Francais | English | Espanõl

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

KPLR-TV
Image:WPIX-KPLR CW Logo.png
St. Louis, Missouri <tr><th style="vertical-align: top; text-align: right;">Branding</th><td style="text-align: left;">CW 11</td></tr><tr><th style="vertical-align: top; text-align: right;">Slogan</th><td style="text-align: left;">Where People are the Story</td></tr>
Channels	11 (VHF) analog, 26 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	The CW
Owner	Tribune Company
Founded	April 28, 1959 <tr><th style="vertical-align: top; text-align: right;">Call letters meaning</th><td style="text-align: left;">KoPLaR (named after Ted Koplar, the station's founder)</td></tr><tr><th style="vertical-align: top; text-align: right;">Former affiliations</th><td style="text-align: left;">The WB (1995-2006), Independent (1959-1994)</td></tr> <tr><th style="vertical-align: top; text-align: right;">Website</th><td style="text-align: left;">www.cw11tv.trb.com</td></tr>

KPLR-TV, channel 11, is The CW television network affiliate in St. Louis, Missouri, owned and operated by Tribune Broadcasting. The station offers a schedule of off network sitcoms, talk shows, court shows, reality shows, cartoons, first run shows from the CW, and a few movies. Its transmitter is located in Lemay, Missouri.

On September 18, 2006, KPLR became the St. Louis affiliate of the CW, created through a merger of the UPN and WB networks. The newly combined network is co-owned by CBS and the Warner Bros. Television unit of Time Warner.

The channel's call letters, KPLR, reflect the name of the family that founded and owned the station for almost 40 years: Koplar.

The station broadcasts in stereo and was one of the first stations in the country to do so. Its analog channel operates on channel 11 while the station's digital channel operates on channel 26.

Contents 1 History 2 News Operations 2.1 News Sets/Graphics Packages/Music 2.2 Newscasts 2.3 On-Air Personalities 3 External links

[edit] History

KPLR-TV started broadcasting on April 28, 1959.

Between May 23,1959 and September 10, 1983, KPLR produced and broadcast Wrestling at the Chase, a program featuring professional wrestling from the local Chase-Park Plaza Hotel. Originating from the hotel's Khorassan Ballroom until 1970, the show featured the most famous wrestlers in the National Wrestling Alliance, which was controlled in part by St. Louis promoter Sam Muchnick. Participants included Ric Flair, Harley Race, former NFL player Dick the Bruiser Afflis and Ted DiBiase among others, and is considered one of the pro wrestling industry's most historic programs. Approximately 1,100 episodes were made during a run of 24 years, and almost 4 months.

For many years, KPLR has been the broadcast home of the St. Louis Cardinals and St. Louis Blues. For most of its existence, KPLR was a traditional independent with cartoons, sitcoms, movies, dramas, sports, and news. KPLR turned down Fox affiliation in 1986, instead choosing to remain an independent station. In 1995, KPLR decided to affiliate with the newly created WB television network. KPLR also passed on the ABC affiliation after longtime ABC affiliate KTVI switched to Fox, effectively sending ABC to the former Fox affiliate, KDNL. Koplar sold KPLR to ACME Communications in the mid '90s.

After years of being known as "St. Louis 11", KPLR became known as "WB11" in 1998. KPLR had secondary UPN affiliation from 1999-2002 running the cartoons from UPN's "Disney Block" and select other UPN shows. After WRBU assumed UPN affiliation, UPN shows disappeared from KPLR. In March, 2003 ACME Communications sold KPLR and sister station KWBP in Portland to Tribune Company.

On January 2, 2006, the weekday Monday–Friday Kids' WB block was discontinued.

On January 24, 2006, the WB and UPN networks announced they would merge. The newly combined network would be called The CW, the letters representing the first initial of its corporate parents CBS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner. The merger would take effect on-the-air in September 2006, and KPLR-TV was announced as the St. Louis affiliate. A ten year affiliation agreement was made between The CW and the Tribune stations in major markets. Former UPN station WRBU switched to News Corp's My Network TV, the sister network to Fox.

On Sunday, April 9, 2006, The Fan Show, hosted by Rich Gould, debuted. It is a live sports-related show broadcasted from The Casino Queen's Club Sevens,with audience-participation games and discussion. Gould remarked in a St. Louis Post-Dispatch interview about the show that "it's live TV in its rawest form. It's essentially a time machine back to the 1950s...in fact, some of the games I stole from Beat the Clock."

On Wednesday, May 31, 2006 The Tube debuted on 11.2 on ATSC broadcast. The Tube began broadcasting on Charter Cable channel 136 on August 2, 2006.

[edit] News Operations

Traditionally, like most non-"Big Three" stations, KPLR has aired a newscast an hour back of the major stations--in this case, at 9 P.M. Since KTVI moved their news to 9 following their affiliation switch, they have consistently beaten KPLR in the ratings.

KPLR has in the past tried to program their news to a younger audience, with most of their anchors being under 35 and with a more fast-paced style of broadcast. However, in a city where most television personalities have been around for years and the perennial ratings winner, KSDK, does not have a main presenter who has less than 10 years tenure, this has for the most part caused them to struggle, in addition to what is percieved as a "soft" approach to news. Nevertheless, KPLR has often been pointed out by Post-Dispatch television critics as a good "sweep story" station, where during November, January and May sweeps the station will plug one or more major investigative pieces. KPLR's stories have been seen as much more broad-based and less sensationalistic.

[edit] News Sets/Graphics Packages/Music

In 2003, KPLR moved out of its traditional home at the Chase Park Plaza (which by that time had gone from a gutted complex in which the station was the only major tenant into a boutique hotel) into a new purpose-built building in Westport with a new newsroom and studio. A new WB11 logo was debuted along with new graphics and music. In late January 2006, KPLR updated its graphics. They also updated their logo, from being blue to being red. In September 2006, the logos were redesigned with the new CW logos and graphics.

[edit] Newscasts

Monday-Friday

• CW11 News at Nine - 9:00pm-9:30pm
  • with Rick Edlund and Kathryn Jamboretz
  • Keryn Shipman; weather
  • Rich Gould; sports

Saturday

• CW11 News at Nine - 9:00pm-9:30pm
  • with Jeff Bernthal and Melanie Moon
  • Michelle Anselmo; weather
  • Rich Gould; sports

Sunday

• CW11 News at Nine - 9:00pm-9:25pm
  • with Jeff Bernthal and Melanie Moon
  • Michelle Anselmo; weather
  • Rich Gould; sports
• The Fan Show - 9:25pm-10:00pm
  • with Rich Gould

[edit] On-Air Personalities

Anchors

• Rick Edlund: CW11 News at Nine (weekdays)
• Kathryn Jamboretz: CW11 News at Nine (weekdays)
• Jeff Bernthal: CW11 News at Nine (weekends) anchor/reporter
• Melanie Moon: CW11 News at Nine (weekends) anchor/reporter

Reporters

• Michelle Anselmo
• Shelley Bortz
• Christine Buck: features
• Matt Gamewell
• Kelly Hoskins
• Tony Miller
• Theresa Petry

Sports

• Rich Gould: sports director, host of "The Fan Show"
• Telly Hughes: sports reporter
• Kurt Labelle: sports reporter

Weather

• Keryn Shipman: chief meterologist
• Michelle Anselmo

Past Personalities

• Don Bell, sports (now at KYW-CBS3 Philadelphia).
• Patrick Clark, reporter.
• Cree Craig, anchor.
• Steve Draganchuk, meteorologist/reporter.
• Dan Eassa, sports.
• Mark Feree, meteorologist.
• Kara Kaswell, anchor/reporter(now at KMOV).
• Sandy Miller, anchor (now at KTVI).
• Victor Ojeda, reporter.
• Steve Schiff, anchor.
• Garry Seith, chief meteorologist (1999-2006; currently at KTXA, Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas).
• Melanie Streeper, weather anchor.
• Evelyn Wilkerson, reporter.

[edit] External links

• Official website of KPLR-TV
• The CW Television Network
• The Tribune Co.
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KPLR
• The Tube Television Network

Broadcast television in the St. Louis market  (Nielsen DMA #21)
KTVI 2 (Fox) - KMOV 4 (CBS) - KSDK 5 (NBC)  (NBC WX+ on DT2) - KPTN-LP 7 (HSN) - WSIU 8 (PBS) - KETC 9 (PBS) - KPLR 11 (The CW) (The Tube on DT2) - K22HG 22 (TBN) - KNLC 24 (FamilyNet) - KEFN 28 (EWTN) - W29CI 29 (3ABN) - KDNL 30 (ABC) - WRBU 46 (MNTV) - W50CH 50 (REL) - KUMO 51 (RTN) - KDTL 64 (DS) </span>
Local/regional cable television stations
FSN Midwest

</center>