KGAN

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KGAN
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Branding	CBS 2
Slogan	"CBS 2 News"
Channels	2 (VHF) analog, 51 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	CBS
Owner	Sinclair Broadcast Group
Founded	September 30, 1953
Call letters meaning	K Guy GANnett (former owner)
Former callsigns	WMT-TV (1953-1981)
Former affiliations	none
Website	[1]

KGAN is a television station based out of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It transmits on VHF channel 2. KGAN is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, and is a CBS affiliate. KGAN is the primary CBS affiliate for northeast Iowa, including Iowa City, Waterloo, and Dubuque.

Contents 1 History 2 Personalities and programming 2.1 Newscasts 3 References 4 External links

[edit] History

On September 30, 1953, WMT-TV began broadcasting. General manager William B. Quarton made some remarks, which were then followed by a broadcast of a World Series game between the Yankees and Dodgers.

The station was authorized to transmit at 100,000 watts, and WMT became the very first station to transmit at full power. The station was licensed to serve the Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, and Dubuque areas, making it the first station to be given split-market status by the Federal Communications Commission. Initially the station was owned by a group consisting of American Broadcasting Stations, Quarton, and several others. WMT-TV was a sister station of WMT-AM 600, which had been broadcasting in the area since 1922. The call sign stood for the Waterloo Morning Tribune, which owned WMT radio from 1928 until 1934.

The station was based at what came to be known as Broadcast Park. When the KGAN facilities were first built, the surrounding area was still mainly rural. A 702 foot high broadcast tower was built to transmit the signal. This tower served as the primary tower for the next four years. In 1956 a taller tower near Walker, Iowa, was built to transmit the signal, but a storm on December 10 blew the tower down. The tower was soon rebuilt, and remains in service today.

In 1968, WMT-AM-FM-TV was sold to what would become Orion Broadcasting of Louisville, Kentucky. They would remain under Orion's ownership until 1981, when Orion merged with Cosmos Broadcasting, a subsidiary of insurance and broadcasting conglomerate Liberty Corporation. However, the two companies owned more TV stations than the FCC allowed at the time. As a condition of the sale, Cosmos had to sell WMT-TV, and found a buyer in Guy Gannett Publishing of Portland, Maine. On October 16, 1981 WMT-TV changed its callsign to KGAN-TV. The station was purchased by Sinclair, along with most of Gannett's broadcasting holdings, in 1999. Sinclair then announced the sale of KGAN, along with WICS in Springfield, Illinois and WICD in Champaign, Illinois, to Sunrise Television that same year; however, Sunrise was never granted FCC approval to acquire the stations, and the deal was subsequently cancelled by Sinclair.

The weather department at WMT-TV was highly revered by eastern Iowans for many decades under the direction of Conrad Johnson in the 1960's and 1970's. Shortly after his retirement, longtime meteorologist Dave Towne continued that tradition for another decade. Dave was joined briefly by Andre Bernier (weekday morning and noon weather) in 1981. Andre left KGAN-TV in March 1982 when he became part of the launch team for The Weather Channel. Dave Towne took a sabbatical from television to pursue other interests and returned briefly to KGAN on weekends, but has now retired from Cedar Rapids television altogether.

The station has won two George Foster Peabody awards. The first Peabody Award was awarded in 1956 for the station's role in developing "The Secret of Flight" television programs. These programs were made with the assistance of Dr. Alexander Lippisch, who was the director of the Collins Aeronautical Research Laboratory. The programs focused on aeronautical education. Later, in 1994, KGAN won another Peabody award. This Peabody was awarded for the work investigative reporter Sandy Riesgraf performed in helping to expose a sewer solvent scandal.

KGAN began producing FOX 17 News at Nine (now known as FOX News at Nine) in 2001, for their Sinclair Broadcast Group sister station, KDSM, in Des Moines. In 2002, Cedar Rapids FOX affiliate, KFXA began simulcasting the newscast to its Eastern Iowa viewers.

On January 5, 2007, KGAN was pulled from Mediacom systems as part of an ongoing retransmission dispute between Mediacom and Sinclair. The move threatened to leave many eastern Iowa cable viewers without coverage of Super Bowl XLI, even though some viewers in KGAN's viewing area were served by other CBS affiliates such as WHBF-TV in the Quad Cities, which was added to Mediacom's lineup in Iowa City shortly before the impasse.^[1] The dispute ended on February 2, when the two sides reached an agreement that restored KGAN to Mediacom systems.^[2]

[edit] Personalities and programming

CBS 2 News Staff:

• Jared Aarons - Weekend Sports
• Brian Allen - Anchor
• Mark Anthony - Chief Meteorologist
• Erika Cervantes - Reporter
• Cary J. Hahn - Iowa Traveler
• Kevin Hall - Sports Director
• Josie Koler - Anchor
• Chris Jones - Reporter
• Scott LeBlanc - Reporter
• Bob Lesh - Meteorologist
• Bigad Shaban - Reporter
• Jennifer Stagg - Anchor/Reporter
• David Tauchen - Reporter
• Megan Terlecky - Anchor/Reporter

[edit] Newscasts

Monday-Friday:

• CBS 2 News at Noon 12-12:30 p.m.
• CBS 2 News at 6 6-6:30 p.m.
• CBS 2 News at 10 10-10:35 p.m.

Weekends:

• CBS 2 News at 6 6-6:30 p.m. Saturday only
• CBS 2 News at 10 10-10:35 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

[edit] References

• KGAN. CBS 2 At 50. Article from the KGAN web site (http://www.kgan.com/50/index.shtml). Date Accessed: July 30, 2005. Cedar Rapids: KGAN-TV.

[edit] External links

• KGAN Web Site
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KGAN
• Google Map of the KGAN Broadcast Tower Location