states branding kplr 11 general news 11 newscasts slogan the ones to watch general the ones for news news channels digital 26 uhf virtual 11 psip affiliations .1 the cw .2 this tv .3 comet owner tribune broadcasting kplr inc. first air date april 28 1959 ; 57 years ago 1959 04 28 call letters meaning harold koplar station founder sister station s ktvi former channel number s analog 11 vhf 1959 2009 former affiliations primary independent 1959 1995 the wb 1995 2006 secondary upn 1999 2003 the tube 2006 2007 transmitter power 1000 kw height 288 m facility id 35417 transmitter coordinates 38 34 24 n 90 19 30 w 38.57333 n 90.32500 w 38.57333 ; 90.32500 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website kplr11.com kplr tv virtual channel 11 uhf digital channel 26 is a cw affiliated television station located in st. louis missouri united states . the station is owned by the tribune broadcasting subsidiary of tribune media as part of a duopoly with fox affiliate ktvi channel 2 . the two stations share studio facilities located on ball drive in the northwestern st. louis county community of maryland heights though with a st. louis city address kplr s transmitter is located in lemay . contents 1 history 1.1 as an independent station 1.2 wb affiliation 1.3 cw affiliation 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 programming 4.1 sports programming 4.2 children s programming 5 references 6 external links history edit as an independent station edit the station first signed on the air on april 28 1959 as the first independent station in missouri . 1 the station s call letters were derived from the name of its founding owner st. louis real estate developer and hotelier harold koplar . despite losing in his quest to build the station from the ground up koplar acquired the station s license in 1958 through controversial circumstances . cbs was originally granted a construction permit by the federal communications commission to build channel 11 in january 1957 prevailing over three other locally based competitors . 2 but eight months later cbs decided instead to purchase its existing st. louis affiliate kwk tv channel 4 . 3 as a condition of the channel 4 purchase the fcc required cbs to relinquish the channel 11 license and construction permit . cbs did so by transferring it to the koplar group known as 220 television incorporated for no financial consideration . 4 almost immediately the three way deal was held up after the st. louis amusement company one of the original applicants for channel 11 protested to the united states court of appeals in january 1958 . 5 6 the u.s. supreme court ultimately upheld the decision in november 1958 7 8 but cbs had already consummated its deal for channel 4 several months earlier changing the station s call letters to kmox tv 9 which were intended for channel 11 and operated it for 28 years it is now meredith corporation owned kmov . meanwhile koplar went to work building channel 11 on its own no longer in the face of opposition . kplr originally operated from studios within the koplar owned chase park plaza hotel located on maryland plaza in st. louis central west end district . channel 11 would move into a separate facility adjacent to the hotel several years later . starting in the mid 1960s harold s son edward j. ted koplar began working behind the scenes at kplr producing sports programming and developing the station s first regular local newscast . ted koplar became president and chief executive officer of channel 11 in 1979 and gained complete control of the station upon his father s death in 1985 . for most of its existence kplr was a traditional independent station featuring cartoons sitcoms movies drama series and locally produced newscasts . the station was also available on many cable systems in missouri illinois and arkansas as a regional superstation until the late 1980s . locally channel 11 s first and only competitor came in 1969 when evans broadcasting launched kdnl tv channel 30 . kplr turned down an offer to affiliate with the upstart fox network in 1986 choosing to remain an independent station instead . this may have been because most of the markets in channel 11 s cable footprint had enough stations to provide fox affiliates at the outset making the prospect of kplr as a multistate fox affiliate unattractive to the koplars . the fox affiliation for the market went to kdnl when that network launched on october 9 of that year . wb affiliation edit on january 11 1995 kplr became a network affiliate for the first time when it became a charter station of the wb . around the same time the station was also offered the abc affiliation after that network s longtime st. louis affiliate ktvi channel 2 announced that it would switch to fox as part of a groupwide affiliation agreement with new world communications which was in the process of acquiring the station from argyle television at the time . channel 11 turned down the abc affiliation which eventually went to outgoing fox affiliate kdnl on august 7 1995 . koplar communications sold kplr to acme communications in 1997 ending 38 years of local family ownership and earning a handsome return on their original investment . in the sale agreement ted koplar signed a three year contract to remain with kplr tv as its chief executive officer along with serving as a consultant to acme . however koplar resigned after one year citing an irreconcilable rift . 10 for many years even after joining the wb kplr was branded on air as st. louis 11 often using a logo with the o in st. louis which had a resemblance to the gateway arch converted into its circle 11 numeric logo ; kplr changed its branding to wb11 in 1998 . in 1999 kplr began carrying upn programming as a secondary affiliation running select primetime shows and cartoons from the network s children s program block disney s one too . upn programs had previously run on kdnl during overnight and weekend timeslots and then on knlc channel 24 which subjected the network to several program preemptions due to content objections by owner larry rice . st. louis was one of the few top 50 markets without a upn affiliate . the station continued carrying upn in off hours until wrbu channel 46 disaffiliated from home shopping network to join upn in april 2003 . in march 2003 acme communications sold kplr tv and its portland oregon sister station kwbp to tribune broadcasting . that same year kplr relocated its operations out of the chase park plaza which by that time went from a gutted complex where the station had been the only major tenant into a boutique hotel and into a new purpose built studio facility in maryland heights . cw affiliation edit kplr s former cw logo from september 18 2006 to october 31 2008 which is a variant of the former logo used by wpix in new york . on january 24 2006 cbs corporation which split from viacom in december 2005 and time warner s warner bros. entertainment the division that operated the wb announced that they would dissolve upn and the wb and move some of their programs to a newly created network operated as a joint venture between the companies the cw . 11 12 the network signed a ten year affiliation agreement with tribune broadcasting for 16 of the 19 wb affiliates that the company owned at the time including kplr . 13 nearly one month later on february 22 news corporation announced the launch of a competing network mynetworktv which would be run by its fox television stations and twentieth television units . 14 the cw launched with kplr as its st. louis affiliate on september 18 2006 the day after the wb ended operations ; mynetworktv affiliated with wrbu . on september 17 2008 the tribune company announced that it would enter kplr into a local marketing agreement with fox affiliate ktvi effective october 1 15 as a result of the formation of a broadcast management company that was created to provide management services to stations owned by both tribune broadcasting and ktvi owner local tv . although ktvi was the senior partner in the deal it vacated its longtime studios in the clayton tamm dogtown neighborhood on st. louis west side and moved its operations to kplr s maryland heights facility tribune bought ktvi outright on july 1 2013 as part of its 2.75 billion acquisition of local tv ; 16 the sale received fcc approval on december 20 17 and it was completed on december 27 18 creating the first legal station duopoly in the st. louis market between ktvi and kplr . the lma resulted in both stations combining their news departments and sharing certain syndicated programs . on november 1 2008 the station changed its on air branding from cw11 to kplr 11 as several tribune owned cw affiliates began shifting away from using references to the network within their station branding and reincorporated the gateway arch into its logo essentially a revision of the logo that kplr used following the tribune purchase as a wb affiliate . there have long been rumors that abc has considered moving its affiliation to kplr in part because kdnl tv has been one of the network s weakest affiliates since joining the network in 1995 in stark contrast to ktvi s former status as one of abc s strongest affiliates . however on march 26 2010 kdnl owner sinclair broadcast group extended its affiliation agreement with abc to retain the network s affiliation on kdnl and the eight other abc affiliates that sinclair owned at the time for five years through august 2015 . 19 digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital channel is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 20 11.1 1080i 16 9 cw11 dt main kplr tv programming the cw 11.2 480i 4 3 thistv this tv 11.3 comet comet on may 31 2006 kplr added the tube music network to digital subchannel 11.2 ; the tube later abruptly suspended its operations on october 1 2007 . in 2010 the 11.2 subchannel became an affiliate of this tv . on january 1 2016 the 11.3 subchannel became a comet affiliate . analog to digital conversion edit kplr tv shut down its analog signal over vhf channel 11 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 26 . 21 22 through the use of psip digital television receivers display the station s virtual channel as its former vhf analog channel 11 . news operation edit ktvi kplr presently broadcasts a combined 80 hours of locally produced newscasts each week ; including a public affairs program on saturday evenings called the pulse of st. louis which airs over the final 45 minutes of the 7 p.m. newscast and a weekly sports highlight program on sunday evenings called sunday sports extra which also airs during that newscast . channel 11 has aired local news programs since its sign on and was one of the first independent stations in the country to have a functioning news department . like most stations that are not affiliated with one of the big three networks kplr had traditionally aired a primetime newscast at 9 p.m. that ran one hour ahead of the late newscasts seen on the major network affiliates ; for much of the time prior to 2008 kplr s 9 p.m. newscast ran