KTVI

KTVI is the Fox-affiliated television station in St. Louis, Missouri. Its transmitter is located in Sappington, Missouri; in a field behind Lindbergh High School. Its studios are located off Interstate 64/U.S. 40 at the intersection of Berthold, Oakland, and Hampton Avenues in the Clayton-Tamm/Dogtown neighborhood of western St. Louis.

KTVI runs about 46 hours a week of locally produced newscasts, as well as first-run prime time and sports programming from Fox. It also runs off-network sitcoms, talk shows, reality shows, sports, and court shows.

KTVI broadcasts in stereo and broadcasts a Secondary Audio Program (SAP) channel, used mainly for Descriptive Video Service (DVS).

History

KTVI began on August 10, 1953 as WTVI, channel 54 in Belleville, Illinois; a suburb of St. Louis. It was the St. Louis area's second television station. It was the original CBS affiliate for St. Louis, with a secondary ABC affiliation. Studios were located in Alton. When KWK-TV (later KMOX-TV and now KMOV) signed on and took the CBS affiliation, WTVI dropped CBS and became an ABC affiliate. It moved its studios and license across the Mississippi River to St. Louis on April 9 1955 changing its calls to KTVI. It also moved to channel 36, carrying some DuMont network programming as well. DuMont went off the air in 1956, making KTVI an exclusive ABC affiliate. KTVI moved to channel 2 on April 15, 1957, where it remains to this day. The station had actually tried to move to channel 2 soon after moving across the Mississippi; the channel 2 allocation had been moved from Springfield, Illinois under pressure from the White House. The WTVI calls currently reside on the PBS member station in Charlotte. In 1978 the station was purchased from Newhouse Broadcasting, Inc., a subsidiary of Newhouse Publishing, Inc. (then also owners of St. Louis Globe-Democrat) by Times Mirror, owner of the Los Angeles Times. In 1993, as part of a group deal, KTVI was sold to Argyle Broadcasting. In 1994, the Fox network took over the contract from CBS to carry the NFC game package. This inspired a conglomerate called New World Communications to reach an affiliation agreement with the network by switching all of its stations to Fox in the winter of 1994. Then New World bought out Argyle, and cut another deal to switch KTVI and sister stations KDFW in Dallas, and KTBC in Austin in the summer of 1995. The new owners moved Fox programming to KTVI on August 7, 1995, allowing the former Fox affiliate, KDNL channel 30, to become St. Louis' ABC affiliate. New World merged with Fox Television Stations Group in 1996, and KTVI was the first major network O&O in St. Louis since KMOX-TV was sold by CBS to Viacom, and became KMOV in 1986. It stayed that way until 2003 when KPLR-TV was sold to Tribune, a former stakeholder in The WB network. When that network merged into The CW (which Tribune did not hold stake in) in 2006, KTVI went back to being the only network-owned station in town. KTVI didn't pick up Fox Kids at first, so it moved to KNLC. However, in the fall of 1996, due to Reverend Larry Rice's refusal to air commercials on Fox Kids (replacing them with ministry messages), Fox pulled Fox Kids from KNLC and moved it to KTVI. KTVI was the only New World station to take Fox Kids. Shortly thereafter, KTVI and the New World Fox affiliates were sold to Fox' parent, News Corporation, becoming Fox O&Os. Programming changed very slightly as Fox began buying more expensive syndicated shows for KTVI. In the fall of 1998, KTVI reduced the weekday Fox Kids programs to just two hours (from three) and, in 2000, dropped weekday Fox Kids completely while Saturday mornings were continued. At the end of 2001, Fox Kids weekdays ended nationwide, and the weekends were revamped as 4Kids TV. KTVI now airs Fox's entire schedule including 4Kids TV; as of Fall 2006 it airs 2 hours earlier than most affiliates now to accommodate an expanded newscast lineup on Saturday mornings. On November 1, 1999, KTVI launched its first website at fox2ktvi.com The design was similar to other FOX owned & operated sites throughout the country. The site focused on promotional and programming content initially, but as broadband slowly penetrated the market, the online audience shifted from evening dial-up users to a 9-to-5 audience, and the need for news content continued to grow more each year. KTVI's introduced its current logo on April 10, 2006. The station is the fourth to use this logo style (which is similar to that of the Fox News Channel), which is gradually being adopted by the other Fox O&Os. On September 14, 2006, KTVI switched their website domain name to the MyFox branded site myfoxstl.com and started what is currently the largest FOX television online community in the country at blogs.myfoxstl.com On October 15, 2007, KTVI launched a second web site for St. Louis moms called STLMoms.com The concept for this site spun off from the extremely popular blogging section of the MyFox site. On December 22, 2007, Fox announced that they had entered into an agreement to sell KTVI and seven other Fox O&O stations to Oak Hill Capital Partners' Local TV LLC, which currently owns nine stations formerly of The New York Times Company. On July 14, 2008, KTVI officially began operations under Local TV. On June 2, 2008, KTVI created a third website GarageSaleSTL.com, which is a site that posts viewer-submitted garage sales onto a Google map, along with tips on buying and selling. This site is a free service to the public.

On September 17, 2008 both Local and Tribune announced that they would merge the operations of both KTVI and KPLR. Both stations will be co-located at KPLR under the management of KTVI GM Spencer Koch. The move was done to allow both stations to combine news operations and share certain programming. The LMA will take place October 1, 2008.

News Operations

For most of the time since joining Fox, KTVI has led the 9 p.m. news ratings race against KPLR-TV. KTVI is able to emphasize a broad array of stories from major national and local reports to small-town local stories/investigations because of the many extra hours of news (7.5 hours per day as opposed to 5 on KSDK and KMOV) that need to be filled. Also because of this, the station features more regular segments such as The Jaco Report, a segment where noted reporter Charles Jaco gives either an editorial or introduces an investigative piece, or You Paid For It, where Elliot Davis finds tax abuse in local governments and closes the segment by giving the phone number of the mayor's office in that municipality, signing off with the locally famous line "Call and speak your mind: after all, you paid for it." KTVI devotes a larger segment of its sports coverage to local high-school sports (once joining with the Post-Dispatch to air the "Prep Sports Show" on Saturdays, now cancelled) and is the home of Scott Linehan's weekly St. Louis Rams review show on Mondays. The station's morning news program is 4 hours, 5:00am - 9:00am and another hour from 11:00am-12:00. Since 1998, Fox 2 News In The Morning has been the fastest growing newscast in St. Louis morning Television.

Before Dick Ford retired in December 2005, all four of KTVI's main male anchors (Dick Ford, Tom O'Neal, Dan Gray and John Pertzborn) were once anchors at KSDK.

News Sets/Graphics Packages

On March 31, 2006, KTVI used their set, originally constructed in 1998, for the last time; at 10:00 p.m. crews began tearing down the set and weather center. Fox 2 broadcast from the newsroom and a temporary set while a new set and weather center were under construction in the old studio. The old news desk was donated to Southern Illinois University Carbondale and the old weather center was donated to the University of Missouri–St. Louis. The new set, along with new graphics, music, and a new logo, debuted for Fox 2 News at 9 on Monday, April 10, 2006.

The theme music that KTVI uses is a news music package made for FOX O&O stations by OSI Music. This theme is being used by other Fox O&O stations that have made identical modifications to their identity.

With the new set, music, and graphics that first aired in April 2006, the weather graphics were altered in September 2006 with a new background, and other features to better fit the MyFox theme.

News/Station Presentation

Newscast Titles

• The Texaco News Report (1953-1955)
• City News (1955-1962, 6:15 P.M. newscast)
• Nightly News (1955-1962, 10 P.M. newscast)
• The Big News (1962-1971, 6 P.M. newscast)
• 24 Hours (1962-1971, 10 P.M. newscast)
• Eyewitness News (1971-1975)
• NewsWatch 2 (1975-1981)
• Channel 2 News (1981-1987)
• 2 News Team (1987-1995)
• Fox 2 News (1995-present)

Station Slogans

• Hello St. Louis (1981-1987)
• Something's Happening on Channel 2 (1987-1989)
• The Home Team (1989-1994)
• Here's 2 St. Louis (1990s)
• Working For You (1999-2002)
• Coverage You Can Count On (2002-present)
• St. Louis' Newsroom (2006-present)
• The Most Powerful Name In Local News (2006-present)
• Spirit of St. Louis (-present)

Personalities

Current On-Air Talent

Fox 2 Anchors

• Andy Banker: Weeknight Reporter/Saturday Morning Anchor
• John Brown: Reporter/Friday 10PM Anchor
• Elliot Davis: "You Paid For It" Reporter/Friday and Saturday Evening Anchor
• Margie Ellisor: 5AM-7AM Anchor
• Dan Gray: 5PM Weekday Anchor/Weeknight Reporter
• Sandy Miller: 6PM Weekday and Sunday-Thursday 10PM Anchor
• Mandy Murphey: 5PM and 9PM Anchor/Reporter
• Randi Naughton: 7AM-9AM Anchor/Reporter
• Tom O'Neal: 6PM and 9PM Sunday-Thursday Evening and 5PM Sunday Anchor/Health Reporter
• John Pertzborn: 7AM-9AM Anchor
• April Simpson: Midday Anchor/Weekday Morning Reporter
• Paul Schankman: Weeknight Reporter/Sunday Morning Anchor
• Kevin Steincross: 5AM-7AM Anchor/Reporter
• Shirley Washington: Reporter/Friday and Saturday Evening Anchor

Fox 2 Reporters

• John Auble: General Assignment Reporter
• Betsey Bruce: General Assignment Reporter
• Sean Conroy: General Assignment Reporter
• Bonita Cornute: General Assignment Reporter
• Tim Ezell: Feature Reporter
• John Gadson: General Assignment Reporter
• Chris Hayes: Investigative Reporter
• Charles Jaco: War Correspondent; host: The Jaco Report
• Summer Knowles: General Assignment Reporter
• Doug Luzader: Washington D.C. Correspondent
• Roche Madden: General Assignment Reporter
• Janis Murray: Home & Garden Reporter
• Chris Regnier: General Assignment Reporter
• Elliot Weiler: "Contact 2" Reporter
• Teresa Woodard: General Assignment Reporter

Fox 2 Meteorologists

In addition to providing forecasts on KTVI-TV, the Fox 2 Weather Team also provides forecasts for KTRS-AM, KPNT-FM, and KIHT-FM radio.

• Dave Murray (AMS Seal of Approval): Chief Meteorologist, seen weekday evenings; also Home & Garden Reporter
• Chris Higgins (AMS's Certified Broadcast Meteorologist (CBM), Seal): Weekend Evening Meteorologist, currently serving overseas
• Angela Hutti: Weekend Morning Meteorologist/Weather Producer
• Glenn Zimmerman (AMS Seal of Approval): Weekday Morning and Midday Meteorologist
• Mark Geldmeier: Fill-in Meteorologist

Fox 2 Traffic

• Monica Adams
• John Brubaker: "Sky Fox" Pilot

Fox 2 Sports

• Martin Kilcoyne: Sports Director, seen Sunday-Thursday/Co-Host of "Rams Weekly with Scott Linehan"
• Rob Desir: Friday and Saturday Evening Anchor/Sunday-Thursday Reporter
• Maurice Drummond: Weekend Morning Anchor/Weekday Reporter
• Charlie Marlow: Sports Producer/Reporter

Former On-Air Talent

• Victoria Babu: Anchor/Reporter (currently at KTRS-AM)
• Cherie Bank: Anchor (currently at WCAU-TV, Philadelphia)
• Shelia Banks: Anchor
• Asher Benrubi (Smash): Feature Reporter
• Marion Brooks: Anchor (currently at WMAQ-TV, Chicago)
• Lisa Brown: Reporter
• Bebe Burns: Reporter (later KPRC-TV, Houston)
• Bryan Busby: Meteorologist (currently at KMBC, Kansas City, MO)
• Kevin Cokely: Anchor (currently at KXAS-TV, Fort Worth, TX)
• Larry Conners: Anchor (currently at KMOV-TV, St. Louis)
• J.C. Corcoran: Personal Commentary
• Ron Corning: Reporter (currently at WNYW-TV, New York, NY)
• Lynn Cousins: Reporter
• Bill Davis:Sports Director, sports reporter (currently college professor Webster University)
• Jennifer Davis: Reporter (currently with Fox News)
• Aviva Diamond: Reporter
• Kathleen England: Traffic Reporter (currently at KSDK-TV, St. Louis)
• Jill Farmer: Consumer Reporter
• Dick Ford: Anchor (retired)
• Julie Gaier: Reporter
• Greg Gizinski: Sports Reporter
• Joel Goldberg: Sports Reporter (currently at Fox Sports Net Kansas City)
• Donn Johnson: Anchor/Reporter
• Iola Johnson: Anchor
• Susan Kidd: Anchor (later WRC-TV, Washington, DC)
• Dana King: Anchor (currently at KPIX-TV, San Francisco)
• Stu Klitenic: Sports Director
• Gina Kurre: Reporter
• Don Lemon: Investigative Reporter (currently at CNN)
• Shawn Lindsey: Anchor/Reporter
• Brenda Madden: Reporter
• Don Marsh: Anchor
• Molly McKittrick: Reporter
• Russ Mitchell: Reporter (currently at CBS News)
• Paul Moyer: Reporter/Anchor (now at KNBC-TV, Los Angeles)
• Miles Muzio: Chief Meteorologist (currently at KBAK-TV, Bakersfield, CA)
• Nancy Pasternak: Anchor/Reporter (1995-2005)
• Chris Pelikan: Sports Producer/Reporter
• Pete (Greg) Peterson: Sports Director (1995-2002; currently at WPMI-TV, Mobile, AL)
• Joe Petrovich: Meteorologist
• Gary Rebstock: Anchor
• Fred Rhodes: Reporter (later Houston City Magazine, now an attorney in Houston)
• Rachelle Rowe: Anchor
• Zip Rzeppa: Sports Director
• Don Schroeder: Anchor (currently anchor WDRB-TV, Louisville, KY)
• Robin Smith: Reporter (currently at KMOV-TV, St. Louis)
• Melanie Streeper: Weather Anchor/Producer (later at KMOV-TV, St. Louis)
• Howard Streeter: Anchor
• Corrina Sullivan: Anchor/Reporter (currently at WOFL-TV, Orlando, FL)
• Lisa Sylvester: Anchor (2000) (currently at CNN)
• Gene Tuck: Anchor
• Len Turner: Reporter/"St. Louis' Most Wanted" Reporter (currently at News 12 New Jersey)
• Gary Whitaker: Reporter, Illinois Bureau Chief
• Hillary Wicai: Reporter (currently with American Public Media "Marketplace")
• Ron Yaros: Meteorologist

External links

• Official website
• Official St. Louis moms website
• Garage Sale website'
• Official mobile website

References