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| KDTL-LD | |
| History | |
| Founded | April 1954 |
First air date | July 8, 1954 (71 years ago) (1954-07-08) |
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Former channel numbers |
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Call sign meaning | "MissouriViacom"[a] |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 70034 |
| ERP | 1,000kW |
| HAAT | 341 m (1,119 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 38°31′47″N90°17′58″W / 38.52972°N 90.29944°W /38.52972; -90.29944 |
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Public license information | |
| Website | www |
KMOV (channel 4) is atelevision station inSt. Louis, Missouri, United States, affiliated withCBS andMyNetworkTV. It is owned byGray Media alongsidelow-power stationKDTL-LD (channel 4.6). The two stations share studios on Progress Parkway in suburbanMaryland Heights; KMOV's transmitter is located inLemay, Missouri.
The station first signed on the air on July 8, 1954, as KWK-TV. At its launch, channel 4 was owned by a consortium which included Robert T. Convey (28%) and the now-defunctNewhouse Newspapers–publishedSt. Louis Globe-Democrat (23%), who jointly operated KWK radio (1380 AM, nowKXFN); Elzey M. Roberts Sr., former owner of KXOK radio (630 AM, nowKYFI), which had to be sold as a condition of the license grant (23%); and Missouri Valley Television Inc., made up ofSaint Paul, Minnesota–basedHubbard Broadcasting (23%) and several St. Louis residents (combined 3%).[2]
Each of the station's part-owners had competed individually for the channel 4construction permit before agreeing to merge their interests only three months before the station went on the air.[3] Upon signing on KWK-TV took the CBS affiliation fromBelleville, Illinois–licensed WTVI (channel 54, nowKTVI channel 2). Until 1955, it also airedABC programs that WTVI declined to broadcast. The station's original studios, built by KWK radio in anticipation of television, were located on Cole Street inDowntown West.[4]
However, CBS was planning to operate its own television station in St. Louis alongside its powerhouse radio station,KMOX (1120 AM). The network originally won the permit to build a new station on channel 11 – the last remaining commercialVHF channel assigned to St. Louis – in January 1957.[5] But after being approached with an offer, CBS decided in August of that year to buy KWK-TV instead for$4 million.[6] The agreement required CBS to give up its construction permit for channel 11, and theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) transferred it to one of the failed applicants, a group led by St. Louis hotelierHarold Koplar, for no financial consideration.[7] Almost immediately, the deal was held up after the St. Louis Amusement Company, another of the original applicants for channel 11, protested to theUnited States Court of Appeals in January 1958.[8] TheU.S. Supreme Court ultimately upheld the decision in November of that year.[9] CBS had already taken control of channel 4's operations that March, and changed its call letters to KMOX-TV in reference to its new radio sister.[10] The following April, channel 11 signed on asindependent stationKPLR-TV.[11]
In July 1968, CBS opened a new studio and office facility in downtown St. Louis to house the KMOX stations, which until that point had been operating from separate locations (KMOX radio was headquartered nearForest Park).[12] Channel 4 moved from Cole Street into the new facility, known as One Memorial Drive, and remained there until December 3, 2023; the Cole Street studio was soon acquired byKDNL-TV (channel 30), which operated that facility from its sign-on in June 1969 until 2022.
By late 1985, CBS was in rough financial straits, an after-effect of successfully fending off ahostile takeover attempt byTed Turner the year before. CBS spent the latter portion of 1985 repurchasing a large portion of its stock to help block the Turner takeover. Once Turner sold his stock, CBS was saddled with significant debt and needed to raise money.[13] Not long afterLaurence Tisch became the company's chairman, CBS decided to sell KMOX-TV, at the time its smallestowned-and-operated television station by market size.[14] On May 16, 1986, theoriginal iteration of Viacom, the former CBS Inc. subsidiary and future parent company, completed its $122.5 million purchase of the station; so as to comply with an FCC regulation in place at the time that prohibited TV and radio stations in the same market but with different ownership from having the same callsigns, KMOX-TV's callsign was slightly modified to the present KMOV almost a month later on June 18.[15][16] Despite the sale, channel 4's operations continued to be based alongside KMOX radio at their downtown studios on Memorial Drive; KMOX would relocate from that building in 2012. The two stations still have a news partnership.
Viacom announced its purchase ofParamount Pictures in 1993. The merger, completed in 1994, placed Viacom's existing five-station group (KMOV;WHEC-TV inRochester, New York;WNYT inAlbany, New York;WVIT inNew Britain, Connecticut; andKSLA-TV inShreveport, Louisiana) under common ownership with theParamount Stations Group;[17][18] the two groups were formally consolidated in December 1995.[19] However, in 1994, the company decided to divest itself of all of its major network affiliates to focus on stations that carried its then-upstart United Paramount Network (UPN), which would start up service on January 16, 1995.[20]
Dallas-basedA. H. Belo Corporation acquired KMOV in a three-way deal also involving two stations in theSeattle–Tacoma market. As part of the transaction, A. H. Belo (which spun off its broadcast holdings into aseparate, similarly named company in 2008) soldKIRO-TV (then a UPN affiliate, which was included in the deal because the company had recently acquired that market'sNBC affiliateKING-TV) toCox Enterprises, who concurrently sold its existing Seattle–Tacoma station, then-CBS affiliateKSTW, to Viacom.[21][22] The deal was consummated on June 1, 1997 (KIRO and KSTW swapped their affiliations on June 30, 1997, thus returning to its original affiliation).
In the spring of 2013, a lighted sign with the KMOV logo was installed on the top of the south face of Gateway Tower, which not only gave the station visibility on the St. Louis skyline, but was also visible in center field of wide shots ofBusch Stadium duringSt. Louis Cardinals games.[23]
On June 13, 2013, theGannett Company, owner of NBC affiliateKSDK (channel 5), announced that it would acquire Belo. As the deal would violate FCC regulations that disallow common ownership of two of the four highest-rated stations in a singlemarket (KMOV and KSDK have ranked as the top two stations in the St. Louis market in total-day ratings for several years), Gannett would retain KSDK, while it would spin off KMOV to Sander Media, LLC (owned by former Belo executive Jack Sander). Gannett intended to provide services to the station through ashared services agreement, KMOV's operations were to remain largely separate from KSDK, including separate and competing news and sales departments.[24] However, on December 16, 2013, theUnited States Department of Justice threatened to block the merger unless Gannett, Belo and Sander completely divested KMOV to a government-approved third-party company that would be barred from entering into any agreements with Gannett. The DOJ claimed that Gannett and Sander would be so closely aligned that Gannett would have dominated spot advertising in St. Louis.[25] On December 23, 2013, shortly after the Gannett/Belo deal was approved and completed,[26]Des Moines, Iowa–basedMeredith Corporation – which already had a broadcasting presence in Missouri through its ownership of fellow CBS affiliateKCTV inKansas City – announced that it would purchase KMOV, along withKTVK andKASW inPhoenix (the latter of which Meredith would later sell to theNexstar Broadcasting Group) for $407.5 million.[27] The sale of KMOV was completed on February 28, 2014.[28]
More than a year later on September 8, 2015,Richmond, Virginia–basedMedia General announced that it would acquire Meredith for $2.4 billion. If it had been completed, it would have marked KMOV's third ownership shift since 2013.[29][30] Media General would eventually shelve the Meredith deal in favor of a counter-offer by Nexstar.[31][32]
On April 24, 2018, it was announced that Meredith would be acquiring CW affiliate KPLR-TV fromTribune Media as a result of station sales ordered by the FCC as a result ofTribune's proposed acquisition by Sinclair Broadcast Group, owners of ABC affiliate KDNL-TV. If Sinclair's acquisition of Tribune and related station sales were approved, it would have created aduopoly between KMOV and KPLR-TV.[33][34] However, on August 9, 2018, Tribune announced it would terminate the Sinclair deal, intending to seek otherM&A opportunities. This came three weeks after the FCC's July 18 vote to have the deal reviewed by anadministrative law judge amid "serious concerns" about Sinclair's forthrightness in its applications to sell certain conflict properties. Tribune also filed abreach of contract lawsuit in theDelaware Chancery Court, alleging that Sinclair engaged in protracted negotiations with the FCC and theU.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division over regulatory issues, refused to sell stations in markets where it already had properties, and proposed divestitures to parties with ties to Sinclair executive chair David D. Smith that were rejected or highly subject to rejection to maintain control over stations it was required to sell.[35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][excessive citations] The deal was nullified, with Tribune eventually accepting another merger agreement with Nexstar that, due to other station spin-offs, retained the existing KTVI/KPLR duopoly and closed without issue in mid-September 2019.
On May 3, 2021,Gray Television announced its intent to purchase the Meredith Local Media division, including KMOV, for $2.7 billion. The sale was completed on December 1.[47]
On December 3, 2023, with its 6 p.m. newscast, KMOV completed the on-air move from Gateway Tower to a remodeled and adapted facility in theSt. Louis County suburb ofMaryland Heights which had formerly been occupied by medical device manufacturerERT, joining KTVI/KPLR in relocating to Maryland Heights, which provides much easier access to the area's freeway system viaInterstate 270 and a secured parking lot rather than the cumbersome mix of on-street and underground parking it had at Gateway Tower.[48] The station had soft-launched a new branding,First Alert 4 (which has become a common brand for Gray's local newscasts) in the months before, which was solidified in full with the move to Maryland Heights.
As a CBS-owned station, channel 4 cleared the entire network schedule and, after the launch ofCBS News Nightwatch in 1982 adopted a 24/7 schedule as a result. When Viacom took over in 1986, this changed rather drastically. KMOV began signing off the air at night, thus preemptingNightwatch. A barrage of scattered prime time preemptions later followed that was so rampant, the station earned a mention inKen Auletta's 1991 book,Three Blind Mice. KMOV randomly replaced CBS prime time shows with programming such asBilly Graham Crusades andNational Geographic specials, syndicatedmovie packages, and occasional local and regionalsporting events, all of which allowed the station and Viacom full control of the ad time airing during the preemptions. According to Auletta, KMOV preempted 103 hours of CBS prime time programs in 1987, accounting for nearly 10 percent of the network prime time schedule.[49] In the 1990s, the prime time preemptions eased as all networks began to tighten down contractually on heavy preemptions, and currently, the station only occasionally preempts a CBS prime time show, usually only due to breaking news or severe weather. The station also resumed a 24-hour broadcast schedule in the early 1990s.
From September 1989 until September 11, 2015, KMOV airedThe Young and the Restless on a same-daydelay at 3 p.m., and later, at 4 p.m. (serving as a lead-in for its early-evening newscasts), withThe Price Is Right airing on a one-hour delay at 11 a.m.; KMOV also delayedThe Late Late Show by a half-hour since 1997 under original hostTom Snyder (one of several CBS stations that have done this practice), in order to run syndicated programming after theLate Show with David Letterman (KMOV completely preemptedThe Late Late Show during the program's first two years on the air). On September 14, 2015, KMOV movedThe Price Is Right,The Young and the Restless andThe Late Late Show to their recommended network time periods with the first full season under Meredith ownership, with the relocation of the former two shows occurring as a result of the launch of a half-hour 4 p.m. newscast.[50]
KMOX/KMOV served as the unofficial home station of the NFL'sSt. Louis Cardinals from their arrival in St. Louis in 1960 until the1987 season, when the team relocated to Phoenix, Arizona. It also aired any games of the city's next NFL team, theRams from1998 (whenCBS acquired the AFC broadcast package) to2015 (usually home interconference contests), when the Rams returned to Los Angeles.
KMOV aired games of the baseball St. Louis Cardinals from1990 to1993 as part ofCBS' national broadcast contract with Major League Baseball. In2025, the Cardinals and KMOV parent Gray Media announced an agreement to simulcast at least 10 games withFanDuel Sports Network Midwest. All games will air on Matrix Midwest with select games also on KMOV.[51]
KMOV was also served as the host of the2005 Final Four which took place at theEdward Jones Dome.
The station airedSt. Louis BluesNHL games for one season, during the1996–97 season until their over-the-air telecasts moved back to KPLR-TV for the1997–98 season. In January 2025, the Blues announced an agreement with Gray Media to exclusively broadcast three regular season games during the2024–25 season. All of the games will air on Matrix Midwest, while two games will be simulcast on KMOV's primary subchannel.[52]
In 2003, KMOV began producingAt the Zoo, a program that gives a behind-the-scenes look inside theSt. Louis Zoo and was hosted by meteorologist Kent Ehrhardt (encore presentations of older episodes aired from 2009 to 2011). In September 2008, KMOV premieredGreat Day St. Louis, an hour-long daytime talk show, mostly focusing on entertainment and lifestyle topics in the St. Louis area (the show is currently hosted by Matt Chambers, Kent Ehrhardt, and Laura Hettiger). In January 2011, KMOV debutedAt the Center, which features an inside look at attractions at theSt. Louis Science Center.
KMOV presently broadcasts 41 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with6+1⁄2 hours each weekday, five hours on Saturdays and3+1⁄2 hours on Sundays). In addition, the station produces the half-hour sports wrap-up programSports Sunday, which airs on Sundays after the 10 p.m. newscast. Many members of KMOV's on-air news staff have moved on to work for national news organizations (Richelle Carey and meteorologistReynolds Wolf, for example, both joinedCNN in 2006). While it would seem like a positive aspect, the "revolving door" turnover rate of its anchors and reporters has been one of KMOV's weaknesses over the years (especially under CBS ownership, where it had the same "farm team" talent development roleWKYC inCleveland played for NBC), leading to the unfamiliarity that many of the station's on-air personalities have in the market. Though this may have initially caused some issues for KMOV, ratings for channel 4's newscasts have since increased. Since the departure ofKaren Foss from KSDK in December 2006, Larry Conners assumed the title of the longest-serving 10 p.m. news anchor in the market until he was fired by the station in 2013 after a Facebook post questioning if he was being audited by theInternal Revenue Service in the wake of a contentious interview with PresidentBarack Obama during the 2012 election cycle.[53]
In 1976, channel 4 became the second station to adopt Dick Marx's "WBBM Channel 2 News Theme", that eventually became the de facto official newscast music for CBS' owned-and-operated stations. The theme was dropped by the station in 1986 after Viacom took control, though from 2001 to 2008, the station used theFrank Gari-composed "CBS Enforcer Music Collection", which uses a music signature derived from the WBBM package. Ironically from 1989 to 1992, KMOV used Gari's "News Series 2000", which was traditionally associated with ABC stations, as its news theme. In July 2018, the "CBS Enforcer Music Collection" theme returned to the station, replacing their previous theme, the Gari-composed "The Edge".[54]
KMOX-TV was competitive in the ratings for most of the period from the late 1960s to the early 1980s.[citation needed] From the early 1980s until recently, KMOX-TV/KMOV was a solid, if distant, runner-up to KSDK. However, until the mid-1990s, the station had to fend off spirited competition from KTVI. Although KMOV's newscasts were critically favored, they were rarely rewarded with a ratings win over long-dominant KSDK, with the 10 p.m. newscast regularly winning at least a 20 percent share in viewership, while KSDK averaged about a 30 percent share. KMOV has seen significant ratings growth since 2004, and beat KSDK at 10 p.m. both during the November 2004 sweeps period – the first time in over a quarter-century that KSDK did not place first in any timeslot – and during the May[55] and November 2006 sweeps periods; it also became the most-watched late evening newscast in the United States during the latter period. Most of the ratings growth at 10 p.m. was attributed to CBS' prime time ratings increases and NBC's large drop in viewership. However, KMOV also saw growth in all of its other newscast timeslots, even where the station does not benefit from a strong CBS lead-in.[56] Starting in late 2013, KMOV started to dominate the news ratings in most newscasts, winning the noon, 5, 6 and 10 p.m. time slots, while KSDK plummeted to third place at 5 and 6 p.m. for the first time in that station's history. Despite the firing of longtime anchor Larry Conners by the station in May 2013, KMOV has placed first among the market's 10 p.m. newscast in every demographic every month since that time.
In February 2002, KMOV partnered with theSt. Louis Post-Dispatch to produce the weekly news discussion programExtra Edition, hosted by now-former weekday morning anchor Marc Cox.
On January 27, 2008, beginning with its 5:30 p.m. newscast, KMOV became the second television station in the St. Louis market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts inhigh definition (after KSDK, which has produced its newscasts in the format since 2006).
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | KMOV-HD | CBS |
| 4.2 | 720p | 1stAlrt | First Alert Weather Now | |
| 4.3 | 480p | COZI-TV | Cozi TV | |
| 4.4 | Mystery | Ion Mystery | ||
| 11.4 | 480i | 16:9 | Rewind | 365BLK (KPLR-TV) |
| 32.1 | 720p | 16:9 | MATRIX |
|
On February 17, 2014, KMOV dropped theLive Well Network, as Meredith planned on using the bandwidth utilized from digital channel 4.3 for the station'sATSC M/Hmobile DTV signal.[59] On November 17, 2014, KMOV relaunched 4.3 as "MyTV St. Louis", returning MyNetworkTV (and some syndicated programming) to the market after a nine-month absence due to former affiliateWRBU (channel 46)'s sale toIon Media Networks and that station's wholesale conversion into anIon Television owned-and-operated station.[60]
KMOV carriedMeTV on their second subchannel from 2013 until February 1, 2018, when it moved toKNLC-TV (channel 24), which was sold in December 2017 to MeTV parentWeigel Broadcasting. This allowed Meredith to airCozi TV for the first time in the St. Louis market (it had entered an agreement to air on Meredith stations in early 2016, but KMOV's circumstances with MeTV and MyNetworkTV under their previous Belo and Gannett ownerships prevented Cozi TV from being carried until that point).
On August 22, 2024, as part of a larger initiative by Gray Television to launchregional sports networks, the MyNetworkTV subchannel was rebranded as "Matrix Midwest". Its new lineup includes a partnership with theMissouri Tigers to produce pre- and post-game shows for its football games (Mizzou Live) and a coach's show (Tiger Talk) withEliah Drinkwitz. The channel continues to otherwise carry its existing syndicated, lifestyle, and MyNetworkTV programming, while also addingGMFB: Overtime (the syndicated extension ofNFL Network'sGood Morning Football) as part of its weekday lineup.[61][62] In September 2024, it was announced that the subchannel would also airMissouri Valley Conference basketball as part of an agreement between the conference and Gray, with a package of regular season games, and coverage of the opening round and quarter finals of theMVC men's basketball tournament. The games also stream onESPN+ and the ESPN app.[63] The subchannel also has an agreement with theSt. Louis Blues to air classic games and the Blues Hall of Fame induction ceremony.[64] In February 2025, Matrix Midwest aired matches from theCoachella Valley Invitational preseason tournament featuringSt. Louis City SC ofMajor League Soccer.[65]
KMOV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 4, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United Statestransitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 56, which was among the high-bandUHF channels (52–69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to UHF channel 24, usingvirtual channel 4.[66][67]
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofMissouri | ||
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Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Missouri | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Spanish | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofIllinois | ||
|---|---|---|
Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Illinois | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Spanish | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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