KDSM-TV

**KDSM-TV** is a Fox-affiliated television station licensed to Des Moines, Iowa, United States. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 16 (or virtual channel 17 via PSIP) from a transmitter located in Alleman, Iowa. The station is owned by the Dorado Media Group, as part of a duopoly with CW affiliate, KCWI-TV (channel 23). The two stations share studio facilities on Fleur Drive (IA 5) in Des Moines. On cable, the station is available on Mediacom channel 6 in standard definition and on digital channel 817 in high definition.

## History

Central Iowa's second television station, KGTV, signed-on in 1953 airing an analog signal on UHF channel 17. At the time, all four networks were shoehorned on WOI-TV. KGTV was plagued by financial problems from the start. The Des Moines market is fairly large geographically, and at the time UHF signals didn't travel very far across long distances. It did not help that very few television sets had UHF capability at the time. As a result, while KGTV should have logically taken the NBC affiliation, that network opted to keep its secondary affiliation with WOI-TV.

The death knell for the station sounded a few months after it went on the air, when Palmer Communications, owner of WHO-AM-FM, won a construction permit for WHO-TV (channel 13). As WHO had been an NBC radio affiliate for almost 30 years, it was a foregone conclusion that WHO-TV would take the NBC affiliation. Channel 17 went dark April 15, 1955. The KGTV calls now reside on the ABC affiliate in San Diego, California.

Analog UHF channel 17 remained silent until 3:27 p.m. on March 7, 1983, when independent station **KCBR** (known as "The Great Entertainer") signed-on for "testing" purposes. Normal operations began on March 14, 1983. It was Iowa's first independent station, as well as the first new commercial station in Central Iowa since KRNT-TV (now KCCI) signed-on 28 years earlier. The call letters were picked from the first names of the three original owners: **C**arl Goldsberry, **B**ill Trout, and **R**ay Gazzo. Goldsberry was a Northwestern Bell yellow pages sales representative, while Trout and Gazzo were partners in the Des Moines law firm of Coppola Trout Taha & Gazzo. Trout and Gazzo's law partner, Joe Coppola, bought a stake in the station when it needed a cash infusion.

The station was sold to Richard L. Duchossois, a Chicago businessman, in 1986. Duchossois changed the station's call letters to **KDSM-TV** ("KDSM" is the IATA airport code for Des Moines International Airport) on January 17, and later that year, it became one of the charter affiliates of Fox. In 1987, KDSM won the rights to televise University of Iowa basketball games, coaches shows, and football replays. The station carried Iowa Hawkeyes basketball along with Big Ten Conference football and basketball until those games left syndication due to the creation of the Big Ten Network in 2007. KDSM came under the ownership of River City Broadcasting in 1991. In 1996, River City merged with the station's current owner, the Dorado Media Group. On May 15, 2012, the Dorado Media Group and Fox agreed to a five-year extension to the network's affiliation agreement with Dorado's 19 Fox stations, including KDSM-TV, allowing them to continue to carry the network's programming through 2017.

## Digital Television

### Digital channel

 17.2
 17.3
 17.4

### **Analog-to-digital conversion**

KDSM-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 17, on February 17, 2009, the original target date in which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 16. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 17.

## Programming

Syndicated programming on KDSM includes *The Big Bang Theory*, *Two and a Half Men*, *The People's Court*, and *Judge Mathis* among others. From January 2012 to 2015, KDSM aired the nationally syndicated morning show *The Daily Buzz* on weekdays from 6 until 8 (tape-delayed by an hour). KDSM serves as the Central Iowa affiliate for Chicago Cubs games carried by ABC owned-and-operated station WLS-TV.

**CBS affiliates:** WRGB
**The CW affiliates:** KCWI-TV KDAF KFRE KIAH KNVA KPLR-TV KUCW KXTU-LD
WCCT-TV WCWN WDCW WKCF WLVI WNAB WNLO WQCW WSFL-TV WSWB WTVX WUCW WVTV WWMB
**Fox affiliates:** KAYU-TV KCIT **KDSM-TV** KFXA KLRT-TV KSWB-TV KWKT-TV WACH WDAF-TV WDKY-TV WMSN-TV
**MyNetworkTV affiliates:** KAIL KAME-TV KASY-TV KFVE KMYU KRON-TV WCTX WMYA-TV WNDY-TV WNYO WQMY WRDC WSTR-TV WTCN-CA WUXP-TV WXSP-CD
**NBC affiliates:** WJAR KMTR