after KPLR turned the network affiliation down), going under the brand name "Fox 30". With the network affiliation, KDNL managed to get closer to KPLR in the ratings after being well behind the station for its entire tenure as an independent. In 1991, Cox sold KDNL to St. Louis-based River City Broadcasting.
In 1994, New World Communications
bought St. Louis' longtime ABC affiliate KTVI
(channel 2) and three other stations from Argyle Television. New World had made an affiliation deal to switch all of its stations, including KTVI, to Fox. ABC originally wanted to affiliate with longer-established KPLR. However, that station turned the network affiliation down, opting instead to affiliate with The WB. More or less by default, ABC cut a deal to affiliate with KDNL and moved its programming there on August 7, 1995. Soon after joining the network, KDNL began showing UPN
programming during ABC programming off-hours. Despite its size, the St. Louis market did not have enough willing commercial stations at the time to support a full-time UPN affiliate.
After becoming an ABC affiliate, KDNL also began to air more first-run syndicated programs and reduced its reliance on older sitcoms. In 1996, the Sinclair Broadcast Group bought River City Broadcasting. KDNL dropped UPN programming in 1997, and religious station KNLC
(channel 24) and KPLR began sharing programming from the network. St. Louis did not have a full-time UPN affiliate until WRBU
(channel 46) in East St. Louis, Illinois
took on the affiliation in April 2003. In 2004, KDNL preempted the movie Saving Private Ryan
following the lead of other Sinclair-owned ABC affiliates. The company had refused to allow Charter to carry KDNL's high definition signal being the longest hold out in the area (not counting CBS
affiliate KMOV
(channel 4)'s pulling of its HD signal in January 2007), until April 2007 when Sinclair and Charter came to a national retransmission agreement for three years until 2010. Subsequently, KDNL-DT began airing on digital channel 780 on Charter systems on April 19, 2007.
For most of its tenure as an ABC affiliate, KDNL has been among the weakest affiliates in the nation. In stark contrast, KTVI was one of ABC's strongest affiliates. This has been especially pronounced since the end of local newscasts. For the better part of a decade, KDNL's schedule has more closely resembled that of an independent station than that of a Big Three
network affiliate in a major market. Due to the lack of any local news presence, a schedule heavy on mainstays of syndication seen more on netlet stations such as The Simpsons
, along with a heavy schedule of paid and religious programming, KDNL does not provide the ABC schedule many lead-ins. Several ABC shows, such as Good Morning America
and World News with Diane Sawyer, garner ratings so low in the St. Louis market that A.C. Nielsen can't rate them due to a sample too small to classify with a ratings number. The station also has a habit of preempting ABC prime time programming for paid programming. As a result, it regularly rates fifth in the St. Louis market behind KPLR.
Ironically, given its status, KDNL was actually the local broadcaster for the St. Louis Rams
' victory in Super Bowl XXXIV
, which had aired on ABC.
There has also been regular talk of Tribune Broadcasting
pursuing the ABC affiliation for KPLR after KDNL's affiliation agreement expired due to that station's management agreement with Local TV, LLC-owned KTVI and their playing down of The CW as part of the branding, along with experimentation with The CW schedule to maximize ratings. However, the network did extend their affiliation agreement with KDNL and Sinclair's other ABC affiliates for five years on March 26, 2010 which will keep KDNL affiliated with ABC until at least August 2015. On June 23, 2011 KDNL changed its severe weather ticker, which now does not have to downconvert HD programming to SD.
When the station switched to its ABC affiliation on August 8, 1995, the station began airing more newscasts; it added newscast weeknights at 5 and 6 p.m., and weekends at 5 p.m., along with weekday morning cut-ins during Good Morning America
; the 9 p.m. newscast was also moved to 10 p.m. At the same time, the station made an anchor change; Jim Wicks was fired and long-time KTVI anchor reporter Don Marsh joined Leslie Lyles for all three weekday evening newscasts. Ratings plummeted and did not match what Channel 2 had been doing in those time periods when it was still an ABC affiliate. The first Nielsen sweep month in the fall averaged only a 2 rating and 5 share. KDNL was never competitive with KMOV, KSDK (both have had at least 20% shares over the years), or even KTVI due to the fact that many of the on-air talent came from out-of-town and were unfamiliar with viewers which wasn't the fault of the station since talent on competiting stations had either six month or one year non-compete mandates in their contracts. The early evening newscast on weeknights had its time slot fluctuate between 5 and 6 and was even canceled for a time. Turnover in the newsroom was very high and this showed in the ratings.
In spring 2001, a transmitter failure left KDNL off-the-air for a number of days (or at least broadcasting at lower power than normally). What little audience there was for its newscasts switched to other sources and never returned. The station finally dropped its news department altogether on October 12, 2001. For the next nine years, KDNL was one of the very few major network affiliates that did not have a local news operation. Although KDNL did not carry local shows, it continued to air national news programming from ABC News
. Until January 2011, the station had been the largest (in terms of DMA) of any major network affiliate without local newscasts (CBS
O&O
WWJ-TV
in Detroit was the largest until May 5, 2009 when it launched a weekday morning show produced in partnership with the Detroit Free Press
). Most major network affiliates are contractually obligated to air local news but KDNL's affiliation agreement does not have such a clause.
KDNL occasionally employs its former news set for commentary on sporting events. It also has local weather cut-ins on weekday mornings during Good Morning America
. These updates were formerly compiled and presented by meteorologist Tony Pagnotti at Sinclair's News Central
headquarters on Beaver Dam Road in Hunt Valley, Maryland
. The forecasts are now compiled and presented from Columbus, Ohio
sister operation WSYX
/WTTE
by those station's evening meteorologists.
On November 11, 2010, KDNL announced NBC
-affiliate KSDK
(owned by Gannett) would begin producing half-hour newscasts weeknights at 5 and 10 through a news share agreement that began January 3, 2011. All broadcasts air in high definition from a virtual set in front of a green screen at KSDK's studios on Market Street in Downtown St. Louis
and required the hiring of additional personnel. KDNL General Manager Tom Tipton stated that the station did not want to run simulcasted or re-purposed newscasts in its efforts to return daily news broadcasts to the station.
The KSDK-produced newscasts on KDNL are pre-taped in advance. There is no sports report given. The news share agreement between the two channels is quite unusual given the rarity of a big three network
affiliate producing newscasts of another big three station. In this case, KDNL and KSDK actually compete against one another. There is still no local news on weekends, but the station airs replays of KSDK's entertainment/features program Show Me St. Louis.
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
-affiliated television station
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
for St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
. It broadcasts a high definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
digital signal on UHF channel 31 from a transmitter in Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury, Missouri
Shrewsbury is an inner-ring suburb of St. Louis, located in St. Louis County, Missouri. The population was 6,254 at the 2010 census.The city is home to the broadcast towers of KSDK- and KDNL-TV.-Geography:Shrewsbury is located at ....
. The station can also be seen on Charter
Charter Communications
Charter Communications is an American company providing cable television, high-speed Internet, and telephone services to more than 4.7 million customers in 25 states. By revenues, it is the fourth-largest cable operator in the United States, behind Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Cox Communications...
channel 12 and in high definition on digital channel 780. Owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group
Sinclair Broadcast Group
The Sinclair Broadcast Group is an American telecommunications company that operates the largest number of local television stations in the United States. Headquartered in Hunt Valley, Maryland, it owns a total of 57 stations across the country in 35 primarily small and medium markets, many of...
, KDNL has studios on Cole Street in the Downtown West
Downtown West, St. Louis
Downtown West is a neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. It is, as the name suggests, a section of downtown that is further inland, west from the banks of the Mississippi river. St. Louis City Hall, the Peabody Opera House, the Scottrade Center arena, and St. Louis Union Station are all located in...
section of St. Louis. Syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
programming on the station includes: The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, Judge Mathis
Judge Mathis
Judge Mathis is a syndicated television legal reality show produced originally by Black Pearl Productions. In 2008, it entered its tenth season produced by AND Syndicated Productions and Telepictures. It is taped at NBC Tower in Chicago, but includes cases and litigants from other U.S....
, Maury
Maury (TV series)
Maury is a syndicated American tabloid talk show hosted by Maury Povich.When the series first aired in 1991, the show was called The Maury Povich Show and was produced by MoPo Productions in association with Paramount Domestic Television...
, and Swift Justice with Nancy Grace
Swift Justice With Nancy Grace
Swift Justice with Jackie Glass is a syndicated court program hosted by Judge Jackie Glass....
. The station broadcasts in stereo
STEREO
STEREO is a solar observation mission. Two nearly identical spacecraft were launched into orbits that cause them to respectively pull farther ahead of and fall gradually behind the Earth...
and features a Secondary Audio Program channel used mainly for Descriptive Video Service
Descriptive Video Service
The Descriptive Video Service is a major United States producer of video description, which makes visual media, such as television programs, feature films, and home videos, more accessible to people who are blind or otherwise visually impaired...
.
Digital television
Aspect ratio
The aspect ratio of a shape is the ratio of its longer dimension to its shorter dimension. It may be applied to two characteristic dimensions of a three-dimensional shape, such as the ratio of the longest and shortest axis, or for symmetrical objects that are described by just two measurements,...
720p
720p is the shorthand name for 1280x720, a category of High-definition television video modes having a resolution of 1080 or 720p and a progressive scan...
16:9
16:9 is an aspect ratio with a width of 16 units and height of 9. Since 2009, it has become the most common aspect ratio for sold televisions and computer monitors and is also the international standard format of HDTV, Full HD, non-HD digital television and analog widescreen television ...
480i
480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC...
TheCoolTV
THECOOLTV is a United States over-the-air digital subchannel launched in March 2009. The network's current program schedule consists of an all-music video lineup that can be customized to meet an affiliate's preference, along with the three hours per week of E/I programming as required by the...
480i
480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC...
Beginning on October 1, 2010, KDNL began carrying TheCoolTV on digital subchannel
Digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a means to transmit more than one independent program at the same time from the same digital radio or digital television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compression techniques to reduce the size of each individual...
30.2. The service is a 24-hour channel broadcasting in 480i
480i
480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC...
standard definition featuring an all-music video lineup interrupted only by three hours per week of FCC
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
-required E/I
E/I
E/I, which stands for "educational and informative," refers to a type of children's television programming shown in the United States. The Federal Communications Commission requires that every full-service Terrestrial television station in the U.S. show at least three hours of these television...
children programming on Saturday mornings. KDNL-DT2 is available on Charter
Charter Communications
Charter Communications is an American company providing cable television, high-speed Internet, and telephone services to more than 4.7 million customers in 25 states. By revenues, it is the fourth-largest cable operator in the United States, behind Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Cox Communications...
digital channel 158.
By October 28, Sinclair reached an agreement with The Country Network to broadcast country music videos on company-owned stations. KDNL began airing this service on digital subchannel 30.3 in standard definition as well.
Analog-to-digital conversion
The station terminated regular analog programming on February 17, 2009 and offered nightlightShort-term Analog Flash and Emergency Readiness Act
The Short-term Analog Flash and Emergency Readiness Act, or SAFER Act, is a U.S. law to require the Federal Communications Commission to allow the continuation of full-power analog TV transmissions in 2009 for 30 more days, for the purpose of broadcasting public service announcements regarding the...
programming for two weeks before it permanently shut-off analog service.
History
The station started broadcasting on June 8, 1969 as the first UHF television station in the St. Louis marketMedia market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area , Television Market Area , or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same television and radio station offerings, and may also include other types of media including newspapers and Internet content...
. It began as an independent station owned by Evans Broadcasting. KDNL ran a format of business news, religious shows, rejected network programming from KSDK
KSDK
KSDK, Channel 5, is the NBC-affiliated television station in St. Louis, Missouri. KSDK is owned and operated by Gannett Company, and the station's transmitter is located in Marlborough, Missouri. The station broadcasts a digital signal on UHF channel 35, using its former analog channel assignment...
and KTVI
KTVI
KTVI, virtual channel 2, is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the St. Louis, Missouri, designated market area. The station is owned by Local TV LLC, the media arm of private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, under a local marketing agreement with Tribune-owned CW affiliate KPLR...
, and old movies. Several years later, it offered Japanese
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
live-action and cartoons dubbed into English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
including: Johnny Sokko
Giant Robo (tokusatsu)
, is a manga and tokusatsu series created by Mitsuteru Yokoyama. It is similar to his famous Tetsujin 28-go , though Giant Robo has more fantastic elements....
, Speed Racer
Speed Racer
Speed Racer is an English adaptation name of the Japanese manga and anime, which centered on automobile racing. Mach GoGoGo was originally serialized in print form in Shueisha's 1958 Shōnen Book, and was released in tankōbon book form by Sun Wide Comics, re-released in Japan by Fusosha...
, Marine Boy
Marine Boy
Marine Boy was one of the first color anime cartoons to be shown in a dubbed form in the U.S., and later in Australia and the United Kingdom. It was originally produced in Japan as by Minoru Adachi and animation company Japan Tele-Cartoons. It was sold outside of Japan via K...
, and Ultraman
Ultraman
is Japanese television series that first aired in 1966. Ultraman, the first and best-known of the "Ultra-Crusaders," made his debut in the tokusatsu SF/kaiju/superhero TV series, , a follow-up to the television series Ultra Q...
.
By 1976, the station ran religious shows in the early-morning, rejected network shows in the late-morning, and business news in the early-afternoon. This was followed by a couple of cartoons in the late-afternoon, westerns and some old sitcoms in the evening, and a few older movies during prime time and late night. Also in 1976
1976-77 NHL season
-NHL awards:-All-Star teams:-Scoring leaders:GP = Games Played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points, PIM = Penalties In Minutes-Leading goaltenders:...
, KDNL began televising St. Louis Blues hockey games for five seasons.
In 1977, the business news was gradually eliminated and made way for a few more second-hand classic sitcoms. The Japanese English dubbed shows were phased out as well. The station finally moved to a more conventional independent station but far behind KPLR
KPLR-TV
KPLR-TV, channel 11, is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri. KPLR is owned by the Tribune Company, and is an affiliate of The CW Television Network. The station's studios are located in Maryland Heights, Missouri, in Northwest St. Louis County KPLR-TV, channel 11, is a television station...
(channel 11). Its big disadvantage was that the station was on UHF. Evans sold the station to Cox Enterprises
Cox Enterprises
Cox Enterprises is the successor to the publishing company founded in Dayton, Ohio, United States, by James Middleton Cox, who began with the Dayton Daily News. He was the Democratic candidate for the President of the United States in the election of 1920...
in 1981. Programming continued to consist of classic sitcoms, a couple rejected network shows, and some religious programs during the day. Some of the shows during this time included The Brady Bunch
The Brady Bunch
The Brady Bunch is an American sitcom created by Sherwood Schwartz and starring Robert Reed, Florence Henderson, and Ann B. Davis. The series revolved around a large blended family...
, The Little Rascals, I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the Columbia Broadcasting System...
, The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom first televised by CBS between October 3, 1960, and April 1, 1968. Andy Griffith portrays a widowed sheriff in the fictional small community of Mayberry, North Carolina...
, Good Times
Good Times
Good Times is an American sitcom that originally aired from February 8, 1974, until August 1, 1979, on the CBS television network. It was created by Eric Monte and Michael Evans, and developed by Norman Lear, the series' primary executive producer...
, What's Happening!!
What's Happening!!
What's Happening!! is an American television sitcom that aired on ABC from August 5, 1976 to April 28, 1979. The show premiered as a summer series. With good ratings and reviews, and after the failure of several other shows on the network, What's Happening!! returned in November 1976 as a weekly...
, and The Honeymooners
The Honeymooners
The Honeymooners is an American situation comedy television show, based on a recurring 1951–'55 sketch of the same name. It originally aired on the DuMont network's Cavalcade of Stars and subsequently on the CBS network's The Jackie Gleason Show hosted by Jackie Gleason, and filmed before a live...
.
Beginning on June 1, 1982, Preview ran on KDNL during the nighttime hours leaving KPLR as the only full-time independent station in the St. Louis market. Nine months later, Preview was dropped and the station resumed running the usual primetime fare of movies and classic sitcoms until 1 or 2 a.m. KDNL regained the rights to the Blues games in 1983
1983-84 NHL season
The 1983–84 NHL season was the 67th season of the National Hockey League. The Edmonton Oilers de-throned the four-time defending Stanley Cup champion New York Islanders four games to one in the Cup finals.-League business:...
for an additional three seasons. In 1984, cartoons had been added to the lineup and the station cut back on the religious shows. Also under Cox ownership, the station won bids for stronger off-network sitcoms. On October 6, 1986, KDNL joined Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
as a charter affiliate (after KPLR turned the network affiliation down), going under the brand name "Fox 30". With the network affiliation, KDNL managed to get closer to KPLR in the ratings after being well behind the station for its entire tenure as an independent. In 1991, Cox sold KDNL to St. Louis-based River City Broadcasting.
In 1994, New World Communications
New World Communications
New World Pictures was an independent motion picture and television production company, and later television station owner in the United States from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s...
bought St. Louis' longtime ABC affiliate KTVI
KTVI
KTVI, virtual channel 2, is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the St. Louis, Missouri, designated market area. The station is owned by Local TV LLC, the media arm of private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, under a local marketing agreement with Tribune-owned CW affiliate KPLR...
(channel 2) and three other stations from Argyle Television. New World had made an affiliation deal to switch all of its stations, including KTVI, to Fox. ABC originally wanted to affiliate with longer-established KPLR. However, that station turned the network affiliation down, opting instead to affiliate with The WB. More or less by default, ABC cut a deal to affiliate with KDNL and moved its programming there on August 7, 1995. Soon after joining the network, KDNL began showing UPN
UPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...
programming during ABC programming off-hours. Despite its size, the St. Louis market did not have enough willing commercial stations at the time to support a full-time UPN affiliate.
After becoming an ABC affiliate, KDNL also began to air more first-run syndicated programs and reduced its reliance on older sitcoms. In 1996, the Sinclair Broadcast Group bought River City Broadcasting. KDNL dropped UPN programming in 1997, and religious station KNLC
KNLC
KNLC is a religious television station in St. Louis, Missouri. Owned and operated by the New Life Evangelistic Center, the call letters KNLC reflect New Life Evangelistic Center...
(channel 24) and KPLR began sharing programming from the network. St. Louis did not have a full-time UPN affiliate until WRBU
WRBU
WRBU is the MyNetworkTV television affiliate for the St. Louis, Missouri area. The station is licensed to East St. Louis, Illinois, and is the flagship station of Roberts Broadcasting. It is the only major St. Louis station that is licensed on the Illinois side of the market, though its studios...
(channel 46) in East St. Louis, Illinois
East St. Louis, Illinois
East St. Louis is a city located in St. Clair County, Illinois, USA, directly across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri in the Metro-East region of Southern Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 27,006, less than one-third of its peak of 82,366 in 1950...
took on the affiliation in April 2003. In 2004, KDNL preempted the movie Saving Private Ryan
Saving Private Ryan
Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 American war film set during the invasion of Normandy in World War II. It was directed by Steven Spielberg, with a screenplay by Robert Rodat. The film is notable for the intensity of its opening 27 minutes, which depicts the Omaha Beach assault of June 6, 1944....
following the lead of other Sinclair-owned ABC affiliates. The company had refused to allow Charter to carry KDNL's high definition signal being the longest hold out in the area (not counting CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
affiliate KMOV
KMOV
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...
(channel 4)'s pulling of its HD signal in January 2007), until April 2007 when Sinclair and Charter came to a national retransmission agreement for three years until 2010. Subsequently, KDNL-DT began airing on digital channel 780 on Charter systems on April 19, 2007.
For most of its tenure as an ABC affiliate, KDNL has been among the weakest affiliates in the nation. In stark contrast, KTVI was one of ABC's strongest affiliates. This has been especially pronounced since the end of local newscasts. For the better part of a decade, KDNL's schedule has more closely resembled that of an independent station than that of a Big Three
Big Three Television Networks
The Big Three Television Networks are the three traditional commercial broadcast television networks in the United States: ABC, CBS and NBC...
network affiliate in a major market. Due to the lack of any local news presence, a schedule heavy on mainstays of syndication seen more on netlet stations such as The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, along with a heavy schedule of paid and religious programming, KDNL does not provide the ABC schedule many lead-ins. Several ABC shows, such as Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
and World News with Diane Sawyer, garner ratings so low in the St. Louis market that A.C. Nielsen can't rate them due to a sample too small to classify with a ratings number. The station also has a habit of preempting ABC prime time programming for paid programming. As a result, it regularly rates fifth in the St. Louis market behind KPLR.
Ironically, given its status, KDNL was actually the local broadcaster for the St. Louis Rams
St. Louis Rams
The St. Louis Rams are a professional American football team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are currently members of the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Rams have won three NFL Championships .The Rams began playing in 1936 in Cleveland,...
' victory in Super Bowl XXXIV
Super Bowl XXXIV
Super Bowl XXXIV featured the National Football Conference champion St. Louis Rams and the American Football Conference champion Tennessee Titans in an American football game to decide the National Football League champion for the 1999 regular season...
, which had aired on ABC.
There has also been regular talk of Tribune Broadcasting
Tribune Broadcasting
The Tribune Broadcasting Company is a group of radio and television stations located throughout the United States which are owned and operated by the Tribune Company, a media conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois and named for the flagship Chicago Tribune newspaper.- History :Tribune Broadcasting...
pursuing the ABC affiliation for KPLR after KDNL's affiliation agreement expired due to that station's management agreement with Local TV, LLC-owned KTVI and their playing down of The CW as part of the branding, along with experimentation with The CW schedule to maximize ratings. However, the network did extend their affiliation agreement with KDNL and Sinclair's other ABC affiliates for five years on March 26, 2010 which will keep KDNL affiliated with ABC until at least August 2015. On June 23, 2011 KDNL changed its severe weather ticker, which now does not have to downconvert HD programming to SD.
News operation
Starting at its sign-on as an Independent, the station produced various newscasts. Shortly after the Fox affiliation was announced in 1994, KDNL established a full news department. Initially, local news was offered every night at 9 p.m. that debuted January 1, 1995. The original anchors were Jim Wicks who came to St. Louis from Winnipeg, and Leslie Lyles, who had been anchoring in Charleston, S.C.When the station switched to its ABC affiliation on August 8, 1995, the station began airing more newscasts; it added newscast weeknights at 5 and 6 p.m., and weekends at 5 p.m., along with weekday morning cut-ins during Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
; the 9 p.m. newscast was also moved to 10 p.m. At the same time, the station made an anchor change; Jim Wicks was fired and long-time KTVI anchor reporter Don Marsh joined Leslie Lyles for all three weekday evening newscasts. Ratings plummeted and did not match what Channel 2 had been doing in those time periods when it was still an ABC affiliate. The first Nielsen sweep month in the fall averaged only a 2 rating and 5 share. KDNL was never competitive with KMOV, KSDK (both have had at least 20% shares over the years), or even KTVI due to the fact that many of the on-air talent came from out-of-town and were unfamiliar with viewers which wasn't the fault of the station since talent on competiting stations had either six month or one year non-compete mandates in their contracts. The early evening newscast on weeknights had its time slot fluctuate between 5 and 6 and was even canceled for a time. Turnover in the newsroom was very high and this showed in the ratings.
In spring 2001, a transmitter failure left KDNL off-the-air for a number of days (or at least broadcasting at lower power than normally). What little audience there was for its newscasts switched to other sources and never returned. The station finally dropped its news department altogether on October 12, 2001. For the next nine years, KDNL was one of the very few major network affiliates that did not have a local news operation. Although KDNL did not carry local shows, it continued to air national news programming from ABC News
ABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
. Until January 2011, the station had been the largest (in terms of DMA) of any major network affiliate without local newscasts (CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
O&O
Owned-and-operated station
In the broadcasting industry , an owned-and-operated station usually refers to a television station or radio station that is owned by the network with which it is associated...
WWJ-TV
WWJ-TV
WWJ-TV, virtual channel 62 , is the CBS-owned and operated television station in Detroit, Michigan. It is co-owned with Detroit's CW station, WKBD-TV , and the two stations share a studio in Southfield, Michigan, a Detroit suburb....
in Detroit was the largest until May 5, 2009 when it launched a weekday morning show produced in partnership with the Detroit Free Press
Detroit Free Press
The Detroit Free Press is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, USA. The Sunday edition is entitled the Sunday Free Press. It is sometimes informally referred to as the "Freep"...
). Most major network affiliates are contractually obligated to air local news but KDNL's affiliation agreement does not have such a clause.
KDNL occasionally employs its former news set for commentary on sporting events. It also has local weather cut-ins on weekday mornings during Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
. These updates were formerly compiled and presented by meteorologist Tony Pagnotti at Sinclair's News Central
News Central
News Central was a primetime newscast on Sinclair television stations in the United States, mixing locally produced news with nationally produced news and an opinion segment from Sinclair's Hunt Valley, Maryland studios...
headquarters on Beaver Dam Road in Hunt Valley, Maryland
Hunt Valley, Maryland
Hunt Valley is an affluent unincorporated community in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. It lies just north of the city of Baltimore, along Highway 145 off Interstate 83. Loch Raven Reservoir...
. The forecasts are now compiled and presented from Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
sister operation WSYX
WSYX
WSYX, channel 6, is an ABC-affiliated television station located in Columbus, Ohio. WSYX is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which also operates Fox affiliate WTTE through a local marketing agreement...
/WTTE
WTTE
WTTE is the Fox-affiliated television station for Columbus, Ohio. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 36 from a transmitter on Stimmel Road. The station can be seen on Insight, Time Warner, and WOW! channel 8. For high definition digital cable, it is offered on Insight...
by those station's evening meteorologists.
On November 11, 2010, KDNL announced NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
-affiliate KSDK
KSDK
KSDK, Channel 5, is the NBC-affiliated television station in St. Louis, Missouri. KSDK is owned and operated by Gannett Company, and the station's transmitter is located in Marlborough, Missouri. The station broadcasts a digital signal on UHF channel 35, using its former analog channel assignment...
(owned by Gannett) would begin producing half-hour newscasts weeknights at 5 and 10 through a news share agreement that began January 3, 2011. All broadcasts air in high definition from a virtual set in front of a green screen at KSDK's studios on Market Street in Downtown St. Louis
Downtown St. Louis
Downtown St. Louis is the central business district of St. Louis, Missouri, the hub of tourism and entertainment, and the anchor of the St. Louis metropolitan area. The downtown is bounded by Cole Street to the north, the river front to the east, Chouteau Avenue to the south, and Jefferson Avenue...
and required the hiring of additional personnel. KDNL General Manager Tom Tipton stated that the station did not want to run simulcasted or re-purposed newscasts in its efforts to return daily news broadcasts to the station.
The KSDK-produced newscasts on KDNL are pre-taped in advance. There is no sports report given. The news share agreement between the two channels is quite unusual given the rarity of a big three network
Big Three Television Networks
The Big Three Television Networks are the three traditional commercial broadcast television networks in the United States: ABC, CBS and NBC...
affiliate producing newscasts of another big three station. In this case, KDNL and KSDK actually compete against one another. There is still no local news on weekends, but the station airs replays of KSDK's entertainment/features program Show Me St. Louis.
Newscast titles
- TV-30 Newswatch (1970s)
- TV-30 News (1980s–1994)
- News 30 Now (January–August 1995)
- News 30 (August 1995–1997)
- ABC News 30 (1997–1999)
- ABC 30 News (1999–2001)
- STL Now on ABC 30 powered by NewsChannel 5 (2011–present)
Station slogans
- "Don't Let Fox 30 Weekends Pass You By" (1987–1988; localized version of Fox ad campaign)
- "It's on Us" (late 1980s–early 1990s)
- "It's the News That Matters Most" (1998–1999)
- "You Get More" (1999–2000)
- "Bringing News Home" (2000–2001)
- "St. Louis' Leader in Entertainment Programming" (2006–present)
News music packages
- "KOVRKOVRKOVR, channel 13, is an owned-and-operated station of the CBS Television Network located in Sacramento, California and licensed to Stockton. KOVR-TV shares its offices and studio facilities with sister station KMAX-TV in West Sacramento, California, and its transmitter is located in Walnut Grove,...
News Package" (1995–1998) - "Counterpoint" by Stephen Arnold MusicStephen Arnold MusicFounded in 1993 by Stephen Arnold, Stephen Arnold Music is a Dallas-based music production company, specializing in Television news music. With additional offices in San Diego, California and a studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the company services television networks, cable channels, TV stations,...
(1995–1999) - "Finale" by Stephen Arnold Music (1999–2000)
- "Third Coast" by Stephen Arnold Music (2000–2001)
Current
- Jerry Martz - rotating weekday morning meteorologist (WSYXWSYXWSYX, channel 6, is an ABC-affiliated television station located in Columbus, Ohio. WSYX is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which also operates Fox affiliate WTTE through a local marketing agreement...
/WTTEWTTEWTTE is the Fox-affiliated television station for Columbus, Ohio. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 36 from a transmitter on Stimmel Road. The station can be seen on Insight, Time Warner, and WOW! channel 8. For high definition digital cable, it is offered on Insight...
) - Dana Turtle - rotating weekday morning meteorologist (WSYXWSYXWSYX, channel 6, is an ABC-affiliated television station located in Columbus, Ohio. WSYX is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which also operates Fox affiliate WTTE through a local marketing agreement...
/WTTEWTTEWTTE is the Fox-affiliated television station for Columbus, Ohio. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 36 from a transmitter on Stimmel Road. The station can be seen on Insight, Time Warner, and WOW! channel 8. For high definition digital cable, it is offered on Insight...
) - Courtney Gousman - weeknight news anchor (KSDKKSDKKSDK, Channel 5, is the NBC-affiliated television station in St. Louis, Missouri. KSDK is owned and operated by Gannett Company, and the station's transmitter is located in Marlborough, Missouri. The station broadcasts a digital signal on UHF channel 35, using its former analog channel assignment...
) - Cindy Preszler - chief meteorologist; seen weeknights (KSDKKSDKKSDK, Channel 5, is the NBC-affiliated television station in St. Louis, Missouri. KSDK is owned and operated by Gannett Company, and the station's transmitter is located in Marlborough, Missouri. The station broadcasts a digital signal on UHF channel 35, using its former analog channel assignment...
) - Leslie Faus - weeknight news reporter (KSDKKSDKKSDK, Channel 5, is the NBC-affiliated television station in St. Louis, Missouri. KSDK is owned and operated by Gannett Company, and the station's transmitter is located in Marlborough, Missouri. The station broadcasts a digital signal on UHF channel 35, using its former analog channel assignment...
) - Jeff Small - fill-in news anchor (KSDKKSDKKSDK, Channel 5, is the NBC-affiliated television station in St. Louis, Missouri. KSDK is owned and operated by Gannett Company, and the station's transmitter is located in Marlborough, Missouri. The station broadcasts a digital signal on UHF channel 35, using its former analog channel assignment...
) - Ashley Yarchin - fill-in anchor (KSDKKSDKKSDK, Channel 5, is the NBC-affiliated television station in St. Louis, Missouri. KSDK is owned and operated by Gannett Company, and the station's transmitter is located in Marlborough, Missouri. The station broadcasts a digital signal on UHF channel 35, using its former analog channel assignment...
) - Wendy Erikson - Show Me St. Louis host (KSDKKSDKKSDK, Channel 5, is the NBC-affiliated television station in St. Louis, Missouri. KSDK is owned and operated by Gannett Company, and the station's transmitter is located in Marlborough, Missouri. The station broadcasts a digital signal on UHF channel 35, using its former analog channel assignment...
) - Dana Hendrickson - Show Me St. Louis reporter (KSDKKSDKKSDK, Channel 5, is the NBC-affiliated television station in St. Louis, Missouri. KSDK is owned and operated by Gannett Company, and the station's transmitter is located in Marlborough, Missouri. The station broadcasts a digital signal on UHF channel 35, using its former analog channel assignment...
)