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KSL-TV

KSL-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is the flagship television property of locally based Bonneville International, the for-profit broadcasting arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), and is sister to KSL radio (1160 AM and 102.7 FM). The three stations share studios at the Broadcast House building in Salt Lake City's Triad Center; KSL-TV's transmitter is located on Farnsworth Peak in the Oquirrh Mountains, southwest of Salt Lake City. The station has a large network of broadcast translators that extend its over-the-air coverage throughout Utah, as well as portions of Arizona, Idaho, Nevada and Wyoming.

KSL 5; KSL News

June 1, 1949 (1949-06-01)

  • Analog: 5 (VHF, 1949–2009)
  • Digital: 38 (UHF, 1999–2018)

  • CBS (1949–1995)
  • ABC (secondary, 1949–1954)
  • DuMont (secondary, 1949–1955)

Salt Lake City

FCC

398 kW

1,267 m (4,157 ft)

KSL-TV is one of a few for-profit U.S. television stations owned by a religious institution (most U.S. TV stations owned by religious institutions are affiliated with non-profit religious broadcasting networks).

History[edit]

Primary CBS affiliate[edit]

The station first signed on the air on June 1, 1949, operating from studios in the Union Pacific Building on Main Street. It was owned by the Deseret News, who also owned KSL radio (1160 AM and 100.3 FM, now KSFI). It originally operated as a CBS affiliate, owing to its sister radio station's longtime affiliation with the CBS Radio Network. In addition to its primary CBS affiliation, the station also shared ABC programming with NBC affiliate KDYL-TV (channel 4, now KTVX). The two stations continued to share ABC programming until KUTV (channel 2) signed on in September 1954 as the market's full-time ABC affiliate. The station also broadcast some programming from the DuMont Television Network, and during the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network.[2]


A few months after its sign-on, KSL moved its operations to studio facilities at the Broadcast House on Social Hall Avenue. In 1952, a 370-foot (110 m) transmission tower was constructed on Farnsworth Peak to improve the station's signal coverage along the Wasatch Front and into Tooele County. It also began building a massive translator network that eventually stretched across five states.


The KSL stations operated as a division of the Deseret News until 1964, when Bonneville International was formed as the parent company for the LDS Church's broadcasting holdings. Soon afterward, channel 5 began broadcasting its programming in color. In 1984, the station moved to its current facility at Triad Center, also named Broadcast House.[3]

– sports anchor (currently a play-by-play announcer with the Utah Jazz, former play-by-play announcer for college and NFL football broadcasts by CBS Sports)

Craig Bolerjack

– weekend anchor (later co-host of CBS' The Early Show)

Jane Clayson

– sports anchor (1965–1991, retired; part of Nourse/Welti/James team)

Paul James

– weekday anchor and reporter (later working for KNBC in Los Angeles; now at ABC News)

Whit Johnson

– weeknight 5, 6 and 10 p.m. anchor (retired May 23, 2012, after 34 years with KSL)

Bruce Lindsay

– anchor (retired 2021)

Dave McCann

– sports anchor (now the lead announcer for CBS Sports)[42]

Jim Nantz

– weeknight 10 p.m. anchor (part of Nourse/Welti/James team; retired November 27, 2007, after 43 years with KSL)

Dick Nourse

Technical information[edit]

Subchannels[edit]

The station's signal is multiplexed:

Official website

at L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Brigham Young University. Contains copies of televised video editorials from 1978 to 1997.

G. Donald Gale collection of KSL editorials, MSS 8013