KPLR-TV
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St. Louis, Missouri United States |
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| Branding | KPLR 11 (general) News 11 (newscasts) |
| Slogan |
The "Ones" To Watch (general) The "Ones" For News (news) |
| Channels |
Digital: 26 (UHF) Virtual: 11 () |
| Affiliations | |
| Owner |
Tribune Broadcasting (KPLR, Inc.) |
| First air date | April 28, 1959 |
| Call letters' meaning |
Harold KoPLaR (station founder) |
| Sister station(s) | KTVI |
| Former channel number(s) |
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| Former affiliations |
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| Transmitter power | 1000 kW |
| Height | 288 m |
| Facility ID | 35417 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 38°34′24″N 90°19′30″W / 38.57333°N 90.32500°WCoordinates: 38°34′24″N 90°19′30″W / 38.57333°N 90.32500°W |
| Licensing authority | FCC |
| Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
| Website | kplr11.com |
KPLR-TV, virtual channel 11 (UHF digital channel 26), is a CW-affiliated television station located in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. The station is owned by the Tribune Broadcasting subsidiary of Tribune Media, as part of a duopoly with Fox affiliate KTVI (channel 2). The two stations share studio facilities located on Ball Drive in the northwestern St. Louis County community of Maryland Heights (though with a St. Louis city address), KPLR's transmitter is located in Lemay.
The station first signed on the air on April 28, 1959, as the first independent station in Missouri. The station's call letters were derived from the name of its founding owner, St. Louis real estate developer and hotelier Harold Koplar. Despite losing in his quest to build the station from the ground up, Koplar acquired the station's license in 1958 through controversial circumstances.
CBS was originally granted a construction permit by the Federal Communications Commission to build channel 11 in January 1957, prevailing over three other locally based competitors. But eight months later, CBS decided instead to purchase its existing St. Louis affiliate, KWK-TV (channel 4). As a condition of the channel 4 purchase, the FCC required CBS to relinquish the channel 11 license and construction permit. CBS did so by transferring it to the Koplar group, known as "220 Television, Incorporated", for no financial consideration. Almost immediately, the three-way deal was held up after the St. Louis Amusement Company, one of the original applicants for channel 11, protested to the United States Court of Appeals in January 1958. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately upheld the decision in November 1958, but CBS had already consummated its deal for channel 4 several months earlier, changing the station's call letters to KMOX-TV – which were intended for channel 11 – and operated it for 28 years (it is now Meredith Corporation-owned KMOV). Meanwhile, Koplar went to work building channel 11 on its own, no longer in the face of opposition.
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