- Not to be confused with KNBC
KNBC, channel 4, is an owned-and-operated television station of the NBC Television Network, licensed to Los Angeles, California, USA. KNBC's studios and offices are located within the NBC Studios complex in Burbank, California, and its transmitter is located on Mount Wilson...
.
KMBC-TV virtual channelIn telecommunications, a logical channel number , also known as virtual channel, is a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel on which the signal travels....
9 is a television station affiliated with the
ABC television networkThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, located in
Kansas City, MissouriKansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
. KMBC-TV is owned by Hearst Television and its studios are located on Winchester Ave. near
Swope ParkSwope Park is an 1805-acre city park within the city of Kansas City, Missouri. It is the 29th-largest municipal park in the United States , and the largest park in Kansas City. It is named in honor of Colonel Thomas H. Swope, a philanthropist who donated the land to the city in 1896...
in Kansas City, Missouri. The station's 343 metres (1,125.3 ft) high
guyed mastA guyed mast is a tall thin vertical structure that receives support from guy lines.Guyed masts are frequently used for radio masts. The mast can either support aerials mounted at its top, or the entire structure itself can function as an antenna ; this is called a mast radiator...
broadcast tower built in 1988 is at 5701 E. 22nd Street in eastern Kansas City on a hill above the
Blue RiverThe Blue River is a stream that flows through Johnson County, Kansas and Jackson County, Missouri in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. The river rises in Johnson County near the border of the states of Kansas and Missouri...
.
The station broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 29, mapping to its former analog channel assignment of 9 via
PSIPThe Program and System Information Protocol is the protocol used in the ATSC digital television system for carrying metadata about each channel in the broadcast MPEG transport stream of a TV station and for publishing information about television programs so that viewers can select what to watch...
. On cable, KMBC can be seen in standard definition on channel 12 on
Time Warner CableTime Warner Cable is an American cable television company that operates in 28 states and has 31 operating divisions...
and
SurewestSureWest is a Roseville, CA based telecommunications company, servicing the Greater Sacramento Valley and Kansas City region markets. SureWest was founded in 1914 by William Doyle as the Roseville Telephone Company - SureWest became the official name in 2003...
, and in high definition on channel 1421 on Time Warner and digital channel 610 on Surewest.
Digital programming
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
Virtual
channel |
Physical
channel |
Video |
AspectThe aspect ratio of a shape is the ratio of its longer dimension to its shorter dimension. It may be applied to two characteristic dimensions of a three-dimensional shape, such as the ratio of the longest and shortest axis, or for symmetrical objects that are described by just two measurements,...
|
Name |
Programming |
| 9.1 |
29.1 |
1080i 1080i is the shorthand name for a high-definition television mode. The i means interlaced video; 1080i differs from 1080p, in which the p stands for progressive scan. The term 1080i assumes a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, implying a frame size of 1920×1080 pixels...
|
16:9 16:9 is an aspect ratio with a width of 16 units and height of 9. Since 2009, it has become the most common aspect ratio for sold televisions and computer monitors and is also the international standard format of HDTV, Full HD, non-HD digital television and analog widescreen television ...
|
KMBC-TV |
main KMBC / ABC HDThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
programming |
| 9.2 |
29.2 |
480i 480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC...
|
4:3 |
Me-TV |
Classic television programs |
In 2008, KMBC launched a new digital weather channel that gave up-to-the-minute weather information 24 hours a day on its second digital subchannel. The service was an affiliate of
The Local AccuWeather ChannelThe Local AccuWeather Channel is a 24-hour, weather-oriented, commercially sponsored broadcast and cable television network in the United States owned and operated by AccuWeather, Inc., which is headquartered in State College, Pennsylvania....
and carried just over the minimum amount of
educational and informationalE/I, which stands for "educational and informative," refers to a type of children's television programming shown in the United States. The Federal Communications Commission requires that every full-service Terrestrial television station in the U.S. show at least three hours of these television...
(E/I) children's programming. On September 14, 2010, KMBC-DT2 began acting as an independent station during the weeknight 6-11 p.m. time period after it added general entertainment programming in the evening hours under the branding "MOREtv Kansas City" (a branding previously used by sister station KCWE as a
UPNUnited Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...
affiliate). The subchannel also aired an encore of KMBC's weeknight 6 p.m. newscast at 6:30 p.m. on KMBC-DT2.
On June 21, 2011, KMBC replaced The Local AccuWeather Channel/MoreTV subchannel on 9.2 with Me-TV, a digital broadcast network owned by
Weigel BroadcastingWeigel Broadcasting is an American locally based television broadcasting company. The company is based in downtown Chicago, Illinois, alongside its flagship station WCIU-TV , at the apt address of 26 North Halsted Street in the Greektown neighborhood.- History :The company was founded by Chicago...
, and distributed by
MGMMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
, featuring classic television series. It is noted that KMBC is one of several Hearst-owned stations that broadcasts digitally in
1080i1080i is the shorthand name for a high-definition television mode. The i means interlaced video; 1080i differs from 1080p, in which the p stands for progressive scan. The term 1080i assumes a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, implying a frame size of 1920×1080 pixels...
rather than the usual
720p720p is the shorthand name for 1280x720, a category of High-definition television video modes having a resolution of 1080 or 720p and a progressive scan...
like most ABC stations. Hearst ABC sister-stations
WMUR-TVWMUR-TV is the ABC-affiliated television station for the state of New Hampshire that is licensed to Manchester. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 9 from a transmitter on the south peak of Mount Uncanoonuc in Goffstown. Owned by Hearst Television, the station has studios...
in
Manchester, New HampshireManchester is the largest city in the U.S. state of New Hampshire, the tenth largest city in New England, and the largest city in northern New England, an area comprising the states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. It is in Hillsborough County along the banks of the Merrimack River, which...
,
WTAE-TVWTAE-TV is the ABC affiliated television station for Western Pennsylvania that is licensed to Pittsburgh, broadcasting on UHF channel 51 and identifying via PSIP as channel 4 . It also serves as an ABC affiliate for the Wheeling/Steubenville and Clarksburg/Weston, West Virginia market areas...
in Pittsburgh,
WCVB-TVWCVB-TV, channel 5, is a television station located in Boston, Massachusetts, owned by Hearst Television and affiliated with the ABC Television Network. WCVB-TV's studios and transmitter are co-located in Needham, Massachusetts. WCVB is also one of six Boston television stations seen in Canada by...
in Boston, and
KETVKETV, digital channel 20 , is the ABC affiliate television station in Omaha, Nebraska and is owned by Hearst Television...
in
OmahaOmaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
also use this format.
Post-analog shutdown
KMBC's broadcasts became digital-only effective June 12, 2009. As the Kansas City "
nightlightThe Short-term Analog Flash and Emergency Readiness Act, or SAFER Act, is a U.S. law to require the Federal Communications Commission to allow the continuation of full-power analog TV transmissions in 2009 for 30 more days, for the purpose of broadcasting public service announcements regarding the...
" station, it aired a loop reminding viewers to get a digital converter box on analog channel 9 until July 12, 2009. On February 19, 2009, the station after receiving permission from the FCC for a Special Temporary Authority permit, moved its digital signal from digital channel 7 to channel 29 which had been vacated by sister station KCWE two months before. The station had received viewer complaints about reception due to a combination of Kansas City being an all-UHF digital market besides channel 9 and to address signal conflicts with
Pittsburg, KansasPittsburg is a city in Crawford County, in southeastern Kansas, United States. It is the most populous city in Crawford County and in southeastern Kansas. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 20,233.-History:...
-based
KOAM-TVKOAM-TV is a television station in Pittsburg, Kansas broadcasting on channel 7 and affiliated with CBS. The station also serves Joplin, Missouri, along with the Four State Area region of Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri. KOAM-TV transmits from Columbus, Kansas, and is the sister station to...
which was allowed to re-utilize its analog channel 7 for its digital channel. It transitioned on February 17 and would have received interference from KMBC-DT as the stations' transmitters are 131 miles (210.8 km) away from each other much less than the advised 150 miles (241.4 km) separation between a shared channel. Through the use of
PSIPThe Program and System Information Protocol is the protocol used in the ATSC digital television system for carrying metadata about each channel in the broadcast MPEG transport stream of a TV station and for publishing information about television programs so that viewers can select what to watch...
, KMBC-TV's
virtual channelIn telecommunications, a logical channel number , also known as virtual channel, is a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel on which the signal travels....
is displayed as 9.
Early years
The
Federal Communications CommissionThe Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
awarded the license of Kansas City's third and last VHF station to two locally-based radio station operators who competed heavily for the license. The
Cook Paint and Varnish CompanyCook Paint and Varnish Company was a paint and varnish manufacturer in the Kansas City metropolitan area from 1913 until 1991.-History:The paint factory was established in 1913 at 21st and Broadway in Kansas City by Charles R. Cook...
, which operated
WHB radioWHB is a commercial sports radio station in Kansas City, Missouri, and is known as the first full-time Top 40 station in the country...
(then at 710 AM, now at 810 AM) and the Midland Broadcasting Company, owners of KMBC radio (980 AM, now KMBZ), began shared operation of channel 9 on August 2, 1953. Under the arrangement, the two separate stations would each alternate 90 minutes of airtime, broadcasting from separate studios but using the same channel and transmitter. The combined
KMBC-TV and
WHB-TV operation also carried programming from
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
.
Cook Paint and Varnish purchased Midland Broadcasting's holdings in April 1954, including Midland's television studios under the stage at the
Lyric TheatreThe Lyric Theatre is a theatre in Kansas City, Missouri.The four and half-story structure designed by Owen Saylor and Payson opened on December 18, 1926 as the Ararat Shrine Temple. It cost the Shriners $1 million and had a seating capacity of 3,000...
in
Downtown Kansas CityDowntown Kansas City is the central business district of Kansas City, Missouri and the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. It is located between the Missouri River in the north, to 31st Street in the south; and from the Kansas–Missouri state line east to Troost Avenue as defined by officials of the...
. The move ended the split-station arrangement, and on June 14, 1954, KMBC-TV took over channel 9 full-time, absorbing WHB-TV's share of the frequency and ending the split-station arrangement. Cook Paint also sold WHB radio to comply with FCC rules.
In September 1955 KMBC-TV swapped affiliations with KCMO-TV (channel 5, now
KCTVKCTV channel 5 is the CBS-affiliated television station for the Kansas City Metropolitan Area that is licensed to the Missouri side. Owned by the Meredith Corporation, the station is sister to MyNetworkTV affiliate KSMO-TV and the two share facilities on Shawnee Mission Parkway KCTV channel 5 is...
), becoming an
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
affiliate. During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the
NTA Film NetworkThe NTA Film Network was an early American television network founded by Ely Landau in 1956. The network was not a full-time television network like CBS, NBC, or ABC. Rather, it operated on a part-time basis, broadcasting films and several first-run television programs from major Hollywood studios...
.
In 1959, Cook Paint and Varnish bought KDRO-TV in
Sedalia, MissouriSedalia is a city located about south of the Missouri River in Pettis County, Missouri. U.S. Highway 50 and U.S. Highway 65 intersect in the city. As of 2006, the city had a total population of 20,669. It is the county seat of Pettis County. The Sedalia Micropolitan Statistical Area consists of...
and changed its calls to
KMOS-TVKMOS-TV is a PBS member public television station in Sedalia, Missouri, owned and operated by the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg. Although Warrensburg and Sedalia are part of the Kansas City media market , KMOS serves as the PBS member station for the Columbia/Jefferson City market...
on January 28 of that year. KDRO-TV had been the ABC affiliate for the far eastern portion of the Kansas City market, but ABC refused to give it a network feed to protect KMBC-TV, forcing it to switch to and from channel 9's signal during network programming.
Metromedia ownership
Cook Paint and Varnish sold the KMBC stations, and KMOS-TV, to Metropolitan Broadcasting (later
MetromediaMetromedia was a media company that owned radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986 and owned Orion Pictures from 1986-1997.- Overview :...
) in 1961. Metropolitan subsequently spun off KMOS-TV to the
Jefferson City News Tribune, then-owner of
Jefferson CityJefferson City is the capital of the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Cole County. Located in Callaway and Cole counties, it is the principal city of the Jefferson City metropolitan area, which encompasses the entirety of both counties. As of the 2010 census, the population was 43,079...
CBS affiliate
KRCGKRCG Channel 13 is the CBS affiliate television station for the Columbia/Jefferson City, Missouri television market. The station is licensed to Jefferson City, with studios in the nearby town of New Bloomfield.-History:...
; KMOS became a repeater of that station (KMOS now serves as the
PBSThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
member station for Mid-Missouri). Metromedia signed on KMBC-FM (99.7 FM, now KZPT) in the following year, but sold both of the KMBC radio stations to
Bonneville InternationalBonneville International Corporation is a broadcasting company wholly owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through its for-profit arm, Deseret Management Corporation...
, the broadcasting arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in 1967.
Over the years, KMBC-TV has pre-empted some ABC programming. Notably under Metromedia ownership, channel 9 passed on
The Brady BunchThe Brady Bunch is an American sitcom created by Sherwood Schwartz and starring Robert Reed, Florence Henderson, and Ann B. Davis. The series revolved around a large blended family...
when it debuted in 1969, but it was picked up a year later. Also, it was one of the few ABC affiliates to pre-empt the
ABC Evening NewsABC World News is the flagship daily evening program of ABC News, the news division of the American Broadcasting Company television network in the United States. Currently, the weekday editions are anchored by Diane Sawyer and the weekend editions are anchored by David Muir. The program has been...
during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Both of these programs were instead broadcast on now-defunct independent KCIT-TV (channel 50, now KPXE-TV). In 1974 Metromedia changed the lease terms of the Lyric Theatre and was given total control of it.
In 1983, KMBC-TV anchor/reporter
Christine CraftChristine Craft is an attorney, radio talk show host and former television news anchor. She became known in the broadcast industry in the 1980s for her age and sexual discrimination lawsuit against a television station that had demoted her from news anchor to reporter.- Early life :Craft was born...
won a judgment against the station and Metromedia. Craft accused station managers of
sexual harassmentSexual harassment, is intimidation, bullying or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. In some contexts or circumstances, sexual harassment is illegal. It includes a range of behavior from seemingly mild transgressions and...
; this was one of the first such cases to be widely publicized in the United States. Craft, however, lost her case on appeal. Although KMBC had moved up to #1 in the market during the incident in 1981, a
focus groupA focus group is a form of qualitative research in which a group of people are asked about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes towards a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea, or packaging...
said she was "too old, too unattractive and not deferential to men." At the time she was 36 and her co-anchor Scott Feldman was 31.
Hearst ownership
In the wake of the Craft case Metromedia sold the station to the Hearst Corporation in 1982. Under Hearst, the station expanded its local news production. Hearst also bought the Lyric Theatre. Hearst which began looking for new quarters sold the building in 1990 but the station continued to operate there.
KMBC came under common management as upstart
WBThe WB Television Network is a former television network in the United States that was launched on January 11, 1995 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and Tribune Broadcasting. On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros...
affiliate KCWB (channel 29, now
CWThe CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
affiliate
KCWEKCWE is the CW-affiliated television station for the Kansas City Metropolitan Area licensed to the Missouri side. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 31 from a transmitter at the East 23rd Street/Topping Avenue intersection in Kansas City, Missouri's Blue Valley section...
) in 1996 through a
local marketing agreementIn U.S. and Canadian broadcasting, a local marketing agreement is an agreement in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another licensee...
. In March 2008, KMBC began a morning newscast for
KCWEKCWE is the CW-affiliated television station for the Kansas City Metropolitan Area licensed to the Missouri side. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 31 from a transmitter at the East 23rd Street/Topping Avenue intersection in Kansas City, Missouri's Blue Valley section...
, the first regularly scheduled news program for the station. KCWE officially became co-owned with KMBC in May 2010. Although KMBC's licensee name remains "KMBC Hearst Television Inc.," the copyright tag at the end of its newscasts reads "Hearst Stations Inc." which is the licensee name for KCWE.
On August 23, 2007, it moved from the Lyric Theatre to new studios at 6455 Winchester Avenue, near
Swope ParkSwope Park is an 1805-acre city park within the city of Kansas City, Missouri. It is the 29th-largest municipal park in the United States , and the largest park in Kansas City. It is named in honor of Colonel Thomas H. Swope, a philanthropist who donated the land to the city in 1896...
. Although its former radio sisters had changed call signs decades ago, KMBC-TV's legal call sign has retained its "-TV" suffix to this day. Under Hearst KMBC was again the focus of a lawsuit filed by female journalists at the station. Maria Antonia, Peggy Breit and Kelly Eckerman sued Hearst in 2008 alleging age and sex discrimination. The lawsuit was settled in 2010.
KMBC has been the local home of
Monday Night FootballMonday Night Football is a live broadcast of the National Football League on ESPN. From to it aired on ABC. Monday Night Football was, along with Hallmark Hall of Fame, and the Walt Disney anthology television series, one of the longest running prime time commercial network television series...
games involving the
Kansas City ChiefsThe Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. They are a member of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Originally named the Dallas Texans, the club was founded by Lamar Hunt in 1960 as a...
since 1970, first when ABC had the rights, and since 2006, airings have been local simulcasts of
ESPNEntertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
-aired games (as was the case when ESPN aired
Sunday night gamesESPN Sunday Night Football is the ESPN cable network's weekly television broadcasts of Sunday evening National Football League games. The first ESPN Sunday night broadcast occurred on November 8, 1987, while the last one aired on January 1, 2006....
from 1987-2005). This is because ESPN is 20% owned by Hearst, and the company's stations have right of first refusal for simulcasts of ESPN-aired
National Football LeagueThe National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
games (as do ABC O&O's).
Programming
KMBC-TV broadcasts all of the ABC network schedule, including network primetime, daytime talk shows and soap operas, Saturday morning children's shows and sports programming. The station also airs
The View,
Nightline, and
Jimmy Kimmel Live! outside of the network's recommended time slots for all three shows, with the latter two delayed due to KMBC airing a block of syndicated sitcoms after its 10 p.m. newscast. Syndicated programming featured on KMBC includes:
Dr. PhilDr. Phil is a reality/talk television show hosted by Phil McGraw. After McGraw's success with his segments on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Dr. Phil debuted on September 16, 2002...
,
OprahThe Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey. It ran nationally for 25 seasons beginning in 1986, before concluding in 2011. It is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....
,
Two and a Half MenTwo and a Half Men is an American television sitcom that premiered on CBS on September 22, 2003. Starring Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer, and Angus T. Jones, the show was originally about a hedonistic jingle writer, Charlie Harper; his uptight brother, Alan; and Alan's growing son, Jake...
,
Rachael RayRachael Ray, also known as The Rachael Ray Show, is a talk show starring Rachael Ray that debuted in syndication in the United States and Canada on September 18, 2006....
,
The OfficeThe Office is an American comedy television series broadcast by NBC. An adaptation of the original BBC series of the same name, it depicts the everyday lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania, branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company...
,
Grey's Anatomy,
FrasierFrasier is an American sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for eleven seasons, from September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee in association with Grammnet and Paramount Network Television.A spin-off of Cheers, Frasier stars...
and
The Nate Berkus ShowThe Nate Berkus Show, commonly referred to as The Nate Show, is a syndicated talk show hosted by interior designer Nate Berkus, which premiered on September 13, 2010....
.
From its March 24, 1980 debut until January 3, 2011, KMBC delayed
Nightline to midnight, 90 minutes later than most ABC stations that carry it (with only minor exceptions for major breaking news events), a decision that had been long criticized by some ABC network management and even former
Nightline host
Ted KoppelEdward James "Ted" Koppel is an English-born American broadcast journalist, best known as the anchor for Nightline from the program's inception in 1980 until his retirement in late 2005. After leaving Nightline, Koppel worked as managing editor for the Discovery Channel before resigning in 2008...
;
Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which follows it, was also delayed similarly since its January 2003 debut. On January 3, 2011 KMBC pushed
Nightline and
Jimmy Kimmel ahead a half-hour, starting at 11:37 p.m., citing shifting market conditions making a compelling case to air the two programs a half hour earlier and a request by the network to do so during recent negotiations of KMBC's affiliation agreement with ABC.
News operation
Under Hearst, the station expanded its local news production. KMBC currently broadcasts a total of 30½ hours of local news per week (with 3½ hours on weekdays, five hours on Saturdays and 4½ hours on Sundays). During the late 1970s and into the 1980s, KMBC was number one in the area but the station ended the latter decade in second place behind
WDAF-TVWDAF-TV, virtual channel 4.1, is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the Kansas City, Missouri-Kansas designated market area. The station is owned by Local TV LLC, the media arm of private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners. Its studios and transmitter are located in the Signal Hill...
(channel 4). As soon as that station switched from
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
to
FoxFox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
in September 1994, KMBC returned to number one. Currently, it generally battles
KCTVKCTV channel 5 is the CBS-affiliated television station for the Kansas City Metropolitan Area that is licensed to the Missouri side. Owned by the Meredith Corporation, the station is sister to MyNetworkTV affiliate KSMO-TV and the two share facilities on Shawnee Mission Parkway KCTV channel 5 is...
for first place weeknights at 10 p.m. while continuing to battle WDAF for first place on weekday mornings. In November 2007, KMBC finished the sweeps period first in most newscasts and tying KCTV in the 10 p.m. time period. In February 2008, its newscasts won all of their time periods outright.
In 2007, its news department won seven Edward R. Murrow Awards which is the most by a station in the country. The station won awards in the following categories: news series, feature, news documentary, spot news, continuing coverage, newscast, and overall excellence. KMBC unveiled its new purpose-built facility near Swope Park on August 23, 2007 beginning with the 5 p.m. newscast. The new building includes a news set designed by
FX GroupFX Group is a set design, fabrication and lighting design company based in Ocoee, Florida.FX Group has designed and built sets for broadcast programs across the country, mostly in the area of live news...
. With the relocation, the channel became the first station in the area to air local newscasts in
high definitionHigh-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
.
For many years, KCWE aired no local newscasts despite being a sister station to KMBC. It cited a fear of cannibalizing the station's audience as a reason not to expand news offerings to KCWE. This changed on March 3, 2008 when that station debuted a two-hour extension of the "FirstNews" morning newscast, from 7-9 a.m. As is the case on KMBC, the KCWE newscast is aired in high definition. On July 30, 2010 like most of its Hearst-owned ABC affiliated sister stations did on that date, KMBC added an hour-long extension of its weekend morning newscast at 8 a.m. On August 23, 2010, this was followed by an expansion of its weekday morning newscast to 2½ hours with the move of the start time to 4:30 a.m. (NBC affiliate KSHB, channel 41, also moved the start time of its morning newscast to 4:30 a.m. on the same date). On September 14, 2010, KMBC launched a half-hour weeknight only 9 p.m. newscast on KCWE to compete with WDAF-TV's in-house 9 p.m. newscast and the KCTV-produced 9 p.m. newscast on
MyNetworkTVMyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
affiliate
KSMO-TVKSMO-TV, virtual channel 62, is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for the Kansas City Metropolitan Area licensed to the Missouri side. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 47 from a transmitter in Independence, Missouri...
(channel 62). Management stated the reason behind this was due to The CW's growing ratings.
Ratings
For the February 2011 sweeps period, KMBC was the #1 news station in the Kansas City market with a total-day quarter-hour household rating average of 6.4; the station tied with WDAF-TV during the 6-7 a.m. hour with a 5.4 rating, though WDAF-TV's morning newscast beat KMBC during the 7-9 a.m. slot while Channel 9 aired
Good Morning AmericaGood Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
. The station also placed first among the market's evening newscasts with a 8.1 rating share at 5 p.m., a 9.2 rating at 6 p.m. and a 9.8 rating at 10 p.m. The station's 9 p.m. newscast on KCWE also scored a 1.4 rating for the month ahead slightly above KCTV's primetime newscast on KSMO but well behind longtime 9 p.m. leader, WDAF-TV.
Newscast titles
- Your Esso Reporter (1953–1956)
- The Kansas City Report (1956–1960)
- The Television 9 Report (1960–1965)
- Pulse (5 p.m. newscast)/24 Hours (10 p.m. newscast; 1965–c. 1971)
- Total News (c.1971–1979)
- The News: The xx:00 Report/Update (1979–1983)
- KMBC 9 News (1983–present)
Station slogans
- "Only on Channel 9" (1970-1976)
- "Kansas City Turns Us On" (1976-1980)
- "The Spirit of Kansas City" (1982–1983)
- "So Good To Turn To" (1983–1985, used during period station used news package of the same name by Frank Gari
Frank Gari is a popular singer and songwriter from the late 1950s and early 1960s. His best known songs as a performer are "Utopia" , "Lullaby of Love" and "Princess" , all of which hit the U.S. Top 40 in 1961. He co-wrote with Roger McGuinn the song Beach Ball for Bobby Darin...
)
- "Where the News Comes First" (1986–2000)
- "Coverage You Can Count On" (2000–2007)
- "Local. Live. Coverage You Can Count On" (2007–2011), variant of previous slogan)
- "The Team You Trust" (2011–present)
Current on-air staff (as of August 13, 2011)
Anchors
- Maria Antonia - Saturdays at 5, 6 and 10; also general assignment reporter
- Diane Cho - weekday mornings "FirstNews" on KCWE; also weeknight reporter
- Jana Corrie - weekend mornings; also weeknight reporter
- Kelly Eckerman - weeknights at 5 (& 9 on KCWE) and Sundays at 10 p.m.; also health reporter
- Kris Ketz - weekday mornings "FirstNews"; also weeknight reporter
- Larry Moore - weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
- Lara Moritz - weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.
- Donna Pitman - weekday mornings "FirstNews"; also 5 and 6 p.m. reporter
- Kerri Stowell - weekday fill-in, weekend and holiday fill-in
KMBC 9 First Alert Weather
- Bryan Busby (AMS
The American Meteorological Society promotes the development and dissemination of information and education on the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences and the advancement of their professional applications. Founded in 1919, the American Meteorological Society has a membership...
Seal of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 6, 9 (on KCWE) and 10 p.m.; heard on KPRSKPRS is an Urban contemporary radio station that broadcasts on the 103.3 MHz frequency licensed to Kansas City. The station's playlist consists of hip-hop, R&B, soul, jazz, and gospel music...
(103.3 FM)
- Erin Little (member, AMS) - meteorologist; Saturdays at 5 and 6, Sundays at 5:30 and weekends at 10 p.m.
- Joel Nichols - weather anchor; weekday mornings "FirstNews", also feature reporter and host and producer of Afterwords; heard on KMBZ (980 AM and 98.1 FM)
- Lisa Teachman (AMS Seal of Approval; member, NWA
The National Weather Association is an American professional association with a mission to support and promote excellence in operational meteorology and related activities...
) - meteorologist; weekend mornings
Sports team
- Len Dawson
Leonard Ray "Len" "Lenny" Dawson is a former American collegiate and Professional Football quarterback who attended Purdue University and went on to play for three professional teams, most notably the Dallas Texans/Kansas City Chiefs...
- sports director emeritus; seen during Kansas City ChiefsThe Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. They are a member of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Originally named the Dallas Texans, the club was founded by Lamar Hunt in 1960 as a...
season and fill-in weeknight anchor
- Johnny Kane - sports director; weeknights at 6, 9 (on KCWE) and 10 p.m. (starting September 19)
- Karen Kornacki - sports anchor; Saturdays at 5 and 6, Sundays at 5:30 and weekends at 10 p.m., also sports reporter
Reporters
- Martin Augustine - general assignment reporter
- Peggy Breit - general assignment reporter
- Bev Chapman - general assignment reporter
- Cliff Judy - general assignment reporter
- Micheal Mahoney - general assignment reporter
- Marcus Moore - general assignment reporter
- Justin Robinson - weekday morning reporter
- Johnny Rowlands - "NewsChopper 9" helicopter pilot, morning traffic and 5 and 6 p.m. breaking news reporter
- Kerri Stowell - weekday morning traffic, and 5 and 6 p.m. reporter; also fill-in anchor
- Tim Twyman - photojournalist
- Brenda Washington - general assignment reporter
- Dan Weinbaum - general assignment reporter
Hearst Washington Bureau
- Kate Amara - Washington D.C. Bureau reporter
- Sally Kidd - Washington D.C. Bureau reporter
- Laurie Kinney - Washington D.C. Bureau reporter
Notable former staff
- Walt Bodine
Walton Marshall "Walt" Bodine , better known as Walt Bodine, is a broadcast journalist in Kansas City, Missouri...
- Jonathan Coachman
Jonathan William Coachman , also known as "The Coach", is a former professional wrestling color commentator and authority figure. He is also a former college basketball player, and football play-by-play announcer...
- later with WWE, now with ESPNEntertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
- Christine Craft
Christine Craft is an attorney, radio talk show host and former television news anchor. She became known in the broadcast industry in the 1980s for her age and sexual discrimination lawsuit against a television station that had demoted her from news anchor to reporter.- Early life :Craft was born...
- Scott Feldman
- Steve Grant
- Jeremy Hubbard
Jeremy David Hubbard in Glenwood Springs,Colorado is an American news anchor for KDVR-TV and KWGN-TV in Denver. He was a New York-based correspondent for ABC News, and reported for all ABC News broadcasts and platforms, including Good Morning America, World News with Diane Sawyer, and...
- joined ABC NewsABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
- currently anchor at FOX 31 Denver News
- Craig Sager
Craig Sager , is currently a sportscaster for TNT and TBS. Sager is a graduate of Northwestern University. He has previously covered sports for CBS and CNN. His nickname is "America's Sideline Reporter"....
External links