the boise idaho station also known as fox 9 see knin tv . for the yuma arizona el centro california station also known as fox 9 see kecy tv . for the television station in new york city that formerly carried the upn 9 branding now affiliated with mynetworktv see wwor . this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . april 2016 learn how and when to remove this template message kmsp tv minneapolis saint paul minnesota united states city minneapolis minnesota branding fox 9 kmsp general fox 9 news newscasts slogan the most powerful name in local news news stay connected with fox 9 general channels digital 9 vhf virtual 9 psip subchannels 9.4 buzzr 9.9 fox translators see article affiliations fox o & o 1986 1988 2002 present owner fox television stations fox television stations inc. first air date january 9 1955 ; 61 years ago 1955 01 09 call letters meaning minneapolis and saint paul msp is also the iata code for minneapolis st. paul international airport with kmsp as its icao code sister station s wftc fox sports north former callsigns keyd tv 1955 1956 kmgm tv 1956 1958 former channel number s analog 9 vhf 1955 2009 digital 26 uhf until 2009 former affiliations dumont 1955 independent 1955 1961 ; 1979 1986 ; 1988 1995 abc 1961 1979 upn 1995 2002 transmitter power 30 kw height 435 m 1 427 ft facility id 68883 transmitter coordinates 45 3 29.5 n 93 7 28.2 w 45.058194 n 93.124500 w 45.058194 ; 93.124500 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.fox9.com kmsp tv channel 9 is a fox owned and operated television station licensed to minneapolis minnesota us . kmsp tv is owned by the fox television stations division of 21st century fox and operates as part of a television duopoly with wftc channel 29 the minneapolis saint paul area s mynetworktv station . the two stations share studios located on viking drive in eden prairie minnesota and kmsp s transmitter is located in shoreview minnesota . the station is also carried in canada on shaw cable s thunder bay ontario system and on manitoba telecom services mts in the province of manitoba . contents 1 history 1.1 early history 1.2 as an abc affiliate 1.3 becoming an independent once again 1.4 first fox affiliation then back to independent 1.5 as a upn affiliate 1.6 return to fox as an owned and operated station 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 news operation 3.1 notable current on air staff 3.2 notable former on air staff 4 broadcasting facilities 5 references 5.1 notes 6 external links history edit early history edit the station grew out of an am station keyd 1440 am now kycr with which it was co owned until mid 1956 . when the fcc opened up bidding for the channel 9 construction permit wlol and wdgy now ktlk also expressed interest . however they withdrew their applications in 1954 assuring that the new station would go to keyd and its owner family broadcasting . 1 2 keyd tv began broadcasting on january 9 1955 and was affiliated with the dumont television network . 3 during this time harry reasoner a graduate of minneapolis west high school and the university of minnesota was hired as the station s first news anchor and news director . 4 however dumont shut down in late 1955 leaving the station as an independent outlet ; 3 on june 3 1956 the keyd stations were sold to united television whose principals at the time included several stockholders of pittsburgh station wens for 1.5 million . 3 5 6 the new owners immediately sold off keyd radio 5 6 refocused keyd tv s programming on films and sports 7 and shut down the news department ; reasoner was hired by cbs a few months later . 8 9 reasoner became a host for cbs s 60 minutes when it launched in 1968 . channel 9 changed its call letters to kmgm tv on september 1 1956 ; at the time the station was in negotiations with metro goldwyn mayer to acquire the twin cities television rights to the company s films along with selling a 25 percent stake in kmgm tv to the studio . 10 negotiations broke down later that month over the cost of the films ; 11 additionally loew s mgm s parent company at the time filed a petition with the federal communications commission fcc against the call sign change claiming that the use of kmgm was unauthorized and a violation of mgm s trademark . 12 the fcc ruled against loew s that october saying that its call sign assignment policies were limited to preventing confusion between stations in a given area . 13 the agreements to lease mgm s pre 1949 films and sell 25 percent of the station to loew s were both completed that november ; kmgm was the third station after future sister station kttv in los angeles and ktvr in denver to enter into such an arrangement . 14 national telefilm associates which later purchased wnta tv in the new york city area purchased the 75 percent of united television not owned by mgm for 650 000 in november 1957 . 15 16 17 after taking control nta expanded kmgm tv s hours of operation as part of an overhaul of channel 9 s schedule that also included the addition of newscasts . 18 a few months later on february 10 1958 nta bought mgm s stake for 130 000 and announced that it would change channel 9 s calls to kmsp tv ; 3 19 20 the call sign change took effect that march over the objections of kstp tv channel 5 . 21 national theatres a theater chain whose broadcast holdings already included wdaf am tv in kansas city began the process of acquiring nta in november 1958 ; 22 in april 1959 it purchased 88 percent of the company . 23 20th century fox the former parent company of national theatres bought kmsp tv for 4.1 million on november 9 1959 retaining the united television corporate name . 3 24 the kmsp call letters were featured on prop television cameras in the may 29 1963 episode of the cbs sitcom the many loves of dobie gillis produced by 20th century fox television ; the show was loosely set in the twin cities area . the episode was titled the call of the like wild . during its early years until 1972 the station s studios and offices were located in a lower level of the foshay tower in downtown minneapolis ; the transmitter was located on top of the tower the tallest structure in the area until 1971 along with wcco tv channel 4 and wtcn tv channel 11 now kare . 3 as an abc affiliate edit kmsp tv took over the abc affiliation from wtcn tv on april 16 1961 . 25 throughout its years with abc kmsp was notorious for having a sub standard news department with large staff turnover . ratings were dismal with kmsp obtaining only one third of the viewing audience of each of their two competitors cbs affiliate wcco tv and nbc affiliate kstp tv . 26 the station s transmitter was moved in 1971 to a new tower constructed by kmsp in shoreview while the studios and offices relocated in 1972 to edina on york avenue south across from southdale shopping center . 3 in the late 1970s abc steadily rose to first place in the network ratings . accordingly the network sought to upgrade its slate of affiliates which were made up of some stations that either had poor signals or poorly performing local programming . in december 1977 abc warned kmsp that it would yank its affiliation unless improvements were made and fast . in early 1978 to cash in on abc s improved ratings kmsp re branded itself abc9 approximately 20 years before the use of a network s name in a station s on air branding became commonplace among u.s. affiliates and retooled its newscast . despite the changes kmsp s news department remained a distant third behind wcco tv and kstp tv . 26 becoming an independent once again edit on august 29 1978 abc announced that kstp tv would become the network s new twin cities affiliate the following spring . 27 the signing of channel 5 made nationwide news as it had been an nbc affiliate for three decades . kstp tv looked forward to affiliating with the top network as third place nbc had been in a long ratings slump . in retaliation for losing abc kmsp tv immediately removed all abc branding and regularly preempted network programming . channel 9 then attempted to affiliate with nbc thinking the tonight show with johnny carson would be a good lead out from their 10 p.m. newscast despite low prime time ratings . 26 however nbc miffed at losing one of its strongest affiliates and not wanting to pick up abc s rejects turned down kmsp s offer almost immediately 26 and signed an affiliation agreement with independent station wtcn tv . 28 as a result of being rejected by both abc and nbc kmsp tv prepared to become an independent station . although it now faced having to buy an additional 19 hours of programming per day it also would not have to invest nearly as much into its news department . most of the on air and off air staffers resigned not wanting to work for a down scaled independent operation . 26 the affiliation switch occurred on march 5 1979 3 26 and kmsp debuted its new independent schedule featuring cartoons syndicated shows 26 and even the locally based american wrestling association 29 with much of the station s programming having been acquired from wtcn tv . to emphasize that the station s programming decisions would be influenced by viewers instead of a network kmsp rebranded itself as receptive channel 9 and an antenna was shown atop the station s logo in station identifications . the station became quite aggressive in acquiring programming obtaining broadcast rights to several state high school sports championships from the mshsl the nhl s minnesota north stars and the minnesota twins baseball team . 26 as it turned out kmsp s transition into an independent station turned out to be a blessing in disguise . it was far more successful than the station ever had been as an abc affiliate . it became a regional superstation available on nearly every cable system in minnesota as well as large portions of north dakota south dakota iowa and wisconsin . over time it became one of the most successful and profitable independent stations in the country . 26 kmsp went through another ownership change on june 9 1981 when 20th century fox spun off united television as an independent company owned by fox shareholders ; the transaction was approved alongside the 700 million sale of 20th century fox to marvin davis . 30 chris craft industries which in 1977 had acquired an interest in 20th century fox that by 1981 comprised 22 percent of fox s stock received a 19 percent stake in united television ; 31 later in june it filed with the fcc for control of united as it now owned 32 percent of its stock . 32 two years later chris craft though its bhc subsidiary increased its stake in united television to 50.1 percent and gained majority control of the company . 31 first fox affiliation then back to independent edit kmsp tv remained an independent station through 1986 when it became one of the original charter affiliates of the newly launched fox network . 33 this suited