KNLC


KNLC, virtual channel 24, is a MeTV owned-and-operated television station licensed to St. Louis, Missouri, United States. The station is owned by Weigel Broadcasting. KNLC's transmitter is located near Hillsboro-House Springs Road in House Springs, Missouri.

History

Founded by Rev. Larry Rice, founder of the New Life Evangelistic Center, the station first signed on the air on September 12, 1982, making it the first new television station in the St. Louis market since KDNL-TV signed-on in 1969. Originally, KNLC maintained a schedule consisting entirely of religious programming, which included shows such as The 700 Club and The PTL Club, programs by televangelists Richard Roberts and Jimmy Swaggart, and locally produced religious shows. In September 1984, KNLC transitioned into a hybrid format similar to that offered by the independent stations owned at the time by the Christian Broadcasting Network, incorporating a selection of secular classic television series featuring sitcoms and westerns from the 1950s and early 1960s, many of which had not been airing in many other U.S. markets.
Unlike most religious/secular independents that aired a single daily block of family-oriented secular programs within their schedules, KNLC scheduled its secular shows in a hodgepodge manner in random short-form blocks. It initially carried secular programs from 7:00 to 7:30 and 9:00 to 10:30 a.m., 2:00 to 3:00, 5:00 to 6:00 and 9:00 to 9:30 p.m., with religious shows filling the remaining time slots during its broadcast day between 5:00 a.m. and 1:00 a.m. By the late 1980s, the station began mixing its religious and secular shows in a more consistent pattern, and expanded its syndicated offerings with the acquisition of several barter cartoons and recent sitcoms. The daytime schedule from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. featured a mixed format of secular and religious shows, though cartoons exclusively occupied the 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. time periods and classic sitcoms aired from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. In 1986, the New Life Evangelistic Center launched a second religious independent serving the Jefferson City market, KNLJ in New Bloomfield; the ministry would sell that station to the Christian Television Network in 2007.
KNLC was approached by the United Paramount Network to become that network's St. Louis charter affiliate in the runup to its January 1995 debut; however, the station turned its offer down, a move that led to UPN being unavailable over-the-air in the market for its first seven months of operation then beginning a succession of secondary affiliations with other network affiliates in the market, when it affiliated with ABC station KDNL-TV in August 1995. That month, KNLC took over to the local programming rights to Fox Kids. Longtime ABC affiliate KTVI —which switched to Fox on August 7 through an affiliation agreement with New World Communications—opted not to carry Fox's children's program block to accommodate expanded newscasts on weekday and weekend mornings, and syndicated programming on weekday afternoons; outgoing Fox station KDNL could not retain the block due to the station's newfound programming commitments to ABC. KNLC carried Fox Kids on weekdays from 7:00 to 8:00 a.m. and 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. as well as on Saturday mornings. The station also acquired more recent first-run and off-network syndicated programs around this time; however, its growth would not last.
By the spring of 1996, KNLC had refused to sell local advertising during the Fox Kids weekday and Saturday blocks amid internal objections to the content of the programs and the accompanying national advertising aired during its commercial breaks. Ad slots that would normally be allocated to local commercials were instead occupied by public service messages from Rev. Rice's ministry that discussed various controversial moral issues such as the death penalty, same-sex marriage and abortion, a move that was opposed by Fox network management, which felt that its children's programs were not the appropriate place for such subject matter to be discussed upon. The station also had an additional issue as its signal was virtually unviewable in some portions of the market, even on cable. Station management soon found itself overwhelmed with mail for the Fox Kids Club, which it inherited from KDNL. The St. Louis market boasted one of the largest Fox Kids Clubs in the country – second only to that operated by WBNX-TV in Cleveland, which aired Fox Kids programming despite being a WB affiliate.
Fox network officials felt increasing chagrin with Fox Kids programs airing on a conservative religious station, and pulled Fox Kids from KNLC in September 1996. The weekday afternoon and Saturday morning editions of the Fox Kids block moved to KTVI that fall, becoming New World Communications' only Fox-affiliated station to run the network's children's programs, where the block remained in its successor iterations until Fox ceased to offer children's programming in December 2008.
As children's programming on broadcast television had begun to decline and the more popular classic television shows had migrated to cable television, KNLC began to reduce its programming budget for the acquisition of secular shows. Nonetheless, KNLC chose to take on a part-time affiliation with UPN in May 1999, after KDNL disaffiliated from the network to focus on its ABC program offerings; however, channel 24 refused to carry several of the network's programs because of views by management that felt the network's series and advertisements were offensive. UPN eventually chose to move its programming to The WB affiliate KPLR-TV in September 2000, which carried its entire prime time schedule in late night.
KNLC also turned down an offer by Paxson Communications to affiliate KNLC with Pax TV, after KUMO-LP and its full-power parent station in Mount Vernon, Illinois, WPXS, disaffiliated from the network in 2004
On September 7, 2017, it was announced that KNLC was being sold to Weigel Broadcasting for $3.75 million; Weigel would convert KNLC to a secular independent station. The sale was completed on December 14, 2017. New Life retains control of one subchannel to carry their programming, on KNLC-DT2, known as "NLEC TV."
On February 1, 2018, MeTV moved from KMOV 4.2 to KNLC 24.1. This provided an HD feed over the air and also brought MeTV to satellite providers Dish Network and DirecTV for the first time in the St. Louis market.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP Short NameProgramming
24.1720pKNLC-HDMain KNLC programming / MeTV
24.2480iNLEC TVNLEC TV
24.3480i16:9HeroesHeroes & Icons
24.4480i16:9MoviesMovies!
24.5480i16:9DecadesDecades
24.6480i16:9StartTVStart TV

KNLC-DT2

KNLC launched a digital subchannel on virtual channel 24.2 on February 4, 2009, when it began carrying Renewable Energy Satellite, a 24-hour channel consisting of programs discussing various renewable energy methods. The subchannel was operated by Missouri Renewable Energy, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group associated with the New Life Evangelistic Center.

Analog-to-digital conversion

KNLC shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 24, on January 19, 2009, just over five months before the federally mandated June 12 transition to digital broadcasts for full-power television stations in the U.S. The station terminated its analog signal earlier than intended to accommodate the transition of CBS affiliate KMOV 's digital signal from its original assignment on UHF channel 56—an allocation that was among the higher tier of channels on that broadcast band designated for decommission from broadcasting use—to a permanent allocation on UHF channel 24. The station's digital signal continued to broadcasts from its pre-transition UHF channel 14. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 24.
In concurrence with the conversion arrangements, KNLC parent New Life Evangelistic Center partnered with KMOV to raise funds to purchase digital converter boxes for viewers living in low-income households around their shared viewing area.

Programming

Prior to Weigel's purchase, KNLC's programming schedule had consisted mostly of religious shows produced for local broadcast and syndication and provided by the Here's Help Network, along with a mix of public domain classic television shows and movies. As ownership transitioned, NLEC programming moved from 24.1 and displaced Renewable Energy Satellite on 24.2. Weigel put Heroes & Icons onto both 24.1 and 24.3. Subchannel 24.4 carries the Movies! network and 24.5 carries Decades. The remaining syndication contracts were nullified on February 1, 2018 upon MeTV's move to KNLC's main channel.
Secular syndicated programs broadcast by KNLC mainly include farm news programming, much of the Entertainment Studios syndicated program slate, assorted home, lifestyle, wildlife and educational programs, and a few entertainment reruns such as Leverage and Murdoch Mysteries.