KSTP-TV (channel 5) is a

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...

licensed to

Saint Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County, Minnesota, Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississip ...

, United States, serving the

Twin Cities Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in statu ...

area as an affiliate of

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

. It is the

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...

television property of locally based

Hubbard Broadcasting Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc. is an American television and radio broadcasting corporation based in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was founded by Stanley E. Hubbard. The corporation has broadcast outlets scattered across Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri, ...

, which has owned the station since its inception, and is

sister A sister is a woman or a girl who shares one or more parents with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

-licensed

independent station An independent station is an independent radio or terrestrial television station which is independent in some way from broadcast networks. The definition of "independence" varies from country to country, reflecting governmental regulations, market ...

KSTC-TV KSTC-TV (channel 5.2) is an independent television station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, serving the Twin Cities area. Owned by Hubbard Broadcasting, it is sister to Saint Paul–licensed ABC affiliate and company flagshi ...

(channel 5.2) and

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

s KSTP (1500 AM),

KSTP-FM KSTP-FM (94.5 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station in St. Paul, Minnesota, serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul radio market. It is the flagship FM station of Hubbard Broadcasting and airs a hot adult contemporary radio format. The station has l ...

(94.5), and

KTMY KTMY (107.1 FM) is an entertainment-oriented talk radio station, serving the Twin Cities as well as portions of West Central Wisconsin. The station is owned and operated by Hubbard Broadcasting. KTMY's studios and offices are located on Univers ...

(107.1 FM). The five outlets share studios on

University Avenue A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

, on the Saint Paul–Minneapolis border; KSTP-TV's transmitter is located at Telefarm Towers in

Shoreview, Minnesota Shoreview is a city in Ramsey County, Minnesota. The population was 25,043 at the time of the 2010 census. In 2008, Shoreview ranked fourth in a ''Family Circle'' list of best family towns. Geography According to the United States Census Burea ...

. KSTP-TV operates two full-power

satellite station A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tran ...

s: KSAX (channel 42) in

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...

(with transmitter near Westport), and KRWF (channel 43) in Redwood Falls (with transmitter near Vesta). KSTP-TV also serves as the default ABC affiliate for the

Mankato Mankato ( ) is a city in Blue Earth, Nicollet, and Le Sueur counties in the state of Minnesota. The population was 44,488 according to the 2020 census, making it the 21st-largest city in Minnesota, and the 5th-largest outside of the Minnea ...

market, as that area does not have an ABC affiliate of its own. The station's signal is also relayed in

St. James, Minnesota St. James or Saint James is a city in and the county seat of Watonwan County, Minnesota, Watonwan County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 4,793 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Minnesota State Highways Minnesota State ...

over translator K30FN-D, which also serves the Mankato market.

Nielsen Media Research Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...

treats KSTP-TV and its satellites as one station in local ratings books, using the identifier name KSTP+.

History

Stanley E. Hubbard Stanley Eugene Hubbard (June 26, 1897 - December 27, 1992) was an American businessman, the founder of Hubbard Broadcasting. Early life Stanley E. Hubbard was born on June 26, 1897, in Red Wing, Minnesota, the son of Frank Valentine Hubbard and ...

, founder of KSTP radio, was one of broadcasting's foremost pioneers. In June 1939, he purchased one of the first

television camera A professional video camera (often called a television camera even though its use has spread beyond television) is a high-end device for creating electronic moving images (as opposed to a movie camera, that earlier recorded the images on film). O ...

s available from

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

and began experimenting with television, but the television blackout brought on by

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

prevented any transmissions from being made. The first telecast by KSTP-TV reportedly occurred on December 7, 1947, when Jack Horner hosted a 25-minute program. On April 27, 1948, KSTP-TV signed on as the first commercial television station in Minnesota, although an experimental

mechanical television Mechanical television or mechanical scan television is a television system that relies on a mechanical scanning device, such as a rotating disk with holes in it or a rotating mirror drum, to scan the scene and generate the video signal, and a si ...

station had been set up by

WDGY WDGY (740 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Hudson, Wisconsin, and serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul radio market. It is owned by WRPX, inc. and airs a Classic Hits/Oldies radio format. The station's studios and offices are ...

station engineers more than a decade earlier. That station's license expired in 1938 as the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

(FCC) was not interested in continuing mechanical TV broadcasts. KSTP-TV was originally an

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

affiliate, as KSTP radio had been an affiliate of the

NBC Red Network The National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (known as the NBC Red Network prior to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in operation from 1926 through 2004. Along with the NBC Blue Network it was one of the first t ...

since 1928. Channel 5 claims to have been the NBC television network's first affiliate located west of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

; however, this distinction is actually held by KSD-TV (now

KSDK KSDK (channel 5) is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. The station's studios are located on Market Street in Downtown St. Louis, and its transmitter is located in Shrewsbury, Mi ...

) in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, which signed on one year earlier. (Also, both the studios and the transmitter are located east of the river.) It was part of NBC's Midwest Network, a regional group of NBC affiliates that fed programming in the days before the

coaxial cable Coaxial cable, or coax (pronounced ) is a type of electrical cable consisting of an inner conductor surrounded by a concentric conducting shield, with the two separated by a dielectric ( insulating material); many coaxial cables also have a p ...

link to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. In 1961, due to its status as an NBC affiliate, it was the first television station not owned by a network to broadcast all of its local programs in

color Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...

. In the mid-1970s,

—which had become the top-rated television network in the United States—began looking for stronger affiliates across the country.

KMSP-TV KMSP-TV (channel 9) is a television station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, broadcasting the Fox network to the Twin Cities area. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetwo ...

(channel 9), the Twin Cities' ABC affiliate since 1961, had long struggled in the ratings. ABC had approached

WTCN-TV (channel 11, now

KARE Kare or KARE may refer to: * Kare (Žitorađa), a village in Serbia * Kare language, several languages with the name * Kare (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) * Kare Kauks (born 1961), Estonian singer * Kåre or Kaare, ...

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

affiliate

WCCO-TV WCCO-TV (channel 4) is a television station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, broadcasting the CBS network to the Twin Cities area. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, and maintains studios ...

(channel 4), and KSTP-TV to affiliate with the network. Channel 5 surprised the industry on August 29, 1978 by announcing its intention to sever ties with then third-place NBC after 30 years to join ABC. The affiliation switch occurred on March 5, 1979 and was ABC's biggest coup at the time; the NBC affiliation subsequently went to WTCN-TV that same day. One of the last prime time NBC programs to air on channel 5 was ''

The Wonderful World of Disney The Walt Disney Company has produced an anthology television series since 1954 under several titles and formats. The program's current title, ''The Wonderful World of Disney'', was used from 1969 to 1979 and again from 1991 to the present. The pr ...

''; the first ABC program to air in general on the station was ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...

'', as announced by then-news anchor Bob Bruce. Later on, the first prime time ABC program to air on the station was a first-run episode of the short-lived series, ''

Salvage 1 ''Salvage 1'' is an American science fiction series that was broadcast for 16 episodes (of the 20 produced) on ABC during 1979. The pilot film, ''Salvage'', was shown on January 20, 1979, to high ratings. Plot The pilot centers on Harry Broder ...

''. "We want to go into the 1980s in a leadership position with a network which we think has the management, team and depth to be the best. That's ABC. We're just absolutely thrilled," said KSTP's Stanley S. Hubbard, son of station founder Stanley E. Hubbard. In 2000, Hubbard Broadcasting purchased independent station KVBM-TV (channel 45; now KSTC), creating Minnesota's first commercial television station

duopoly A duopoly (from Greek δύο, ''duo'' "two" and πωλεῖν, ''polein'' "to sell") is a type of oligopoly where two firms have dominant or exclusive control over a market. It is the most commonly studied form of oligopoly due to its simplicit ...

(though there is a longstanding

public television Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...

duopoly: KTCA/KTCI).

Logo

KSTP-TV has used its "groovy 5" logo or variations on it since April 1969—it is the longest-used station logo in the Upper Midwest. By 1982, the design contained a white '5' on a red rounded edge square background. The number was italicized for a time in the mid-to-late 1980s. In the early 1990s, the logo endured a more dramatic makeover, with a gold colored '5' on a blue ABC-style disc (with either the call letters or the ''Eyewitness News'' name imprinted upon it), with the center colored in green. By the late 1990s, a brighter logo—still with a gold '5'—returned to the rectangular look, adding a black ABC logo. From 2004 to late 2014, a white '5' was used on a red

parallelogram In Euclidean geometry, a parallelogram is a simple (non- self-intersecting) quadrilateral with two pairs of parallel sides. The opposite or facing sides of a parallelogram are of equal length and the opposite angles of a parallelogram are of equa ...

, also featuring the ABC logo. On November 30, 2014, the logo was redesigned, and now features the "groovy 5" logo in blue with red lines circling the left part of the logo, with the ABC logo again. On March 22, 2021, the logo got its current redesign, putting a white 5 inside a red "app" shaped square with rounded corners (an updated version of the 1982–1986 logo). An updated graphics and music package debuted on the same day.

Broadcast center

KSTP-TV's studios and offices—also serving as the corporate offices of Hubbard Broadcasting and, from 1989 to 2002, the studios of sister operation

All News Channel All News Channel (ANC) was an American satellite television news channel that was owned by CONUS Communications, a joint venture between Viacom and Hubbard Broadcasting. The channel was carried mainly on direct-broadcast satellite provider D ...

—are located at 3415

, precisely on the Minneapolis–St. Paul boundary. The sidewalk in the adjacent photo of the building is on the city line. The principal production facilities, including the news studio, are on the Minneapolis side of the building. However, the station has a St. Paul mailing address (55114-2099) and telephone number (

area code 651 Area code 651 is the telephone numbering plan code for Saint Paul, Minnesota, and the eastern suburbs of the Twin Cities. A dogleg portion also extends to the southeast along the Mississippi River to include cities such as Hastings. The region ...

) because its business and advertising offices are on the St. Paul side. The large freestanding transmitting tower, which was amongst the tallest in the country when completed in 1948, has one leg in each city, with the third leg precisely on the city line. This tower is primarily used as a

studio transmitter link A studio transmitter link (or STL) sends a radio station's or television station's audio and video from the broadcast studio or origination facility to a radio transmitter, television transmitter or uplink facility in another location. This is ac ...

relaying the signals for both KSTP-TV and KSTP-FM to the

Telefarm The Telefarm Towers is a transmission site for FM radio and television broadcasting in Shoreview, Minnesota consisting of two guyed towers. The towers, called ''Shoreview Towers'' by local residents, are owned by Telefarm, Inc., a joint venture ...

paired tower setup in

Shoreview Shoreview is a city in Ramsey County, Minnesota. The population was 25,043 at the time of the 2010 census. In 2008, Shoreview ranked fourth in a ''Family Circle'' list of best family towns. Geography According to the United States Census Burea ...

(shared with

, WCCO-TV, KARE, and

WUCW WUCW (channel 23) is a television station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, serving the Twin Cities area as an affiliate of The CW. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station maintains studios in the Pence Building on 8th ...

), along with backup transmitter facilities in case of failure at Shoreview. The tower also houses the transmitter for KEC65, the

NOAA Weather Radio NOAA Weather Radio NWR; also known as NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards is an automated 24-hour network of VHF FM weather radio stations in the United States (U.S.) that broadcast weather information directly from a nearby National Weather Serv ...

station serving the Twin Cities area.

Programming

KSTP clears most ABC network programming. In the late 1970s, KSTP was the base for ''Country Day'', a half-hour weekday agricultural news program that aired on a "network" of stations in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Steve Edstrom was the main host. From 1982 to 1994, when nationally syndicated

talk show A talk show (or chat show in British English) is a television programming or radio programming genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Show ...

s started ruling the daytime airwaves, KSTP ran a talk program of its own called ''Good Company'', that was hosted by married couple Sharon Anderson and Steve Edelman. Both of them had appeared briefly in the movie '' Fargo'' as TV hosts, and continue to be recognized as area celebrities from time to time. Currently, Edelman runs Edelman Productions, a company that produces series for

Food Network Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (which holds a 69% ownership stake of the network) and Nexstar Media Group ...

HGTV HGTV (an initialism for Home & Garden Television) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The network primarily broadcasts reality programming related to home improvement and real estate. As of February 2015, appr ...

History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

and

DIY Network Magnolia Network is an American basic cable network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and Chip and Joanna Gaines. It broadcasts personality-based lifestyle programs related to topics such as home construction, Home renovation, renovation, and cuisi ...

, with his wife Anderson hosting a few of them. Edelman Productions is headquartered in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

where both Edelman and Anderson now live, but it has offices both in California and Minnesota, where they produce their shows. In 2007, KSTP decided to bring back an hour-long afternoon talk program similar to ''Good Company.'' ''Twin Cities Live'', described as "a show about Minnesotans created by Minnesotans", began airing on April 21, 2008 and airs weekdays at 3:00 p.m. A public casting call at the

Mall of America Mall of America (MOA) is a large shopping mall located in Bloomington, Minnesota, United States. Located within the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, the mall lies southeast of the junction of Interstate 494 and Minnesota State Highway ...

attracted a

Burnsville, Minnesota Burnsville () is a city south of downtown Minneapolis in Dakota County, Minnesota. The city lies on a bluff overlooking the south bank of the Minnesota River upstream from its confluence with the Mississippi River. Burnsville and nearby subur ...

native, John Hanson, who was selected from over 500 people. A few months later, former

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

news anchor Rebekah Wood was hired as his partner. Wood was replaced by Elizabeth Ries on June 15, 2009. Ries and Hanson co-hosted together for over three years until Hanson received an offer to become the program director of KCSP in

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

. Hanson's last day on ''Twin Cities Live'' was December 21, 2012. Over the next four months, numerous television personalities served as guest co-hosts on ''TCL'' until the producers could find the best fit. KSTP weekend anchor Chris Egert was chosen to be Ries' new co-host on April 29, 2013. Egert and Ries co-hosted the show for nine months until Egert was promoted to weekday morning news anchor in February 2014. The station again had to go through a process of finding the next co-host, this time taking five months. On July 21, 2014, Steve Patterson was named the new co-host of ''TCL''. Ries is the current host of ''Twin Cities Live''. On April 16, 2018, close to ten years after the program first hit the airwaves, ''Twin Cities Live'' was expanded to 90 minutes to include an extra half-hour at 4:00 p.m. called ''Twin Cities Live at Four,'' also hosted by Patterson and Ries. The extra half-hour replaced ''

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'' (often informally called ''Millionaire'') is an international television game show franchise of British origin, created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight. In its format, currently owned and ...

'' (which was cancelled in May 2019) which was moved to 2:00 p.m. Patterson left ''Twin Cities Live'' in 2021. The title ''Twin Cities Live'' was first used from 1985 to 1991 for a short-lived morning talk show that debuted at a time when KSTP was trying to reinvent its news image. The other talk show that aired on KSTP-TV is ''

Live with Kelly and Ryan ''Live with Kelly and Ryan'' (or simply ''Live'') is an American syndicated morning talk show hosted by Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest. Executive produced by Michael Gelman, the ''Live with...'' show formula has aired under various hosts since ...

'', which was on KSTP for 33 years beginning in the late 1980s under prior hosts

Kathie Lee Gifford Kathryn Lee Gifford (née Epstein; born August 16, 1953) is an American television presenter, singer, songwriter, actress and author. From 1985 to 2000, she and Regis Philbin hosted the talk show ''Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee''. Gifford is a ...

and

Regis Philbin Regis Francis Xavier Philbin (; August 25, 1931 – July 25, 2020)Archived aGhostarchiveand thWayback Machine was an American television presenter, talk show host, game show host, comedian, actor, and singer. Once called "the hardest working ma ...

and ending in 2021, when it moved to KARE. During the

trial of Derek Chauvin ''State of Minnesota v. Derek Michael Chauvin'' is an American criminal case in the District Court of Minnesota in which former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was tried and convicted of the murder of George Floyd during an arrest on ...

, KSTP launched a digital subchannel showing the court feed without commentary.

News operation

KSTP-TV presently broadcasts 37 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with six hours each weekday and 3½ hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). In addition, the station produces a political discussion show called ''At Issue'', which is hosted by Tom Hauser, and ''Sports Wrap'', a sports highlight program that airs on Sunday evenings at 10:45 p.m. and on special occasions, such as when KSTP airs

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

Monday Night Football ''ESPN Monday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''MNF'' and also known as ''ESPN Monday Night Football on ABC'' for simulcasts) is an American live television broadcast of weekly National Football League (NFL) games currently airing on ESPN, AB ...

'' telecasts featuring the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...

, or the final game of the

NBA Finals The NBA Finals is the annual championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Eastern and Western Conference champions play a best-of-seven game series to determine the league champion. The team that wins the series is awa ...

. The station formerly ran a Friday night edition of the program focusing on high school sports that aired from September through May. These segments were usually hosted by Rod Simons and Anne Hutchinson, but Simons was later fired by the station in 2008 and Hutchinson also was let go in December of that year. A week prior to Hutchinson's departure, ''High School Sports Wrap'' was canceled due to low revenues. For much of the time since the 1980s,

KQRS-FM KQRS-FM (92.5 FM, KQ92 or 92 KQRS) is a Classic Rock radio station in the Twin Cities region of Minnesota. The station is licensed to suburban Golden Valley, transmits from the KMSP-TV tower in Shoreview, and is owned by Cumulus Media, wit ...

morning show host

Tom Barnard Thomas 'Tom' Mark Paul Barnard (born November 7, 1951) is an American talk radio host and former voice-over talent. He retired as the host of '' The KQ92 Morning Show'' on 92 KQRS but currently hosts Tom Barnard Show on 105 The Ticket from 6:0 ...

has served as the station's voice-over announcer. A longtime trademark of the station is the use of the letter " V" in

Morse code Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one of ...

(standing for 'victory') as a sonic identity, a hallmark of Stanley E. Hubbard's operation of the KSTP stations since World War II, when he held an interest in teaching Morse code to his listening audience. For a time in the early 1990s, KSTP aired overnight news under the banner of ''Eyewitness News All Night'', featuring half-hour local news blocks, alternating with blocks of content from the Hubbard-owned

(which originated from KSTP's facilities and utilized the station's on-air personalities). The station ran advertisements in 2005 featuring

Ed Asner Eddie Asner (; November 15, 1929 – August 29, 2021) was an American actor and former president of the Screen Actors Guild. He is best remembered for portraying Lou Grant during the 1970s and early 1980s, on both ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' an ...

(emulating

Lou Grant Lou Grant is a fictional character played by Ed Asner in two television series produced by MTM Enterprises for CBS. The first was ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' (1970–1977), a half-hour light-hearted situation comedy in which the character was ...

Meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists in research, while t ...

Dave Dahl was hired in 1977, began doing on-air weather reporting in 1979, and was named chief meteorologist in 1986. Dahl denies

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

and states that the earth has been stable or cooling for the last two decades. Dave Dahl retired at the end of 2020. Joe Schmit was a sports reporter and later

sports director The title of sports director can refer to the director of a live sports broadcast. It can also refer to an individual at a television or radio station who is in charge of the sports department. Director Director may refer to: Literature * ...

from 1985, until switching to news anchor in 2005; Schmit left the station in June 2006 to join Petters Media and Marketing Group. After the collapse of the company and the arrest and conviction of founder

Tom Petters Thomas Joseph Petters is a former American businessman and chairman and CEO of Petters Group Worldwide, a company which stole over $2 billion in a Ponzi scheme. He was convicted of massive business fraud in 2009 and is now imprisoned at the Unit ...

, Schmit returned to KSTP-TV on January 14, 2010. On May 12, 2006, KSTP debuted a half-hour newscast at 4 p.m. On September 10, 2007, it was moved to 4:30 p.m., serving as a lead-in to the 5 p.m. newscast. For the first year, KSTP began to have news competition in that timeslot, when KARE debuted an online/television lifestyle program at 4 p.m. in May 2007. KSTP began broadcasting its newscasts in high-definition on June 14, 2009, the first Hubbard-owned station and also, the last major network station in the Twin Cities to do so (KMSP and WCCO had already transitioned their local newscasts to HD the previous month, on May 11 and 28, respectively). On August 30, 2010, KSTP expanded its weekday morning newscast a half-hour earlier, now running from 4:30 to 7 a.m.

Notable former on-air staff

* Stan Turner – anchor (1968–1989; now retired) *

Ron Magers Ron Magers (born August 27, 1944) is a former American news anchor. Magers worked for WLS-TV, the ABC owned-and-operated station in Chicago, Illinois, where he co-anchored the top-rated 5:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. broadcasts with Cheryl Bur ...

– anchor (1974–1981; later at

WMAQ-TV WMAQ-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, airing programming from the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Telemundo outlet WSNS-TV (chan ...

and then

WLS-TV WLS-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, airing programming from the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios on North State S ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

; now retired) * Frank Somerville – anchor (later at

KTVU KTVU (channel 2) is a television station licensed to Oakland, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's Fox network outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside San Jose� ...

) * Dave Dahl- weather

Technical information

Subchannels

The digital signal of KSTP-TV contains three subchannels, while KSTC-TV's signal contains four. Through the use of

virtual channel In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver's ...

s, KSTC-TV's subchannels are associated with channel 5.

Analog-to-digital conversion

KSTP-TV signed on its digital television signal in 1999. The station shut down its analog signal, over

VHF Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter. Frequencies immediately below VHF ...

channel 5, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station moved its digital signal from its pre-transition

UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...

channel 50 to channel 35. Through the use of

PSIP The Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) is the MPEG (a video and audio industry group) and privately defined program-specific information originally defined by General Instrument for the DigiCipher 2 system and later extended for the A ...

, digital television receivers display the station's

as its former VHF analog channel 5. The station participated in the "

Analog Nightlight The Short-term Analog Flash and Emergency Readiness Act, or SAFER Act, (, ) is a U.S. law that required the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to allow the continuation of full-power analog TV transmission (radio), transmissions in 2009 for ...

" program until its analog transmitter was turned off for good on July 12, 2009.

Satellite stations and translators

Satellites

KSTP-TV operates two satellite stations northwest of the Twin Cities area. These two stations carry KSTP on their DT1 signal, KSTC on DT2, and MeTV on DT3, leaving the other three subchannel services exclusive to the Twin Cities. KSAX's schedule was virtually identical to that of KSTP-TV, though it aired separate identifications and commercials. It also placed local inserts into KSTP's weeknight broadcasts. KRWF was a full-time repeater of KSAX. Expanding their operations in 1999, the stations hired their first meteorologist. This continued in 2004 with the launch of a half-hour high school sports highlight show. The stations have won numerous

broadcast journalism Broadcast journalism is the field of news and journals which are broadcast by electronic methods instead of the older methods, such as printed newspapers and posters. It works on radio (via air, cable, and Internet), television (via air, cable, ...

awards from various broadcaster associations. On June 25, 2012, Hubbard Broadcasting shut down KSAX/KRWF's local operations, converting the two stations into full-time satellites of KSTP-TV outside of occasional local advertising and community calendar notices.

Translators

In addition, KSTP-TV's signal is further extended by way of twelve

translators Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

in central and southern Minnesota:

Carriage in Canada

On September 11, 2014, KSTP-TV filed a complaint with the

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; french: Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes, links=) is a public organization in Canada with mandate as a regulatory agency for broadcasti ...

(CRTC) regarding its carriage in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and

simultaneous substitution Simultaneous substitution (also known as simsubbing or signal substitution) is a practice mandated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) requiring broadcast distribution undertakings (BDUs) in Canada to dist ...

(simsubbing), as well as notifying the CRTC of viewer complaints of problems with

closed captioning Closed captioning (CC) and subtitling are both processes of displaying text on a television, video screen, or other visual display to provide additional or interpretive information. Both are typically used as a transcription of the audio por ...

and poorly-timed simsubbing on its cable feed in Canada. In particular, KSTP is stating it is authorized for broadcast by the FCC, and not the CRTC, and is concerned that it may not have the appropriate broadcast rights for viewing in Canada. Hubbard Broadcasting, the owners of KSTP-TV, also argued concerns about their video feed being modified for Canadian viewers via simsubbing, removal of its closed-captioning information (a Broadcast Act violation, if proven), not having its

digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...

s carried as well, and that this might be a potential

Copyright Act of Canada The ''Copyright Act'' of Canada is the federal statute governing copyright law in Canada. It is jointly administered by the Department of Industry Canada and the Department of Canadian Heritage. The ''Copyright Act'' was first passed in 1921 and su ...

violation for its programming to air in Canada. Similar t
other American stations
KSTP has also asked for compensation for its carriage in Canada or to have its unauthorized coverage cease, as it was never asked for permission to be relayed on cable services in Canada. The CRTC ultimately ruled against KSTP-TV on September 16, 2014 regarding their request to be removed from the CRTC's list of stations eligible for carriage in Canada, a fear that was shared by

Shaw Media Shaw Media was the television broadcasting division of Shaw Communications. Shaw Media owned the Global Television Network, which broadcasts nationally via 13 television stations, as well as 19 specialty channels including Slice (TV channel), Sli ...

(owners of

Shaw Direct Shaw Direct is a direct broadcast satellite television distributor in Canada and a subsidiary of the telecommunications company Shaw Communications. As of 2010, Shaw Direct had over 900,000 subscribers. It broadcasts on Ku band from two communic ...

Shaw Cable Shaw Communications Inc. is a Canadian telecommunications company which provides telephone, Internet, television, and mobile services. Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Shaw provides home telecommunications services primarily in Alberta and Br ...

CANCOM Shaw Broadcast Services ( French: Services de Radiodiffusion Shaw) is the division of Canadian telecommunications company Shaw Communications that is responsible for providing and managing the distribution of television channels to cable companies ...

) and

Thunder Bay Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its population ...

Bruce Hyer Bruce Tolhurst Hyer (born August 6, 1946) is a Canadian politician, businessman, and ecologist. He is the former deputy leader of the Green Party of Canada and the former Member of Parliament for Thunder Bay—Superior North. Hyer was elected i ...

. A secondary concern posed by Shaw Media was that KSTP-TV would try to ask for

fee-for-carriage Fee-for-carriage, value-for-signal, negotiation for value, or the "TV tax" all refer to a proposed Canadian television regulatory policy which would require cable and satellite television companies to compensate conventional, over-the-air televi ...

in a cross-border

retransmission consent Retransmission consent is a provision of the 1992 United States Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act that requires cable operators and other multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) to obtain permission from commercia ...

agreement, which does not currently exist under the Copyright Act of Canada, and as the CRTC explained, is outside the scope of the Broadcast Act of 1968 or its regulatory responsibilities.