Jump to content

KOMU-TV

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected fromKOMU)

KOMU-TV
CityColumbia, Missouri
Channels
Branding
  • KOMU 8
  • Mid-Missouri CW (on DT3)
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
KBIA,KMUC
History
First air date
December 21, 1953(70 years ago)(1953-12-21)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog:8 (VHF,1953–2009)
  • Digital:36 (UHF, 2002–2009), 8 (VHF, 2009–2023)
  • Translator:7 K07SDRolla
  • NBC (1953–1982)
  • CBS(secondary, 1953–1955)
  • DuMont(secondary, 1953–1955)
  • ABC(secondary 1953–1971, primary 1982–1985)
Call signmeaning
Ozarks(region served), andUniversity of Missouri's initials transposed
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID65583
ERP1,000 kW[2]
HAAT266 m (873 ft)[2]
Transmitter coordinates38°53′21″N92°15′43.2″W/ 38.88917°N 92.262000°W/38.88917; -92.262000[2]
Links
Public license information
Websitewww.komu

KOMU-TV(channel 8) is atelevision stationlicensed toColumbia, Missouri,United States, serving the Columbia–Jefferson Citymarketas an affiliate ofNBCandThe CW Plus.The station's studios and transmitter are located onUS 63southeast of downtown Columbia. Owned by theUniversity of Missouri,KOMU-TV is one of only twocommercialfull-power television stations in the United States to be owned by a public university (alongsideWVUAinTuscaloosa, Alabama); the majority of television stations owned by a public university arenon-profitPBSmember stations.

History

[edit]
KOMU 8's studios, designed byJamieson and Spearl,on US 63 south of Columbia.

KOMU-TV was the brainchild of longtime University of Missouri journalism professor Edward C. Lambert, who wanted to give journalism students a hands-on experience by working at a full-fledged commercial station. It began airing ananalogsignal on VHF channel 8 on December 21, 1953, and carried programming from all four major networks at the time, but was a primary NBC affiliate. It lost bothDuMontandCBSin 1955 whenKRCG(channel 13) began operations from nearby Jefferson City. The two then sharedABCuntil 1971 when KCBJ-TV (channel 17, nowKMIZ) launched, leaving KOMU as a full-time NBC station. From January 22 through April 23, 1955, KOMU temporarily originated a live prime time ABC network show,Ozark Jubilee.

On March 11, 1969, the original studios of KOMU were heavily damaged by an explosion and a fire (caused by an air conditioner failure), forcing the station to go off the air during NBC'sTuesday Night at the Movies.Nobody was reported injured when the blast occurred. The station returned to the air the following week after the fire was extinguished.[citation needed]

On August 8, 1982,[3]ABC moved its affiliation to the station, since the network was the highest-rated at the time and wanted a stronger outlet. However, KOMU would not be an ABC affiliate for very long. By 1985, KOMU was one of several ABC affiliates nationwide that were underwhelmed by the network's ratings and programming in its3+1⁄2seasons with them. Meanwhile, NBC had regained the ratings lead. Accordingly, KOMU rejoined NBC on December 30, 1985 (reversing the 1982 swap with channel 17, which would become KMIZ concurrent to this).[4][5]In 2002, KOMU took over operation ofcable-onlyWBaffiliate "KJWB" as part ofThe WB 100+.KMIZ had previously operated it, but relinquished control over it to KOMU after its parent company went bankrupt. This service was known on-air as "Mid-Missouri's WB 5" after its cable channel location and, as a result, had a fictional callsign (as did most cable-only WB affiliates).

In 2002, KOMU won thePayne Award for Ethics in Journalismfor maintaining its longstanding policy banning political symbols on air. The station had come under considerable government and popular pressure to allow its anchors and reporters to wear American flag lapels on air in the aftermath of theSeptember 11, 2001, attacks.[citation needed]In December 2005, the station addedNBC Weather Plusto a new seconddigital subchanneland live streaming video on its website. This was added to Mediacom digital systems on January 12, 2007. After the national service shut down on December 1, 2008, it was replaced withUniversal Sportsbut was not added to other digital cable systems. In 2011, Universal Sports was dropped from subchannel 8.2.[6]

It was announced on April 12, 2006, that "KJWB" would become part ofThe CWand be added as a new third digital subchannel of KOMU to offer non-cable viewers access to the new network. "KJWB" joined The CW at the network's launch on September 18 and began to use the KOMU-DT3 call sign in an official manner. As a result, the station became the first and only educational institution-owned channel in the United States to affiliate with that network. Since KMIZ operated the area's cable-exclusiveUPNstation "KZOU", that station joined the other new network known asMyNetworkTVthat was created to compete against The CW.

In late 2020, KOMU-TV submitted an application to the FCC to allow the construction of a new transmission tower roughly 600 feet (183 m) away from the current tower. The new tower would be almost 100 feet (30 m) higher and would broadcast with about 74 times more power than the current tower. This would coincide with KOMU-TV changing its RF channel from VHF channel 8 to UHF channel 27. The application was approved sometime in early 2021.[2][7]The new tower's construction and testing was completed on January 5, 2023, and it began broadcasting four days later.[8]The old tower was torn down in July of the same year as it was no longer in service when the signal switched to the new tower.[9]

News operation

[edit]

KOMU presently airs 31 hours of locally-produced newscasts each week (with five hours each weekday,3+1⁄2hours on Saturdays and2+1⁄2hours on Sundays). Unusual for its market size, KOMU begins its weekday morning show at 4:30, reflecting a recent trend of television stations airing a pre-5 a.m. broadcast (most stations ranked #75 and above in theNielsenrank usually air morning newscasts at 5:30 or 6 a.m.). KOMU used to be the only station in the area that begins its early-morning newscast this early, but this changed with KRCG having launched a 4:30 a.m. newscast in 2020.

Originally, MU School of Journalism students generally served as KOMU-TV interns providing behind-the-scenes assistance with production and direction, with some on-air reporting. However, since 1970, most of the station's reporters and photographers have been undergraduate and/or graduate students, who rotate at the station on a weekly and semester basis. In addition, students serve as weekend and substitute anchors, and some of them also work as producers. However, like other commercial outlets, the station does employ paid professional staff as managers, engineers, and sales representatives. The editors and main on-air anchors, as well as most of the producers, are actually School of Journalism faculty members. Due to the large number of unpaid interns, KOMU has a significantly larger news department than is the case for a small-to-medium market station.

MU has always devoted significant resources to KOMU's news operation, resulting in a higher-quality product than conventional wisdom would suggest for what has always been a small market (it is currently the 135th market, the second-smallest Missouri-based market with three full Big Three affiliates). As a result, it has spent most of its history as the dominant station in Mid-Missouri, according toNielsen ratings.Historically, KOMU has dominated Columbia and the northern half of the market, while KRCG leads the way in Jefferson City and the southern half. At the turn of the millennium, this pattern had progressed to the extent that the two cities were a single market in name only.[10]In the late 2006 sweeps, however, KOMU lost the lead at 10 p.m. to KRCG—the first time in memory that KOMU had lostanytimeslot. However, it still remains a solid runner-up at 10, and leads all other timeslots.

On August 8, 2008, the station became first in the market to offer local newscasts in high definition making Mid-Missouri the third-smallest market in the country to feature local broadcasts in HD.[11][12]On April 23, 2009, KOMU debuted a new set specifically designed for high definition television. Starting July 5, 2010, the station began producing three newscasts for its CW-affiliated third digital subchannel. This includesKOMU 8 News at 9 on The CWevery night for a half-hour.[13]The prime time show competes with the KMIZ-produced show onFoxaffiliateKQFX-LD.

On September 12, 2011, KOMU-TV started a new weekday 4 p.m. newscast, which replacedThe Oprah Winfrey Show;it featured news, events and local weather, and gave viewers a chance to share their opinions on news stories through social media outlets. The award-winning Sarah Hill anchors the hour-long newscast.[14]On January 9, 2012,U_Newsmoved to 11 a.m. and was shortened to a half-hour.[15]On April 23, 2012, the program was reformatted as a traditional newscast and moved once again to noon (theU_Newstitle was also dropped from the newscast); social media involvement in the newscast continued to be included, though in a downscaled form.[16][17]

Like all CW Plus stations in theCentral Time Zone,KOMU-DT3 also offered the nationally syndicated morning showThe Daily Buzzon weekdays from 5 to 8 a.m. until the show's sudden cancellation by its distributor in mid-April 2015. KOMU operates its ownweather radar,known as "Live Doppler 8 First Alert Radar", next to its studios. KOMU's website features a live streaming video feed of all newscasts.

In addition to the counties defined in the Columbia–Jefferson City media market by Nielsen,[18]KOMU-TV includesCamden(part of theSpringfieldmarket),Gasconade(part of theSt. Louismarket),Macon(part of theKirksville–Ottumwamarket),Monroe(part of theQuincy–Hannibalmarket),Pettis,andSalinecounties (part of theKansas Citymarket) in its viewing area for news and weather coverage purposes.[19]

Notable former on-air staff

[edit]

Technical information

[edit]

Subchannels

[edit]

The station's signal ismultiplexed:

Subchannels of KOMU-TV[21]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
8.1 1080i 16:9 KOMU-DT NBC
8.3 720p KOMU-CW The CW Plus

Analog-to-digital conversion

[edit]

KOMU-TV shut down its analog signal, overVHFchannel 8, 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 relocated from its pre-transitionUHFchannel 36 to VHF channel 8 for post-transition operations.[22]

Carriage controversies

[edit]

2011 Mediacom dispute

[edit]

On January 3, 2011, KOMU-TV was removed from the channel lineup ofMediacom,the main cable provider for most of Mid-Missouri, after talks to negotiate a newretransmission consentagreement broke down, the previous carriage agreement with Mediacom was supposed to expire two days earlier, but KOMU-TV and Mediacom agreed to extend their carriage agreement through midnight on January 3.[23]Mediacom replaced KOMU 8 and its digital subchannels with three cable channels:Turner Classic Moviesreplaced KOMU on channels 7 and 707;Starz Kids and Familyreplaced Mid-Missouri CW on channel 5; andThe Hubreplaced Universal Sports on channel 101.[24]On January 7, 2011, Mediacom brought KOMU and its subchannels back on their respective channel slots after the company and KOMU reached a new carriage agreement.[25]

Out-of-market coverage

[edit]

The station also operated atranslator,K07SDinRolla, Missouri,in the westernmost area of the St. Louis market. The translator operated on analog VHF channel 7. The license for that translator was canceled by the FCC no later than June 2010.[26]

References

[edit]
  1. ^"Facility Technical Data for KOMU-TV".Licensing and Management System.Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^abcd"Channel Substitution/Community of License Change".Licensing and Management System.Federal Communications Commission.October 27, 2020.RetrievedDecember 6,2020.
  3. ^"Full Page".cdm16795.contentdm.oclc.org.
  4. ^"In Brief"(PDF).Broadcasting.October 7, 1985. p. 96.
  5. ^"TV networks' switch has explosive start".Columbia Daily Tribune.Columbia, Missouri. December 30, 1985. p. 10.Archivedfrom the original on December 20, 2023 – via Newspapers.
  6. ^"KOMU TV Listings".
  7. ^"Report & Order",Media Bureau,Federal Communications Commission,March 4, 2021, Retrieved March 5, 2021.
  8. ^"KOMU 8's New Tower".KOMU 8. January 5, 2023.RetrievedJanuary 16,2023.
  9. ^Spain, Emily (July 13, 2023)."EmVP: Boonville man who helped build KOMU 8 tower watches it come down".KOMU 8.RetrievedJuly 14,2023.
  10. ^Fybush, Scott.The Big Travelogue, Part Eleven.November 21, 2001.
  11. ^"KOMU-TV to go HD".NewscastStudio.August 7, 2008.
  12. ^"KOMU-TV launches HD with revised graphics".NewscastStudio.August 12, 2008.
  13. ^[1][dead link]
  14. ^KOMU To Debut New Interactive Newscast,TVNewsCheck,May 2, 2011.
  15. ^Missouri station moving interactive newscast,NewscastStudio,December 23, 2011.
  16. ^KOMU Scales Back Interactivity on Google+ Newscast,TVSpy,April 11, 2012.,Newscast Studio,April 11, 2012.
  17. ^KOMU Ending Interactive Newscast,Newscast Studio,April 11, 2012.
  18. ^"2012–2013 Large DMA Map"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on July 16, 2015.RetrievedAugust 25,2015.
  19. ^"Watch/Warning Map".
  20. ^"Alex Rozier".AlexReports.RetrievedMarch 18,2018.
  21. ^"RabbitEars TV Query for KOMU".rabbitears.info.
  22. ^"DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on August 29, 2013.RetrievedMarch 24,2012.
  23. ^Justin Willett. "KOMU, Mediacom agree to extend deadline for deal"[dead link],Columbia Daily Tribune,January 2, 2011.
  24. ^"Movie channel fills KOMU's old spot"[dead link],Columbia Daily Tribune,January 6, 2011.
  25. ^Andrew Denney. "KOMU returns to Mediacom lineup"[dead link],Columbia Daily Tribune,January 7, 2011.
  26. ^"RabbitEars.Info".rabbitears.info.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=KOMU-TV&oldid=1232526017"