KMOV (channels 4 and 32), branded as First Alert 4, is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, affiliated with CBS and ABC. It is owned by Gray Media alongside KDTL-LD (channel 32.2), a sports-oriented independent station. Both stations broadcast from studios on Progress Parkway in suburban Maryland Heights and share transmitter facilities in Lemay, Missouri.
Channel 4 in St. Louis was built by radio station KWK and began broadcasting on July 8, 1954, as KWK-TV. Its construction culminated six years of legal activity—prolonged by a federal freeze on new stations—and a contested battle to bring the city its second very high frequency (VHF) station. Operating from studios in the Globe-Democrat Tower Building, KWK-TV's early history was precarious. CBS at the time was fighting to build its own station in St. Louis, which could have left KWK-TV without network programming. Even though CBS won the construction permit for channel 11 in 1957, it opted to speed up its arrival into the market by instead buying KWK-TV. When CBS took over channel 4 on March 16, 1958, the station changed call signs to KMOX-TV, after CBS-owned KMOX radio. KMOX-TV was one of the network's five owned-and-operated stations. In 1968, KMOX radio and television moved to the new Gateway Tower in downtown St. Louis.
KMOX-TV led local news in the market in the late 1950s and early 1960s but fell behind KSD-TV (channel 5, now KSDK) in the ratings. This changed beginning in 1973, when—under general manager Tom Battista—KMOX-TV revamped its newscast with younger, more attractive personalities to attract a female audience. At the same time, KMOX-TV became the first station in the world to move to entirely electronic news gathering, ceasing the then-standard and time-intensive use of film to record news footage. In 1975, it was the first local station to feature a Black weeknight anchor, Julius Hunter. The station became competitive again and, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, became the most-watched news station in St. Louis. However, a retooled KSDK with popular entertainment programs took the lead back from KMOX-TV beginning in early 1984.
After incurring debt to fend off a hostile takeover by Ted Turner, CBS sold KMOX-TV to Viacom in 1986, and the station was renamed KMOV. Viacom slimmed down the operation and increased profits, partly through increased preemptions of network programming. While KMOV was able to fend off a challenge from KTVI (channel 2), whose news operation was at that time troubled, it was never able to move past KSDK for first in the St. Louis news ratings. In 1989, KMOV initiated hourly news updates throughout the day, a concept that for a time proved popular with local TV stations across the country.
Viacom merged with Paramount in 1994, then traded KMOV to the Belo Corporation in 1997 in exchange for a station in Seattle. Under Belo, KMOV strengthened; though unable to consistently catch KSDK in the late news ratings, the station became one of the highest-rated CBS affiliates for news in a major market. A 2007 series on schools in East St. Louis, Illinois, won the station its only Peabody Award. Belo sold itself to KSDK owner Gannett, prompting KMOV to be spun off to the Meredith Corporation. After seven years of Meredith ownership, Gray acquired KMOV in 2021. It moved the station from downtown St. Louis to Maryland Heights, rebranded it as First Alert 4, and introduced Matrix Midwest over KDTL-LD. On September 1, 2026, a subchannel of KMOV replaced KDNL-TV as the St. Louis market's ABC affiliate.
KWK-TV: Construction and early years On February 12, 1948, Thomas Patrick, Incorporated, filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking a construction permit to build a television station on channel 9 in St. Louis. The firm was the owner of St. Louis radio station KWK. In 1948, St. Louis had one operating television station—KSD-TV (channel 5, now KSDK)—and seven different applicants seeking the remaining four channels then allocated to the city. The field was deep, including the St. Louis Star-Times and its station KXOK; the St. Louis Globe-Democrat; WEW, then owned by Saint Louis University; 20th Century Fox; and the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, owner of KFUO. This field of applicants was forced to wait when the FCC, in October 1948, imposed a freeze on new TV station grants to sort out possible changes to television broadcast standards. During the freeze, the Globe-Democrat purchased a stake in KWK and abandoned its application for channel 13. KWK then moved into the new Globe-Democrat Tower Building at 12th Avenue and Cole Street, which had space set aside for a future television operation including a studio and room for a transmitter.
The freeze ended in April 1952, and St. Louis was allocated three very high frequency (VHF) channels in addition to channel 5. One, channel 9, was now reserved non-commercial educational. The other allocations were channels 4 and 11. KXOK and KWK filed for channel 4, along with several new entrants. The Meredith Engineering Company, a subsidiary of the Des Moines, Iowa–based Meredith Publishing Company, entered in August, followed by CBS—operator of KMOX radio in St. Louis—in October. A fifth firm, the Missouri Valley Television Company, filed in March 1953. It was headed by Stanley E. Hubbard of St. Paul, Minnesota, owner of that city's KSTP radio and television, and counted 38 St. Louis residents among its stockholders. Meredith dropped its application in April 1953, and CBS amended its application in October 1953 to specify channel 11 instead of channel 4.
KWK, KXOK, and Missouri Valley Television headed toward a comparative hearing to decide who would be awarded channel 4. Arguments were scheduled to begin in the hearing on March 29, 1954, though this was later postponed. It never reached a hearing. On April 9, 1954, the parties reached an agreement to settle the case, granting KWK the channel and the other parties ownership options in the TV station. WTVI (channel 54) of Belleville, Illinois, an ultra high frequency (UHF) station, contested the grant but was unsuccessful in preventing the FCC from issuing the construction permit. KWK came into the television venture with preparation and resources. It had spent six months training personnel in television, already had purchased much of the studio equipment, already had a tower, and had a transmitter on order. The FM antenna on the Globe-Democrat Tower was removed in preparation for the tower to be extended to and the antenna for channel 4 to be installed. WTVI and another UHF outlet, KSTM-TV (channel 36), sought court stays of the construction permit and were denied.
KWK-TV began broadcasting on July 8, 1954. St. Louis finally had two VHF television stations, seven years after KSD-TV went on the air, and four in total including KSTM-TV and WTVI. Its first night's telecasting included a preview of CBS programs, three films, and a newscast.
In addition to CBS programming, KWK-TV offered a variety of local shows. Some came from KWK radio's disc jockeys, such as the game show Recallit and Win hosted by Tom Dailey and programs hosted by Ed Wilson and Gil Newsome. The station also offered local news, public affairs, and public service programming. A high school quiz bowl show, High School Quiz, aired on TV and radio. The country music program Western Jamboree debuted in early 1955.
KWK-TV's affiliation with CBS was designed to be temporary. Its affiliation contract stipulated that the network could move elsewhere subject to a 60-day notice. CBS programs moved from KSD-TV and WTVI to the new station. KWK-TV also aired some programs from the ABC network. WTVI assumed KSTM-TV's frequency after that station went off the air and moved to St. Louis in 1955 as KTVI, which moved to VHF channel 2 in April 1957.
KMOX-TV: As a CBS owned-and-operated station While KWK-TV was telecasting, CBS was in the lead in the channel 11 contest. An FCC examiner favored the network in an initial decision released in September 1955. In a 4–3 decision, the FCC granted CBS the channel 11 construction permit in March 1957. CBS intended to be on the air with KMOX-TV within four months from interim studios and have the new station's permanent facility, to be designed by Minoru Yamasaki, complete by the end of 1958. By August 1957, CBS's proposed start date for channel 11 had been pushed back to early 1958. As a result, CBS began looking into buying KWK-TV and handing the channel 11 permit to one of the competing applicants. The deal was confirmed in September 1957. CBS spent $4 million—$2.5 million for KWK-TV's television assets and $1.5 million for the studios owned by the Globe-Democrat—to buy channel 4. Channel 11 was assigned to 220 Television, one of the losing applicants, with two other competitors being paid $200,000 to drop out. The FCC approved the KWK-TV purchase in October.
CBS's simultaneous sale of the channel 11 permit and purchase of KWK-TV came under some scrutiny after the fact. A U.S. House subcommittee criticized CBS's move as "circumvention" of the FCC's applicant selection process, given that the commission had just favored CBS over 220 Television. The then-president of the Globe-Democrat told a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1958 that there was concern that if CBS got channel 11 and KTVI and ABC moved to channel 2, KWK-TV might find itself without network affiliation. St. Louis Amusement Company, a losing applicant in the channel 11 battle, alleged that Tex McCrary engaged in illegal ex parte communications with FCC commissioners as a representative for CBS president William S. Paley.
CBS assumed control of KWK-TV on March 1, 1958, and changed its call sign to KMOX-TV on March 16. Coinciding with the call sign change, CBS overhauled the station's programming, extending morning broadcasting and adding several CBS shows previously unseen in St. Louis to the channel 4 lineup. Among the local additions was Eye on St. Louis, a nightly public affairs program. CBS announced it would build a new transmitter facility for KMOX-TV, which began use in March 1959. The structure in Lemay was also used to telecast channel 11, which began the following April as KPLR-TV.
The 10 p.m. newscast, heretofore 15 minutes, expanded to a full half-hour in 1963. However, the station slipped in the ratings after anchor Spencer Allen left the next year to head the news department at KTVI. With Allen gone, KSD-TV surpassed KMOX-TV as the news leader in St. Louis. In 1967, Leon Drew arrived from KNXT in Los Angeles to serve as KMOX-TV's new general manager. Under Drew, the station bulked up its news staff to add coverage on weekends, with new hires including Pat Fontaine—returning to the station after a stint as the weather girl on Today—and Jim Hart, the quarterback of the St. Louis Cardinals football team, for sports commentary. Allen returned as editorialist, a position in which he continued until 1972. In 1970, KMOX-TV added a second early evening newscast, giving it half-hours at 5 and 6 p.m. on either side of the CBS Evening News.
In 1966, CBS partnered with Transurban Redevelopment Corporation to build a new office building at 3rd and Market streets in downtown St. Louis containing studios for KMOX radio and television, which had been in separate locations. KMOX-TV began moving into the Gateway Tower in July 1968. The TV station occupied the first two floors of the facility, containing two studios (one with room for a studio audience) and a computerized control room.
The Battista years: Newsroom and ENG