| Minneapolis/Saint Paul, Minnesota | |
|---|---|
| Branding | Fox 9 KMSP (general) Fox 9 News (newscasts) |
| Slogan | Stay Connected with Fox 9 (general) The Most Powerful Name in Local News (news) |
| Channels | Digital: 9 (VHF) Virtual: 9 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels | 9.1 Fox (HD) 9.2 WFTC/MNTV (SD) |
| Translators | (see article) |
| Affiliations | Fox (1986-1988, 2002-present) |
| Owner | Fox Television Stations (Fox Television Stations, Inc.) |
| First air date | January 9, 1955 |
| Call letters' meaning | Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP is also the IATA code for Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport, with KMSP as its ICAO code) |
| Sister station(s) | WFTC |
| Former callsigns | KEYD-TV (1955-1956) KMGM-TV (1956-1958) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 9 (VHF) (January 9, 1955 - June 12, 2009) Digital: 26 (UHF, until June 12, 2009) |
| Former affiliations | DuMont (1955) independent (1955-1961, 1979-1986 & 1988-1993) ABC (1961-1979) Fox (1986-1988) PTEN (1993-1995) UPN (1995-2002) |
| Transmitter power | 30 kW |
| Height | 435 m |
| Facility ID | 68883 |
| Website | MyFoxTwinCities.com |
KMSP-TV, channel 9, is the Fox-owned-and-operated television station serving the Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota designated market area, owned in a duopoly with MyNetworkTV affiliate WFTC (channel 29). Its studios are located in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, and its transmitter is located in Shoreview, Minnesota.
KMSP is a more news-based Fox station with 48.5 hours a week of locally-produced newscasts, as well as first-run prime time, late-night and sports programming from Fox. It also runs off-network sitcoms, talk shows, reality shows and court shows.
The KMSP-WFTC duopoly is a union shop, with all technicians and photographers being required to join the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 292.
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The station grew out of an AM station, KEYD (AM 1440, now KDIZ), with which it was co-owned until mid-1956. After the FCC opened up bidding for the channel 9 license, WLOL and WDGY also expressed interest. However, they withdrew their applications at the last minute, assuring that the new station would go to KEYD and its owner, Family Broadcasting. KEYD-TV began broadcasting on January 9, 1955 [2] and was affiliated with the DuMont Television Network. Harry Reasoner was the station's first anchor and news director.[1] DuMont shut down in late 1955, leaving the station as an independent outlet. When Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer purchased a minority (25 percent) but controlling stake in the station in 1956, the news department was shut down and Reasoner was hired by CBS.[2] Reasoner became an anchor for CBS's 60 Minutes when it debuted in 1968.
The station changed its calls to KMGM-TV in 1956, to go along with its new minority owner.[3] National Telefilm Associates, which later purchased WNTA in New York, purchased 75 percent of the station not owned by MGM in 1957. A year later, NTA bought MGM's stake and changed channel 9's calls to the current KMSP-TV.[4] KMSP was sold to United Television (at the time 20th Century Fox's broadcasting division) the following year.
During its early years until 1972, the station's studios and offices were located in a lower level of the Foshay Tower in downtown Minneapolis; the transmitter was located on top of the tower, the tallest structure in the area until 1971, along with channels 4 and 11. The transmitter was moved in 1971 to a new tower constructed by KMSP in Shoreview, MN, while the studios and offices relocated in 1972 to Edina on York Avenue South, across from Southdale Shopping Center. The station moved once more, in 1992, to its current location on Viking Drive in Eden Prairie.
In 1961, KMSP took over the ABC network affiliation from WTCN-TV (channel 11, now KARE). Throughout its years with ABC, KMSP was notorious for having a sub-standard news department with large staff turnover. Ratings were dismal with KMSP obtaining only one-third of the viewing audience of each of their two competitors, CBS affiliate WCCO-TV (channel 4) and NBC affiliate KSTP-TV (channel 5).
In the late 1970s ABC steadily rose to first place in the network ratings. Accordingly, the network sought to upgrade its affiliate list, which was made up of some stations that either had poor signals or poorly-performing local programming. In early 1977, ABC warned KMSP that it would yank its affiliation unless improvements were made and fast. Ratings improved by 1977 when ABC went from being the last-place network to being the first. To cash in, KMSP re-branded itself "ABC9" (approximately 20 years before U.S. stations began the network name in their branding en masse), and retooled its newscast. KMSP's news department was still a distant third behind WCCO-TV and KSTP-TV. That same year Chris-Craft Industries purchased a minority stake in United Television's parent 20th Century Fox.
On August 29, 1978, ABC announced that KSTP-TV would be its new affiliate in the Twin Cities. The signing of channel 5 made nationwide news, as it had been an NBC affiliate for three decades. KSTP looked forward to affiliating with the top network, as third-place NBC had been in a long slump. In retaliation for losing ABC, KMSP immediately removed all ABC branding and regularly preempted network programming. KMSP then attempted to affiliate with NBC, thinking Johnny Carson would be a good lead-out from their 10:00 PM news, despite low prime time ratings. However, NBC, miffed at losing one of its strongest affiliates, and not wanting to pick up ABC's rejects, turned down KMSP's offer almost immediately and signed an affiliation agreement with independent WTCN.
As a result of being rejected by both ABC and NBC, KMSP prepared to become an independent station. It would also be freed up from investing as heavily in their meager news department. Most of the on-air and off-air staffers resigned, not wanting to work for a down-scaled independent operation.
The affiliate switch occurred on March 5, 1979, and KMSP debuted its new independent schedule featuring cartoons, syndicated shows and even the locally-based American Wrestling Association,[5] with much of it coming from WTCN-TV. It re-branded itself as "Receptive Channel 9", and became quite aggressive in programming, obtaining broadcast rights to several state high school sports championships (MSHSL), the NHL's Minnesota North Stars and the Minnesota Twins baseball team. The stripped-down evening newscast was moved to 9:30 p.m., then by 1981 to 9 p.m. and expanded to one hour.
As it turned out, KMSP's transition into an independent station turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It was far more successful than it ever had been as an ABC affiliate. It became a regional superstation, available on nearly every cable system in Minnesota as well as large portions of North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Over time, it became one of the most successful and profitable independent stations in the country.
In 1981, KMSP went through another ownership change when United Television became partly owned by BHC Communications as the result of Chris Craft Industries' swap of its stake (then at 20 percent) in 20th Century Fox for a 19 percent stake in United Television. Two years later, Chris-Craft Industries gained majority control of United Television.[6]
The station remained independent through 1986, when it became one of the original affiliates of the newly-launched Fox network. However, Fox only aired programming two days a week, so for all intents and purposes KMSP was still an independent. This suited channel 9, as it wanted the prestige of being a network affiliate without being tied down to a network schedule. For all intents and purposes, it was the Fox affiliate for all of Minnesota. However, it did not remain a Fox affiliate for long. By 1988, KMSP was one of several Fox affiliates nationwide disappointed with the network's weak programming offerings, particularly on Saturday nights, which were bogging down KMSP's otherwise successful independent lineup. It started preempting and time-shifting network shows, much to Fox's irritation. After an ultimatum by the network to run the full schedule in pattern, Fox named KITN (channel 29, now WFTC) as its new Twin Cities affiliate, and KMSP returned to full independent status.
Along with the other United Television stations, KMSP became afiliated with the Prime Time Entertainment Network from 1993 to 1995.[7]
By the early 1990s, Fox had exploded in popularity. It had strong shows that were starting to rival the offerings of the 'Big Three' networks, and had just picked up rights to the NFL. In response to this, KMSP's then-owner, Chris-Craft/United Television, partnered with Paramount Pictures (which soon became part of media conglomerate Viacom) to create the United Paramount Network (UPN). Channel 9 became a UPN owned and operated station on January 16, 1995, the day the network commenced operations with the two-hour pilot episode of Star Trek: Voyager.
KMSP became one of UPN's most successful affiliates. In addition, it was still enjoying success with local sports programming featuring the Minnesota Twins, as well as the MSHSL championships.
KMSP remained as a UPN affiliate even after the station, along with several other stations owned by Chris-Craft, was sold to the Fox Television Stations Group in 2001 (this brought KMSP, along with sister stations KMOL-TV in San Antonio and KTVX in Salt Lake City, back under common ownership with 20th Century Fox). An affiliation swap was expected after KMSP's affiliation contract with UPN ran out. Besides Fox's presumed preference to have its programming on a station it already owned, KMSP's signal was much stronger than that of WFTC. Also, WFTC didn't have a news department. The move was made easier when Fox bought WFTC from Clear Channel shortly after in July 2001 (it swapped KTVX in Salt Lake City and KMOL, now WOAI-TV in San Antonio, for WFTC).
On September 8, 2002, KMSP and WFTC swapped network affiliations. This move (accompanied by a "Make the Switch" ad campaign on both stations) made KMSP a Fox station once again. At that time, KMSP took all Fox programming, including the Fox Box (which later went back to WFTC as 4KidsTV until its December 2008 discontinuation). The affiliation swap coincided with the start of the 2002 NFL season; KMSP became the primary station for the Minnesota Vikings as Fox owns the broadcast rights to the National Football Conference (which the Vikings are in).
Of all the former Chris-Craft stations Fox retained, KMSP was the only one not to retain its UPN affiliation. KMSP is one of three network-owned stations in the Twin Cities alongside sister WFTC and CBS-owned WCCO. Since most media markets have Fox affiliates and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s SyndEx market regulations normally require cable systems to only carry the local affiliate of any given network, KMSP was eventually removed from most cable lineups in northern and western Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Wisconsin and lost its "regional superstation" status it held as an independent station and UPN affiliate. Due to the advent of digital television, many stations in smaller markets previously served by KMSP launched digital subchannels affiliated with UPN to replace UPN's programming in those markets.
Fox proceeded to invest heavily in KMSP, creating the station's strongest news operation ever (it even briefly produced a newscast for sister station WFTC). In addition, Fox soon become a full-fledged competitor with NBC, ABC and CBS with a number of hit shows and an aggressive cable news operation. The late night edition of Fox 9 News today often draws better ratings than the newscasts on KSTP-TV, which obtained the ABC affiliation from KMSP thirty years earlier.
On June 16, 2006, KMSP played a "video news release" about convertibles produced by GM in its entirety. The narrator, Medialink publicist Andrew Schmertz, was introduced as reporter André Schmertz. KMSP did not disclose the corporate source of this segment to their viewers.[8] On March 24, 2011, KMSP was levied a $4,000 fine by the Federal Communications Commission for airing the video news release without disclosing its origin, following complaints in 2006 and 2007 filed by the Free Press and The Center for Media and Democracy.[9]
Digital channels
| Channel | Programming |
|---|---|
| 9.1 | Main KMSP-TV programming / FOX |
| 9.2 | SD Simulcast of co-owned WFTC-TV |
KMSP-DT was originally on 26, through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display its virtual channel as 9. As part of the analog television shutdown and digital conversion was completed, KMSP-TV shut down its analog transmitter on June 12, 2009, and moved its digital broadcasts back to channel 9.
In November 2009 the station moved the standard definition feed of WFTC to KMSP-DT2 to allow viewers to choose which of the FTSG signals works best for their reception needs.
KMSP broadcasts a total of 41 hours of local news a week (6½ hours on weekdays, four hours on Saturdays and 4½ hours on Sundays), more than any other station in Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota; however as is standard with Fox stations that carry early evening weekend newscasts, KMSP's Saturday and Sunday 5 p.m. newscasts are subject to preemption due to sports coverage.
The station has had a long-running 9 p.m. newscast (now known as Fox at 9), which airs an hour before all other news broadcasts in the area. The two primary news anchors are Jeff Passolt and Robyne Robinson, who are the longest current anchor team in the Twin Cities at 14 years, according to the station. This changed when Robinson announced on May 11, 2010 that she would leave KMSP after 20 years at the station. KMSP, along with KDFW in Dallas-Fort Worth, and KSAZ-TV in Phoenix are the only Fox-owned stations to have a 10 p.m. newscast in the Central and Mountain Time Zones (of the mentioned stations, KMSP and KDFW do not run their 10 p.m. newscast nightly and KMSP is the only one that airs their 10 p.m. newscast on during the weekend, airing it on Sunday nights. However, KSAZ in Phoenix runs a 10pm newscast seven nights per week.). Sister stations WTVT in Tampa-St. Petersburg and WTTG in Washington, D.C. have a late newscast at the Eastern time zone equivalent of 11 p.m.
On September 24, 2007, sister station WJBK in Detroit, Michigan became the third Fox O&O in the Eastern time zone to add an 11 p.m. newscast. This was when WJBK joined KMSP as being one out of several Fox O&Os to go with the FNC-look (new set, new rotating logo, etc.). Fox may have all the O&Os add an 11 p.m. newscast should this become a success. This may mean more of the Fox O&Os in the Central and Mountain Time Zones could add a 10 p.m. newscast as well (KTBC in Austin had a 10 p.m. newscast for years after switching to Fox, which has since been scaled back to 9 p.m.).
Conversely, KMSP is also one of a few Fox O&Os without a midday newscast (along with WFXT in Boston and WOFL in Orlando) and one of five Fox O&Os with a 5 p.m. newscast, but no 6 p.m. newscast (along with KTBC in Austin, WHBQ in Memphis, KRIV in Houston and WFXT in Boston.
On May 11, 2009, KMSP became the second station to launch local news in high definition. The first was KARE in 2006. The set and music remains the same. The only new thing are the new Fox O&O HD graphics with some minor tweaks and HD weather graphics. On September 14, 2009 KMSP expanded its morning newscast to five and a half hours from 4:30-10 a.m. (one of several Fox-owned stations to do so, following the cancellation of The Morning Show with Mike & Juliet), with the 9 a.m. hour being called Fox 9 Buzz.
The station is noted for having a number of Emmy-winning photojournalists and reporters. The newscasts have been nationally honored with the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Newscast and Spot News Coverage, in addition to Investigative Reporting, and Videography.
In September 2011, KMSP won another 12 Emmys including Station Excellence, Daytime Newscast, Evening Newscast, and more. Sister station WFTC also picked up two more for commercials.
In October 2008, KMSP won another 17 Emmys, along with four Emmys for its sister station WFTC. Among this years Emmys were wins for ads for myfoxhockey.com, foxhilitestwincities.com, "Stay Connected with Fox 9", and best online marketing initiative for Family Guy Photos at the Fair. Sister station WFTC won multiple Emmys for Twins on My29 Pinball Promos, and its generic composite ads.
In October 2007, KMSP won 17 Emmys, along with one Emmy for its sister station WFTC. Among the Emmys were wins for Best Website, Several Investigative Reports, along with several Emmys for Advertisements such as the "Wake Up With Fox 9" and the "Jeff & Robyne" spots. For a complete list visit National Television Academy Upper Midwest Chapter.
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Anchors
Fox 9 Weather First
Sports team
Reporters
The KMSP TV Tower is located in Shoreview, Minnesota. KMSP owns the tower, which stands 1466 feet (446.8 m) tall, but shares it with sister station WFTC and the Twin Cities Public Television stations, KTCA and KTCI. Several FM stations are also on the tower: KQRS-FM, KXXR ("93X"), KTCZ ("Cities 97"), KTIS-FM, KSJN, KTLK-FM, KDWB, KEEY ("K102"), WLTE, and KZJK.
KMSP has an extensive network of broadcast translators to carry its analog signal throughout much of the state.
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