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KSDK (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 eart ...
in
St. Louis, Missouri 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 ...
, United States, affiliated with
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
and owned by Tegna Inc. The station's studios are located on Market Street in
Downtown St. Louis Downtown St. Louis is the central business district of St. Louis, Missouri, the hub of tourism and entertainment, and the anchor of the St. Louis metropolitan area. The downtown is bounded by Cole Street to the north, the river front to the eas ...
, and its transmitter is located in
Shrewsbury, Missouri Shrewsbury is an inner-ring suburb of St. Louis, located in St. Louis County, Missouri, United States. The population was 6,254 at the 2010 census. History Shrewsbury was officially platted in 1889. The land which became Shrewsbury originally be ...
. However,
master control Master control is the technical hub of a broadcast operation common among most over-the-air television stations and television networks. It is distinct from a production control room (PCR) in television studios where the activities such as sw ...
and some internal operations are based at the studios of sister station and fellow NBC affiliate
WCNC-TV WCNC-TV (channel 36) is a television station in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, affiliated with NBC. The station is owned by Tegna Inc. WCNC-TV's studios are located in the Wood Ridge Center office complex off Billy Graham Parkway ...
in
Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...
.


History

The station first signed on the air as KSD-TV on February 8, 1947. It was owned by the
Pulitzer Publishing Company Pulitzer, Inc. was an American media company who owned newspapers, television stations and radio stations across the United States. Founded by Joseph Pulitzer (who also funded the Pulitzer Prizes, which are not affiliated with the company), its p ...
, publishers of the '' St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' and owners of KSD radio (550 AM, now KTRS). It was the ninth television station to sign on in the United States and the first television station in Missouri. The station's original studios were located adjacent to the Post-Dispatch building on Olive Street. It was the second commercial station 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 fl ...
, following KTLA in
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
, which had signed on just 17 days earlier. In the early days, KSD produced much of its own programming and developed its own talent pool. Many St. Louis television pioneers from KSD-TV came from radio, including
Frank Eschen Frank Eschen (July 30, 1909 – March 25, 1960) was a radio and television broadcaster in Saint Louis, MO for 28 years during the middle of the 20th century. As a result, he became a well-known St. Louis area personality. He anchored the first off ...
, Kay Morton, Russ Severin and Dave Russell. Because of a freeze on new television station licenses imposed by 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 jurisdicti ...
(FCC), KSD-TV was the only television station in the St. Louis market, until WTVI (channel 54, now
KTVI KTVI (channel 2) is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside CW owned-and-operated station KPLR-TV (channel 11). Both stations share studios o ...
channel 2, a Fox affiliate) signed on in August 1953. Often known as simply "Channel 5," the station has always been an NBC affiliate, owing to KSD radio's longtime affiliation with the
NBC Red Network The NBC, 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 Blue Network, NBC Blue Network it was ...
. The station is currently the longest-tenured affiliate of any major broadcast television network. In its early years, Channel 5 also carried secondary affiliations with
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 Entertainm ...
, DuMont and ABC. In the early 1960s, Channel 5 became the first St. Louis television station to broadcast 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 assoc ...
. After Pulitzer sold KSD radio to Combined Communications Corporation in 1979 (prior to Combined's merger into the Gannett Company that same year), KSD-TV, in order to comply with an FCC regulation in place then that stated that TV and radio stations in the same market, but different ownership had to use different
call signs In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assign ...
, modified theirs to the current KSDK on July 10, 1979. In 1982, the station relocated its studios from its original location on Olive Street to their present location on Market Street in Downtown St. Louis. In 1983, Pulitzer traded channel 5 to Multimedia, Inc. in return for WFBC (now
WYFF WYFF (channel 4) is a television station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina, United States, serving Upstate South Carolina and Western North Carolina as an affiliate of NBC. Owned by Hearst Television, the station maintains studios on Ru ...
) in Greenville, South Carolina, and
WXII-TV WXII-TV (channel 12) is a television station licensed to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States, serving the Piedmont Triad region as an affiliate of NBC. It is owned by Hearst Television alongside Lexington-licensed CW affiliate WCWG (c ...
in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina Winston-Salem is a city and the county seat of Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States. In the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the second-largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region, the 5th most populous city in ...
, in what was a rare instance of one company's flagship station being traded for another. During the 1980s and 1990s, KSDK was the highest-rated NBC affiliate in the country, and it remains the most-watched NBC affiliate in the top 30 markets to this day, despite the network's overall ratings decline that has occurred since the 2004–05 season. In 1990, KSDK dropped the '' Eyewitness News'' branding and rebranded its newscasts as ''NewsChannel 5''; the station also began to operate on a 24-hour-a-day schedule. On July 24, 1995, Multimedia was purchased by the Gannett Company, with the acquisition finalized on December 4. In 1998, KSDK debuted the "Window on St. Louis," a street-side studio located in the same downtown St. Louis building that also houses KSDK's other studios. The local program ''Show Me St. Louis'' used this studio for broadcasts for nearly 20 years. The Window on St. Louis was modeled on ''
Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now'' * Current era, present * The current calendar date Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 ...
''s "Window on the World." In an attempt to provide St. Louisans with local and national election results during the 2004 elections, KSDK partnered with
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
member station
KETC KETC, virtual channel 9 (UHF digital channel 23), is a PBS member television station licensed to St. Louis, Missouri, United States. The station is owned by St. Louis Regional Public Media. KETC's studios are located at the Dana Brown Commu ...
(channel 9) to
simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simulta ...
election coverage. The KSDK/KETC partnership continued through September 2005, when, along with radio partners
KYKY KYKY (98.1 FM) is a commercial radio station in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the Greater St. Louis region of Missouri and Illinois. KYKY airs a Hot AC radio format and is owned by Audacy, Inc. KYKY operates from offices and studios located on ...
(98.1 FM) and
KEZK KEZK-FM (102.5 Hertz, MHz) is a commercial radio, commercial radio station licensed to St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri. It broadcasts an adult contemporary radio format and is owned by Audacy, Inc. From mid-November through the Christmas holida ...
(102.5 FM), a
telethon A telethon (a portmanteau of "television" and "marathon") is a televised fundraising event that lasts many hours or even days, the purpose of which is to raise money for a charitable, political or other purportedly worthy cause. Most telethons f ...
for Hurricane Katrina relief was simulcast. KSDK produced the first broadcast of any local program in St. Louis in high definition, when it broadcast the St. Louis
Thanksgiving Day Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden and ...
Parade on November 24, 2005. Incidentally, the 2005 parade also marked the final year that the event, which had been a Thanksgiving Day tradition on KSDK, would be broadcast on the station, as the parade moved to CBS affiliate
KMOV KMOV (channel 4) is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, affiliated with CBS and MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Gray Television alongside low-power Circle owned-and-operated station KDTL-LD (channel 16). The two stations s ...
(channel 4) in 2006. Around the first week of October 2012, Gannett entered a dispute against Dish Network regarding compensation fees and Dish's AutoHop commercial-skip feature on its Hopper digital video recorders. Gannett ordered that Dish discontinue AutoHop on the account that it is affecting advertising revenues for KSDK. Gannett threatened to suspend its contact with the satellite provider should the skirmish continue beyond October 7 and Dish and Gannett fail to reach an agreement. The two parties eventually reached an agreement after extending the deadline for a few hours. On June 29, 2015, the Gannett Company split in two, with one side specializing in print media and the other side specializing in broadcast and digital media. KSDK was retained by the latter company, named
Tegna Tegna Inc. (stylized in all caps as TEGNA) is an American publicly traded broadcast, digital media and marketing services company headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into t ...
. In 2017, the station re-branded as "5 On Your Side."


Local programming


News operation

KSDK presently broadcasts 34½ hours of locally-produced newscasts each week (with 5½ hours each weekday and 3½ hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). The station also produces five half-hour episodes of ''Show Me St. Louis'' each week. KSDK dominated the news ratings in St. Louis for the better part of its first six decades on the air. KMOX-TV (now KMOV) took the lead in the late 1960s, but KSDK regained the #1 spot in the early 1980s and kept it for most of the next two decades, with some of the highest (and by some measures, ''the'' highest) rated newscasts in the nation. For much of that time, its main anchors stayed at the station for 10 years or more. At one point, its 6 p.m. newscast ended with local elementary schoolchildren flashing the hand signs for "5" and "1", signifying that, as a promo featuring the kids said, "Even a second grader could tell you that Channel 5 is number 1." During the spring 2004 sweeps, it lost its first-place position at 10 p.m. to KMOV, and the two stations have traded the ratings crown in that timeslot several times since then. KMOV has also closed its ratings gap in several other timeslots, due in part to NBC's overall weaker ratings since 2004. KSDK's ratings dominance began to slip dramatically in 2009, first losing late news to KMOV, and then morning news to KTVI. In 2013, its ratings went into free fall. The November 2013 ratings book saw KSDK tumble into last place for the first time in its history. KTVI easily won the morning news and KMOV swept the rest. A sports wrap-up program previously aired on Sunday evenings after the 10 p.m. newscast called ''Sports Plus.'' It was originally hosted by Mike Bush until he moved from sports director to news anchor in 2004, and then hosted by sports director Rene Knott, who became the news co-anchor of ''Today in St. Louis'', KSDK's weekday morning newscast, in 2017. From August 1989 until September 2011, ''Today in St. Louis'' co-anchors Jennifer Blome and Art Holliday had one of the longest anchor pairings in U.S. local television history. In 2011, Holliday was reassigned to co-anchor a new half-hour 4 p.m. newscast alongside Kay Quinn that debuted on September 12, 2011, while Blome was paired with Pat McGonigle (formerly of
WHEC-TV WHEC-TV (channel 10) is a television station in Rochester, New York, United States, affiliated with NBC. Owned by Hubbard Broadcasting, the station maintains studios on East Avenue in Downtown Rochester and a transmitter on Pinnacle Hill in ...
in
Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...
) on the morning newscast.KSDK splitting up Jennifer and Art after 22 years
'' St. Louis Post-Dispatch'', August 29, 2011.
On September 12, 2005, KSDK debuted a half-hour weekday newscast at 10 a.m., following the third hour of NBC's ''Today''; the newscast was discontinued in September 2009, but returned on September 12, 2011 as an hour-long program (as a result, the fourth hour of ''Today'' airs on a one-hour delay at 11 a.m.). On February 6, 2006, KSDK became the first television station in St. Louis, and the seventh station in the United States, to broadcast all newscasts and locally produced programming in high definition; it also became the first St. Louis area station to stream all of its newscasts online. On August 13, 2007, KSDK debuted ''Online @ 9'', a 10-minute news webcast on the station's website that was tailored to an online audience. That online newscast has been discontinued. On November 11, 2010, KSDK entered into a news share agreement with
Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, ...
-owned ABC affiliate
KDNL-TV KDNL-TV (channel 30) is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, affiliated with ABC. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station maintains studios on Cole Street in the Downtown West section of St. Louis, and its transm ...
, to produce two pre-recorded half-hour newscasts at 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. weeknights for that station starting on January 3, 2011 (prior to the agreement, KDNL had not run any local newscasts since it shut down its news department in October 2001); in addition, KDNL also aired weekend rebroadcasts of KSDK's entertainment/features program ''Show Me St. Louis''. KDNL general manager Tom Tipton stated that the station did not want to run simulcast or repurposed newscasts in its efforts to return daily newscasts to channel 30. The arrangement was unusual given that KSDK and KDNL are both " Big Three" network affiliates, and the fact that the newscasts on both stations competed against one another. The agreement with KDNL was to have ended on December 31, 2013; however, it was extended for another month until January 31, 2014. On September 12, 2011, along with the relaunch of its 10 a.m. newscast and the addition of a 4 p.m. newscast, ''Today in St. Louis'' expanded from 2½ to three hours on weekday mornings, now running at 4–7 a.m.; while the noon newscast was reduced to a half-hour with ''Show Me St. Louis'' being moved to fill the remaining half-hour. With these additions, KSDK was reduced to only three hours of syndicated daytime shows to back up its newscasts outside of NBC network programming. By 2014, KSDK had cancelled its 10 a.m. newscast, with a now hour-long ''Show Me St. Louis'' taking up the 10 a.m. hour, with the noon newscast also expanding back to 60 minutes in length. By 2017, ''Show Me St. Louis'' was again only 30 minutes, with infomercials filling the 10:30 half hour. The noon news was typically 30 minutes long with occasional extensions to 60 minutes, with another infomercial filling the 12:30 slot. In 2017, KSDK's noon news was discontinued, and replaced with a second run of ''
Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given gene ...
'' In 2018, ''Today in St. Louis'' was reduced to two hours on weekday mornings, running from 5–7 a.m. In 2020, KSDK expanded ''Today in St. Louis'' back to 2½ hours, running at 4:30–7 a.m. In addition, KSDK revived its 10 a.m. newscast for a third time and has moved ''Show Me St. Louis'' to 10:30 a.m. In October 2021, KSDK revived its noon newscast and moved ''Jeopardy!'' to 12:30. KSDK used to operate a Bell 206B3 JetRanger helicopter called "Chopper 5", that was used for breaking news and severe weather coverage. To save money, the station began paying market leader KMOV to use video from its chopper in 2010. Its news reporting has also won the station a multitude of journalism awards including Regional Emmys,
Gabriel Award The Gabriel Awards are a Catholic honor awarded each year for excellence in broadcasting. They were started by the Catholic Academy for Communication Arts Professionals in 1965, and are currently administered by the Catholic Media Association Th ...
s and Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards.


2014 school security controversy

In January 2014, KSDK faced criticism from educators and the community for an undercover piece on school security. On January 16, a KSDK videojournalist entered
Kirkwood High School Kirkwood High School is a public secondary school in Kirkwood, Missouri, United States. The school is part of the Kirkwood R-7 School District. Dr. Mike Havener started as principal in July 2011. History Kirkwood High School as an academic ...
in Kirkwood to test the school's security, wearing a hidden camera. This followed several other tests at local single-building elementary schools, whereas Kirkwood High School is a multi-building campus. Thus, Kirkwood was the only school where the employee entered without being questioned. School personnel became concerned when the KSDK employee asked to use a restroom and left the office in the opposite direction, and when the station would not confirm with the school that the employee's visit was only a test, the school was placed on
lockdown A lockdown is a restriction policy for people, community or a country to stay where they are, usually due to specific risks (such as COVID-19) that could possibly harm the people if they move and interact freely. The term is used for a prison ...
for 40 minutes, when a station representative finally confirmed that the employee's presence was for a story.
Investigative reporter Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years rese ...
Leisa Zigman apologized on-air for the chain of events leading to the lockdown, but the station stood by its story, claiming the lockdown did not occur until an hour after the videojournalist left. Despite a school spokesperson admitting changes to security needed to be made, KSDK was strongly criticized by viewers raising questions about
journalistic ethics Journalistic ethics and standards comprise principles of ethics and good practice applicable to journalists. This subset of media ethics is known as journalism's professional "code of ethics" and the "canons of journalism". The basic codes and ...
, and anchor Mike Bush led the 10 p.m. newscast on January 20 with a more formal apology, stating that the station was reviewing its procedures to ensure a similar incident would not occur again.


Notable former on-air staff

* Fran Charles – reporter (1991–1992; later at
WNBC WNBC (channel 4) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Linden, New Jersey–licensed Telemundo stati ...
-TV/
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
; currently host on
MLB Network The MLB Network is an American television sports channel dedicated to baseball. It is primarily owned by Major League Baseball, with Warner Bros. Discovery through its sports unit, Comcast's NBC Sports Group, Charter Communications, and Cox C ...
) *
Denise D'Ascenzo Denise D'Ascenzo Cooke (January 30, 1958 December 7, 2019) was an American television news anchorwoman at WFSB-TV in Hartford, Connecticut. She worked there for 33 years (19862019), becoming the longest-serving anchor at WFSB-TV. D'Ascenzo w ...
– reporter and
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 Sh ...
host (1980s, later at
WFSB WFSB (channel 3) is a television station licensed to Hartford, Connecticut, United States, serving the Hartford–New Haven market as an affiliate of CBS. Owned by Gray Television, the station maintains studios on Denise D'Ascenzo Way in Rocky ...
in
Hartford Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since t ...
, now deceased) * Karen Foss – anchor (1979–2006; later vice president for public relations at
Ameren Ameren Corporation is an American power company created December 31, 1997, by the merger of St. Louis, Missouri's Union Electric Company (formerly NYSE: UEP) and the neighboring Central Illinois Public Service Company (CIPSCO Inc. holding, form ...
) * Paul Goodloe – chief meteorologist (1997–1999; now at
The Weather Channel The Weather Channel (TWC) is an American pay television channel owned by Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Allen Media Group. The channel's headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia. Launched on May 2, 1982, the channel broadcasts weather foreca ...
) * Janice Huff – meteorologist (1987–1991; now at WNBC/New York City) * Julius Hunter – reporter (1966–1974; later at
KMOV KMOV (channel 4) is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, affiliated with CBS and MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Gray Television alongside low-power Circle owned-and-operated station KDTL-LD (channel 16). The two stations s ...
) *
Stan Kann Stan Kann (December 9, 1924 – September 29, 2008) received national recognition in the 1960s when he was a frequent guest on ''The Tonight Show'' and daytime television talk shows, showcasing his collection of vacuum cleaners. Kann also was known ...
– personality (became frequent guest to ''
The Tonight Show ''The Tonight Show'' is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. The show has been hosted by six comedians: Steve Allen (1954–1957), Jack Paar (1957–1962), Johnny Carson (1962–1992), Jay Leno (1992–2009 and 201 ...
'' and other programs with his presentations of gadgets) *
George Noory George Ralph Noory (born June 4, 1950) is an American radio talk show host. Since January 2003, Noory has been the weekday host of the late-night radio talk show ''Coast to Coast AM''. The program is syndicated to hundreds of radio stations in ...
– news director (early to mid-1980s; now host of ''
Coast to Coast AM ''Coast to Coast AM'' is an American late-night radio talk show that deals with a variety of topics. Most frequently the topics relate to either the paranormal or conspiracy theories. It was hosted by creator Art Bell from its inception in 1 ...
'') * Cindy Preszler ( AMS and
NWA NWA or Nwa most commonly refers to: * N.W.A ("Niggaz Wit Attitudes"), a hip hop group from Compton, California, US * National Wrestling Alliance, a professional wrestling organization NWA or Nwa may refer to: Music * New Weird America, a subgenr ...
Seals of Approval) – chief meteorologist (October 1998 – April 22, 2016, now at
WFTX-TV WFTX-TV (channel 36) is a television station licensed to Cape Coral, Florida, United States, serving as the Fox affiliate for Southwest Florida. Owned by the E.W. Scripps Company, the station has studios on Southwest Pine Island Road ( SR 78) ...
/
Fort Myers, FL Fort Myers (or Ft. Myers) is a city in southwestern Florida and the county seat and commercial center of Lee County, Florida, United States. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 92,245 in 202 ...
) *
Jay Randolph A jay is a member of a number of species of medium-sized, usually colorful and noisy, passerine birds in the Crow family, Corvidae. The evolutionary relationships between the jays and the magpies are rather complex. For example, the Eurasian m ...
– sports director/reporter * Sonny Randle – sports reporter (1965–1970) *
Bob Richards Robert Eugene Richards (born February 20, 1926) is an American retired athlete, minister, and politician. He made three U.S. Olympic Teams in two events: the 1948, 1952, and 1956 Summer Olympics as a pole vaulter and as a decathlete in 1956. He ...
– chief meteorologist (1983–1994; deceased) * Anne Thompson – consumer reporter (1983–1986; currently at
NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...
) *
Debbye Turner Debbye Turner Bell (born September 19, 1965 in Honolulu, Hawaii) is an American TV anchor, veterinarian, talk show host, former beauty queen and winner of the 1990 Miss America pageant. Early life and education Turner was born in Honolulu, Ha ...
– ''Show Me St. Louis'' anchor/feature reporter (1995–2001, Miss America 1990; currently at CBS News) *
Matt Winer Matt Winer is an American television personality who is currently working for Turner Sports. Career Turner Sports signed Winer in 2010 to contribute to coverage of sports across its networks. He became the primary studio host for '' Major Le ...
– sports reporter (formerly on
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%). Th ...
, currently at
Turner Sports Warner Bros. Discovery Sports (WBD Sports) is the division of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) that is responsible for sports broadcasts on its parent company's various channels in the United States, including TBS, TNT, AT&T SportsNet, and TruTV. ...
) *
Trey Wingo Hal Chapman Wingo III (; born September 19, 1963), known as Trey Wingo, is the former co-host of ESPN '' Golic and Wingo'', '' SportsCenter'', and ''NFL Live''. He has previously served as host of the Women's NCAA basketball tournament. He curre ...
– sports reporter (1991–1997; currently at ESPN)


Sports programming

When KSD-TV signed on in 1947, it began a longtime association with the
St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...
as the team's flagship station. On May 8, 1966, during ceremonies for the opening of
Busch Memorial Stadium Busch Memorial Stadium, also known as Busch Stadium II, was a multi-purpose sports facility in St. Louis, Missouri, that operated for 40 years, from 1966 through 2005. The stadium served as the home of the St. Louis Cardinals National League ...
, Bill Houska Sr. flew home plate from
Sportsman's Park Sportsman's Park was the name of several former Major League Baseball ballpark structures in St. Louis, Missouri. All but one of these were located on the same piece of land, at the northwest corner of Grand Boulevard and Dodier Street, on th ...
to the new downtown stadium in "Chopper 5." The station aired Cardinals games from 1947 to
1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...
, before losing the rights to
KPLR-TV KPLR-TV (channel 11) is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, airing programming from The CW. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside Fox affiliate KTVI (channel 2). Both station ...
(channel 11) for the next four seasons. The Cardinals returned in
1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Co ...
and remained on channel 5 until
1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...
– long after many other "Big Three" network affiliates dropped local sports event coverage. KSDK lost the rights to KPLR again after the 1987 season; the station also aired any Cardinals games as part of NBC's broadcast contract with Major League Baseball from 1947 to
1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs ...
, including the team's
World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...
victories in
1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...
,
1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...
and 1982. On December 7, 2006, KSDK re-obtained the television rights to Cardinals games effective with the 2007 season, ending a 19-year run on KPLR. KSDK aired an average of 20 locally produced Cardinals games each year, with most other games airing on Fox Sports Midwest outside the St. Louis market. KSDK lost the broadcast rights on July 15, 2010, when Fox Sports Midwest signed an exclusive contract with the team beginning with the 2011 season, ending the Cardinals' over-the-air telecasts. The final Cardinals telecast on channel 5 aired on October 3, 2010, with a game against the Colorado Rockies. KSD-TV/KSDK has also been involved in airing games of St. Louis' two former NFL teams, the
Cardinals Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...
and Rams; the station broadcast the Cardinals' home interconference contests from
1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...
to
1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...
, when the Cardinals relocated to Phoenix, and again with the Rams from their arrival in St. Louis in
1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...
until
1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...
, when
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 Entertainm ...
acquired the AFC package from
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
. It has aired all '' Sunday Night Football'' games through NBC since 2006; all Sunday night games that the Rams took part in from then until their return to Los Angeles after the 2015 season were aired on Channel 5. From 2006 to 2021, KSDK broadcast
St. Louis Blues The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Louis. The Blues compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference. The franchise was founded in 1967 as one of the ...
games that air via the ''
NHL on NBC The ''NHL on NBC'' is an American presentation of National Hockey League (NHL) games produced by NBC Sports, and televised on NBC properties, including MSNBC, CNBC, Golf Channel, USA Network and NBCSN in the United States. While NBC covered t ...
''; this included the team's victory in the 2019 Stanley Cup Final.


Other locally produced programming

KSDK has had a long history of producing local programs, including the ''Wranglers Club'' with Texas Bruce (1950–1963), ''Corky's Colorama'' with Clif St. James playing Corky the Clown (1963–1980), ''Newsbeat'' hosted by Dick Ford and John Auble (1976–1984), and ''Midday A.M.'' (c. 1979–1986). Since September 5, 1995, KSDK has aired ''Show Me St. Louis'', which highlights local entertainment and other (mostly family-oriented) attractions around the St. Louis area. The program usually broadcasts from the "Window on St. Louis", where local groups and organizations are allowed to bring signs to advertise their events, though it occasionally leaves the studio to broadcast from local attractions (such as the St. Louis Zoo,
Busch Stadium Busch Stadium (also referred to informally as "New Busch Stadium" or "Busch Stadium III") is a baseball stadium located in St. Louis, Missouri. The stadium serves as the home of the St. Louis Cardinals, the city's Major League Baseball (M ...
, the Fox Theatre) or from surrounding communities (such as
Waterloo, Illinois Waterloo is a city in and county seat of Monroe County, Illinois. The population was 9,811 at the 2010 census. Geography Waterloo is located at (38.335243, -90.152685). According to the 2010 census, Waterloo has a total area of , of which (or ...
and Florissant) that have uncommon or unknown attractions that may be of interest to viewers; these "Great Escapes" (as the segment within the show is titled) usually occur during summer months. The program is sponsored and has
advertorial An advertorial is an advertisement in the form of editorial content. The term "advertorial" is a blend (see portmanteau) of the words "advertisement" and "editorial." Merriam-Webster dates the origin of the word to 1946. In printed publications, t ...
segments which are disclaimed to be from the advertisers which sponsor them, which are then disclaimed at the end of each episode. Another short advertorial feature, ''Simply Irresistible'' is carried in some prime time ad breaks. During the 1980s, the syndicated daytime talk show ''
Sally Sally may refer to: People *Sally (name), a list of notable people with the name Military * Sally (military), an attack by the defenders of a town or fortress under siege against a besieging force; see sally port *Sally, the Allied reporting na ...
'' (hosted by
Sally Jessy Raphael Sally Lowenthal (born February 25, 1935), better known as Sally Jessy Raphael, is an American former tabloid talk show host known for her program '' Sally'' (originally called ''The Sally Jessy Raphael Show''). Early life and education Lowent ...
) originated from KSDK's studios (
Multimedia Entertainment Multimedia Entertainment, Inc. (formerly Avco Program Sales) was an American television production/distribution company originally formed in 1968. History The firm was launched as Avco Program Sales in 1968 as a television production/distribution ...
, a subsidiary of former KSDK owner Multimedia, Inc., distributed the program nationally until the company's 1995 merger with Gannett, with the distribution rights held by Universal Television Enterprises and then
Studios USA Universal Television LLC (abbreviated as UTV) is an American television production company that is a subsidiary of Universal Studio Group, a division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It serves as the network television production arm of NBC; a predece ...
Television until the show's 2002 cancellation).


KSDK in the community

KSDK is active in several community-based and charitable projects. Here are some of the most well-known: *''A Place to Call Home'' is an Emmy Award-winning weekly segment which profiles one child placed within the
foster care Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home ( residential child care community, treatment center, etc.), or private home of a state-certified caregiver, referred to as a "foster parent" or with a family ...
system who is in need of adoption. KSDK has partnered with th
Foster and Adoptive Care Coalition
for the segment, which debuted in 2002. In September 2018, The Foster and Adoptive Care Coalition announced KSDK's ''A Place to Call Home'' segment had found 400 children forever homes. A secondary program, ''Little Wishes'', allows viewers who are unable to adopt a foster child to add a little happiness to their life by purchasing a gift for him or her during the holiday season. *''Friend to Friend'' was a program that reminded viewers on the fifth of each month to perform a breast self-exam to detect
breast cancer Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a r ...
in its early, treatable stages. Viewers could also contact KSDK for an informational packet that included reminders on performing a self-exam. The station remains a sponsor for the Komen St. Louis More Than Pink Walk, which raises money for breast cancer research for Susan G. Komen for the Cure. In 2006, the St. Louis fundraiser overtook Denver as the largest Race for the Cure event in the country with more than 64,000 participants, with more than $2.5 million raised with over 65,000 participants in 2007. *''Volunteer 5'' was a weekly, week-long program that collected donations for a particular local charity or community organization. It operated as a telethon, with phone operators taking calls between 4 and 7 p.m. each weeknight from anyone wishing to donate time or a monetary payment. ''Volunteer 5'' provided more than $5 million annually in services and hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours to local
non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
s. The program began in 1993 to help those affected by the
Great Flood of 1993 The Great Flood of 1993 (or Great Mississippi and Missouri Rivers Flood of 1993) was a flood that occurred in the Midwestern United States, along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and their tributaries, from April to October 1993. The flood wa ...
, and ended in November 2005. *The '' Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon'' aired each Labor Day weekend on KSDK until 2012 (having aired only in prime time on the Sunday before the holiday in 2011 and 2012), benefiting the
Muscular Dystrophy Association The Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) is an American 501(c)(3) umbrella organization that works to support people with neuromuscular diseases. Founded in 1950 by Paul Cohen, who lived with muscular dystrophy, it works to combat neuromuscular d ...
to fund research to find a cure for muscular dystrophy and other diseases affecting the nervous and
muscular system The muscular system is an organ system consisting of skeletal, smooth, and cardiac muscle. It permits movement of the body, maintains posture, and circulates blood throughout the body. The muscular systems in vertebrates are controlled through t ...
s. Anchor Mike Bush served as host of the telethon's local segments, whose donations benefit the St. Louis chapter of the MDA. KSDK lost its status as St. Louis' "Love Network" station when the telethon abandoned its syndication model, changed its name to the ''MDA Show of Strength'' and became a two-hour network telecast on ABC (airing locally on
KDNL-TV KDNL-TV (channel 30) is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, affiliated with ABC. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station maintains studios on Cole Street in the Downtown West section of St. Louis, and its transm ...
, channel 30) in 2013 and 2014; the event was discontinued in 2015. The station re-launched the ''MDA Show of Strength'' in 2017, raising money for MDA St. Louis. That year the telethon was hosted by Mike Bush and Heidi Glaus, and streamed on the station's website and on
Facebook Live Facebook is a social-network service website launched on February 4, 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg. The following is a list of software and technology features that can be found on the Facebook website and mobile app and are available to users of t ...
for three hours. In 2018, Mike and Heidi hosted the telethon for a longer period of time, streaming it online and on KSDK. In 2019, Anne Allred joined the telethon as Mike's co-host. That year the pair raised more than $135,000 for the St. Louis chapter of the MDA. All money raised during the annual ''MDA Show of Strength'' stays in St. Louis.


Technical information


Subchannels

The station's digital signal is
multiplexed In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...
: Since August 28, 2013, digital subchannel 5.2 has been affiliated with Bounce TV; it is carried locally on Spectrum digital channel 127. The subchannel previously operated as "First Alert Weather 5", which debuted in June 2005 as an affiliate of NBC Weather Plus (under the name "NewsChannel 5 Weather PLUS"), before affiliating with
The Local AccuWeather Channel AccuWeather Inc. is an American media company that provides commercial weather forecasting services worldwide. AccuWeather was founded in 1962 by Joel N. Myers, then a Pennsylvania State University graduate student working on a master's degree ...
in December 2008, after NBC Weather Plus discontinued operations. On January 20, 2015, KSDK launched 5.3 which carries a feed of the
True Crime Network True Crime Network (formerly Justice Network) is an American digital multicast television network that is operated by True Crime Network, LLC, a limited liability company, which is owned by Tegna Inc. The network specializes in true crime, in ...
, which launched the same day. On January 17, 2018, KSDK launched digital subchannel 5.4 which carried clips promoting Quest, a new multicast network which made its debut on January 29.


Analog-to-digital conversion

KSDK shut down its analog signal, over 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's digital signal continued to broadcasts on its pre-transition UHF 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 AT ...
, digital television receivers display the station's
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 ...
as its former VHF analog channel 5.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ksdk Tegna Inc. NBC network affiliates GetTV affiliates True Crime Network affiliates Quest (American TV network) affiliates Twist (TV network) affiliates This TV affiliates Television stations in St. Louis 1947 establishments in Missouri Television channels and stations established in 1947 Former Gannett subsidiaries