KSDK - History

History

Channel 5 first went on the air as KSD-TV on February 8, 1947, owned by the Pulitzer Publishing Company, along with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and KSD radio (550 AM). It was the eighth television station to sign on in the United States, the first station in Missouri and the second station located west of the Mississippi (signing on the air 2½ weeks after KTLA/Los Angeles). Because of a freeze on new television station licenses imposed by the Federal Communications Commission, KSD was the only television station in the St. Louis market, until WTVI (channel 54, now KTVI channel 2) signed on in August 1953. Channel 5 has always been an NBC affiliate, owing to KSD's longtime affiliation with the NBC Radio Network, and 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, DuMont and ABC. Channel 5 was also the first St. Louis television station to broadcast in color.

After KSD radio was sold by Pulitzer to Combined Communications Corporation in 1979 (prior to Combined's merger with the Gannett Company that same year), KSD-TV's call letters were changed to the current KSDK. In 1983, Pulitzer traded channel 5 to Multimedia, Inc. in return for WFBC-TV/Greenville, South Carolina, 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 1989, KSDK dropped the Eyewitness News branding to rebrand its newscasts as NewsChannel 5, with the station also beginning to operate on a 24-hour-a-day schedule. On July 24, 1995, Multimedia Inc. entered into a merger agreement with the Gannett Company, with the acquisition finalized on December 4, 1995. In 1998, KSDK debuted the "Window on St. Louis," a streetside studio located in the same downtown St. Louis building that also houses KSDK's other studios. Show Me St. Louis is aired from this studio, which welcomes the public to take part in the broadcasts. The Window on St. Louis is modeled on Today's "Window on the World." In 2000, KSDK launched its website: www.ksdk.com.

In an attempt to provide St. Louisans with local and national election results available during the 2004 elections, KSDK partnered with KETC, St. Louis's PBS affiliate, to simulcast election coverage. The partnership was first utilized to broadcast a gubernatorial debate between Secretary of State of Missouri Matt Blunt, a Republican), and then State Auditor of Missouri Claire McCaskill (D). On election night, KSDK aired NBC's primetime election coverage with Tom Brokaw and Tim Russert as well as segments of local results; on KETC, Mike Bush and Karen Foss hosted three hours of all local election results. Viewers could also watch election results online. The KSDK/KETC partnership continued through September 2005, when, along with radio partners KYKY (98.1 kHz.) and KEZK (102.5 kHz.), a telethon for Hurricane Katrina relief was simulcast that raised more than $5 million.

In 2004, KSDK sponsored and was the official media partner for "Celebrate 2004," a year-long event commemorating the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (or St. Louis World's Fair) and the 1904 Summer Olympics (The Games of the III Olympiad, which were the first Olympic Games held in the United States) that began on December 31, 2003 with "’04 Eve," which was held in Forest Park with special events held to honor the anniversaries throughout 2004. On its way to Athens, Greece, the Olympic Flame arrived for an overnight stop in Forest Park amid much fanfare in July (KSDK anchors Rene Knott and Kelly Jackson were among the torchbearers). St. Louis also hosted the U.S. Women's Marathon Trials in April as well as the U.S. Diving Trials. "Celebrate 2004" came to a close on December 31,2004.

KSDK produced the first broadcast of any local program in St. Louis in high-definition, when it broadcast the St. Louis Thanksgiving Day 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, moving to CBS affiliate KMOV for the 2006 edition.