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KMSS-TV
CityShreveport, Louisiana
Channels
BrandingKMSS Fox 33;Fox 33 News
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
OwnerMission Broadcasting, Inc.
OperatorNexstar Media GroupviaSSA
KTAL-TV,KSHV-TV
History
First air date
April 11, 1985(39 years ago)(1985-04-11)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog:33 (UHF, 1985–2009)
Call signmeaning
Media South of Shreveport, Inc. (original owner)
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID12525
ERP1,000kW
HAAT551 m (1,808 ft)
Transmitter coordinates32°39′58″N93°55′59″W/ 32.66611°N 93.93306°W/32.66611; -93.93306
Links
Public license information
Websitewww.ktalnews

KMSS-TV(channel 33) is atelevision stationinShreveport, Louisiana,United States, affiliated with theFoxnetwork. It is owned byMission Broadcasting,which maintains ashared servicesagreement (SSA) withNexstar Media Group,owner ofTexarkana, Texas–licensedNBCaffiliateKTAL-TV(channel 6) andMyNetworkTVaffiliateKSHV-TV(channel 45), for the provision of certain services. The three stations share studios on North Market Street and Deer Park Road in northeast Shreveport; KMSS-TV's transmitter is located southeast ofMooringsport.

History[edit]

Early history[edit]

TheUHFchannel 33 allocation was contested between seven groups that competed for approval by theFederal Communications Commission(FCC) to be the holder of theconstruction permitto build andlicenseto operate a new television station on the firstcommercialUHF allocation to be assigned to Shreveport. The initial application to broadcast over the frequency was filed on June 12, 1982, whenPoughkeepsie, New York–based Great Central Communications (owned by brothers and radio station owners Saul Dresner and Alfred Dresner, in partnership with minority owner Milton Aninger) applied with the FCC to obtain the construction permit and license.[2]Washington, D.C.-based Media South Broadcasting Corp. (a subsidiary of Multi Media Communications and owned by Raymond A. Goudreau, Martin E. Firestone and John A. Fergie) filed a separate license application for channel 33 three weeks later on July 6.[2]

Five additional prospective applicants filed for the channel 33 permit on September 9:Minden-based Drew & Kemmerly (a five-person partnership led by majority owners Jean T. Drew and David Kemmerly, who were the only applicants seeking to license the allocation to nearbyBossier City), Shreveport-based Godfrey & Associates (a family-led group owned by Glynn Godfrey, Patricia Godfrey and Kirk Godfrey, whose brother, Wesley Godfrey, was minority owner of radio stationKDKS-FM[102.1, now licensed to nearbyBlanchard] inBenton),Pacoima, California–based Seattle Community TV Network Inc. (owned by Rosa Ware and Titilola Payne),Cleveland, Tennessee–based Shreveport Metro Communications 33 Ltd. (owned by Farrell B. Jones and Evelyn S. Lane), andAtlanta-based Shreveport TV Co. (owned by James H. Thornton and Ramon Diaz).[3]

On December 7, 1984,administrative law judgeByron E. Harrison—who oversaw the dispute over the UHF channel 33 construction permit—granted a motion for resolving disqualifying issues levied against Media South Communications as well as a joint settlement agreement request and applications dismissals by Shreveport Metro Communications 33 Ltd, Godfrey & Associates, and Shreveport Television Co. with prejudice. The decision also granted a merger between Great Southern TV Broadcasting (owned by Joseph D. Waggoner and Grey Teekell, whose separate application as existed prior to the merger was dismissed with prejudice) and Media South Broadcasting, whose amended application for channel 33 was given approval. In February 1985, Media South requested and received approval to assign KMSS-TV (in reference to the licensee, Media South of Shreveport, Inc.) as the call letters for its television station.[4][5]

Channel 33 first signed on the air on April 11, 1985. It was the fifth commercial television station in the Shreveport–Texarkana market (as well as the first to sign on in the market sinceABCaffiliateKTBS-TV(channel 3) debuted thirty years earlier on September 3, 1955), and the second UHF station to have signed on in the market (afterPBSmember station andLouisiana Public BroadcastingsatelliteKLTS-TV [channel 24], which debuted six years prior on August 9, 1978). The station originally operated from studio and office facilities located at 3519 Jewella Avenue (between Claiborne Avenue and Ninock Street) in southwestern Shreveport. Originally broadcasting daily from 6 a.m. until 3 a.m., KMSS-TV—which was also the firstindependent stationto sign on in the market—initially maintained a programming format consisting of a mix of recent and classicsitcoms,westernsand drama series,cartoons,religious programsand some oldermovies.Channel 33 also airedCBSprograms thatKSLA-TV(channel 12) declined to air, mostly the network'slate nightand morning lineup (with the exception ofThe Price Is RightandThe Young and the Restless) and most of its Saturday morning children's programming. From its sign-on, KMSS was the first television station in the state of Louisiana to broadcast instereo.

Fox affiliation; ComCorp ownership and JSA/SSA with KSHV-TV[edit]

In the summer of 1986,News Corporationapproached Media South about turning KMSS into a charter affiliate of theFox Broadcasting Company.Channel 33 joined Fox when the network inaugurated programming on October 9, 1986.[6]Though it was technically a network affiliate, KMSS continued to be programmed as ade factoindependent station as Fox's initial programming lineup consisted solely of alate-night talk show,The Late ShowStarringJoan Rivers.Even after its programming expanded with the launch of a three-hour Sunday night lineup in April 1987, Fox aired its prime time programming exclusively on weekends until September 1989, when it began a five-year expansion towards a nightly prime time schedule. Until Fox began airing prime time programs on all seven nights of the week in January 1993, KMSS continued to air a movie at 7 p.m. on nights when the network did not offer any programming. (It is one of two television stations in the market, alongside KSLA, that has retained the same network affiliation, and the only station not to be affiliated with any other network.)

KMSS logo, used from 2001 to 2008.
KMSS logo, used from 2008 to 2015.

For its first four years as a Fox affiliate, KMSS-TV—which, in compliance with Fox's stricter branding requirements, began identifying as "KMSS Fox 33" in on-air verbiage in 1989 and within its logo in 1991—served as a default Fox station for theTyler–Longviewmarket. This status continued until April 1, 1991, when the Tyler-Longview market gained over-the-air access to Fox programming when present-day sister station, KLMG-TV—which concurrently changed its call letters toKFXK-TV—disaffiliated from CBS and switched to Fox (CBS would not regain an affiliate in the Tyler/Longview market until 2004, whenKYTXswitched its affiliation fromNBC—through its previous status as a semi-satellite of Longview-based affiliateKETK-TV—to CBS). On May 1, 1987, Media South announced it would sell KMSS-TV toAustin, Texas-based Southwest Multimedia Corp. (owned by Billy Goldberg and Lester Kamin) for $7 million; the sale received FCC approval on June 24.[7]

After Fox began offering programming on a nightly basis (with the addition of programming on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings) in January 1993, KMSS became less reliant on movies during the period, due to the growing cable television industry impacting the ability of broadcast stations to acquire film content; channel 33 relegated its movie presentations to weekend afternoons (except on days when Fox offeredsports programming) and late nights. It would also rely on the network's Fox Kids block for its children's programming inventory, resulting in many syndicated children's programs that KMSS had aired to occupy portions of the weekday daytime and Saturday morning time periods being relegated to early morning time slots as well as around the morning and afternoon network blocks.

On April 15, 1993, Southwest Multimedia (under debtor-in-possession entity SWMM-Shreveport Corp.) filed an FCC application seeking to transfer 525 shares in KMSS-TV common stock to Arthur Lanham and Mitchell A. Levy at $1 per share, which would expand Lanham and Levy's interest to encompass 1,050 shares (of 52%) in station common stock; the application was dismissed on June 4.[8][9]In September 1993, KMSS-TV began maintaining a secondary affiliation with thePrime Time Entertainment Network(PTEN), an ad hoc syndicated programming venture betweenChris-Craft TelevisionandWarner Bros. Domestic Television;because its Fox programming commitments precluded PTEN programming (which consisted of mainly first-run drama series) from airing during prime time, KMSS carried the latter's offerings in late night until the programming service ceased operations in September 1997.

On March 21, 1994, Southwest Multimedia announced it would sell KMSS-TV toLafayette-based Associated Broadcasters Inc. (later renamedCommunications Corporation of America,and founded by Thomas R. Galloway and D. Wayne Elmore) for $1.5 million; the sale received FCC approval on October 3, 1994.[10]On June 1, 1995, White Knight Broadcasting—an arm of Associated Broadcasters/ComCorp (owned by media executive Sheldon Galloway), which purchased the station from Word of Life Ministries for $3.8 million that April[11]—entered into a local marketing agreement to operate upstart independent station KWLB (channel 45), which subsequently changed its call letters toKSHV-TVon July 26, under which Associated Broadcasters/KMSS would provide programming, advertising and other administrative services for KSHV. Channel 45 subsequently migrated its operations from the Word of Life Center on West 70th Street/Meriwether Road (nearLA 3132) in southwestern Shreveport into KMSS's Jewella Avenue studios. During the early- and mid-2000s, KMSS lessened its reliance on running cartoons and classic sitcoms, and began acquiring moretalk shows,reality seriesandcourt shows,although more recent sitcoms remained as part of its schedule (including as part of its early evening and late prime time lineups surrounding the Fox nighttime schedule).

Virtual triopoly with KTAL-TV[edit]

On April 24, 2013,Irving, Texas-basedNexstar Broadcasting Groupannounced that it would acquire the nineteen television stations owned by Communications Corporation of America and White Knight Broadcasting, including KMSS and its time brokerage agreement with KSHV-TV, for $270 million in cash and stock. Because Nexstar could not legally purchase KMSS under FCC ownership rules as Shreveport has only eight full-power stations (the FCC requires a market to have at least eight unique owners once a duopoly is formed), and KTAL and KMSS were among the four highest-rated stations in the Shreveport market at the time of the transaction, plans called for KMSS to be acquired byWestlake, Ohio-based Nexstar partner companyMission Broadcastingfor $27 million, while KSHV was to be sold to a female-controlled company,Denton, Texas-based Rocky Creek Communications (owned by Shirley Green), for $2.1 million. Nexstar planned to operate KMSS and KSHV under a shared services agreement, forming a virtual triopoly with KTAL.[12][13][14][15]

However, on June 6, 2014, Nexstar announced that it would instead sell KMSS-TV, along with two other Fox affiliates—sister stationKPEJ-TVinMidland, TexasandKLJB/Davenport, Iowa—toHouston-basedMarshall Broadcasting Group(founded by Pluria Marshall, Jr.) for $58.5 million, an agreement that marked the company's first television station acquisitions. The minority-owned Marshall intended to fund the acquisitions—which were subject to FCC approval of Nexstar's acquisition of the ComCorp and White Knight Broadcasting stations as well as its concurring purchase ofGrant Broadcasting—through borrowings guaranteed by Nexstar; Marshall planned to launch news operations and provide sports and minority-orientedpublic affairsprogramming on KMSS and the other two stations (opting instead to have Nexstar-owned stations produce additional newscasts for the Marshall stations in each of the three markets), with Nexstar providing sales and certain non-programming services including engineering,master controland other administrative functions.[16]

The sale of ComCorp to Nexstar, as well as that of KMSS to Marshall and a concurring acquisition of the time brokerage agreement with KSHV, received FCC approval on December 4, 2014, and was completed onJanuary 1,2015. As a result, Nexstar began operating KMSS and KSHV under separate shared services agreements with Marshall and White Knight, forming a virtual triopoly with KTAL, leaving Shreveport's six major commercial stations under the control of just three broadcasting companies (the Wray family—through Wray Properties Trust—owns KTBS, while KSLA is owned byGray Television); KMSS and KSHV subsequently migrated their operations into KTAL's North Market Street studios in northeastern Shreveport.[17][18][19]

On April 3, 2019, Marshall filed a lawsuit against Nexstar in theNew York Supreme Court,accusing it of sabotaging the value of KMSS, KPEJ and KLJB for future direct acquisition under a waiver of duopoly rules (which allow groups to seek approval for duopolies involving two of a given market's four highest-rated stations), being undermined in favor of Nexstar under the terms of Marshall's financing deal with that group (which Nexstar is alleged to have threatened to withdraw), being given a $16-million overevaluation of the collective worth of the stations, and withholdingretransmissionfees. (Prior to the 2014 deal with Nexstar, Pluria Marshall Jr.—who isAfrican American—had struggled to obtain financing for station purchases dating to the late 1980s, including a rebuffed 2008 offer to buy stations fromMedia General,which Nexstar would eventually acquire in 2017.) Nexstar issued a statement calling the allegations "spurious and without merit.”[20][21]

On December 3, 2019, Marshall Broadcasting Group filed forChapter 11bankruptcy protection.[22]Mission Broadcasting, another company associated with Nexstar Media Group, agreed to purchase Marshall Broadcasting's stations for $49 million on March 30, 2020.[23]The transaction was completed on September 1, 2020.[24]

Programming[edit]

Sports programming[edit]

In its early years, KMSS was the local over-the-air broadcaster ofMajor League Baseballgames from both theTexas Rangersand theHouston Astros,and broadcast games from the now-defunctShreveport Captainsminor league baseballteam. It also formerly broadcastBig 12 Conferencefootball games after that conference formed in the mid-1990s, and until the launch of the cableSEC Networkin August 2014, carried with KSHVSoutheastern Conferencefootballandbasketballgames.

News operation[edit]

As of September 2017,KTAL-TV produces 17 hours of locally produced newscasts each week for KMSS-TV (with three hours on weekdays, and one hour each on Saturday and Sundays). As the SSA partner of KTAL, the station may also simulcast long-form severe weather coverage from the NBC affiliate in the event that atornado warningis issued for any county (or parish in Louisiana) in its Ark-La-Tex viewing area.

News programming history[edit]

For most of its history, KMSS-TV was one of several Fox-affiliated stations throughout the United States that did not have a local newscast; in lieu of a regular news program, starting in 1991, KMSS ran daily local weather inserts during regular programming that were produced byWeatherVision,aJackson, Mississippi-based company formed by meteorologist Edward St. Pe to provide weather forecasts for stations without a news department; the agreement with WeatherVision was discontinued in December 2006.

On April 23, 2007, KMSS debuted a half-hour prime time newscast at 9 p.m. each weeknight. TitledFox News Louisiana,the program was produced in partnership with Fox-affiliatedsister stationWGMBinBaton Rouge,which served as a hub for local newscasts seen on ComCorp's Louisiana-based stations and one of two news production hubs for the company as a whole. Similar to other outsourced newscasts by its sister Fox stations in Texas and Louisiana under Comcorp ownership, the program – which had its in-studio segments taped earlier in the evening – featured stories filed by reporters based in the Shreveport–Texarkana area, with a local forecast segment compiled and presented by WGMB's evening meteorologist Nelson Robinson. The news anchor and meteorologist were provided by the centralized production hub and other WGMB personnel filled-in as necessary. The original format of the broadcast consisted of local news headlines and a local forecast geared specifically towards the program'sArk-La-Texaudience during the first 20 minutes, with the final two segments of the program consisting of a direct partial simulcast of WGMB's live 9 p.m. newscast, which included a national and international news summary from Jeff Beimfohr, along with a statewide sportscast anchored by Chris Mycoskie. By the fall of 2008, the KMSS newscast's format was altered to have the entire broadcast be pre-recorded.[25]

On August 20, 2007, about five months after the 9 p.m. newscast debuted, KMSS debuted a two-hour-long weekday morning newscast, titledFox News Louisiana AM.Like the evening newscast, certain segments were pre-recorded and incorporated stories filed by the Shreveport-based reporting staff, while other segments were broadcast live. While production of the evening program was turned over to NBC-affiliated sister station KETK-TV in Tyler, Texas—the other news production hub maintained by ComCorp—in February 2008, WGMB continued to hold production responsibilities for the morning newscast.Fox News Louisiana AMwas canceled in December 2008. (KMSS filling part of its former time slot withMontel,which previously aired on sister station KSHV-TV.)

The original half-hour incarnation of the 9 p.m. newscast was discontinued on September 5, 2008. Three days later on September 8, it was replaced by a 10-minute-long news program,Fox News Ark-La-Tex,which was also produced by KETK. Much like the original half-hour 9 p.m. newscast, it was recorded earlier in the evening and featured stories filed by Shreveport-based reporters, although meteorologists and sports anchors employed with KETK provided and prepared local forecast and sports segments out of that station's Tyler studios. On September 20, 2010, the program was expanded to a half-hour and was retitled toFox [33] News Ark-La-Tex.

As a result of the sale to Marshall Broadcasting and the formation of the resulting SSA with the NBC affiliate, on February 2, 2015, KTAL-TV took over production responsibilities for KMSS's 9 p.m. newscast, relocating production to KTAL's Market Street studios in northeast Shreveport and utilizing channel 6's existing news department staff. On that date, the prime time newscast was retitledFox 33 News: First at 9and was converted into a live, seven-night-a-week broadcast. (The station expanded the weeknight editions of the program to one hour on July 28, 2015.) Subsequently, on August 3, KTAL began producing a one-hour-long weekday morning newscast at 7 a.m., titledFox 33 News: Good Day,which replacedpaid programmingin that time period and restored a morning newscast to its schedule after an eight-year absence. (The morning newscast would expand to two hours on November 7, 2016.)[26][27][28]

Technical information[edit]

Subchannels[edit]

The station's signal ismultiplexed:

Subchannels of KMSS-TV[29]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
33.1 720p 16:9 KMSS-HD Fox
33.2 480i Rewind Rewind TV
45.1 720p 16:9 MyNet MyNetworkTV(KSHV-TV)
Broadcast on behalf of another station

Analog-to-digital conversion[edit]

KMSS-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 33, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United Statestransitioned from analog to digital broadcastsunder federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 34,[30]usingvirtual channel33.

References[edit]

  1. ^"Facility Technical Data for KMSS-TV".Licensing and Management System.Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^ab"For the Record"(PDF).Broadcasting.Broadcasting Publications, Inc. July 26, 1982. p. 107.RetrievedAugust 11,2018– via World Radio History.
  3. ^"For the Record"(PDF).Broadcasting.Broadcasting Publications, Inc. September 27, 1982. p. 99.RetrievedAugust 15,2018– via World Radio History.
  4. ^"For the Record"(PDF).Broadcasting.Broadcasting Publications, Inc. January 7, 1985. p. 51.RetrievedAugust 15,2018– via World Radio History.
  5. ^"For the Record"(PDF).Broadcasting.Broadcasting Publications, Inc. February 4, 1985. p. 92.RetrievedAugust 15,2018– via World Radio History.
  6. ^"Fox network begins to take shape"(PDF).Broadcasting.Cahners Business Information. August 4, 1986. p. 44.RetrievedApril 15,2018– via World Radio History.
  7. ^"For the Record"(PDF).Broadcasting & Cable.Cahners Business Information. May 6, 1996. p. 102.RetrievedAugust 11,2018– via World Radio History.
    "For the Record"(PDF).Broadcasting & Cable.Cahners Business Information. May 6, 1996. p. 102.RetrievedAugust 11,2018– via World Radio History.
  8. ^"For the Record"(PDF).Broadcasting & Cable.Cahners Business Information.May 17, 1993. p. 68.RetrievedAugust 15,2018– via World Radio History.
  9. ^"For the Record"(PDF).Broadcasting & Cable.Cahners Business Information. June 28, 1993. p. 53.RetrievedAugust 15,2018– via World Radio History.
  10. ^"Changing Hands"(PDF).Broadcasting & Cable.Cahners Business Information. May 30, 1994. p. 41.RetrievedAugust 14,2018– via World Radio History.
  11. ^"Changing Hands"(PDF).Broadcasting.Broadcasting Publications, Inc. April 10, 1995. p. 73.RetrievedAugust 14,2018– via World Radio History.
  12. ^Michael Malone (April 24, 2013)."Nexstar, Mission Acquire CCA Group for $270 Million".Broadcasting & Cable.NewBay Media.RetrievedAugust 14,2018.
  13. ^"Nexstar, Mission Broadcasting to buy 19 TV stations for $270 million".Reuters.April 24, 2013.RetrievedAugust 14,2018.
  14. ^Price Colman (March 22, 2013)."Nexstar Poised To Buy CCA Stations".TVNewsCheck.NewsCheck Media.RetrievedAugust 14,2018.
  15. ^"Nexstar/CCA related deal details".Radio-Television Business Report.May 15, 2013.RetrievedAugust 14,2018.
  16. ^"Nexstar Selling 3 Fox Affils For $58.5 Million".TVNewsCheck.NewsCheck Media. June 6, 2014.
  17. ^"U.S. FCC approves merger of Nexstar and Communications Corp".Reuters.December 4, 2014.RetrievedAugust 14,2018.
  18. ^"Consummation Notice"(PDF).Federal Communications Commission.December 4, 2014.RetrievedAugust 14,2018.
  19. ^"Consummation Notice".CDBS Public Access.Federal Communications Commission. January 6, 2015.
  20. ^Gene Maddaus (April 3, 2019)."Nexstar Accused of Sabotaging Black-Owned TV Station Group".Variety.Penske Media Corporation.RetrievedApril 25,2019.
  21. ^Anna Butler (April 3, 2019)."Marshall Broadcasting Group claims in lawsuit that Nexstar 'undermined' prospects".Dallas Business Journal.American City Business Journals.RetrievedApril 25,2019.
  22. ^"The week in bankruptcies: 7 companies file for bankruptcy protection in Houston".Houston Business Journal.December 26, 2019.RetrievedDecember 29,2019.
  23. ^Aftab, Hassan (April 6, 2020)."Mission Broadcasting to buy certain assets of Marshall Broadcasting TV stations".S&P Global Market Intelligence.S&P Global.RetrievedApril 9,2020.
  24. ^"Consummation Notice",CDBS Public Access,Federal Communications Commission,September 7, 2020, Retrieved September 10, 2020.
  25. ^"ComCorp Ready for Its Next Chapter".TVNewsCheck.NewsCheck Media. November 6, 2007.RetrievedAugust 15,2018.
  26. ^Roly Ortega (February 28, 2015)."KTAL now provides local news for KMSS".The Changing Newscasts Blog.RetrievedFebruary 2,2017.
  27. ^Roly Ortega (July 28, 2015)."KTAL and KMSS make huge changes by adding and expanding their newscasts".The Changing Newscasts Blog.RetrievedFebruary 2,2017.
  28. ^Roly Ortega (November 11, 2016)."A small minor newscast change… #106".The Changing Newscasts Blog.RetrievedFebruary 2,2017.
  29. ^"RabbitEars TV Query for KMSS".RabbitEars.RetrievedAugust 14,2018.
  30. ^"DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on August 29, 2013.RetrievedMarch 24,2012.

External links[edit]

  • ktalnews– KTAL-TV official website (shared with KMSS-TV and KSHV-TV)
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