verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . february 2013 learn how and when to remove this template message ksmo tv kansas city missouri kansas city kansas united states city mission kansas studio branding ksmo general kctv 5 news kctv produced newscasts slogan kansas city plays here channels digital 47 uhf virtual 62 psip affiliations .1 mynetworktv .2 mundomax owner meredith corporation first air date september 12 1983 ; 33 years ago 1983 09 12 call letters meaning kansas and missouri state postal abbreviations sister station s kctv former callsigns kekr tv 1983 1985 kzkc 1985 1991 former channel number s analog 62 uhf 1983 2009 former affiliations primary independent 1983 1993 pten 1993 1995 upn 1995 1998 the wb 1998 2006 secondary fox kids 1994 1998 dt2 bounce tv 2011 2013 transmitter power 1 000 kw height 356 m facility id 33336 transmitter coordinates 39 5 25.8 n 94 28 19.2 w 39.090500 n 94.472000 w 39.090500 ; 94.472000 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.ksmotv.com ksmo tv virtual channel 62 uhf digital channel 47 is a mynetworktv affiliated television station serving kansas city missouri and kansas city kansas united states . the station is owned by the meredith corporation as part of a duopoly with cbs affiliate kctv channel 5 . the two stations share studio facilities located on shawnee mission parkway u.s. 56 u.s. 169 in fairway kansas ; ksmo maintains transmitter facilities located in independence missouri . on cable ksmo is available on comcast time warner cable and surewest channel 10 and at & t u verse channel 62 . contents 1 history 1.1 early history 1.2 network affiliation 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 4 newscasts 5 references 6 external links history edit early history edit the station first signed on the air on september 12 1983 as kekr tv its call letters coming from a congressman who who had helped the station obtain a broadcast license from the federal communications commission fcc . it was the second general entertainment independent station in kansas city after kbma tv channel 41 now kshb tv and the third overall after kcit tv channel 50 now ion television owned and operated station kpxe tv which operated from 1969 to 1971 . locally owned according to whom it was a typical independent running cartoons drama series classic movies religious shows westerns and sitcoms . the new station branded as super 62 but the launch was anything but that . it aired only three local commercials on its first day of operation two for record releases from candelite music an lp collection of elvis presley songs and a collection of country songs and an ad for a modeling school . these commercials ran in nearly every break if the station was not showing a station identification slide of its logo . the picture was substandard with a mysterious black bar that was visible at the top of most programs and commercials . in 1985 the station was sold to media central ; its call letters were changed to kzkc on january 27 of that year the callsign was later used in fictional form on the kansas city set upn sitcom malcolm & eddie as the fictional radio station where malcolm jamal warner s character malcolm mcgee worked during the series first two seasons ; ironically when the series debuted in 1996 channel 62 then the market s upn affiliate had stopped using the kzkc calls five years earlier . the station added more sitcoms and movies to its schedule and decreased the amount of religious programs it aired . it experimented with airing movies that were not edited for inappropriate content . that policy led to trouble for channel 62 when the station aired private lessons a film known for its frontal nudity and a plot involving a relationship between a high school student and a maid . kzkc was fined by the fcc after a viewer filed a complaint about the film s content and nudity . the violation made tv guide s annual j. fred muggs awards a list of those in television who made monkeys of themselves . the station sought an affiliation with the upstart fox network in 1986 which instead went to kshb tv . channel 62 remained unprofitable until it was sold to abry communications in 1990 ; the station subsequently changed its call letters to ksmo tv on april 22 1991 . the new owners put ballots in the local television listings guides asking for programming advice from the public this lent itself to the new logo that ksmo introduced at this time featuring a check mark within the o in the callsign . under abry the station began to turn a profit and held its own with a lineup of syndicated cartoons sitcoms a few talk and reality shows and movies . in march 1993 ksmo announced that it had entered into a three year 11 million contract to become the exclusive local broadcaster of kansas city royals baseball games ; two months later abc and nbc announced the formation of the baseball network . in june 1994 the station sued the royals for breach of contract arguing that nbc affiliate wdaf tv channel 4 and abc affiliate kmbc tv channel 9 would each carry at least five primetime royals telecasts in july and august compared with only one or two national royals games carried previously and that the royals were obligated to renegotiate their local deal per a clause in the contract . 1 ksmo picked up some of kshb s programming including the fox kids children s block in september 1994 2 after kshb swapped affiliations with wdaf and became an nbc affiliate . wdaf like certain other fox stations owned by new world communications opted to fill the saturday morning timeslot with a locally produced newscast rather than run the fox kids lineup . that year abry communications merged with the sinclair broadcast group . network affiliation edit ksmo became the kansas city affiliate of the united paramount network upn when the network launched on january 16 1995 . however it still essentially programmed as an independent station since upn only provided primetime programming on monday and tuesday evenings at its launch and would not carry five nights a week of programming until september 1998 . on july 21 1997 sinclair signed an affiliation agreement with the wb to switch ksmo tv the company s four other upn affiliates and its independent stations to the network . 3 ksmo joined the wb on january 21 1998 ; the market s original affiliate of that network kcwb channel 29 now kcwe stopped carrying the wb s primetime programming and affiliated with upn on that date . however until june 1998 fox kids programming remained on ksmo while the kids wb programming block remained on kcwb . that month ksmo added kids wb programming to its schedule while fox kids moved to kcwb . as time went on reruns of classic sitcoms such as happy days and family ties and most of the cartoons such as the wacky world of tex avery pok mon and beast wars transformers that ksmo carried would be replaced with more talk reality and court shows . the meredith corporation longtime owners of kctv channel 5 bought ksmo in november 2004 and immediately took over the station s operations through a joint sales agreement until the transaction s closure ; the sale was finalized in late september 2005 creating a duopoly with kctv . 4 in january 2006 the wb discontinued the kids wb weekday afternoon block nationally ; ksmo had been the last station in the market to run weekday cartoons until that point . on january 24 2006 the warner bros. unit of time warner and cbs corporation announced that the two companies would shut down the wb and upn and combine the networks respective programming to create a new fifth network called the cw . 5 6 on february 22 news corporation announced the launch of mynetworktv another new network operated by fox television stations and its sister syndication unit twentieth television . 7 8 kcwe was confirmed as kansas city s cw affiliate on march 7 2006 in a joint announcement by the network and its owner hearst argyle television . 9 two days later ksmo was announced as kansas city s mynetworktv affiliate and rebranded as my ksmo tv . the station stopped carrying the wb s primetime programming on september 4 with ksmo joining mynetworktv the following day however it continued to air the wb s daytime block until september 15 . kcwe officially affiliated with the cw on september 18 . in april 2011 ksmo removed the my portion of the station s branding as many of mynetworktv s affiliates began dropping network references due to its transition into a primetime programming service . ksmo retained the blue tv component of the network s logo until october 2011 when it debuted a new wordmark logo . on september 8 2015 media general announced it would buy meredith and take the name meredith media general . 10 however on january 27 2016 nexstar broadcasting group announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire media general and that meredith agreed to termination of its merger agreement with media general . digital television edit digital channels edit channel video aspect psip short name programming 11 62.1 1080i 16 9 ksmo tv main ksmo tv programming mynetworktv 62.2 480i mundofx mundomax analog to digital conversion edit ksmo tv shut down its analog signal over uhf channel 62 on june 12 2009 the official date in which full power television stations in the united states transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate . the station s digital signal remained on its pre transition uhf channel 47 . 12 through the use of psip digital television receivers display the station s virtual channel as its former uhf analog channel 62 which was among the high band uhf channels 52 69 that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition . programming edit syndicated programs broadcast on ksmo include judge mathis friends rules of engagement everybody loves raymond and better . since mynetworktv does not air programming on weekend evenings ksmo normally airs movies from 7 00 to 9 00 p.m. on saturdays and sundays . it also takes on the responsibility of airing cbs programming whenever kctv is not able to do so such as during long form breaking news and severe weather coverage . the station became the broadcast home for kansas jayhawks college basketball games starting in late 2009 . in june 2011 ksmo announced that it would broadcast high school football games from kansas city area schools starting that fall . ksmo also serves as the flagship station for the ncaa division ii mid america intercollegiate athletic association miaa college football game of the week . newscasts edit kctv produces seven hours of locally produced newscasts each week for ksmo with one hour each on weekdays saturdays and sundays . in october 2005 kctv began producing a half hour primetime newscast at 9 00 that competes against wdaf s in house hour long news broadcast and would later gain additional competition when kmbc began producing a half hour newscast for sister station kcwe on september 14 2010 ; the program currently airs seven nights a week . kctv began broadcasting its newscasts in high definition on october 20 2008 with the ksmo broadcasts being included in the upgrade . at some point in time when ksmo began simulcasting kctv s weekday noon newscast . in 2006 ksmo also began to run an hour long extension of kctv s morning newscast at 7 00 a.m. weekdays and eventually as a simulcast of that