 | |
| |
|---|---|
| City | Minneapolis, Minnesota |
| Channels | |
| Branding | Fox 9 |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
|
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Fox Television Stations, LLC |
| WFTC, KFTC | |
| History | |
First air date | January 9, 1955 (70 years ago) (1955-01-09) |
Former call signs |
|
Former channel numbers |
|
| |
Call sign meaning | Minneapolis and Saint Paul[1] |
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 68883 |
| ERP | 36.2 kW |
| HAAT | 435 m (1,427 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 45°3′30″N93°7′28″W / 45.05833°N 93.12444°W /45.05833; -93.12444 |
| Translator(s) | see§ Translators |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
KMSP-TV (channel 9) is atelevision station licensed toMinneapolis, Minnesota, United States, serving theTwin Cities area. It isowned and operated by theFox network through itsFox Television Stations division alongsideWFTC (channel 9.2), which broadcastsMyNetworkTV. The two stations share studios on Viking Drive inEden Prairie; KMSP-TV'stransmitter is located inShoreview, Minnesota.
KMSP-TV also serves theMankato market (viaK35KI-D in nearbySt. James[3] through the localmunicipal-operated Cooperative TV (CTV) network of translators[4][5]), even though that area already has aFox affiliate of its own.[6] KMSP is also carried on the main channel ofKFTC (channel 26), asatellite station of WFTC licensed toBemidji which serves the northernmost reaches of the Minneapolis–St. Paul television market.
KMSP-TV is also carried in Canada on theRogers Cable system inThunder Bay, Ontario, on Tbaytel, and onBell MTSFibe TV in the province ofManitoba. Since October 2022, the station is also carried on Westman Communications, replacingRochester, New York'sWUHF.
The Family Broadcasting Corporation in Minneapolis, owner of radio station KEYD (1440 AM, nowKYCR), filed an application with theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) for aconstruction permit for a new commercial television station to be operated on Channel 9 on November 24, 1953.[7]WLOL and WDGY (nowKTLK) also expressed interest, but withdrew their applications in 1954, effectively handing the permit to Family Broadcasting.[8][9] KEYD-TV began broadcasting on January 9, 1955, and was affiliated with theDuMont Television Network.[10] During this time,Harry Reasoner, a graduate of Minneapolis West High School and theUniversity of Minnesota, was hired as the station's first news anchor and news director.[11] However, DuMont shut down in August 1956, leaving the station as anindependent outlet;[10] on June 3, 1956, the KEYD stations were sold toUnited Television, whose principals at the time included several stockholders ofPittsburgh stationWENS, for $1.5 million.[10][12][13] The new owners immediately sold off KEYD radio,[12][13] refocused KEYD-TV's programming onfilms andsports,[14] and shut down the news department; Reasoner was hired byCBS News a few months later.[15][16] Reasoner became a host for CBS's60 Minutes when it launched in 1968.
Channel 9 changed its call letters to KMGM-TV on May 23, 1956.[7] At the time, the station was in negotiations withMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer to acquire the Twin Cities television rights to the company's films, along with selling a 25 percent stake in KMGM-TV to the studio.[17] Negotiations broke down later that month over the cost of the films;[18] additionally,Loew's, MGM's parent company at the time, filed a petition with the FCC against the call sign change, claiming that the use of KMGM was unauthorized and a violation of MGM'strademark.[19] The FCC ruled against Loew's that October, saying that its call sign assignment policies were limited to preventing confusion between stations in a given area.[20] The agreements to lease MGM's pre-1949 films and sell 25 percent of the station to Loew's were both completed that November; KMGM was the third station, after future sister stationKTTV inLos Angeles andKTVR inDenver, to enter into such an arrangement.[21]
National Telefilm Associates, which later purchasedWNTA-TV in theNew York City area, purchased the 75 percent of United Television not owned by MGM for $650,000 in November 1957, joining it to theNTA Film Network until it ended in 1961.[22][23][24] After taking control, NTA expanded KMGM-TV's hours of operation as part of an overhaul of channel 9's schedule that also included the addition of newscasts.[25] A few months later, on February 10, 1958, NTA bought MGM's stake for $130,000 and announced that it would change channel 9's calls to KMSP-TV;[10][26][27] the call sign change took effect that March over the objections ofKSTP-TV (channel 5).[28]National Theatres, a theater chain whose broadcast holdings already includedWDAF AM-TV inKansas City, began the process of acquiring NTA in November 1958;[29] in April 1959, it purchased 88 percent of the company.[30]20th Century-Fox, the former parent company of National Theatres, bought KMSP-TV for $4.1 million on November 9, 1959, retaining the United Television corporate name.[10][31] The KMSP call letters were featured on prop television cameras in theMay 29, 1963, episode of theCBS sitcomThe Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, produced by20th Century Fox Television; the show was loosely set in the Twin Cities area. The episode was titled "The Call of the, Like, Wild".
During its early years until 1972, the station's studios and offices were located in a lower level of theFoshay Tower indowntown Minneapolis; the transmitter was located on top of the building, the tallest structure in the area until 1971, along withWCCO-TV (channel 4) and WTCN-TV (channel 11, nowKARE).[10]
KMSP-TV took over theABC affiliation from WTCN-TV on April 16, 1961.[32] Throughout its years with ABC, KMSP was perennially the lowest-rated network affiliate in the Twin Cities, with only one-third of the viewing audience of each of their two competitors, CBS affiliate WCCO-TV andNBC affiliate KSTP-TV. It was also notorious for having a sub-standard news department with large staff turnover.[33] In 1971, KMSP built a new tower inShoreview, while the studios and offices relocated in 1972 toEdina on York Avenue South, across from Southdale Shopping Center.[10]
In the late 1970s, ABC steadily rose to first place in the network ratings. Accordingly, the network sought to upgrade its slate of affiliates, which were made up of some stations that either had poor signals or poorly performing local programming. In December 1977, ABC warned United that it would yank its affiliation from channel 9 unless improvements were made and fast. In early 1978, to cash in on ABC's improved ratings, KMSP re-branded itself "ABC9" (approximately 20 years before the use of a network's name in a station's on-air branding became commonplace among U.S. affiliates), and retooled its newscast. Despite the changes, KMSP's news department remained in the ratings cellar.[33]
On August 29, 1978, ABC announced that KSTP-TV would become the network's new Twin Cities affiliate the following spring.[34] The signing of channel 5 made nationwide news, as it had been an NBC affiliate for three decades. KSTP-TV looked forward to affiliating with the top network, as third-place NBC had been in a long ratings slump. In retaliation for losing ABC, KMSP-TV immediately removed all ABC branding and regularly preempted network programming. Channel 9 then attempted to affiliate with NBC, thinkingThe Tonight Show would be a good lead-out from their 10 p.m. newscast, despite low prime time ratings.[33] 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[33] and signed an affiliation agreement with independent station WTCN-TV.[35] As a result of being rejected by both ABC and NBC, KMSP-TV prepared to become an independent station. Although it now faced a lack of weekend and weekdaynational sports coverage and having to buy seven to eight additional hours of programming per day, it also would not have to invest nearly as much into its news department and could invest its affiliate dues into syndicated film rights and local sports instead. Most of the on-air and off-air staffers resigned, not wanting to work for a down-scaled independent operation.[33]
The affiliation switch occurred on March 5, 1979,[10][33] and KMSP debuted its new independent schedule featuring cartoons, syndicated shows[33] and even the locally basedAmerican Wrestling Association,[36] with much of the station's programming having been acquired from WTCN-TV. To emphasize that the station's programming decisions would be influenced by viewers instead of a network, KMSP rebranded itself as "Receptive Channel 9", and anantenna was shown atop the station's logo instation identifications. The station became quite aggressive in acquiring programming, obtaining broadcast rights to several state high school sports championships from theMSHSL, theNHL'sMinnesota North Stars and theMinnesota Twinsbaseball team.[33]
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 the station ever had been as an ABC affiliate. It became a regionalsuperstation, available on nearly everycable system in Minnesota as well as large portions ofNorth Dakota,South Dakota,Iowa andWisconsin. Over time, it became one of the most successful and profitable independent stations in the country.[33]
KMSP went through another ownership change on June 9, 1981, when 20th Century-Fox spun off United Television as an independent company owned by Fox shareholders; the transaction was approved alongside the $700 million sale of 20th Century-Fox toMarvin Davis.[37]Chris-Craft Industries, which in 1977 had acquired an interest in 20th Century-Fox that by 1981 comprised 22 percent of Fox's stock, received a 19 percent stake in United Television;[38] later in June, it filed with the FCC for control of United, as it now owned 32 percent of its stock.[39] Two years later, Chris-Craft, though itsBHC subsidiary, increased its stake in United Television to 50.1 percent and gained majority control of the company.[38]
KMSP-TV remained an independent station through 1986 when it became one of the original charter affiliates of the newly launchedFox network on October 9.[40] This suited channel 9, as it wanted the prestige of being a network affiliate without being tied to a network-dominated schedule. At the time, Fox only programmed a nightly talk show and, starting in 1987, two nights of prime time programming; the network would start its full-week programming schedule in 1993. Thus, like most early Fox affiliates, KMSP was still essentially an independent. For its first few years with Fox, the station served as thede facto Fox affiliate for nearly all of Minnesota and South Dakota.
However, the station did not remain a Fox affiliate for long. By 1988, KMSP was one of several Fox affiliates nationwide that were disappointed with the network's weak programming offerings, particularly on Saturday nights, which were bogging down KMSP's otherwise successful independent lineup. That January, channel 9 dropped Fox's Saturday night lineup;[41] the move did not sit well with Fox, and in July 1988 the network announced that it would not renew its affiliations with KMSP and Chris-Craft sister stationKPTV inPortland, Oregon.[42] Fox then signed an agreement with KITN (channel 29, nowWFTC) to become its new Twin Cities affiliate, and KMSP reverted to being an independent station full-time.[10][33] In 1992, the station relocated to its current studio facilities on Viking Drive inEden Prairie.[10] Along with the other United Television stations, KMSP carried programming from thePrime Time Entertainment Network from 1993 to 1995.[43]
By the early 1990s, Fox had exploded in popularity; it had begun carrying strong shows that were starting to rival the program offerings of the"Big Three" networks and had justpicked up the broadcast rights to theNFL'sNational Football Conference. In response to this, in October 1993, Chris-Craft/United Television partnered withParamount Pictures (which was acquired byViacom in 1994) to form the United Paramount Network (UPN) and both companies madeindependentstations that both companies respectively owned in several large and mid-sized U.S. cities charter stations of the new network.[44]
UPN launched on January 16, 1995,[10] (with the two-hour premiere ofStar Trek: Voyager), with channel 9 becoming a UPNowned-and-operated station due to Chris-Craft/United's ownership stake in the network (later part-ownership in 1996 when Viacom bought a 50% stake of the network)—making it the second network-owned station in the Twin Cities (alongside CBS-owned WCCO-TV). Over time, KMSP became one of UPN's most successful affiliates in terms of viewership. In addition to UPN's prime-time schedule and the network's daytime children's blocks (such asUPN Kids from 1995 to 1999, andDisney's One Too from 1999 to 2003), the station was still enjoying success with local sports programming featuring the Minnesota Twins, as well as the MSHSL championships. KMSP was stripped of its status as a UPN owned-and-operated station in 2000 after Viacom exercised a contractual clause to buy out Chris-Craft's stake in the network, although the station remained with UPN as an affiliate for another two years. Around this time, Viacom bought CBS (and in turn, WCCO).[45][46]
News Corporation, through itsFox Television Stations subsidiary, agreed to purchase Chris-Craft Industries and its stations, including KMSP-TV, for $5.35 billion in August 2000 (this brought KMSP, along withSan Antonio'sKMOL-TV andSalt Lake City'sKTVX, back under common ownership with 20th Century Fox); the deal followed a bidding war with Viacom.[47][48][49] The sale was completed on July 31, 2001.[50] While Fox pledged to retain the Chris-Craft stations' UPN affiliations through at least the 2000–01 season,[51] and Chris-Craft agreed to an 18-month renewal for its UPN affiliates in January 2001,[52] an affiliation swap was expected once KMSP's affiliation agreement with UPN ran out in 2002, given Fox's presumed preference to have its programming on a station that it already owned. Additionally, KMSP's signal was much stronger than that of WFTC; it was a VHF station that had been on the air much longer than UHF outlet WFTC.[53] Most importantly, Fox had been aggressively expanding local news programming on its stations, and KMSP had an established and competitive news department whereas WFTC's news department did not begin operations until April 2001. The move was made easier when, in July 2001, Fox agreed to trade KTVX and KMOL (now WOAI-TV) toClear Channel Communications in exchange for WFTC,[54] a transaction completed that October.[53]
The affiliation switch, officially announced in May 2002,[55] occurred on September 8, 2002 (accompanied by a "Make the Switch" ad campaign that was seen on both stations), as Fox programming returned to KMSP-TV after a 14-year absence, while WFTC took the UPN affiliation;[56] KMSP was the only former Chris-Craft station that was acquired and kept by Fox that did not retain its UPN affiliation. The station began carrying Fox's entire programming schedule at that time, including theFoxBox children's block (which later returned to WFTC as4KidsTV, until the block was discontinued by Fox in December 2008 due to a dispute with4Kids Entertainment). The affiliation swap coincided with the start of the2002 NFL season; KMSP effectively became the "home" station for the NFL'sMinnesota Vikings as a result of Foxholding the broadcast rights to the National Football Conference (from1994 to2001, most Vikings games were aired on WFTC). Finally, in 2014, with the launch ofXploration Station which replacedWeekend Marketplace which WFTC carried, KMSP-TV began clearing the entire Fox network schedule for good.
Since Fox has affiliates in mostmedia markets and the FCC'ssyndication exclusivity regulations normally require cable systems to only carry a given network's local affiliate, and Fox prefers only an area's affiliate be carried as opposed to a distant station for rating tabulation purposes, KMSP was eventually removed from most cable providers outside the Twin Cities. By this time, these areas had enough stations to provide local Fox affiliates. KMSP thus effectively lost the "regional superstation" status it had held for almost a quarter-century, dating back to when it was an independent station. Due to the advent ofdigital television, many stations in smaller markets previously served by KMSP began operating UPN-affiliateddigital subchannels towards the end of the network's run to replace that network's programming in those markets, which in turn became MyNetworkTV orCW affiliates.
On December 14, 2017,The Walt Disney Company, owner of KSTP-TV's affiliated network ABC, announced its intent to buy KMSP-TV's parent company,21st Century Fox, for $66.1 billion; the sale, which closed on March 20, 2019, excluded KMSP-TV and sister station WFTC as well as the Fox network, the MyNetworkTV programming service,Fox News,Fox Sports 1, theBig Ten Network and the Fox Television Stations unit, which were all transferred to the newly formedFox Corporation.[57][58]Fox Sports North would be divested in a separate deal to Diamond Sports Group, made up of a joint venture ofWUCW ownerSinclair Broadcast Group andEntertainment Studios.
In April 2025, KMSP-TV announced a deal with theMinnesota Twins to simulcast ten of the team's games produced byMLB Local Media under theTwins.tv banner on the station, in addition to Twins games broadcast viaFox's national MLB package.[59]
KMSP presently broadcasts59+1⁄2 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 10 hours each weekday, four hours on Saturdays, and5+1⁄2 hours on Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the highest newscast output among Minneapolis' broadcast television stations.
The station's first news director and news anchor was Harry Reasoner when KMSP signed on (as KEYD-TV) in 1955.[11] Despite the station's focus on live coverage of news and sports, as well as awards from the University of Minnesota Journalism School and the Northwest Radio–TV News Association, KEYD's newscasts were generally in fourth place in the ratings.[16] After channel 9's ownership changed in 1956, the news operation was closed down.[16] News programming returned to the station after NTA bought KMGM-TV in 1957.[25]
The station, which had long been a distant third to WCCO-TV and KSTP-TV in the Twin Cities news ratings, began an aggressive campaign in 1973 to gain ground against its competition. After a nationwide search, management hired Ben Boyett and Phil Bremen to anchor a newscast with a new set and format, known asnewsnine.[33] The new format did not really draw many new viewers, and the station's low news budget, ill-conceived promotion, and frequent technical glitches, along with itsnetwork's news division's overall struggles and wire service beforeRoone Arledge took control, didn't help matters. One botched campaign for a news series onvenereal disease, in the spring of 1974, resulted in lawsuits from two young women that claimed that their likenesses were used in promos without their permission, thus damaging their reputations.[33] By the fall of 1975, Boyett and Bremen would be gone, replaced by respected veteran newsmanDon Harrison and the station's first female anchor, Cathie Mann. These changes did little to take channel 9 out of third place, and despite ABC becoming the #1 network by 1977 and Arledge's moves to increase ABC News's prestige, KMSP's newscasts still struggled.[33]
After KMSP lost the ABC affiliation in 1979, the station's news operation reduced to a more scaled-down 9 p.m. or post-sports-only newscast which was more manageable for KMSP to maintain at the time. It was paired with the syndicatedIndependent Network News in the early-to-mid-1980s. The newscast's budget and ratings would increase by the end of that decade, with re-expansions of the news department into the morning and early evenings occurring in the mid-1990s.
By the end of the decade,Minnesota 9 News was competitive with the other stations in the market, especially with its all-local morning newscast doing well against the network morning shows. This was despite KMSP being hamstrung by its UPN affiliation, which had seen several affiliates of the network cut or close their news departments through its decade of existence, due to the network's overall and prime time ratings failing to meet expectations. Outside of UPN'sStar Trek series, the rest of the network's programming schedule struggled outside of cities, a particular issue that affected KMSP as a statewide superstation with a wide rural footprint. This played into the station's decision to eschew their owner-mandated "UPN 9" branding for the more neutral statewide branding of "Minnesota 9" (later,9 News) to promote their news department.
When KMSP rejoined Fox in 2002, the station's prime time newscast, now with the stronger aid of Fox's prime time lineup and sports coverage, frequently outrated the newscasts on KSTP-TV.[33] Following Fox's acquisition of WFTC in 2001, that station's existing news operation was moved into an auxiliary studio of KMSP as part of a slow merger (including limited story-sharing);[55] after Fox canceled channel 29's newscast in 2006, some of WFTC's staff moved in full to KMSP.[60]
On May 11, 2009, KMSP became the second station in the Twin Cities (behind KARE-TV) to broadcast local newscasts inhigh-definition.
On June 16, 2006, during one of the station's newscasts, KMSP broadcast a "video news release" aboutconvertibles produced byGeneral Motors without required attribution that it was distributed by the auto giant. The narrator,MediaLink publicist Andrew Schmertz, was introduced as reporter André Schmertz.[61] On March 24, 2011, the FCC levied a $4,000 fine against KMSP for airing the video news release without disclosing the corporate source of the segment to its viewers, following complaints filed by theFree Press and theCenter for Media and Democracy in 2006 and 2007.[62]
KMSP-TV and WFTC broadcast from theKMSP Tower inShoreview, Minnesota.[64][65] The signal of KMSP-TV contains six subchannels, while WFTC's signal contains four. All subchannels on both transmitters share the same majorvirtual channel of 9.
| Channel | Station | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9.1 | WFTC | 720p | 16:9 | FOX-9 | Fox (KMSP-TV simulcast) |
| 9.2 | FOX9 + | MyNetworkTV | |||
| 9.3 | 480i | Movies! | Movies! | ||
| 9.4 | KMSP-TV | 480i | 16:9 | BUZZR | Buzzr |
| 9.5 | QVC | QVC | |||
| 9.6 | CATCHY | Catchy Comedy | |||
| 9.7 | WFTC | 720p | 16:9 | FoxWX | Fox Weather |
| 9.8 | KMSP-TV | 720p | 16:9 | Stories | Story Television |
| 9.9 | Fox 9 | Fox | |||
| 9.10 | FOX 9+ | MyNetworkTV (WFTC simulcast) |
The WFTC transmitter also broadcasts two subchannels ofWUCW (23.2Comet and 23.6Antenna TV), the market'sATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV) host station.[65]
In November 2009, KMSP was added to a subchannel of WFTC and vice versa, to aid viewers that had difficulty receiving KMSP's signal on theVHF band.[66] Beginning June 24, 2014, subchannels of WFTC began using major channel 9, with 29.1 changed to 9.2, and KMSP-TV began broadcasting in high definition from the WFTC transmitter on channel 9.1.[67]
KFTC is broadcast from a transmitter northeast of Bemidji.[68]
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26.1 | 720p | 16:9 | Fox | Fox (KMSP-TV) |
| 26.2 | Fox9Plu | MyNetworkTV (WFTC) | ||
| 26.3 | 480i | Movies! | Movies! | |
| 26.4 | 720p | FoxWX | Fox Weather |
KFTC also broadcasts 23.2Comet and 23.6Antenna TV from WUCW.[68]
KFTC began providing high-definition service for the main KMSP and WFTC subchannels in October 2014. Translators of KMSP inBrainerd andWalker were switched to KFTC, making WFTC available over-the-air in those communities for the first time.[69]
KMSP-TV began broadcasting a digital signal on UHF channel 21 on June 19, 2000.[70] The station shut down its analog signal, overVHF channel 9, on June 12, 2009, thedigital television transition date, and shifted its digital signal to channel 9.[71]
TheKMSP TV Tower is located in Shoreview, Minnesota. KMSP owns the tower, which stands 1,466 feet (447 m) tall, but shares it with sister station WFTC and the Twin Cities PBS stations,KTCA andKTCI. SeveralFM stations are also on the tower:KQRS-FM ("92 KQRS"),KXXR ("93X"),KTCZ ("Cities 97.1"),KTIS-FM,KSJN,KFXN-FM ("The Fan"),KDWB,KEEY ("K102"),KMNB ("102.9 The Wolf"), andKZJK ("104.1 Jack FM").
In addition to the main transmitter in Shoreview and KFTC in Bemidji, the signals of KMSP-TV and WFTC signal are relayed to outlying parts of Minnesota through a network oftranslators. The main channels of each station are available from all translators.[64][65][68]
The following translators rebroadcast WFTC:
The following translators rebroadcast KMSP-TV:
The following translators rebroadcast KFTC:
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofMinnesota | ||
|---|---|---|
Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Minnesota | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| MyNetworkTV | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| PBS |
| |
| Religious | ||
| Spanish | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
(*) – Station is in an out-of-state TV market, but reaches a small portion of Minnesota | ||
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofWisconsin | ||
|---|---|---|
Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Wisconsin | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| MyNetworkTV | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| PBS |
| |
| Religious | ||
| Spanish | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
