KPLR-TV

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KPLR-TV
St. Louis, Missouri
Branding	CW 11
Slogan	Where People are the Story
Channels	Analog: 11 (VHF) Digital: 26 (UHF)
Affiliations	CW
Owner	Tribune Company (KPLR, Inc.)
First air date	April 28, 1959
Call letters’ meaning	KoPLaR (named after the Koplar family, the station's founding owners)
Former affiliations	Independent (1959-1995) WB (1995-2006) UPN (secondary, 1999-2002)
Transmitter Power	316 kW (analog) 1000 kW (digital)
Height	308 m (analog) 288 m (digital)
Facility ID	35417
Transmitter Coordinates	38°31′47.5″N, 90°17′58.7″W (analog) 38°34′28″N, 90°19′32″W (digital)
Website	cw11tv.trb.com

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 North St. Louis County, and its transmitter is located in Lemay, Missouri.

[edit] History

KPLR-TV commenced broadcasting on April 28, 1959, as the first independent station in Missouri. The station's call letters were derived from the name of its founding owner, St. Louis real-estate developer and hotelier Harold Koplar. Despite losing in his quest to build the station from the ground-up, Koplar acquired the station's license in 1958 through controversial circumstances.

The Columbia Broadcasting System was originally granted a construction permit by the Federal Communications Commission to build channel 11 in 1955, prevailing over four other locally-based competitors.^[1] But two years later, in 1957, CBS decided instead to purchase its existing affiliate, KWK-TV (channel 4). As a condition of the channel 4 purchase, the FCC required CBS to relinquish the channel 11 construction permit. CBS did so by transferring it to the Koplar group, known as 220 Television, Incorporated, in a money-less transaction. Almost immediately, the three-way 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.^[2] The appeal was dropped in November 1958,^[3] and the deal was consummated shortly thereafter. CBS renamed its new channel 4 station KMOX-TV -- the call letters intended for channel 11 -- and operated it for 28 years (it is now Belo Corporation-owned KMOV). Meanwhile, Koplar went to work building channel 11 on their own, no longer in the face of opposition.

KPLR-TV's first studios were located within the Koplar-owned Chase Park Plaza Hotel, located on Maryland Plaza in St. Louis' Central West End district. Channel 11 would move into a separate facility adjacent to the hotel several years later. Starting in the mid-1960s Harold's son, Edward J. "Ted" Koplar, began working behind the scenes at KPLR, producing sports programming and developing the station's first regular newscast. Ted Koplar became president and chief executive officer of channel 11 in 1979, and gained complete control of the station upon his father's death in 1985. Koplar also diversified the family's entertainment holdings during his time at the helm of KPLR, most notably through World Events Productions, which distributed two animated television series Voltron: Defender of the Universe and Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs, and later developed and co-produced another, Denver, the Last Dinosaur.

For most of its existence, KPLR-TV was a traditional independent with cartoons, sitcoms, movies, dramas, and news. Channel 11 has also served as the home broadcaster of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team (two stints, 1959-1962 and 1988-2006), the NBA's St. Louis Hawks (1959-1968) and the NHL's St. Louis Blues (three stints, 1967-1976, 1982-1983, and 1986-present). The station was also available on many cable systems in Missouri, Illinois and Arkansas until the late 1980s. Locally, channel 11's first -- and only -- serious competitor came in 1969, when local interests put KDNL-TV (channel 30) on the air, though KPLR clearly remained the top independent station in St. Louis.

Beginning on May 23, 1959, KPLR-TV broadcasted Wrestling at the Chase, a professional wrestling program produced first from Chase-Park Plaza's Khorassan Ballroom (until 1970). The show featured the most famous wrestlers in the National Wrestling Alliance, which was controlled in part by St. Louis promoter Sam Muchnick. Participants included Ric Flair, Harley Race, former NFL player Dick the Bruiser, and Ted DiBiase, among others, and is considered one of the pro wrestling industry's most historic programs. About 1,100 episodes were produced during the show's run, which ended on September 10, 1983.

KPLR-TV also aired and produced Captain 11's Showboat, an after-school program for children, that introduced the Three Stooges to St. Louis area television viewers, from 1959 until 1968. Captain 11 was played by long-time radio personality Harry Fender.

KPLR-TV turned down an offer to affiliate with the upstart Fox network in 1986, instead choosing to remain an independent station. In 1995, KPLR decided to affiliate with the newly created WB Television Network, but later that same year, KPLR also was offered the ABC affiliation after that network's longtime St. Louis station, KTVI (channel 2) switched to Fox through a group deal with incoming owner New World Communications. Channel 11 turned ABC down, effectively sending them to the former Fox affiliate, KDNL-TV. Beginning in 1999 KPLR also carried a secondary UPN affiliation, running cartoons from UPN's "Disney Block" and select other UPN shows. UPN programming had been previously run on KDNL during overnight and weekend hours, as St. Louis was one of the few large markets that did not have a full-time UPN affiliate, though they finally gained a St. Louis station in WRBU (channel 46), in 2002.

Koplar Communications sold KPLR-TV to ACME Communications in 1997, ending 38 years of local, family ownership. In the sale agreement, Ted Koplar signed a three-year contract to stay with KPLR-TV as its CEO, along with serving as a consultant to ACME. However, Koplar resigned only a year later, citing an irreconcilable rift. [1].

For many years, even after joining the WB, KPLR was known as "St. Louis 11." It often used a logo with the "O" in "St. Louis" converted into its "circle 11" numeric logo. KPLR changed its branding and became known as "WB 11" in 1998. In March 2003, ACME Communications sold KPLR and sister station KWBP in Portland, Oregon to the Tribune Company.

In September 2006, the WB and UPN networks merged into a new network called the CW. Through the CW's partnership with Tribune Broadcasting, KPLR-TV became the network's St. Louis affiliate.

On Sunday, April 9, 2006, The Fan Show, hosted by Rich Gould, debuted. It is a live sports-related show broadcasted from The Casino Queen's Club Sevens for the first year and a half, but starting in December 2007 it is hosted at AJ's Bar and Grill, with audience-participation games and discussion. Gould remarked in a St. Louis Post-Dispatch interview about the show that "it's live TV in its rawest form. It's essentially a time machine back to the 1950s...in fact, some of the games I stole from Beat the Clock."

On Wednesday, May 31, 2006 The Tube debuted on 11.2 on ATSC broadcast. The Tube began broadcasting on Charter Cable channel 136 on August 2, 2006. The Tube suspended operations on October 1, 2007, leaving KPLR-DT2 to either simulcast the main KPLR channel or air a test pattern.

[edit] News Operations

Traditionally, like most non-"Big Three" stations, KPLR has aired a newscast an hour back of the major stations--in this case, at 9 P.M. Since KTVI moved their news to 9 following their affiliation switch, they have consistently beaten KPLR in the ratings.

KPLR has in the past tried to program their news to a younger audience, with most of their anchors being under 35 and with a more fast-paced style of broadcast. However, in a city where most television personalities have been around for years and the perennial ratings winner, KSDK, does not have a main presenter who has less than 10 years tenure, this has for the most part caused them to struggle, in addition to what is perceived as a "soft" approach to news. Nevertheless, KPLR has often been pointed out by Post-Dispatch television critics as a good "sweep story" station, where during November, January and May sweeps the station will plug one or more major investigative pieces. KPLR's stories have been seen as much more broad-based and less sensationalistic.

[edit] News/Station Presentation

[edit] News Sets/Graphics Packages/Music

In 2003, KPLR moved out of its traditional home at the Chase Park Plaza (which by that time had gone from a gutted complex in which the station was the only major tenant into a boutique hotel) into a new purpose-built building in Westport with a new newsroom and studio. A new WB11 logo was debuted along with new graphics and music. In late January 2006, KPLR updated its graphics. They also updated their logo, from being blue to being red. In September 2006, the logos were redesigned with the new CW logos and graphics.

[edit] Newscast Titles

• Channel 11 News (1966-1972)
• KPLR-TV NewsWatch (1972-1977)
• News Watch 11 (1977-1990)
• St. Louis 11 News at Nine (1990-1997)
• WB 11 News at Nine (1998-2006)
• CW 11 News at Nine (2006-present)

[edit] Station Slogans

• It's About Time ( -2006)
• Where People Are the Story (2006-present)

[edit] Personalities

[edit] Current On-Air Talent

CW11 Anchors

• Jeff Bernthal: Weekend Anchor
• Rick Edlund: Weeknight Anchor
• Melanie Moon: Weeknight Anchor

CW11 Reporters

• Shelley Bortz: General Assignment Reporter
• Christine Buck: General Assignment Reporter
• Matt Gamewell: General Assignment Reporter
• Kelly Hoskins: General Assignment Reporter
• Tony Miller: General Assignment Reporter
• Theresa Petry: General Assignment Reporter
• Gabrielle Biondo: General Assignment Reporter

CW11 Weather

• Keryn Shipman (AMS Seal of Approval): Chief Meteorologist
• Michelle Anselmo: General Assignment Reporter/Weekend Weather Anchor

CW11 Sports

• Rich Gould: Sports Director, host of "The Fan Show"
• Kurt LaBelle: Sports Reporter

[edit] Former On-Air Talent

• Don Bell: Sports (currently at KYW-TV in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
• Bryan Busby: Meteorologist (currently at KMBC in Kansas City)
• Don Clark: Anchor
• Patrick Clark: Reporter
• Cree Craig: Anchor
• Steve Draganchuk: Meteorologist/Reporter
• Dan Eassa: Sports (currently at WFTS-TV in Tampa, Florida)
• Mark Ferree: Meteorologist
• Ethan Forhetz: Reporter (currently at KYTV-TV in Springfield, Missouri)
• Kathryn Jamboretz: Anchor (2000-2007; currently at KTRS-AM)
• Kara Kaswell: Anchor/Reporter (currently at KMOV)
• Kelli Eggers: Anchor
• Sandy Miller: Anchor (currently at KTVI)
• Dave Erickson: Anchor (1999-2002; Currently Main Anchor at KXLY-TV in Spokane, Washington)
• Victor Ojeda: Reporter
• Bob Ramsey: Sports
• Bill Rees: Anchor
• Steve Schiff: Anchor
• Garry Seith: Chief Meteorologist (1999-2006; currently at KTXA-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas)
• Jon Sloan: Sports Anchor
• Melanie Streeper: Weather Anchor (currently at KMOV)
• Bill Thomas: News Director
• Telly Hughes: Sports Reporter, currently with FSN North
• Evelyn Wilkerson: Reporter

• Henry Rothenberg: Meteorologist (currently at WPTY-TV in Memphis, Tennessee)

[edit] External links

• KPLR-TV Website
• KPLR-TV's MySpace page
• The CW Television Network
• The Tribune Co.
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KPLR
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KPLR-TV
• Google Book search: Meet Me in the Lobby: The Story of Harold Koplar and the Chase Park Plaza Hotel, which features information on the early years of KPLR-TV

[edit] References