| Poplar Bluff/Cape Girardeau, Missouri Hickman/Paducah, Kentucky Harrisburg/Marion/Carbondale, Illinois Jonesboro/Lake City, Arkansas Union City, Tennessee |
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|---|---|
| City of license | Cape Girardeau |
| Branding | KFVS 12 (general) Heartland News The Heartland's CW (on DT2) |
| Slogan | Live. Local. Latebreaking. |
| Channels | Digital: 12 (VHF) |
| Subchannels | 12.1 CBS 12.2 The CW/Me-TV 12.3 local weather |
| Owner | Raycom Media (KFVS License Subsidiary, LLC) |
| First air date | October 3, 1954 |
| Call letters' meaning | FiVe States |
| Sister station(s) | WQWQ-LP/WQTV-LP |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 12 (VHF, 1954-2009) Digital: 57 (UHF, 2002-2009) |
| Transmitter power | 6.8 kW |
| Height | 609 m |
| Facility ID | 592 |
| Website | kfvs12.com |
KFVS-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for Southeastern Missouri, the Purchase area of Western Kentucky and Southern Illinois, also the northern portion of West Tennessee and northeast Arkansas including Jonesboro that is licensed to Cape Girardeau, Missouri. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 12 from a transmitter north of the city in rural Cape Girardeau County. Owned by Raycom Media, the station is sister to low-powered CW affiliates WQWQ-LP/WQTV-LP and the three share studios in the Hirsch Tower on Broadway Avenue in Downtown Cape Girardeau. Syndicated programming on KFVS includes: Everybody Loves Raymond, Oprah, The Dr. Oz Show, and Live with Regis and Kelly.
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Due to their low-powered status, WQTV/WQWQ do not offer digital signals of their own. There is one on KFVS-DT2 to serve as that purpose. In partnership with Southeast Missouri State University, the station operates a 24-hour local weather channel known as the "Storm Team Weather Network" on KFVS-DT3. This can also be seen on Charter digital channel 113 (in Southeastern Missouri), Mediacom digital channel 191 (in Illinois), Comcast digital channel 249 (in Western Kentucky), Time Warner digital channel 321, and on its website via live streaming video.
The majority of programming consists of local weather conditions and severe weather bulletins when issued. There is also news and information about Southeast Missouri State University and its activities. The university provides two minute updates, along with occasional longer programming, that airs on the channel.
Since the Jonesboro metropolitan area doesn't have a CBS affiliate of its own, KFVS also serve Jonesboro, Arkansas as the default CBS station.
| Channel | Programming |
|---|---|
| 12.1 | CBS HD |
| 12.2 | WQWQ-LP/WQTV-LP "The Heartland's CW"/Me-TV[1] |
| 12.3 | "Storm Team Weather Network" |
KFVS-TV began broadcasting on October 3, 1954. It was owned by broadcasting pioneer Oscar C. Hirsch, who had signed on the area's first radio station, KFVS radio (AM 960, now KZIM) in his radio shop in 1925. At the start, channel 12 did not have any video cameras. Instead, its first broadcast showed slides of its new transmitter tower that was under construction at the time.
Channel 12 was housed along with its radio sister until 1968, when it moved to its present location on Broadway Avenue. Hirsch sold the station to Aflac in 1979, earning a handsome return on his investment of 54 years earlier.
In 1997, Aflac sold its entire broadcasting division, including KFVS, to a group headed by Retirement Systems of Alabama. It, in turn, merged with Ellis Communications a few months later to form Raycom Media. KFVS offered The Tube Music Network (a 24-hour digital music video channel) on its third digital subchannel which ceased operations on October 1, 2007. The station ceased analog broadcasting and moved its digital signal to its original channel position on June 12, 2009.
KFVS serves more than 50 counties in four states including all of Southeastern Missouri, Southern Illinois, Western Kentucky, and Western Tennessee. The KFVS calls mean "Five States," since its former radio sister covers much of this area as well as portions of Northeastern Arkansas (including Jonesboro and Lake City). However, KFVS has no coverage in that state since the DTV transition. A portion of its signal into the Missouri Bootheel overlaps with sister station and WMC-TV in Memphis, Tennessee and KAIT-TV in Jonesboro, Arkansas. KFVS refers to its viewing area as "The Heartland," which is included in WQTV/WQWQ's on-air branding.
KFVS' coverage area overlaps with KMOV in St. Louis. In fact, channel 12's over-the-air coverage extended as far east as the St. Louis suburb of Belleville, Illinois prior to the DTV transition. Cable outlets in several northern KFVS counties and southern KMOV counties carry both stations.
KFVS being a #1 News leader in its area on July 22, 2011, they announced that they were going to change to a new high definition news set with new graphics and HD Cameras very soon. They will be the second station to broadcast news in HD the First Being WSIL-TV 3.
Compared with the other big three stations in the market, KFVS has traditionally covered Southeastern Missouri more while the newscasts of ABC affiliate WSIL-TV focus almost exclusively on Southern Illinois. This is despite the fact that KPOB-TV in Poplar Bluff, Missouri operates as a full-time satellite. That channel does not maintain any bureaus in its area. NBC affiliate WPSD-TV offers the most coverage of Western Kentucky since it is based in Paducah. In addition to its main studios, KFVS operates a Southern Illinois Newsroom on East Plaza Drive in Carterville near WSIL.
At one point, KFVS produced a nightly half-hour prime time broadcast at 9 on WQTV/WQWQ known as Heartland News at 9. The show focused exclusively on Southeastern Missouri and competed with prime time news on Fox affiliate KBSI that was produced by WPSD. That show provided a regional summary of coverage along with stories from Western Kentucky. Heartland News at 9 was dropped after the July 29, 2007 edition and replaced with a rebroadcast of Oprah. Currently, WQTV/WQWQ replay three weekday newscasts from KFVS. This includes The Breakfast Show (at 6:30 in the morning), Heartland News at Noon (at 1 in the afternoon), and Heartland News at 10 (at 10:30 p.m.). The Sunday edition of The Breakfast Show is also repeated on those stations.
On October 1, 2010, Heartland News at 9 was brought back after a news share agreement was established with KBSI. That channel now offers an hour-long prime time newscast every night at 9 originating from the KFVS studios.[2] With that addition, this station offers more than thirty hours of local news each week. During weather segments, the station uses live NOAA National Weather Service radar data from several regional sites. This system is known on-air as "Storm Team Digital Doppler". KFVS also operates its own weather radar, called "Live StormTeam Radar", that is on top of the Hirsch building. It is an a Collins radar sold by ADC in Bloomington, Indiana and is the only live radar source in the market since the National Weather Service data is delayed.
Anchors
Heartland News Storm Team Meteorologists
Sports
Reporters
Contributors
News Management
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