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KSHB-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station serving Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 42 (virtual channel 41.1 via PSIP) from a transmitter at the Blue River Greenway in the city's Hillcrest section. Owned by The E. W. Scripps Company, it is sister to independent station KMCI-TV (as the company's only legal full-power station duopoly) and both station share studios on Oak Street and Cleaver Boulevard in Kansas City, Missouri.

Syndicated programming on KSHB includes The Doctors, The Jeff Probst Show, Comics Unleashed and Jeopardy!. It runs the entire NBC network schedule (though airs Early Today 30 to 60 minutes earlier than most NBC stations in the Central Time Zone at 3:30 a.m., in line with the Eastern Time scheduling of the program). As the Saint Joseph market does not have an NBC affiliate of its own, KSHB serves as a default affiliate for the area as its transmitter provides a city-grade signal in St. Joseph proper, and it is available on cable and satellite in the area.

Digital television

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Analog-to-digital transition

KSHB-TV discontinued regular analog programming on June 12, 2009, its digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 42. However through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display its virtual channel as its former analog channel UHF 41.

History

Channel 41 signed on August 10, 1970 as KBMA-TV (for Businessmen's Assurance Company of America, which provided initial funds for the station's founding), owned by Wilson D. Grant. Its first studio was located in the BMA Tower, and its first local program was an afternoon children's show with cartoons called 41 Treehouse Lane.

KBMA was originally an independent station—the second in Kansas City. However, it had stronger financing and programming than the city's original independent, KCIT-TV (channel 50, now KPXE-TV). KCIT went off the air in 1971, and for the next 12 years, channel 41 was the only general entertainment station in Kansas City (channel 50 eventually signed on once again in 1978, but as a religious station). From the early 1970s through the 1980s, it was available on many cable systems in Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma, effectively becoming a regional superstation. This included many large Midwestern cities that didn't have independent stations of their own, such as Des Moines, Omaha, Lincoln, and Wichita.

KBMA was sold to Scripps Howard Broadcasting in 1977. To reflect its new ownership, the station later changed its call letters to KSHB-TV in 1981. The station acquired some strong off-network sitcoms and movie packages and remained the area's leading independent station. The station affiliated with the upstart Fox network in 1986, but it remained essentially an independent station since Fox only provided a couple of hours of network programming a day. During its Fox affiliation, KSHB was known on-air as "Fox 41". The station began to add a few talk and reality shows in the early 1990s.

On May 22, 1994, New World Communications announced an affiliation agreement with the Fox Broadcasting Company, months after Fox won the broadcast rights to NFC football games. This resulted in most of its stations set to become Fox affiliates. One of the stations due to switch was Kansas City's longtime NBC affiliate, WDAF-TV (channel 4). NBC sought to find a new affiliate, eventually finding one in KSHB. On September 12, 1994, WDAF dropped its NBC affiliation after 45 years and took over the Fox affiliation, while Fox Kids moved to KSMO (channel 62). Meanwhile, NBC agreed to affiliate with KSHB on the condition that KSHB run as much local news as WDAF had as an NBC affiliate, and as a result, launched newscasts in the morning and at 5 and 6 p.m., and moved its 9 p.m. newscast to 10 p.m. KSHB was not part of the Scripps-ABC affiliation deal due to ABC's long-term affiliation contract with KMBC-TV (channel 9). For a four-year period, KSHB aired most Kansas City Chiefs games as part of the NFL on NBC, which covered the American Football Conference. KSHB lost these rights to KCTV in 1998 when the AFC package moved to CBS.

Scripps Howard began to manage KMCI (channel 38) in 1996, and moved KSHB's sitcoms to that station. From 2000 to 2003, KSHB also produced a 30-minute 9 p.m. newscast on KMCI; by the time it was canceled, the newscast was called 38 News Now and had completely differentiated itself from KSHB, using different graphics, different (and drastically smaller) set, and a different all-percussion theme.

News operation

KSHB-TV broadcasts a total of 32 hours of local news per week, with five hours on weekdays, four hours on Saturdays and 2½ hours on Sundays. KSHB is also one of ten television stations that air consumer reports from John Matarese of ABC affiliate (and sister station) WCPO in Cincinnati.

The station had already run news in various formats for years. In its KBMA days, UPI news updates would air over a 41 Newsbreak slide. The station did live news updates during prime time and 15 minutes of local news at 10 p.m. as 41 Express during the 1980s. In August 1993, KSHB began producing a 9 p.m. newscast called Fox 41 News at Nine, anchored by Jim Condelles and Pam Davis. The following year when KSHB picked up the NBC affiliation, it became 41 News; during which the newscasts started running at 5, 6, and 10 p.m. on weeknights, and 5 and 10 p.m. on weekends. In 1997, the station cancelled its 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts in favor of a pre-primetime newscast at 6:30 p.m.; that newscast was dropped in March 1999, and newscasts were reinstated at 5 and 6 p.m.

KSHB has since become a more news-intensive operation—to the point where the station currently brands itself as 41 Action News. The Action News branding, as a UHF owned by Scripps, is also shared with sister station WFTS in Tampa-St. Petersburg and WXYZ-TV in Detroit; both of which are ABC affiliates. But in the case of the Kansas City market, KSHB is the second station to use the branding — dating from when WDAF used it for its news branding back when it was an NBC affiliate. The Action News branding was originally adopted in 2003 under the name NBC Action News for both general entertainment programming and newscasts, the on-air branding was changed (with very little promotion) to 41 Action News on February 5, 2012 beginning with its 10 p.m. newscast (following NBC's coverage of Super Bowl XLVI) after the station realized that most viewers still referred to KSHB as "channel 41."

In September 2005, KSHB started its mid-morning chat program, Kansas City Live. This show is similar to Kansas City Today which aired on the station in the late 1990s, and AM Live which aired in the 1980s. The show was cancelled in early 2008, replaced with a late-morning newscast at 11 a.m. KSHB began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition on April 24, 2008, starting with its 11 a.m. newscast, becoming the second station in the Kansas City market (behind KMBC channel 9) to switch to HD. The new high definition set was unveiled on August 8, 2008. In November 2009, KSHB-TV introduced a new red and brown graphics package and new news theme on its newscasts, a standardized package produced by a graphics hub based out of sister station WFTS-TV in Tampa that is now utilized on most Scripps-owned stations.

On February 6, 2010, it was announced that KSHB's assistant news director and general manager would both be resigning from the station. The assistant news director would move to WFTX-TV in Cape Coral, Florida to become the station's new news director (the fifth in seven years at the station). The station's general manager announced that he would be taking an early retirement, thus the reason for his resignation. He had been associated with the station for 15 years and officially stepped down on March 5, 2010. On February 25, 2010, KSHB's new general manager was announced.

On August 19, 2010 KSHB management announced that it was adding an additional four hours of newscasts to its lineup; this included re-expanding morning newscast to a 4:30 a.m. start time on August 23 (at one point, the morning newscast began straight at 4 a.m.), extending their Saturday morning newscast from one hour from 8-9 a.m. to two hours from 8-10 a.m. on September 4, and adding an hour-long Saturday evening 6 p.m. newscast on that same date. It was also announced that former WDAF-TV sports director Frank Boal would be joining the station for the stations football season coverage. Boal had announced in 2009 that he was retiring. This too, sparked some little controversy. On August 29, 2011, KSHB debut a half-hour 4:30 p.m. newscast, the newscast will utilize social media platforms to allow viewers to interact with the newscast. On August 1, 2011, KSHB began rebroadcasting its 11 a.m. midday newscast on sister station KMCI at noon on weekdays. Starting April 8, 2013, an additional newscast will be added at 4 p.m., giving the station 90 minutes of local news leading up to the network news at 5:30 p.m.

Ratings

Although KSHB's newscast ratings are generally lower than WDAF, KCTV (channel 5) and KMBC-TV (and NBC's ratings have been lower than ABC, CBS and Fox for the past several years), the station has seen some slow growth in the last several years. In fact, KSHB is now solidly the number two station at 5 and 6 p.m., and seems to have risen to 3rd in the morning at 6 a.m. However given NBC's very poor performance in primetime, its late night newscast at 10 p.m. still struggles and they consistently come in 4th, and also a close third. To show how close they are to third, KSHB is in a battle of sorts with WDAF for the 3rd place spot.

In the recent July 2011 sweeps period, KSHB placed second during the 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts, 3rd at 10 p.m. and last (still again) in the mornings.. This is a significant improvement over the past several years though however. In the mornings the station was placed dead last with a 1.8 rating 7 share. Though that was not far behind from that of KCTV which only had a 1.9 rating and still a 7 share. The station placed second behind KMBC with a 5.2 rating and 11 share. KMBC on the other hand had a 6.7/13 rating. At 6pm the gap was bigger with a 5.8/11 rating compared to an 8.1/15 rating of that of KMBC. At 10pm though however, they still finished third with a 5.4 rating and 9 share.

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

• 41 News Update (1981–1985)
• 41 Express (1985–1988)
• KSHB TV-41 Newsbreak (1988–1991)
• Fox 41 News at Nine (1993–1994)
• 41 News (1994–1999)
• NBC 41 News (1999–2003)
• NBC Action News (2003–2012)
• 41 Action News (2012–present)

Station slogans

• "Kansas City's 41" (1980s)
• "Entertainment Around the Clock" (1992)
• "It's NBC on 41" (1994)
• "The Answers You're Looking For" (1996–1999)
• "Kansas City's In-Depth News" (1999–2003)
• "Your Source for Breaking News" (2003–2005)
• "Complete Coverage" (2005–2008; news slogan)
• "Stand Up and Tell 'em You're from KC" (2005; used in image campaign using Frank Gari's "Turn To...")
• "Always On" (2005–2008; general slogan)
• "Kansas City's Breaking News Leader" (2008–present)
• "Kansas City's Weather Leader" (weather slogan; 2008–present)

This list related to film, television, or video is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items.

News team

Anchors

• Jadiann Thompson - weeknights at 6:00 p.m.
• Mark Clegg - weeknights at 4:00, 5:00, 6:00 and 10:00 p.m.
• Christa Dubill - weekdays at 4:00 and weeknights at 5:00 and 10:00 p.m.
• TBD - weekday mornings on 41 Action News Today (4:30-7:00 a.m.)
• Amy Hawley - Saturdays at 6:00 and weekends at 5:00 and 10:00 p.m.; also weeknight reporter
• Cynthia Newsome - weekdays at 11:00 a.m.
• JiaoJiao Shen - weekday mornings on 41 Action News Today (4:30-7:00 a.m.); also reporter
• Lindsay Shively - weekend mornings on 41 Action News Today (8:00-9:00 weekends and 9:00-10:00 a.m. Saturdays); also general assignment reporter / multimedia journalist

41 Action Weather Plus

• Gary Lezak (AMS Seal of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weekdays at 4:00 and weeknights at 5:00, 6:00 and 10:00 p.m.
• Brett Anthony (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - meteorologist; weekday mornings on 41 Action News Today (4:30-7:00) and weekdays at 11:00 a.m.
• Kalee Dionne - meteorologist; weekend mornings on 41 Action News Today (8:00-9:00 weekends and 9:00-10:00 a.m. Saturdays) and Saturdays at 6:00 and weekends at 5:00 and 10:00 p.m.
• Jeff Penner (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; fill-in, also weather producer

41 Action Sports

• Jack Harry - sports director; weeknights at 5:00, 6:00 and 10:00 p.m. (formerly sports director at KCTV)
• Lance Veeser - sports anchor; Saturdays at 6:00 and weekends at 5:00 and 10:00 p.m.; also sports reporter
• Frank Boal - sports contributor/analyst and fill-in sports anchor (formerly sports director at WDAF-TV)
• Justin Unell - sports reporter; also fill-in sports anchor

Reporters

• Lisa Benson - weeknight reporter at 5:00, 6:00 and 10:00 p.m.
• Marissa Cleaver - general assignment reporter
• Ryan Kath - general assignment and investigative reporter
• Keith King - investigative reporter
• John Matarese - consumer reporter (based out of WCPO in Cincinnati)
• Christina Medina - general assignment reporter
• Jake Peterson - general assignment reporter
• Syed Shabbir - general assignment reporter
• Zach Tecklenburg - general assignment reporter
• Beth Vaughn - general assignment reporter

Gary Lezak was seen with Windy, the weather dog, in an episode of Animal Planet's K-9 to 5.

References

1. DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds
2. KC TV stations will delay digital-only switch, Kansas City Business Journal, February 6, 2009.
3. Fox Broadcasting Co. reaches affiliate agreements with 79 TV stations to exclusively broadcast offered programming, PR Newswire (via HighBeam Research), August 4, 1986.
4. THE MEDIA BUSINESS; Scripps Deal With NBC, The New York Times, August 1, 1994.
5. Scripps to Run TV Station in Lawrence, Kan., The Cincinnati Post (via HighBeam Research), March 28, 1996.
6. Starting from scratch: in the wake of sales and affiliation changes, stations face the challenge of creating a news department, Broadcasting & Cable (via HighBeam Research), September 4, 1995.
7. Kansas City reshuffle, Broadcasting & Cable (via HighBeam Research), March 8, 1999.
8. KSHB Re-Brands Itself
9. Dickson, Glen. "Scripps' Graphics Overhaul.", Broadcasting & Cable, February 9, 2009. HighBeam Research, February 16, 2011.
11. Local News Periods Keep Expanding in Kansas City
13. KSHB 41 News Open (2010)
14. Meet the Team, KSHB.com.
15. Weather - 41 Action News KSHB-TV 41, KSHB.com

External links

• KSHB-TV "41 Action News"
• Template:TVQ
• Template:BIA

• Television stations in the Kansas City metropolitan area
• Television stations in Missouri
• Television stations in Kansas
• NBC network affiliates
• E.W. Scripps television stations
• Channel 42 digital TV stations in the United States
• Channel 41 virtual TV stations in the United States
• Television channels and stations established in 1970
• National Hockey League over-the-air television broadcasters
• Major League Baseball over-the-air television broadcasters