('''''"FOX13"''''') is the
Fox Owned-and-operated Television Station serving the
Salt Lake City, Utah Television market. It broadcasts in
Analog on
VHF channel 13, in
Digital Television on
UHF channel 28, and is rebroadcast statewide through a
Network Of Translator Stations .
Other than first run programming and sports from Fox, the station also airs court shows, reality shows, talk shows, off-network sitcoms, and over 30 hours of local news programming a week. The station carries
4Kids TV on Saturday mornings.
On
June 13 ,
2007 , Fox's parent company,
News Corporation announced its intent to sell the station, along with eight other owned and operated stations.
{Link without Title}
There have been two television stations in Salt Lake City licensed with the KSTU calls: the current Fox
O&O on VHF channel 13 (analog) and UHF channel 28 (digital), and an
Independent Station that broadcast on UHF channel 20 from 1978 through 1987. Both are mentioned in this article, as they were the same intellectual unit; however, these were two different licenses.
The original KSTU began operation on
October 9 ,
1978 as the first
Independent Station in Utah, under the ownership of
Massachusetts -based
Springfield Television , who also owned
NBC affiliate
WWLP in
Springfield, Massachusetts and
ABC affiliate
WKEF in
Dayton, Ohio . The station transmitted on UHF channel 20 using a transmitter originally used for WWLP's partial satellite,
WRLP-TV in
Greenfield, Massachusetts (which closed down shortly before KSTU's sign-on). KSTU's typical fare at the time was typical for an independent station--cartoons, off-network classic TV Sitcoms, old movies, and drama shows.
The Springfield Television group was sold to Adams Communications in 1984. The station became a charter Fox affiliate in
1987 .
In 1980, the
FCC added a new VHF allocation on channel 13 to the Salt Lake City market. Five groups submitted applications for a permit to build a television station on channel 13 in May 1981. The FCC held evidentiary hearings with the competing applicants in 1984, and in 1985, announced the winning applicant. The second-place applicant, locally-owned Mountain West Television Company, or MWT Company, appealed the FCC decision, but lost the appeal. When that failed, MWT Company proposed a buyout of the other four competing interests, including the winning applicants. The strategy succeeded and was carried out in November 1986. At the same time, MWT Company entered into a limited partnership agreement with Northstar Communications, Inc., which was partly owned by
Allstate , and a new company, called MWT, Ltd., was formed. On
January 20 ,
1987 , the FCC awarded the original construction permit for a new station on channel 13 to MWT, Ltd., under the calls Buying equipment for the new station soon proved difficult.
Meanwhile, Adams Communications was undergoing serious financial difficulties and decided to sell off its stations. There were few takers for channel 20, however. Under the circumstances, it was very receptive to an offer from MWT to buy KSTU's assets for $30 million. Adams was able to make a considerable profit on the deal, while MWT was able to get the equipment it needed at a substantial discount. The two parties reached a sales agreement in July, the sale was approved by the FCC in September, and the transaction was finalized on
October 23 ,
1987 .
On
November 9 ,
1987 ; MWT moved the channel 20 intellectual unit (call letters, staff, programming and Fox affiliation) to channel 13 and returned the original channel 20 license to the FCC. MWT went on the air with the new KSTU on channel 13 under Program Test Authority. It requested a license to cover the CP on
November 16 , which the FCC granted on
March 7 ,
1988 .
The purchase of the UHF station, however, put a financial strain on MWT, namely on the old Mountain West partners. In May 1988, Northstar Communications became sole owners of KSTU. The station was known as "''FOX13''" by 1989.
Northstar sold KSTU to Fox the next year, making it a Fox O&O. Unlike its rival stations, which have changed networks over the years, KSTU is the only VHF commercial station in Salt Lake City to remain affiliated with the same network since that network's inception; only
KTVX , originally an
NBC affiliate, has affiliated with
ABC longer than KSTU has been a Fox affiliate, and, when Fox acquired KTVX's then-parent Chris-Craft, KTVX was eventually sold to
Clear Channel .
The station replaced most of the classic sitcoms on its lineup with talk shows in the mid-1990s. It launched a 9pm newscast in 1996, and added a morning newscast (''Good Day Utah'') a few years later, replacing morning cartoons. The station added more reality shows and court shows in 2002, once Fox dropped the weekday children's block nationally, then launched a midday newscast in 2005. A year later, KSTU redesigned its website using the Fox Television Stations Group's MyFox platform, which included the station's new logo, in a style in line with the other Fox O&O stations. However, the "13" from the previous logo remained as part of the new logo (unlike
WHBQ , which switched to a 13 similar to
WTVT ).
Currently, KSTU is one of two network-owned stations in the Salt Lake City DMA. However, with
CBS -owned
KUTV being divested to
Cerberus Capital Management , and now with the planned sale of KSTU, the Salt Lake City DMA will soon be left without a network O&O (barring the unlikely event that another network buys the station).
extends its coverage throughout the entire state of
Utah , plus parts of
Arizona ,
Idaho ,
Nevada and
Wyoming , using a network of more than 75 community-owned
Translator television stations listed below.
KSTU is one of seven Fox O&Os with a 5PM newscast, but no 6PM newscast (along with
WTTG in
Washington, D.C. ,
WHBQ in
Memphis ,
KTBC in
Austin ,
WFXT in
Boston ,
WTXF in
Philadelphia and
WOFL in
Orlando ).
- Weeknight Anchor
- Weeknight Anchor
- Noon Anchor
- Noon Anchor
- "Good Day Utah" Anchor/Reporter
- "Good Day Utah" Anchor/Reporter
- Weekend Anchor/Reporter
- Weekend Anchor/Reporter
- Freelance Reporter
- "Good Day Utah" Feature Reporter
- General Assignment Reporter
- General Assignment Reporter
- FOX News Washington DC Correspondent
- General Assignment Reporter
- General Assignment Reporter
- General Assignment Reporter
- Weekend Weather Anchor/Reporter
- Morning Meteorologist
- Chief Meteorologist
- Sports Director, seen weeknights
- Weekend Sports Anchor/Reporter
