affiliated television station in kansas city . for other uses see kmbc . not to be confused with knbc or wmbc tv . not to be confused with manila broadcasting company in the philippines middle east broadcasting center in the middle east and munhwa broadcasting corporation in south korea all abbreviated mbc . kmbc tv kansas city missouri kansas city kansas united states city kansas city missouri branding kmbc channel 9 general kmbc 9 news newscasts slogan kansas city s 1 tv station general the team you trust news channels digital 29 uhf virtual 9 psip affiliations .1 abc .2 metv owner hearst television kmbc hearst television inc. first air date august 2 1953 ; 63 years ago 1953 08 02 call letters meaning midland broadcasting company founding owners sister station s kcwe former callsigns whb tv shared operation 1953 1954 former channel number s analog 9 vhf 1953 2009 digital 7 vhf 2002 2009 former affiliations cbs 1953 1955 transmitter power 1 000 kw height 358 m facility id 65686 transmitter coordinates 39 5 2.8 n 94 30 56.9 w 39.084111 n 94.515806 w 39.084111 ; 94.515806 coordinates 39 5 2.8 n 94 30 56.9 w 39.084111 n 94.515806 w 39.084111 ; 94.515806 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.kmbc.com kmbc tv virtual channel 9 uhf digital channel 29 is an abc affiliated television station serving kansas city missouri and kansas city kansas united states . the station is owned by the hearst television subsidiary of the hearst corporation as part of a duopoly with the cw affiliate kcwe channel 29 . the two stations share studio facilities located on winchester avenue near swope park in kansas city missouri ; kmbc tv maintains transmitter facilities located in eastern kansas city near the blue river . 1 on cable kmbc is available on time warner cable comcast and surewest channel 12 and at & t u verse channel 9 . kmbc tv also serves as an alternate abc affiliate for the adjacent saint joseph market ; kmbc s transmitter produces a city grade signal that reaches saint joseph proper and the station is carried locally on satellite and select cable providers such as suddenlink communications in that market . its pay television carriage in the st. joseph market located to the immediate north of the kansas city designated market area is despite the presence of kqtv channel 2 which has been the market s official abc station since it affiliated with the network full time in june 1967 ; kqtv is carried alongside kmbc tv on suddenlink and certain other cable providers in that market . contents 1 history 1.1 early years two stations 1.2 metromedia ownership 1.3 hearst corporation ownership 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.1.1 kmbc dt2 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 3.1 sports programming 4 news operation 4.1 on air staff 4.1.1 notable former on air staff 5 references 6 external links history edit early years two stations edit in june 1953 the federal communications commission fcc awarded the license for the third and last vhf television station in the kansas city market to the respective locally based owners of two area radio stations which had both had competed heavily for the granting of the construction permit to build it the cook paint and varnish company which operated whb then at 710 am now at 810 am and the midland broadcasting company owners of kmbc 980 am now kmbz which agreed to jointly bid for the license . 2 under the proposal cook and midland agreed to an arrangement in which the two licensees would share the channel 9 allocation as well as a transmitter facility although each would maintain operational stewardship of their respective individual stations and broadcast from separate studio facilities ; the two separate stations the midland owned station being assigned the call letters kmbc tv and the cook owned station being assigned the calls whb tv would also each alternate 90 minutes of airtime incidentally whb radio had maintained a similar split station arrangement with wdaf 610 am now kcsp ; the wdaf calls on radio now reside on 106.5 fm from 1922 to 1927 originating when both radio stations transmitted on 730 am and continuing when whb and wdaf moved to 680 am in 1924 ; the arrangement ended when whb radio moved to 710 am in 1927 . channel 9 first signed on the air as a shared operation on august 2 1953 with the combined kmbc tv whb tv operation operating as an affiliate of cbs taking over the affiliation from wdaf tv channel 4 now a fox affiliate which had been affiliated with that network on a part time basis since that station signed on as kansas city s first television station in october 1949 . 3 4 5 cook paint and varnish purchased midland broadcasting s television and radio holdings kmbc tv kmbc radio and sister radio station kfrm 000 am in concordia kansas in april 1954 ; the deal included midland s lease to the building now known as the lyric theatre in downtown kansas city where the company rented space to house kmbc tv s studio facilities . on june 14 1954 kmbc tv took over channel 9 full time absorbing whb tv s share of the operation and ending the split station arrangement . cook paint and varnish also sold whb radio to storz broadcasting in order to comply with fcc rules in effect at the time that limited a single company from owning more than two radio stations in a single media market . 6 7 8 9 in january 1955 the meredith corporation signed a multi year agreement with cbs to affiliate five of the company s television stations at the time with the network . as part of the deal meredith agreed to affiliate kcmo tv channel 5 now kctv with cbs as compensation for sister station kpho tv in phoenix arizona which rejoined cbs in september 1994 losing its affiliation with the network . 10 kmbc tv subsequently signed an affiliation agreement with abc taking over that affiliation from kcmo tv . channel 9 became the market s first full time abc affiliate in september of that year . 11 12 during the late 1950s the station was also briefly affiliated with the nta film network . 13 in the winter of late 1958 cook paint and varnish purchased kdro tv channel 6 in sedalia ; the company subsequently changed that station s call letters to kmos tv on january 28 1959 . during that time kdro tv had been serving the abc affiliate for the far eastern portion of the kansas city market as well as portions of north central missouri . however the network refused to give it a direct feed in order to protect kmbc tv ; this forced station engineers to have to switch to and from channel 9 s broadcast signal whenever kdro aired abc network programming . metromedia ownership edit in december 1960 cook paint and varnish sold the kmbc television and radio stations kmos tv and kfrm to new york city based metropolitan broadcasting later renamed metromedia for 9.65 million ; 14 metropolitan subsequently spun off kmos tv and kfrm . 15 in 1962 metropolitan signed on a companion station on the radio side kmbc fm 99.7 fm now kzpt ; metromedia would sell both of the kmbc radio stations to bonneville international the broadcasting arm of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints in 1967 16 although its former radio sisters had changed their call letters decades earlier kmbc tv has retained the tv suffix in its legal call sign to this day . over the years kmbc tv has pre empted some abc programming . notably under metromedia ownership channel 9 declined to air the brady bunch when it debuted in september 1969 in favor of running movies in its time period which effectively pre empted most of abc s friday night lineup ; the station resumed clearance of the sitcom the following year . it was also one of a small number of abc affiliates that opted to pre empt the abc evening news during the late 1960s and early 1970s as well as one of a handful that declined the music series american bandstand for part of its run . many of the abc programs that were pre empted by kmbc tv could instead be viewed in the market on independent kcit tv channel 50 channel now occupied by kpxe tv during its two years of operation from 1969 to 1971 ; otherwise the preempted programs could also be viewed in the northern half of the market through kqtv channel 2 in nearby st. joseph . 17 in 1974 metromedia was granted a change to the terms of its lease to the lyric theatre and was given total control of the building . hearst corporation ownership edit in september 1981 metromedia sold kmbc tv and the lease to the lyric theatre to new york city based hearst broadcasting in a deal worth 79 million for the television station alone . 18 19 under hearst ownership the station heavily invested in its news department and expanded its local news programming which increased from seven hours per week at the time of the purchase to 20 hours by 1990 . in 1988 it also built a 343 metre 1 125 ft high guyed mast broadcast tower in eastern kansas city located on a hill overlooking the blue river . 1 hearst also inquired about moving kmbc tv s operations to a new studio space elsewhere in the kansas city metropolitan area in 1990 ; however company management eventually decided to continue to operate the station out of the lyric theatre . channel 9 would gain a sister television station in 1997 when hearst broadcasting which was renamed hearst argyle television after argyle television holdings ii merged with hearst s broadcasting unit now named hearst television that year entered into a local marketing agreement to manage the operations of kcwb channel 29 now cw affiliate kcwe which signed on the air in september 1996 as the market s original affiliate of the wb it would later assume the upn affiliation from ksmo tv channel 62 now a mynetworktv affiliate in august 1998 as part of a swap that resulted from then owner sinclair broadcast group s multi station affiliation agreement with the the wb . hearst argyle television continued to solely maintain operational responsibilities for kcwe until 2001 when the company bought channel 29 outright by way of an indirect subsidiary of its corporate parent the hearst corporation doing business as kcwe tv company separate from its hearst argyle unit . kmbc tv operated from the lyric theatre for 54 years until august 23 2007 when it migrated its operations to a new modern purpose built concrete and glass studio facility at 6455 winchester avenue near swope park in southern kansas city missouri . 20 in late march 2010 hearst filed an application with the fcc to transfer the kcwe license from the kcwe tv company subsidiary to the hearst television unit ; the transfer was completed on may 1 of that year officially making kmbc tv and kcwe directly owned sister stations . although kmbc hearst television inc. remains the name of the licensing purpose corporation for kmbc tv hearst stations inc. the licensee name for kcwe is used instead for the copyright tag seen at the end of its newscasts . digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital channel is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 21 9.1 1080i 16 9 kmbc dt main kmbc tv programming abc 9.2 480i 4 3 kmbc wx metv kmbc tv is one of several hearst owned stations that broadcasts its digital signal in the 1080i high definition format instead of abc s preferred 720p format . kmbc tv s hearst owned