Branding KMOS | ||
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Slogan Engage, Educate, Entertain. | ||
KMOS-TV is a PBS member public television station in Sedalia, Missouri, owned and operated by the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg. Its studios are located in the Patton Broadcast Center on the UCM campus, while its transmitter is located in Syracuse, Missouri. Although Warrensburg and Sedalia are part of the Kansas City media market (in fact, Warrensburg is an outer-ring suburb of Kansas City), KMOS serves as the PBS member station for the Columbia/Jefferson City market. One consequence is that KMOS cannot be seen on DirecTV or Dish Network in its own city; KCPT is the sole PBS station uplinked on the Kansas City feed. However, it is carried on Charter Cable systems in Warrensburg as one of three Mid-Missouri stations provided.
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Until February 17, 2009, KMOS also competed with KETC, the St. Louis PBS member station, on Mediacom cable systems in the market. KETC has since been dropped from Mediacom's systems in Columbia and Jefferson City as of February 17, leaving KMOS to be the sole PBS station in these places.
History
KMOS-TV signed-on July 8, 1954 as KDRO-TV, owned by Milt Hinlein along with KDRO radio. The calls came from the Drolich brothers, the radio station's original owners. The station was originally an independent.
KDRO-TV went through several partial changes in ownership in the late 1950s. In July 1955, Deare Publications, publisher of the "Sedalia Democrat" newspaper, purchased 50% of KDRO-AM-TV from Hinlein. In July 1957, Jimmy Glenn and Herb Brandes purchased 2/3 interest in KDRO Radio. Hinlein became the sole owner of KDRO-TV as Deare Publications became the owner of the KDRO studio properties.
In November 1957, Hinlein sold one-half interest in KDRO-TV to several station employees, who took over the operation of the station. On July 20, 1958, KDRO-TV became an ABC affiliate. ABC refused to give it a network feed to protect the rights of Kansas City's main ABC affiliate, KMBC-TV. Station engineers switched to and from KMBC-TV's signal whenever ABC network programming was on the air.
Cook Paint and Varnish Company, owner of KMBC-TV, bought KDRO-TV on January 28, 1959 and changed the call letters to the current KMOS-TV. It then became a full-time satellite of KMBC-TV. The station had always found the going difficult due to a limited viewer base, and becoming a full satellite of KMBC-TV ensured its survival.
In July 1961, Cook Paint sold KMBC-TV to Metropolitan Broadcasting (later called Metromedia). Metropolitan Broadcasting did not want KMOS, so it sold channel 6 to the Jefferson City News Tribune, owner of Mid-Missouri's CBS affiliate, KRCG. KMOS then became a semi-satellite of KRCG. It simulcast KRCG for most of the day, but maintained a studio of its own in Sedalia and would break away from KRCG for its own evening newscast at 6 and 10 pm. In July 1966, KMOS and KRCG were sold to Kansas City Southern Industries, the parent company of the Kansas City Southern Railroad.
By the mid-1960s, Mid-Missouri was just barely large enough for three full network affiliates. However, KRCG and NBC affiliate KOMU-TV in Columbia were the only VHF network affiliates in the Columbia/Jefferson City market, and wanted to keep it that way. With this in mind, KRCG operated KMOS at a fairly low power level, and turned down all offers to sell it to another commercial owner, not wanting to chance on the new owner making KMOS a full-power ABC affiliate. The area did not have a full-time ABC affiliate until Columbia's KCBJ-TV (now KMIZ) signed-on in 1971.
In 1978, Kansas City Southern Industries donated KMOS to Central Missouri State University (now the University of Central Missouri), who converted the station into a stand-alone PBS affiliate. Previously, Columbia/Jefferson City had been one of the few areas of Missouri without its own PBS member station. Most cable systems in the market piped in KETC, while the western part of the market could also get a grade B signal from KCPT. Central took control of KMOS on August 15, 1978 and took it off the air for 16 months to give it a significant technical overhaul. It returned to the air on December 22, 1979 from new studios in Warrensburg. After relinquishing KMOS, KRCG started a translator station in Sedalia, K11OJ.
The KMOS transmitter has an effective radiated power of 100 kW for its channel 6 frequency, but 322 kW for its digital channel (corresponding to the bandwidth of channel 15), with similar height above average terrain for both transmitters (about 602 to 603 m above sea level).
Digital channels
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
Analog-to-digital conversion
KMOS-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 6, on April 2, 2009. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 15. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 6.
Local programs
Broadcast tower
In April 2003, opening ceremonies were conducted for the station's new digital broadcasting and transmitter facility in Syracuse, Missouri, located about fifty miles from Warrensburg, and includes a 2000-foot (609 m) guyed mast, the KMOS TV Tower (also called a Rohn tower). It was built 2001/2002 and was inaugurated on April 24, 2003. The KMOS TV Tower weighs 1 million pounds. It is put together by 18000 bolts. The tower is the tallest structure in Missouri and one of the tallest structures in the world—more than three times the height of the Gateway Arch. The tower is 0.2 metres (0.66 ft) higher than the previous record holder KYTV (TV) in Springfield, Missouri.
Awards
2007
Silver Telly - Jerry Adams Outdoors
Bronze Telly - SPORTSPAGE
Bronze Telly -First United Methodist Church
CASE Circle of Excellence Awards Gold Medal - Institution-Wide Branding Programs, University of Central Missouri
CASE District VI Grand Gold - Excellence in Multimedia, Confidence
CASE District VI Silver - Excellence in Writing, CMSU Traditions
Davey - UCM Traditions History/Biography
Davey - UCM Traditions Corporate Image
Davey - Jerry Adams Outdoors
Davey - Jerry Adams Outdoors Kiss The Fish promo Editing
Davey - Jerry Adams Outdoors Kiss The Fish promo
2008
Bronze Telly - Jerry Adams Outdoors, Kids Fishing Promo, editing
Bronze Telly - Show Me Ag Wind Turbine Segment
Bronze Telly - Jerry Adams Outdoors
Bronze Telly - Veterans History Project Promotion
Communicator - KMOS Kids Club
Communicator - Jerry Adams Outdoors Kiss the Fish Promotion
Mid-America Emmy nomination specialty program Jerry Adams Outdoors
MBA Award Public Service Announcement or Campaign - Veterans History Project
2009
MBA Award Certificate of Merit Station Sponsored Community Event - Chocolate Enchantment
2010
MBA Award Certificate of Merit Specialty Program - Cooking with Giuliano
NETA Award My Source: The Bacon Brothers – Michael’s Revenge
2011
NETA Award Jerry Adams Outdoors - Kiss The Fish Again
2012
NETA Award KMOS Kids Day: Promotion Special Events
NETA Award KMOS Kids Day: Community Engagement based on a Local Project
2013
MBA Award Certificate of Merit Children's Programming - PBS Kids Go! Writers Contest
2014
MBA Award Children's Programming - Season to Season Outdoors
NETA Award National Churchill Museum