KOLR

KOLR-TV

Springfield, Missouri United States
City of license	Springfield, Missouri
Branding	KOLR 10 (general) KOLR 10 News (newscasts)
Slogan	Ozarks First.
Channels	Digital: 10 (VHF) Virtual: 10 (PSIP)
Subchannels	10.1 CBS
Affiliations	CBS
Owner	Mission Broadcasting (Mission Broadcasting, Inc.)
Operator	Nexstar Broadcasting Group
First air date	March 14, 1953
Call letters' meaning	KOLoR (pronounced "color" as in color television)
Sister station(s)	KOZL-TV
Former callsigns	KTTS-TV (1953–1970)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 10 (VHF, 1953–2009) Digital: 52 (UHF, –2009)
Former affiliations	Secondary: DuMont (1953–1955) ABC (1953–1967)
Transmitter power	26 kW
Height	631 m
Facility ID	28496
Transmitter coordinates
Licensing authority	FCC
Public license information:	Profile CDBS
Website	www.ozarksfirst.com

KOLR, virtual and VHF digital channel 10, is a CBS-affiliated television station located in Springfield, Missouri, United States. The station is owned by Mission Broadcasting; the Nexstar Broadcasting Group, which owns MyNetworkTV affiliate KOZL-TV (channel 27) operates KOLR under a shared services agreement. The two stations share studio facilities located on East Division Street in Springfield; KOLR maintains transmitter facilities located on Switchgrass Road north of Fordland. On cable, the station is available on Mediacom channel 9.

History

The station first signed on the air on March 14, 1953 as KTTS-TV; it was founded by the Independent Broadcasting Company, owners of KTTS radio (1400 AM, now KSGF on AM 1260, and 94.7 FM). Channel 10 originally operated from studio facilities located downtown, on the southwest corner of Walnut and Jefferson Streets in the Springfield Chamber of Commerce building. The station has been a CBS affiliate since its sign-on; however, it also carried a secondary affiliation with ABC, which was shared with primary NBC affiliate KYTV (channel 3) until KMTC (channel 27, now KOZL-TV) signed on in 1968.

The station changed its call letters to KOLR-TV in 1970 (the "-TV" suffix was dropped from the calls in 1985). At 2,000 feet (610 m) high, the station's transmission tower is the second tallest in the United States, only 19.2 meters lower than the highest. The radio stations were sold to Wichita, Kansas-based Great Empire Broadcasting in 1972.

In 1998, Independent Broadcasting was sold to another entity, which entered into a shared services agreement with Woods Communications, owner of Fox affiliate KDEB. This combined entity was later purchased by Quorum Broadcasting. On December 31, 2003, Quorum merged with the Irving, Texas-based Nexstar Broadcasting Group; as the Springfield market did not have enough television stations to permit a legal duopoly, KOLR was sold to Brecksville, Ohio-based Mission Broadcasting. This arrangement also placed KDEB-TV in the unusual position of being the senior partner as a Fox-affiliated station in a virtual duopoly with a CBS affiliate (most virtual or legal duopolies involving a Fox affiliate and a Big Three-affiliated station result in the Fox affiliate serving as the junior partner); to this day, since channel 27 lost its Fox affiliation in September 2011, it is the only duopoly (virtual or legal) in existence involving a "Big Three" station in which an independent station serves as the senior partner.

Digital television

Digital channel

Channel	Video	Aspect	PSIP Short Name	Programming
10.1	1080i	16:9	KOLR-DT	Main KOLR programming / CBS

Analog-to-digital conversion

KOLR signed on its digital signal at full power and began broadcasting network programming in high definition on January 19, 2007. The station discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 10, on April 16, 2009. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 52, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to its analog-era VHF channel 10. The station's analog transmitter operated at an effective radiated power of 316 kilowatts, the highest allowed for a VHF Band III transmitter. Some viewers had trouble picking up KOLR's signal after its switch to digital-only broadcasts, a situation which continues to this day, even after engineers installed FM traps in-between the antenna and AMP.

Programming

KOLR broadcasts the entire CBS network schedule; however, it splits Face the Nation into two half-hour blocks: the first half-hour airs in pattern on Sunday mornings, while the second half-hour is tape delayed to air on early Monday mornings before Up to the Minute. It is also one of the few CBS affiliates in the Central Time Zone that airs the soap opera The Young and the Restless at 11:30 a.m.; most prefer to air it at 11:00 a.m. as a lead-in to their midday newscasts (although KOLR schedules its midday newscasts before Y&R at 11:00 a.m.). Syndicated programs broadcast by KOLR include The Insider, Judge Judy, Leverage, Inside Edition, and Entertainment Tonight. All of the programs mentioned are distributed by CBS' corporate cousin.

News operation

KOLR presently broadcasts 21 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 4½ hours on weekdays and a half-hour each on Saturdays and Sundays); unlike most CBS affiliates, KOLR does not broadcast early evening newscasts on weekends. During weather segments, the station uses live NOAA National Weather Service radar data from several regional sites, which is branded on-air as "Live Digital Doppler". KOLR also operates a news bureau in downtown Branson on West Main Street, which opened in June 2013.

KOLR had the longest-running evening anchor team in the Ozarks. In March 2010, KOLR became the second television station in the Springfield market and the first Nexstar-owned duopoly (legal or virtual) to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in widescreen standard definition. In May 2011, channel 10 became the third station in the market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition; in both instances, the KSFX newscasts were included in the upgrade.

Notable former on-air staff

• Bob Barker (later host of The Price Is Right)
• Sean Cronin - weather anchor/reporter

External links

• OzarksFirst.com - KOLR/KOZL-TV official website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KOLR
• KTTS-TV - Springfield History Museum