The Early History of St. Louis Television
1947-1963
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KSD-TV, Channel 5, St. Louis, MO
St. Louis' First Television Experience
When KSD-TV went on the air in February of 1947, the station began a VHF television station monopoly in the St. Louis market for nearly ten years. It remains the station with the longest affiliation period with a network (NBC) than any other heritage station in the country. Over those early years, the public was seeking even more television services. However, by April of 1952, the St. Louis Board of Alderman petitioned with the FCC that St. Louis be given priority when the “freeze” is lifted and the FCC begins to process applicants for TV stations. At that time, St. Louis had 372-thousand television sets (virtually all with VHF-only tuning) and only one station. Even the owner of KSD-TV, the St. Louis Post-Dispath, added their name to the request, which was more than likely done as a public relations move.
There was already a list of applicants for the channel allocations designated before the 1948 “freeze” took effect. The list over the years included many of the St. Louis media companies, from radio, newspapers, and even churches, nightclubs, theaters, and hotel owners. Among those were KWK, KMOX(CBS), WEW, WIL, KXOK, KFUO, the St. Louis Amusement Company, 220 North Kingshighway, Inc., the New England TV Company, Meredith Engineering Company, Empire Coil Company, Ozark Television Company, KSTL(Broadcast House, Inc), Signal Hill Telecasting Corporation, Donze Broadcasting Company, Belleville Broadcasting Company, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and Cecil W. Roberts(owner of Missouri radio stations KREI, Farmington, KNEW Nevada, KCHI Chillicothe, and Kansas radio station, KCLO in Leavenworth). There were three VHF and three UHF channels available. One of those VHF channels was set aside for educational broadcasting.
The original list of allocated channels in St. Louis included 4, 5, 9, and 11. KSD-TV held channel 5 since 1947, and channel 9 was set aside for educational use. There were also allocated channels just outside the city of St. Louis. Among those channels were 42 and 54 in Belleville, 40 in Clayton, Missouri, and 14 in Festus, Missouri.
As you can see, there were many more applicants than there were for the few channels available. Over time, many prospective owners would receive their gift of an allocation, a couple of those applicants would receive the supreme gift of a VHF channel, and others would receive a UHF channel. Several would develop those television outlets and go on the air to broadcast...at least for a while, while others would be granted a channel and not broadcast at all.
The first regular scheduled broadcasting of KSD-TV began on February 8, 1947, although there were reports of programming occurring during the previous months. According to Broadcasting magazine, KSD-TV claimed to be the first newly equipped postwar television station to go on the air, plus the first being operated by a newspaper. One of the first people featured in the first broadcast was former St. Louis Cardinal catcher Joe Garagiola, whom Post-Dispatch sports editor J. Roy Stockton introduced.
The first week of broadcasting was to include 25 hours of programming for what was called, in tribute to Thomas Edison, Edison Centennial Week. 51 programs were presented primarily between Noon and 3:30 pm Monday through Saturday, with some evening broadcasts. To help finance the first broadcasts, 13 advertisers had signed on to have their commercials air during the premiere week. The sponsorship list included Shell Oil Company, Bulova and Elgin Watches, Union Electric Company, Hyde Park Beer, Bemis Bag Company, Trimfoot and Rhythm Step Shoes, the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, Botany Ties, and Monsanto Chemicals.
One can only imagine the work done to produce a menagerie of programs of various formats, such as news, fashion, and drama, along with a quiz show that involved audience members who were customers from a St. Louis department store.
Pulitzer Publishing had already been a broadcast pioneer in 1922 when KSD Radio was established. On February 3 and 4, KSD-TV gave just a few television owners a glimpse of what was to occur with KSD-TV would begin regularly scheduled broadcasts a few days later. Those lucky viewers saw street interviews, puppet shows,
KSD-TV Expands its Reach
By April of 1947, KSD-TV would upgrade its temporary transmitting equipment with new state-of-the-art RCA equipment. That new equipment would include an RCA Model TT-5 transmitter, a new antenna mounted on a 550-foot tower that gives the VHF station an adequate radiated power of 20 kW and an expanded broadcast radius of 35 to 40 miles.
In the rest of KSD's (later KSDK) history, I leave it to the station and others to update and expand.
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Wait for the pictures to change in the picture galleries. Place cursor over picture for information about it
1954-1956
1952-1955
1954-1956
A Selection of NBC
Shows from 1953-65
A 1947 edition of "Howdy Doody" includes a group singing with the "peanut gallery," Clarabelle, and Buffalo Bob.
1947: The History of 5 "On Your Side."
(KSDK-TV, YouTube)
In 1948, its "To The Ladies" was launched on KSD-TV, Channel 5, for the several thousand who could watch..
(KSDK-TV, YouTube)
This is a priceless silent home movie of some behind-the-scenes activity at KSD-TV in the 1940s.
(YouTube and KSD-TV)
KSD-TV History documentary from the early years of being owned by the Post-Dispatch.
(YouTube and KSD-TV)
(Penterest)
(St. Louis Post Dispatch)
(Penterest)
(Penterest)
1954 St. Louis Cardinal's Telecast with
information about the broadcast on KSD-TV
(Pinterest)
(St. Louis Post Dispatch)
(St. Louis Post Dispatch)
Top view- August 9, 1954 edition of Taylorville Breeze Courier
Bottom view- August 9, 1954 edition of Taylorville Breeze Courier
Bottom view- January 3, 1955 edition of Taylorville Breeze Courier
Top view- August 9, 1954 edition of Taylorville Breeze Courier
The Laramie Peacock premiered in 1962 before the broadcast of the first color episode of the Western series.
(YouTube)
We start with a retrospective on the history of KSD-TV from 1997.
(YouTube)
KSDK pulls from its extensive collection of kinescopes and interviews to bring back a spectacular recollection of memories of St. Louis and KSD(KSDK), Channel 5.
Enjoy this remembrance of St. Louis' first Television Station....and life from the Gateway City.
(YouTube and KSD-TV)
Visit the transmitter site of KSD-TV in southwestern St. Louis. You'll learn how the transmitters work, and how other FM stations broadcast from the same tower at the exact location.
(YouTube and Geerling Engineering)
The early history of the St. Louis heritage stations is told in great detail in "Pictures on the Prairie: The First Ten Years of Mid-Illinois Television." This webpage is meant to be a supplement to the chapters of the book and includes many videos from the era for each station. For more history of the St. Louis TV and radio stations, I would recommend you visit St. Louis Media History Facebook page and website.
WTVI (later KTVI),
Channel 54 (later 36, later 2) Belleville, IL (later St. Louis, MO)
The Second St. Louis TV Signal
When the contest was taking place for the allocation of available VHF channels in St. Louis right after the lifting of the “freeze” in 1952, one prospective broadcast television owner was seeking another way to obtain the goal of a license. Competing with other VHF applicants would involve having to wait perhaps a year or two and investing more money, with a good chance of not obtaining the prize of the construction permit. That aggressive prospective owner group was Signal Hill Telecasting Corporation, which would take an alternative route for a television station, a license for a station much lower on the demand scale, one on the UHF band from outside St. Louis.
In late October of 1952, Signal Hill Telecasting Corporation filed an application for channel 54 allocated to Belleville, Illinois. The proposed station would broadcast with an effective radiated power of 220kw from a tower with a height of 593’ located on a hill on West Main Street in Belleville. The plans for the facility would include a transmitter and antenna manufactured by RCA. The following month, in mid-November, the FCC would grant Signal Hill channel 54.
The station would broadcast using one of the most powerful UHF transmitters built, and its tower/transmitter would be located high on the Illinois bluffs, just 6 ½ miles east of downtown St. Louis. The RCA transmitter was changed to a General Electric transmitter model number TT-25-A during the planning process. This would be the same model of the transmitter used by two more future UHF stations in St. Louis, KSTM and KACY.
That transmitter/antenna combination stated in the construction permit would give WTVI, Channel 54, an effective radiated power of 220-thousand watts. The station’s antenna would be mounted atop a tower, which would put the antenna 600 feet above the highest point around the St. Louis area. Material from the station stated that the station’s signal would be easily received by viewers 50 or more miles around St. Louis in all directions.
WTVI Applies for Frequency Change to Channel 36
By early February of 1955, Signal Hill and WTVI would ask for FCC permission to change from channel 54 to channel 36. This change in channel number and frequency would also include a station move from Belleville to St. Louis and the former home of competitor KSTM at 5915 Berthold Avenue.
The request, when granted by the FCC, would allow the station to operate from that vacant facility within one week and double the power output to a potential 500kw. With the change, the call letters of WTVI would follow the FCC guidelines for broadcast stations west of the Mississippi, starting with a “K” call letter. Since the abandonment of the call letters of KTVI in Idaho some months earlier, WTVI would become KTVI.
WTVI Moves to St. Louis and Broadcasts on Channel 36
In March 1955, WTVI was permitted to become KTVI, Channel 36. One catch with the change from channel 54 to 36 is that the FCC would not allow a simulcast between the two channels. Signal Hill had to surrender the license for Channel 54 when they began to broadcast on Channel 36. Why the FCC chose not to allow a simulcast for at least a week is unknown. The FCC delayed the approval for the power increase.
A major promotional campaign was designed and undertaken, which would be a $60,000 investment for the new Channel 36. It included ads on all the St. Louis media (excluding competing TV stations), daily newspapers (Globe-Democrat and the Post-Dispatch), all major radio stations, outdoor, taxi, and bus cards, and other public vehicle ad cards. The campaign was designed to coincide with the opening of the St. Louis Cardinal’s season on April 12, 1955.
The big changeover occurred on April 9, 1955. The channel 54 signal would be turned off, and at the same time, the channel 36 signal was turned on. With the change, KTVI projected an increase in “circulation” or households tuning into the station at least once a week, from 317,200 homes to 450,00 homes by the end of the 1955 baseball season. Then, another 20 to 25 percent increase was anticipated, with the power increase from 250kw to 500kw when the FCC approved the power increase.
KTVI Begins to Work to Secure Channel 2 from Springfield
In early January of 1956, KTVI, Channel 36, requested the FCC to change the allocation of channel 2 from Springfield, Illinois, to St. Louis and add another channel 2 allocation to Terre Haute, Indiana. Signal Hill also requested that channel 2 in St. Louis be assigned to KTVI.
Such a move would give St. Louis three major network affiliates on VHF television stations to equalize the playing field regarding potential viewers and advertising sales. This would also secure ABC for KTVI at the preferred lowest dial position.
This would begin a complex series of events and controversial maneuvers to move KTVI to channel 2, taking the allocation from Springfield, Illinois.
KTVI's version of Romper Room with a contest to award a pony. This was an out-take for a contest promo from the early 1960s.
(YouTube)
Here's another Romper Room video tape of Miss Louis conducting class probably from 1963.
(YouTube)
This was a Stag Beer commercial produced by KTVI to be used in the "Charlotte Peters Show" produced on Channel 2.
(YouTube)
Newspaper story of WTVI sign-on from 1953
TV Review welcomes the St. Louis market's first UHF station, WTVI, Channel 54. Courtesy Wayne Brasler
1986 KTVI News Team ad from unknown source.
Newspaper story of WTVI sign-on from 1953
From KTVI's "Party Time," here is Ike and the Rhythm Kings before he was a part of "Ike and Tina Turner."
(YouTube)
The Charlotte Peters Show
One of the long-time KTVI daytime shows was "The Charlotte Peters Show" Part 1. Some of the early clips were from broadcasts on KSD-TV.
(YouTube)
Produced in 1960 by KTVI, The City Fights Back is a public affairs documentary program that explores the city’s urban renewal project and the metamorphosis of the Mill Creek Valley area. Written, Directed, and Produced by Bill Leonard and hosted by Bruce Hayward, Director of Public Affairs.
(Missouri Historical Society, YouTube)
Warner Brothers Productions
Warner Brothers Productions
Warner Brothers Productions
ABC Network Shows from
1957-62
Here is a taste of St. Louis with the appearance of St. Louis' Chuck Berry on ABC's American Bandstand, which would have been seen on
Channel 2.
(YouTube)
1964-1970
1962-1967
CBS Color Logo 1967
1964-1970
A Selection of CBS Shows from 1966-1980
A complete newscast from 5 pm, November 5, 1985.
(YouTube)
KWK-TV (later KMOX, later KMOV), Channel 4
St. Louis, MO
A celebration on getting the permit to operate Channel 4. Lambert Field, St. Louis, courtesy of Shannon McFarlin
A celebration on getting the permit to operate Channel 4. Lambert Field, St. Louis, courtesy of Shannon McFarlin
KMOX-TV, June 1986 ad from St. Louis Post-Dispatch
A celebration on getting the permit to operate Channel 4. Lambert Field, St. Louis, courtesy of Shannon McFarlin
The First Hearings for Channel 4
The first FCC hearings for the permit to operate on channel 4 in St. Louis took place in Washington on December 31, 1953, where testimony would be heard and considered by all of the applicants, including that of the ownership of KSTM-TV which was already operating on UHF channel 36. KSTM-TV hoped to add its name to the list of applicants by petitioning the FCC to consider moving the allocation to East St. Louis. Broadcast House was seeking favor for its application by taking on another East St. Louis local investor, the local newspaper, The East St. Louis Journal.
The other applicants were St. Louis Telecast, Incorporated, the St. Louis Amusement Company, CBS, Inc (KMOX Radio), and 220 Television Incorporated.
Before the hearing, St. Louis Telecast would protest the application of CBS, Incorporated because of its ownership of KMOX Radio and the new multiple ownership rules, which were taking legal effect on January 4, 1954. This would limit TV station ownership to five outlets for a single entity. However, a grandfather clause would allow CBS to continue seeking the television permit if it were to give up another interest in the event of the grant. This sacrifice of a property would not necessarily be limited to St. Louis.
Another Channel 4 Hearing
In late March of 1954, a hearing for awarding the allocation for channel 4 was back before FCC Examiner Claire W. Hardy. This would involve the ownership of KWK Radio, KXOK Radio, and Missouri Valley TV Corporation. Missouri Valley TV Corporation was half-owned by Stanley Hubbard's KSTP AM/TV in St. Paul, Minnesota. In early April, talks occurred before the hearing involving a possible merger among the applicants.
Those talks between the applicants would open the way for the FCC to grant the second VHF station for St. Louis. An agreement would bring about the withdrawal of the competing applicants, KXOK Radio and Missouri Valley TV, with KWK being the surviving applicant, with options offered to KXOK and Missouri Valley stockholders.
The agreement would create a company in which the St. Louis Globe-Democrat would own KWK-TV at 23%; Robert T. Convey and Associates at 28%; KXOK Incorporated at 23%, KSTP Inc. (Missouri Valley) at 23%, and various other investors would own 3%.
It sounds simple, but this was a complicated agreement that would also force Elzey M. Roberts Jr., who was the president and minority stockholder of KXOK, to divest himself of his ownership of his company. Meanwhile, C. L. Thomas, the general manager of KXOK, would purchase the AM station.
The hearing announcing the previous applicants' merger didn't go as smoothly as expected. WTVI filed a protest of the merger based on the ownership of the Globe-Democrat in KWK-TV. WTVI claimed that having newspaper ownership in two of the city's VHF stations would result in a “concentration of control of mass media of communication” in the market.
The FCC dismissed the objection by WTVI as the Commission granted channel 4 to the new KWK-TV ownership group. WTVI would not go quiet after the grant by applying to channel 4 again, saying it was filed two days before the KWK merger, and the application was re-filed. WTVI claimed that the application was denied without a hearing.
This would bring about an objection from Frieda B. Hennock, an FCC commissioner who was the only dissenter on the grant decision. Her lack of approval would not change the final decision of the FCC. The official grant for KWK-TV to operate on channel 4 was filed on May 7, 1954.
Despite the official grant, WTVI would not be silent. A petition would again be filed to fight the merger of the applicants for channel 4, claiming that it was illegal. The point was that each company would pay only part of the option value for a $5-million dollar asset. Signal Hill would claim that the station's operation by KWK-TV would also create a duopoly contrary to FCC rules that would cause economic harm to existing UHF stations in St. Louis. Later, this case would end with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington. The court would decide against the bid of WTVI but also told the FCC not to issue a license to KWK until it had decided the merits of the WTVI appeal. The court approved the FCC to issue a special temporary authority for KWK-TV to operate on channel 4. Read more about the History of KWK-TV and how it became KMOX-TV in an incredible story of broadcast history in my book "Pictures on the Prairie: The First Ten Years of Mid-Illinois Television," available on this site.
1964-1966
1953-1970
1964-1966
A Selection of CBS
Shows from 1954-65
Get on board the S.S. Popeye with "Cooky and the Captain" with this clip on some early videotape of the KMOX-TV children's show.
(YouTube)
Here is a KMOX-TV report on the urban decline of
downtown St. Louis from 1965.
(YouTube)
In 1968, KMOX-TV moved to a new home. Here is a promotional video made to give viewers and clients a tour of the new facility and how the station works.
(YouTube)
1979-1986
1989-1996
News Magizine
1979-1986
A Selection of CBS Shows from 1980-2018
This is a collection of various news opens for KMOX-TV from 1983 to the present.
(YouTube)
D.B.'s Delight was produced at KMOX-TV from 1977 to 1988. Here is a broadcast from October of 1984 hosted by Guy Phillips.
(YouTube)
KMOX-TV became KMOV on June 11, 1986.
(YouTube)
ST. LOUIS BROADCAST HISTORY Videos
Other St. Louis TV Hosts from all stations
(YouTube)
Frank Absher and KMOX history
(YouTube)
KMOX Radio history with my friend Frank Absher in an interview from St. Louis TV hosted by Steve Potter.
(YouTube)
Leo Tevlin, a contributor to this site was inducted into the St. Louis Media Hall of Fame. This was from March 7, 2016.
(YouTube)
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This is me with Frank Absher at this home in St. Louis at the time, April 2016. He was gracious enough to pass along some older KADI, 96.3PM promotional material to me including a sweatshirt from the early 1980s. I wear it often and even after many washings, it looks brand new! I send my best to Frank and his efforts with the St. Louis Media History Foundation!
Sources and Contributors:
TV Guide®
Frank Absher
St. Louis Media History Foundation
KTVI
KMOX
KSD-TV
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Broadcasting-Telecasting
Geerling Engineering