KDSM-TV
Encyclopedia
KDSM-TV is the Fox-affiliated television station
for Central Iowa
licensed to Des Moines
. It broadcasts a high definition
digital signal on UHF channel 16 from a transmitter in Alleman
. The station can also be seen on Mediacom
channel 6 and in high definition on digital channel 817. Owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group
, KDSM has studios on Fleur Drive in Des Moines. Syndicated
programming on the station includes: Everybody Loves Raymond
, Two and a Half Men
, The People's Court
, and Judge Mathis
.
and on KDSM-DT3 and Mediacom digital channel 111 is The Country Network.
. KGTV was plagued by financial problems from the start. The Des Moines market is fairly large geographically, and at the time UHF signals didn't travel very far across long distances. It didn't help that very few television sets had UHF capability at the time. As a result, while KGTV should have logically taken the NBC
affiliation, that network opted to keep its secondary affiliation with WOI-TV. The death knell for the station sounded a few months after it went on the air, when Palmer Communications, owner of WHO-AM
-FM
, won a construction permit for WHO-TV
(channel 13). As WHO had been an NBC radio affiliate for almost 30 years, it was a foregone conclusion that WHO-TV would take the NBC affiliation. Channel 17 went dark later in 1953. The KGTV
calls now reside on the ABC
affiliate in San Diego, California
.
Analog UHF channel 17 remained silent until March 17, 1983 when Independent KCBR (known as "The Great Entertainer") signed-on. It was Iowa's first independent station, as well as the first new commercial station in Central Iowa since KCCI signed-on 28 years earlier. The call letters were picked from the first names of the three original owners: Carl Goldsberry, Bill Trout, and Ray Gazzo. Carl Goldsberry was a Northwestern Bell
yellow pages sales representative. Bill Trout and Ray Gazzo were partners in the Des Moines law firm of Coppola Trout Taha & Gazzo. Joe Coppola would later become a partner in KCBR when the company need a cash infusion.
The station was sold to Richard L. Duchossois, a Chicago
businessman who would later sell it to River City Broadcasting. KCBR's call letters were changed to KDSM-TV ("KDSM" is the IATA airport code
for Des Moines International Airport
) on January 17, 1986, and later that year, it became one of the charter affiliates of Fox. It came under the ownership of River City Broadcasting
in 1991. In 1996, Sinclair acquired the station as part of its purchase of River City. Sinclair and Fox cut a six-year affiliation contract extension for Sinclair's nineteen Fox affiliates. Thus, Fox will remain on KDSM through at least March 2012.
150 rebates (payable as $10 monthly bill credits) for Mediacom subscribers to switch to DirecTV
during that time period. Mediacom offered free dipole antenna
s to subscribers and aired programming from other cable networks in KDSM's place during the impasse
. The dispute, which attracted attention from lawmakers in Iowa and in Washington, D.C.
, ended on February 2 when Mediacom announced that it had signed a retransmission consent agreement with Sinclair. KDSM was restored to cable systems shortly after the announcement.
The dispute was renewed in late-2009 and threatened to have the station removed from Mediacom once again. The deal that was reached in 2007 expired on December 31, 2009 which meant the primary cable provider in the state of Iowa could have been kept from having access to the 2010 Orange Bowl
set to air on Fox with local favorite Iowa Hawkeyes
football team playing the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
. On December 31, Sinclair and Mediacom agreed to an extension of the retransmission contract until January 8, 2010 thus averting a blackout of the Orange Bowl on cable systems. A week later, the two sides agreed to a one-year retransmission agreement.
affiliate KGAN-TV in Cedar Rapids
. Known as Fox 17 News at 9, it originated from KGAN's studios on Old Marion Road Northeast in Cedar Rapids and featured that station's on-air personnel. There was regional news coverage and statewide weather forecasts provided. In 2002, the program was added to fellow Fox affiliate and sister station KFXA
(also serving Cedar Rapids and housed with KGAN) for Eastern Iowa viewers. On September 2, 2008, NBC
affiliate WHO-DT (owned by Local TV
) entered into a news share agreement with KDSM. It began producing a Des Moines-based prime time newscast known as Channel 13 News at 9 on Fox 17. Originating from WHO-DT's facilities on Grand Avenue in Downtown Des Moines, this airs for an hour on weeknights and thirty minutes on weekends.
On April 22, 2009, that station became second in Des Moines to air all in-studio news in 16:9
enhanced definition widescreen
. Although not truly high definition, broadcasts matched the aspect ratio
of HD television screens. The KDSM shows were not included in this change. On May 19, 2010, WHO-TV upgraded further to full high definition local newscasts. However, the prime time broadcasts on this channel were not initially included due to KDSM's lack of an HD master control facility at the time. As a result, the newscasts were still seen in pillarboxed 4:3 standard definition. At some point in December 2010, this station underwent a master-control upgrade and began offering local programming in HD.
Anchors
Reporters
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
for Central Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
licensed to Des Moines
Des Moines, Iowa
Des Moines is the capital and the most populous city in the US state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small portion of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines which was shortened to "Des Moines" in 1857...
. It broadcasts a high definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
digital signal on UHF channel 16 from a transmitter in Alleman
Alleman, Iowa
Alleman is a city in Polk County, Iowa, United States. The population was 439 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Des Moines–West Des Moines Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:Alleman was named for early settler John L. Alleman...
. The station can also be seen on Mediacom
Mediacom
Mediacom is a cable television and communications provider in the United States. Founded in July 1995, it serves primarily smaller markets in the Midwest and Southern United States. Formerly a publicly traded firm, it went private in a $600.0 million transaction in March 2011 and is, as of 2011,...
channel 6 and in high definition on digital channel 817. Owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group
Sinclair Broadcast Group
The Sinclair Broadcast Group is an American telecommunications company that operates the largest number of local television stations in the United States. Headquartered in Hunt Valley, Maryland, it owns a total of 57 stations across the country in 35 primarily small and medium markets, many of...
, KDSM has studios on Fleur Drive in Des Moines. Syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
programming on the station includes: Everybody Loves Raymond
Everybody Loves Raymond
Everybody Loves Raymond is an American television sitcom that originally ran on CBS from September 13, 1996, to May 16, 2005. Many of the situations from the show are based on the real-life experiences of lead actor Ray Romano, creator/producer Phil Rosenthal and the show's writing staff...
, Two and a Half Men
Two and a Half Men
Two and a Half Men is an American television sitcom that premiered on CBS on September 22, 2003. Starring Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer, and Angus T. Jones, the show was originally about a hedonistic jingle writer, Charlie Harper; his uptight brother, Alan; and Alan's growing son, Jake...
, The People's Court
The People's Court
The People's Court is a US television court show in which small claims court cases are heard, though what is shown is actually a binding arbitration....
, and Judge Mathis
Judge Mathis
Judge Mathis is a syndicated television legal reality show produced originally by Black Pearl Productions. In 2008, it entered its tenth season produced by AND Syndicated Productions and Telepictures. It is taped at NBC Tower in Chicago, but includes cases and litigants from other U.S....
.
Digital programming
On KDSM-DT2 and Mediacom digital channel 110 is TheCoolTVTheCoolTV
THECOOLTV is a United States over-the-air digital subchannel launched in March 2009. The network's current program schedule consists of an all-music video lineup that can be customized to meet an affiliate's preference, along with the three hours per week of E/I programming as required by the...
and on KDSM-DT3 and Mediacom digital channel 111 is The Country Network.
| Channels (physical/virtual) | Video | Aspect Aspect ratio The aspect ratio of a shape is the ratio of its longer dimension to its shorter dimension. It may be applied to two characteristic dimensions of a three-dimensional shape, such as the ratio of the longest and shortest axis, or for symmetrical objects that are described by just two measurements,... |
Programming |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16.1/17.1 | 720p 720p 720p is the shorthand name for 1280x720, a category of High-definition television video modes having a resolution of 1080 or 720p and a progressive scan... |
16:9 16:9 16:9 is an aspect ratio with a width of 16 units and height of 9. Since 2009, it has become the most common aspect ratio for sold televisions and computer monitors and is also the international standard format of HDTV, Full HD, non-HD digital television and analog widescreen television ... |
main KDSM programming/Fox HD |
| 16.2/17.2 | 480i 480i 480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC... |
4:3 | KDSM-DT2 TheCoolTV |
| 16.3/17.3 | 480i 480i 480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC... |
4:3 | KDSM-DT3 The Country Network |
History
Central Iowa's second television station, KGTV, signed-on in 1953 airing an analog signal on UHF channel 17. At the time, all four networks were shoehorned on WOI-TVWOI-TV
WOI-DT, channel 5, is the ABC-affiliated television station licensed to Ames, and serving the Des Moines, Iowa market. Its studios are in West Des Moines...
. KGTV was plagued by financial problems from the start. The Des Moines market is fairly large geographically, and at the time UHF signals didn't travel very far across long distances. It didn't help that very few television sets had UHF capability at the time. As a result, while KGTV should have logically taken the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
affiliation, that network opted to keep its secondary affiliation with WOI-TV. The death knell for the station sounded a few months after it went on the air, when Palmer Communications, owner of WHO-AM
WHO (AM)
WHO is a clear channel radio station broadcasting 50,000 watts on 1040 AM with a news/talk format. The station is owned by Clear Channel Communications and is located in Des Moines, Iowa. The station can be heard over most of the continental United States during nighttime hours...
-FM
KDRB
KDRB, "100.3 The Bus," is an adult hits radio station similar to Jack FM serving the Des Moines, Iowa, area in the USA. It broadcasts at 100.3 FM. The station's studios are located at 2141 Grand Avenue in Des Moines along with Clear Channel Communications' other Des Moines stations...
, won a construction permit for WHO-TV
WHO-TV
WHO-DT is a television station that broadcasts on Channel 13 in Des Moines, Iowa. It is affiliated with the NBC television network and serves most of central Iowa. The station transmits from the WOI Tower in Alleman, Iowa, which is actually owned by WHO-DT's owners. WHO-DT brands itself as WHO-HD...
(channel 13). As WHO had been an NBC radio affiliate for almost 30 years, it was a foregone conclusion that WHO-TV would take the NBC affiliation. Channel 17 went dark later in 1953. The KGTV
KGTV
KGTV, digital channel 10, is the ABC television affiliate in San Diego, California. The station can be seen on Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable, and AT&T U-verse on cable channel 10 in standard definition. Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable carry its high definition signal on cable...
calls now reside on the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
affiliate in San Diego, California
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
.
Analog UHF channel 17 remained silent until March 17, 1983 when Independent KCBR (known as "The Great Entertainer") signed-on. It was Iowa's first independent station, as well as the first new commercial station in Central Iowa since KCCI signed-on 28 years earlier. The call letters were picked from the first names of the three original owners: Carl Goldsberry, Bill Trout, and Ray Gazzo. Carl Goldsberry was a Northwestern Bell
Northwestern Bell
Northwestern Bell Telephone Company served the states just north of the Southwestern Bell area, including: Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Nebraska.- Early beginnings :Northwestern Bell's earliest roots begin in Deadwood, South Dakota...
yellow pages sales representative. Bill Trout and Ray Gazzo were partners in the Des Moines law firm of Coppola Trout Taha & Gazzo. Joe Coppola would later become a partner in KCBR when the company need a cash infusion.
The station was sold to Richard L. Duchossois, a Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
businessman who would later sell it to River City Broadcasting. KCBR's call letters were changed to KDSM-TV ("KDSM" is the IATA airport code
IATA airport code
An IATA airport code, also known an IATA location identifier, IATA station code or simply a location identifier, is a three-letter code designating many airports around the world, defined by the International Air Transport Association...
for Des Moines International Airport
Des Moines International Airport
Des Moines International Airport is a public-use airport located three nautical miles southwest of the central business district of Des Moines, a city in Polk County, Iowa, United States. The airport serves the Des Moines metropolitan area with 19 connections to major airline hubs...
) on January 17, 1986, and later that year, it became one of the charter affiliates of Fox. It came under the ownership of River City Broadcasting
River City Broadcasting
River City Broadcasting L.P. was a major television and radio station operator in mid-sized markets in the United States, based out of St. Louis, Missouri....
in 1991. In 1996, Sinclair acquired the station as part of its purchase of River City. Sinclair and Fox cut a six-year affiliation contract extension for Sinclair's nineteen Fox affiliates. Thus, Fox will remain on KDSM through at least March 2012.
Sinclair/Mediacom retransmission disputes
At midnight on January 6, 2007, Sinclair pulled KDSM from Mediacom systems in Central Iowa, including those in Des Moines and Ames, as part of Mediacom's ongoing retransmission dispute with Sinclair. As a result, KDSM began offering $United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
150 rebates (payable as $10 monthly bill credits) for Mediacom subscribers to switch to DirecTV
DirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
during that time period. Mediacom offered free dipole antenna
Dipole antenna
A dipole antenna is a radio antenna that can be made of a simple wire, with a center-fed driven element. It consists of two metal conductors of rod or wire, oriented parallel and collinear with each other , with a small space between them. The radio frequency voltage is applied to the antenna at...
s to subscribers and aired programming from other cable networks in KDSM's place during the impasse
Impasse
A bargaining impasse occurs when the two sides negotiating an agreement are unable to reach an agreement and become deadlocked. An impasse is almost invariably mutually harmful, either as a result of direct action which may be taken such as a strike in employment negotiation or sanctions/military...
. The dispute, which attracted attention from lawmakers in Iowa and in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, ended on February 2 when Mediacom announced that it had signed a retransmission consent agreement with Sinclair. KDSM was restored to cable systems shortly after the announcement.
The dispute was renewed in late-2009 and threatened to have the station removed from Mediacom once again. The deal that was reached in 2007 expired on December 31, 2009 which meant the primary cable provider in the state of Iowa could have been kept from having access to the 2010 Orange Bowl
2010 Orange Bowl
The 2010 FedEx Orange Bowl game featured the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and the Iowa Hawkeyes on Tuesday, January 5, 2010, at Land Shark Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida...
set to air on Fox with local favorite Iowa Hawkeyes
2009 Iowa Hawkeyes football team
The 2009 Iowa Hawkeyes football team represented the University of Iowa and the Iowa Hawkeyes athletic program during the 2009 college football season. The team played its home games at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, Iowa. 2009 marked Kirk Ferentz's 11th year as head coach of Iowa...
football team playing the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
The Yellow Jackets is the name used for all of the intercollegiate athletic teams that play for the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. The teams have also been nicknamed the Ramblin' Wreck, Engineers, Blacksmiths, and Golden Tornado. There are 8 men's and 7 women's teams that...
. On December 31, Sinclair and Mediacom agreed to an extension of the retransmission contract until January 8, 2010 thus averting a blackout of the Orange Bowl on cable systems. A week later, the two sides agreed to a one-year retransmission agreement.
Newscasts
On March 4, 2001, KDSM debuted a nightly prime time newscast produced by sister station CBSCBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
affiliate KGAN-TV in Cedar Rapids
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Cedar Rapids is the second largest city in Iowa and is the county seat of Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River, north of Iowa City and east of Des Moines, the state's capital and largest city...
. Known as Fox 17 News at 9, it originated from KGAN's studios on Old Marion Road Northeast in Cedar Rapids and featured that station's on-air personnel. There was regional news coverage and statewide weather forecasts provided. In 2002, the program was added to fellow Fox affiliate and sister station KFXA
KFXA
KFXA is the Fox-affiliated television station for Eastern Iowa licensed to Cedar Rapids. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 27 from a transmitter in Van Horne. The station can also be seen on Mediacom channel 6 and in high definition on digital channel 828...
(also serving Cedar Rapids and housed with KGAN) for Eastern Iowa viewers. On September 2, 2008, NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
affiliate WHO-DT (owned by Local TV
Local TV
Local TV LLC is a limited liability corporation, owned by Oak Hill Capital Partners , which operates 18 local network-affiliated television stations in the United States.-History:...
) entered into a news share agreement with KDSM. It began producing a Des Moines-based prime time newscast known as Channel 13 News at 9 on Fox 17. Originating from WHO-DT's facilities on Grand Avenue in Downtown Des Moines, this airs for an hour on weeknights and thirty minutes on weekends.
On April 22, 2009, that station became second in Des Moines to air all in-studio news in 16:9
16:9
16:9 is an aspect ratio with a width of 16 units and height of 9. Since 2009, it has become the most common aspect ratio for sold televisions and computer monitors and is also the international standard format of HDTV, Full HD, non-HD digital television and analog widescreen television ...
enhanced definition widescreen
Widescreen
Widescreen images are a variety of aspect ratios used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than the standard 1.37:1 Academy aspect ratio provided by 35mm film....
. Although not truly high definition, broadcasts matched the aspect ratio
Aspect ratio
The aspect ratio of a shape is the ratio of its longer dimension to its shorter dimension. It may be applied to two characteristic dimensions of a three-dimensional shape, such as the ratio of the longest and shortest axis, or for symmetrical objects that are described by just two measurements,...
of HD television screens. The KDSM shows were not included in this change. On May 19, 2010, WHO-TV upgraded further to full high definition local newscasts. However, the prime time broadcasts on this channel were not initially included due to KDSM's lack of an HD master control facility at the time. As a result, the newscasts were still seen in pillarboxed 4:3 standard definition. At some point in December 2010, this station underwent a master-control upgrade and began offering local programming in HD.
Anchors
- Lynn Melling - weeknight news
- Dave Price - weekend news and political reporter
- Ed Wilson - Chief Meteorologist seen weeknights
- Brett McIntyre - weekend meteorologist
- Keith Murphy - Sports DirectorSports DirectorA sports director is an individual at a television or radio station who is in charge of the sports department. In local news, the sports director is typically the station's primary sportscaster, and often anchors the primetime newscasts on weekdays. They are in charge of sports programming and...
seen weeknights - Chris Hassel - weekend sports and sports reporter
Reporters
- Megan Brown - multimedia journalist
- Shawn Terrell - sports photographer
- Andy Fales - weeknight feature
- Aaron Brilbeck - weeknights
- Dan Winters - investigative
- Sonya Heitshusen
- Elizabeth Klinge
- Emily Carlson