KTVI
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KTVI is the Fox owned and operated station in St. Louis, Missouri. KTVI broadcasts locally on from its transmitter in Sappington, Missouri, located in a field behind Lindbergh High School. Its studios are located off of Interstate 64 at the intersection of Oakland and Hampton in southwest St. Louis.
KTVI broadcasts in stereo and broadcasts a Secondary Audio Program (SAP) channel, used mainly for Descriptive Video Service (DVS). KTVI airs also about 42 hours of local news per week.
History
KTVI began on August 13, 1953 as WTVI, channel 54 in Belleville, Illinois, a suburb of St. Louis. It was the CBS affiliate for St. Louis, with a secondary ABC affiliation. When KWK-TV (now KMOV) signed on and took the CBS affiliation, WTVI became a full ABC affiliate. It moved its studios and license across the Mississippi River to St. Louis on April 9,1955 and became KTVI, broadcasting on channel 36. KTVI moved to channel 2 on April 15, 1957, where it remains to this day. WTVI are currently the call letters of a PBS member affiliate in Charlotte, North Carolina.In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Times Mirror owned the station. As part of a group deal, KTVI was sold to Argyle Broadcasting in 1993. In 1994, the Fox network took over the contract from CBS to carry the NFC game package. This inspired a conglamerate 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, WVTM in Birmingham and KTBC in Austin in the summer of 1995. (But WVTM would be sold to NBC Universal instead because former ABC affiliate WBRC was directly sold to Fox). 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. Distinctively, KTVI was the first major network O&O in St. Louis until 2001 when KPLR was sold to Tribune.
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 was picked up by KTVI. At the time, KTVI was one of only 2 New World stations to take Fox Kids. Shortly thereafter, KTVI and the New World Fox affiliates were sold to Fox' parent, News Corporation, becoming Fox O&Os. (However, like many of their FOX sister stations including those in Tampa, Cleveland, and Atlanta, KTVI still use "NEW WORLD COMMUNICATIONS INC." as their end tag after their newscasts) 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. Saturday mornings were continued. At the end of 2001, Fox Kids weekdays ended nationwide. The weekends were revamped as 4Kids TV. KTVI now airs Fox's entire schedule including 4Kids TV.
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.
News Operations
KTVI leads the 9 p.m. news ratings race against KPLR but comes in third behind KSDK and KMOV's 10 p.m. news. 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.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.
Newscasts
Weekdays
- FOX2 News in the Morning - 5:00 a.m.-9:00 a.m.
- FOX2 News at 11 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
- FOX2 News at 5 - 5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.
- FOX2 News at 6 - 6:00 p.m.-6:30 p.m.
- FOX2 News at 9 - 9:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m.
Saturdays
- FOX2 News Saturday Morning - 9:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m.
- FOX2 News at 5 - 5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.
- FOX2 News at 9 - 9:00 p.m.-9:40 p.m.
- SportsFinal - 9:40 p.m.-10:00 p.m.
Sundays
- FOX2 News Sunday Morning - 8:00 a.m.-9:00 a.m.
- FOX2 News at 5 - 5:00 p.m.-5:30 p.m.
- FOX2 News at 9 - 9:00 p.m.-9:30 p.m.
- SportsFinal - 9:30 p.m.-10:00 p.m.
News Sets/Graphics Packages
Since 1998, KTVI has refreshed the news set approximately four times. The news desk has stayed the same since the original remodel, but the background behind the anchors has been updated about every two to three years.KTVI's graphics have also been updated about three times since 1998. Initially KTVI completely overhauled the old graphics. Since the graphics were completely changed the first time, they have been updated and altered about as often as the backdrop behind the news desk.
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 set and weather center. Fox 2 broadcasted 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 FOX2 News at 9 on Monday, April 10, 2006.
The theme music that KTVI is using is the WTVT NewsEdge Theme (now called FOX O&O News Theme by OSI Music), which is also being used by the other stations that have made identical modifications to their identity.
Logos
Helicopters
Bell 206L1 LongRangerPersonalities
Current
- Monica Adams, traffic reporter.
- John Auble, reporter.
- Andy Banker, reporter.
- Betsy Bruce, reporter.
- Corina Collins, anchor/reporter/St. Louis' most wanted reporter.
- Sean Conroy, reporter.
- Bonita Cornute, reporter.
- Elliott Davis, anchor/You Paid For It reporter.
- Rob Desir, sports reporter.
- Maurice Drummond, sports reporter
- Margie Ellisor, consumer reporter/anchor.
- Tim Ezell, feature reporter.
- John Gadson, reporter.
- Mark Geldmeier, meteorologist.
- Dan Gray, anchor/reporter.
- Chris Hayes, reporter.
- Chris Higgins, meteorogist.
- Charles Jaco, reporter/war correspondent.
- Martin Kilcoyne, sports director.
- Summer Knowles, reporter.
- Shawn Lindsey, anchor/reporter.
- Roche Madden, reporter.
- Sandy Miller, anchor/reporter.
- Mandy Murphey, anchor.
- Dave Murray, chief meteorologist.
- Janis Murray, garden reporter.
- Randi Naughton, anchor/reporter.
- Tom O'Neal, anchor/health reporter.
- Chris Pelikan, sports reporter.
- John Pertzborn, anchor.
- Chris Regnier, reporter.
- April Simpson, anchor/reporter.
- Paul Schankman, anchor/reporter.
- Smash, feature reporter.
- Kevin Steincross, anchor/reporter.
- Elliot Weiler, Contact 2 reporter.
- Teresa Woodard, reporter.
- Glenn Zimmerman, meteorologist.
Past
- Victoria Babu, anchor/reporter (now at KTRS Radio, St. Louis).
- Cherie Bank, anchor (now at WCAU, Philadelphia).
- Marion Brooks, anchor.
- Kevin Cokely, anchor.
- Larry Conners, anchor (now at KMOV).
- Ron Corning, reporter.
- Lynn Cousins, reporter.
- Mark Curtis, sports director.
- Jennifer Davis, reporter.
- Kathleen England, traffic reporter (now at KSDK).
- Jill Farmer, consumer reporter.
- Dick Ford, anchor.
- Julie Gaier, reporter.
- Greg Gizinski, sports reporter.
- Joel Goldberg, sports reporter (now at FSN-Midwest).
- Donn Johnson, anchor/reporter.
- Iola Johnson, anchor.
- Dana King, anchor.
- Stu Klitenic, sports director.
- Gina Kurre, reporter.
- Don Lemon, investigative reporter.
- Brenda Madden, reporter.
- Russ Mitchell, reporter.
- Miles Muzio, Chief Metorologist.
- Nancy Pasternak, anchor/reporter.
- Pete Peterson, sports director.
- Joe Petrovich, meteorologist.
- Rochelle Rowe, anchor.
- Zip Rzeppa, sports director.
- Robin Smith, reporter (now at KMOV).
- Melanie Streeper, weather anchor/producer.
- Howard Streeter, anchor
- Lisa Sylvester, anchor.
- Len Turner, reporter/St. Louis' most wanted reporter.
- Ron Yaros, meteorologist.
External links
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