KSTU
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| KSTU | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Salt Lake City, Utah | |
| Branding | Fox 13 |
| Slogan | Just You Watch The Best |
| Channels | Analog: 13 (VHF) |
| Affiliations | Fox |
| Owner | Fox Television Stations, Inc. (sale pending to Local TV, LLC) |
| First air date | October 1978[1] |
| Call letters’ meaning | Springfield Television of Utah (original owners) |
| Former channel number(s) | 20 (1978-1987) |
| Former affiliations | independent (1978-1986) |
| Transmitter Power | 112 kW (analog) 350 kW (digital) |
| Height | 1116 m (analog) 1210 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 22215 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.myfoxutah.com |
KSTU ("Fox 13") is the Fox owned-and-operated television station serving the Salt Lake City, Utah television market. It broadcasts in analog on VHF channel 13, in digital television on UHF channel 28, and is rebroadcast statewide through a network of translator stations.
Other than first run programming and sports from Fox, the station also airs court shows, reality shows, talk shows, off-network sitcoms, and over 30 hours of local news programming a week. The station carries 4Kids TV on Saturday mornings.
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[edit] History
Note: There have been two television stations in Salt Lake City licensed with the KSTU calls: the current Fox O&O on VHF channel 13 (analog) and UHF channel 28 (digital), and an independent station that broadcast on UHF channel 20 from 1978 through 1987. Both are mentioned in this article, as they were the same intellectual unit; however, these were two different licenses.
[edit] As an independent
The original KSTU began operation on October 9, 1978 as the first independent station in Utah, under the ownership of Massachusetts-based Springfield Television, who also owned NBC affiliate WWLP in Springfield, Massachusetts and ABC affiliate WKEF in Dayton, Ohio. The station transmitted on UHF channel 20 using a transmitter originally used for WWLP's partial satellite, WRLP-TV in Greenfield, Massachusetts (which closed down shortly before KSTU's sign-on). KSTU's typical fare at the time was typical for an independent station--cartoons, off-network classic TV sitcoms, old movies, and drama shows.
The Springfield Television group was sold to Adams Communications in 1984. The station became a charter Fox affiliate in 1987.
[edit] A new license
In 1980, the FCC added a new VHF allocation on channel 13 to the Salt Lake City market. Five groups submitted applications for a permit to build a television station on channel 13 in May 1981. The FCC held evidentiary hearings with the competing applicants in 1984, and in 1985, announced the winning applicant. The second-place applicant, locally-owned Mountain West Television Company, or MWT Company, appealed the FCC decision, but lost the appeal. When that failed, MWT Company proposed a buyout of the other four competing interests, including the winning applicants. The strategy succeeded and was carried out in November 1986. At the same time, MWT Company entered into a limited partnership agreement with Northstar Communications, Inc., which was partly owned by Allstate, and a new company, called MWT, Ltd., was formed. On January 20, 1987, the FCC awarded the original construction permit for a new station on channel 13 to MWT, Ltd., under the calls KTMW. Buying equipment for the new station soon proved difficult.
Meanwhile, Adams Communications was undergoing serious financial difficulties and decided to sell off its stations. There were few takers for channel 20, however. Under the circumstances, it was very receptive to an offer from MWT to buy KSTU's assets for $30 million. Adams was able to make a considerable profit on the deal, while MWT was able to get the equipment it needed at a substantial discount. The two parties reached a sales agreement in July, the sale was approved by the FCC in September, and the transaction was finalized on October 23, 1987.
On November 9, 1987; MWT moved the channel 20 intellectual unit (call letters, staff, programming and Fox affiliation) to channel 13 and returned the original channel 20 license to the FCC. MWT went on the air with the new KSTU on channel 13 under Program Test Authority. It requested a license to cover the CP on November 16, which the FCC granted on March 7, 1988.
The purchase of the UHF station, however, put a financial strain on MWT, namely on the old Mountain West partners. In May 1988, Northstar Communications became sole owners of KSTU. The station was known as "FOX13" by 1989.
[edit] Fox takes over
Northstar sold KSTU to Fox the next year, making it a Fox O&O. Unlike its rival stations, which have changed networks over the years, KSTU is the only VHF commercial station in Salt Lake City to remain affiliated with the same network since that network's inception; only KTVX, originally an NBC affiliate, has affiliated with ABC longer than KSTU has been a Fox affiliate, and, when Fox acquired KTVX's then-parent Chris-Craft, KTVX was eventually sold to Clear Channel.
The station replaced most of the classic sitcoms on its lineup with talk shows in the mid-1990s. It launched a 9pm newscast in 1996, and added a morning newscast (Good Day Utah) a few years later, replacing morning cartoons. The station added more reality shows and court shows in 2002, once Fox dropped the weekday children's block nationally, then launched a midday newscast in 2005. A year later, KSTU redesigned its website using the Fox Television Stations Group's MyFox platform, which included the station's new logo, in a style in line with the other Fox O&O stations. However, the "13" from the previous logo remained as part of the new logo (unlike WHBQ, which switched to a 13 similar to WTVT).
KSTU was one of two network-owned stations in the Salt Lake City DMA from 1995 until 2007, when CBS sold control of KUTV to Four Points Media Group, a subsidiary of private-equity group Cerberus Capital Management. As of December 22, 2007, Fox has entered into an agreement to sell KSTU and seven other Fox O&O stations[2] to Oak Hill Capital Partners' Local TV LLC, which currently owns nine stations formerly of The New York Times Company.
[edit] Translators
KSTU extends its coverage throughout the entire state of Utah, plus parts of Arizona, Idaho, Nevada and Wyoming, using a network of more than 75 community-owned translator television stations listed below.
[edit] Notable Personalities
[edit] Current On-Air Talent
Anchors
- Bob Evans: Weeknight Anchor
- Hope Woodside: Weeknight Anchor
- Kerri Cronk: Morning/Noon Anchor
- Dan Evans: Morning/Noon Anchor
- Kirk Yuhnke: "Good Day Utah" Anchor/Reporter
- Nineveh Dinha: "Good Day Utah" Anchor/Reporter
- Andrea Fujii: Weekend Anchor/Reporter
- Max Roth: Weekend Anchor/Reporter
Reporters
- Big Budah: "Good Day Utah" Feature Reporter
- Katy Carlyle: General Assignment Reporter
- Scott McKane: General Assignment Reporter
- Sandy Riesgraf: General Assignment Reporter
- Arikka Von: General Assignment Reporter
Fox 13 Weather Team
- Brett Benson Weekend Weather Anchor/Reporter
- Jodi Saeland (AMS Seal of Approval): Chief Meteorologist
- Damon Yauney: Morning/Noon Meteorologist
Fox 13 Sports Team
- Rick Aaron: Sports Director, seen weeknights
- Mike Runge: Weekend Sports Anchor/Reporter
- Jeff Reinier: Freelance Sports Anchor/Reporter
Former Fox 13 On-Air Talent
- Steve Baron Weather Anchor/Reporter
- Nick Clooney Anchor
- Todd Hansen Anchor/Reporter
- Marni Hughes Anchor/Reporter
- John Klemack Reporter
- Lane Lyon Reporter
- Jose Miguel Reporter
- Sue Thompson Reporter
[edit] External links
- MyFox Utah (KSTU's Homepage)
- Additional KSTU logos
- Details leading up to MWT Ltd being assigned the construction permit.
- Query the FCC's TV station database for KSTU
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KSTU-TV
[edit] References
- ^ The Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook says October 9, while the Television and Cable Factbook says October 24.
- ^ News Corporation
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