Leaderboard

Listening to the 1990 KESQ theme, it appears this may have been an attempt by Tuesday Productions to update their late 1970s "News People" theme (particularly the version used for the image campaign) http://www.southernmedia-nmsa.com/#3,1,1507 (KESQ 1990) http://www.southernmedia-nmsa.com/#3,1,240 (WRAL 1979 image for comparison)

And let us not forget that when the KTVI-New World switch was announced in 95, ABC had wanted to make KPLR (then still owned by the Koplar family) their new affiliate. If there had been a sixth commercial station to acquire KPLR's surplus shows (or if KNLC was apt to going mostly secular) we would likely now have ABC 11 and CW 30. That's probably the scenario ABC (and a lot of us here) wished should have happend.

Some rare things from WSM-TV & WTVF, as well as WBBM & WMAQ are in this compliation, including a WTVF open from 1982/83 with the rare non-NBC version of Mike Randall's NewsCenter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id=UypvRGMWlME;m=23;s=51

I would have thought they would have at least been retweeting show accounts (both ABC and syndicated) to promote the shows they air. Talk about not giving a damn about your ratings

KTVI had lousy news ratings in the late 1980s, as stated in my post above. I'm not sure how well ABC programming performed, but ABC's St. Louis ratings must have been a bit of an issue for ABC to talk to Koplar. KTVI nearly lost the rights to "Nightline" around 1990 or 1991. KTVI had just gotten the rights to "The Arsenio Hall Show," which KTVI planned to air at 10:30 (or 10:35). Paramount (Arsenio's syndicator) came out with a companion show to Arsenio called "The Party Machine with Nia Peeples," which was designed to follow Arsenio. KTVI planned to air the Nia Peeples show at 11:35, delaying "Nightline" to 12:05. However, ABC had a made a rule that ABC affiliates could not delay "Nightline" by more than an hour. KMBC in Kansas City and KSAT in San Antonio (and maybe one or two other stations) were granted exceptions because those stations had aired "Nightline" at midnight since the show's inception. KTVI initially stuck to its guns and planned to air the two syndicated shows back-to-back. Briefly, it looked like "Nightline" wouldn't be seen in St. Louis unless ABC could get the show on KPLR or KDNL (and that seemed somewhat unlikely). However, KTVI finally relented and stuck "Nightline" in at 11:35 between Arsenio and Nia Peeples.

Wow, this is absolutely fascinating. I think a contributing factor is that St. Louis has very few full-power TV stations compared to other markets. Commercially, St. Louis has just seven stations — a very low number for a market of its size that I've never completely understood. WRBU was only a commercial independent/netlet outlet between 2003 and 2013, and it only signed on in 1989. KNLC was religious for the longest time. That meant that there were just few places to shop around and stations had a lot of leverage. Weigel's conversion of KNLC to Me-TV is perhaps the most exciting change in the market in quite some time. If ABC wanted to leave KDNL, it only would have KPLR or KNLC as options. Consider that at the time of the affiliation switch in 1994, Koplar cited KPLR's sports programming as the reason not to affiliate with ABC. Koplar decided that the Cardinals and the Blues were worth more to their station than ABC and potential disruption of those relationships. As to local news, I want to point something out that is forgotten. When KDNL began local news in January 1995 (under the name "News 30 Now" and at 9pm), they were the first TV news operation to set up shop in the market since 1959. That's a long time, 36 years. And we're already at 23 years since another attempt was made at building a new TV newsroom in St. Louis.

Cool if they want to charge... But they sure better deliver a product worth paying for.

WTVQ 36 in 1990.

That's not a knockoff. That's the real package. They just don't have Gotham installed on their CG machines.

A short compilation of the bumpers used to rejoin the program after the commercials: [MEDIA=vimeo]266390180[/MEDIA] The station collected a PromaxBDA Award in 2000 thanks to this beautiful graphic image.

You're not. While I've come around somewhat on the new graphics and look I'm still convinced that the previous set was far better. I made a post about it here.

WBTS/ NBC10 Morning News WBTS/NBC 10 Weekend News WTEN/7pm on FOX WXXA WTEN/ Morning News on FOX WXXA

WTEN/ Morning Open KITV/6pm open WYSR/6pm open/talent WRAL/11pm

A KPNX Action News Digest from November 1985, complete with some quick teases, a station ID with the We're Going Where You're Going theme and in the middle, a radio promo for KKLT "K-Lite 99 FM" featuring Lisa Malay. Yes, the Lisa Malay that later became KPNX's station voice (and was brought in to do other Gannett stations like KTHV):

I'm surprised there aren't network social media promotion plans. Now they have zero tweets. On said account, they boast, "KDNL-TV, ABC30 is St. Louis's leader in news and entertainment." I actually help run a Twitter account with more followers than KDNL. They have 3,309. (Compare: KPLR has 26,945; KMOV has 109,585; KSDK 228,249; and KTVI 233,243)

Sorry for being the ultimate party pooper, but am I the only person who liked the USA Today-esque style better than what’s here?

WCNC/11pm open WLTX/5pm open [the old TEGNA mandate] WFMY/5pm open

WXYZ/Detroit Action News update 11 with Di in 1995 WXYZ/Detroit Newspaper Strike in 1995 WXYZ/Detroit Action News 11pm full newscast (note this set only lasted for a couple years; you can see the whole set during the weather toss and the end of the newscast)

Sinclair is a big ABC affiliate, plus ABC hasn't been a player in St. Louis since the affiliation went from KTVI to KDNL back in 1995 (prior to Sinclair owning KDNL)...that's nearly 23 years now. ABC essentially not mattering in St. Louis has become the status quo. The ratings and potential money ABC has lost over the years because of a lousy St. Louis affiliate apparently hasn't mattered too much. To my knowledge, ABC has never made even a halfway serious attempt to find a new St. Louis affiliate. In defense of ABC, the station deck in St. Louis has been stacked against them: No way KMOV or KSDK were going to switch; KPLR was owned by Acme for a number of years and tied to the WB; KPLR became the CW affiliate and Tribune is heavily tied to that, etc. Add to that, if the Sinclair-Tribune deal goes down, ABC will be dealing with Sinclair anyway. ABC's best hope would be to end up on KPLR with the CW being sent elsewhere. The only real alternative outside of Sinclair would be for ABC to strike up a deal with Weigel, who just bought KNLC and made the station a full-power Me-TV affiliate. I really can't think of a logical reason why ABC's ratings would be better on KNLC than KDNL. ABC apparently tried harder to get off of KTVI back in late 1988 or so when the network was upset about KTVI's lousy ratings at the time (plus ditching the 6PM local news for "Geraldo"). ABC had a meeting with Koplar (then-owner of KPLR) in New York that was supposedly about the technology of interactive TV, but the subject of an ABC affiliation for KPLR was apparently on the table. ABC didn't realize just how bad things were going to get just a few short years later.

If it's like all the other ABC shows, very poorly. All ABC shows perform poorly in STL. KDNL is one of the worst performing affiliates in the country. But the reason ABC doesn't do anything about it is because Sinclair bundles KDNL's affiliation agreement with ABC with it's better performing affiliates like WSYX, KATU, and KOMO (the affiliation agreement was made prior to them buying the Allbritton stations).