KSTU, channel 13, is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the Salt Lake City designated market area. The station is owned by Local TV LLC, the media arm of private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, and its transmitter located on Farnsworth Peak, southwest of Salt Lake City. The station broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 28, using its former analog assignment of channel 13 as its virtual digital channel via PSIP, and is rebroadcast statewide through a network of translator stations.

Syndicated programming on KSTU includes King of the Hill, Judge Judy, Family Guy, Seinfeld, and 30 Rock, among other shows.

History[link]

As an independent[link]

KSTU began operation on October 9, 1978 under the ownership of Massachusetts-based Springfield Television, who also owned NBC affiliate WWLP in Springfield, Massachusetts and ABC affiliate WKEF in Dayton, Ohio. It was the first independent station in Utah, as well as the first new commercial station to sign on in the area since KUTV hit the airwaves 24 years earlier. While Salt Lake City had been big enough for an independent station since the 1960s, the difficulty of building translators in order to cover a market that spilled across parts of three states scared potential investors off until the 1970s. 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 programming 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.

A new license[link]

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. It also returned the channel 20 license to the FCC on the same day. As a result, the FCC reckons the current KSTU as a separate station from the old channel 20. 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, Mountain West sold its interest in KSTU to Northstar. The station was known as "FOX13" by 1989.

Fox takes over[link]

Northstar sold KSTU to Fox the next year, making it a Fox-O&O (owned-and-operated) station. 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 1992, 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 Times New Roman "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. Fox 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. The sale was closed on July 14, 2008.

Digital television[link]

The station's digital signal is multiplexed. KSTU became a charter affiliate of Tribune Broadcasting's Antenna TV upon its launch on January 1, 2011, carried on digital subchannel 13.2.^[3]

Analog-to-digital transition[link]

On June 12, 2009, KSTU ended analog broadcasts and began to transmit exclusively digitally. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition digital channel 28; though through the use of PSIP, the station uses its former analog channel assignment of VHF channel 13 as its virtual channel.^[4]

News operation[link]

This section requires expansion.

KSTU broadcasts a total of 36 hours of local news a week (seven hours on weekdays, and 2½ hours each on Saturdays and Sundays); however as is standard with Fox stations that carry early evening weekend newscasts, KSTU's Saturday and Sunday 5PM newscasts are subject to preemption due to sports coverage.

In August 2008, KSTU entered into a strategic alliance with news/talk radio station KNRS (105.7 FM). KSTU meteorologists provide weather reports to KNRS, while KSTU reporters are often heard during KNRS newscasts and talk shows.

On August 17, 2009 the station extended its midday newscast to 90 minutes by adding a half-hour newscast at noon, following its existing hour-long 11 a.m. newscast.^[5] On January 23, 2010 the station added a 90-minute weekend morning newscast from 7:30-9 a.m., the first such weekend morning newscast since CBS affiliate KUTV (channel 2) dropped their weekend morning newscast less than a year earlier.^[6]

On April 23, 2012, KSTU became the last major network affiliated station in Utah to upgrade to high definition newscasts.^[7]

News/Station presentation[link]

Newscast titles[link]

• FOX 13 News (1992-present)

Station slogans[link]

• Don't Let Fox 13 Weekends Pass You By (1987-1988; localized version of Fox ad campaign)
• Just You Watch The Best (2007-present)

Station branding[link]

• TV-20 (1978-1986)
• FOX 20 (1986-1987)
• FOX 13 (1987-present)

This film, television or video-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it with reliably sourced additions.

Personalities[link]

[edit] Current on-air staff^[8]

Anchors[link]

• Kelly Chapman - weekend mornings Good Day Utah; also reporter
• Kerri Cronk – weekday mornings Good Day Utah (6-9 a.m.), and weekdays at 11 a.m. and noon
• Nineveh Dinha – weekends at 5 and 9 p.m.; also reporter
• Bob Evans – weeknights at 5 and 9 p.m.
• Dan Evans – weekday mornings Good Day Utah (6-9 a.m.), and weekdays at 11 a.m. and noon
• Max Roth – weekends at 5 and 9 p.m.; also reporter
• Tamara Vaifanua – weekend mornings Good Day Utah; also reporter
• Hope Woodside – weeknights at 5 and 9 p.m.

Sports team[link]

• Rick Aaron – sports director; weeknights at 5 and 9 p.m.
• Jeff Rhineer – sports anchor; weekends at 5 and 9 p.m., also sports reporter
• Jer Bates - sports anchor; fill-in, also sports reporter
• Mike Runge – sports anchor; fill-in (formerly sports director)

Reporters[link]

• Big Budah – weekday morning feature reporter
• Kimberley Houk - general assignment reporter
• Scott McKane – general assignment reporter
• Ben Winslow – general assignment reporter

Former on-air staff[link]

• Nick Clooney – anchor
• Brad Giffen - co-anchor (currently at CFTO-TV and CTV News Channel)
• Megan Henderson

Translators[link]

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.

External links[link]

• 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

References[link]