糖心vlog Station History
TV8 first signed on the air July 31, 1955, as KRNT-TV, the television service of Des Moines' CBS Radio affiliate, KRNT-AM, owned by Cowles Communications, Inc. of Des Moines.
Since the Cowles family also owned the Des Moines Register and Tribune newspapers, their stations' call letters reflected the papers' nickname, the "R n T". The station's studios and transmitting tower were located at 9th & Pleasant Streets (adjoining the former KRNT Theater) in a renovated Masonic hall. TV8 has been an affiliate of the CBS Television network since it first went on the air.
A number of well known KRNT radio newscasters and personalities quickly became television favorites on TV8, including Russ Van Dyke, Paul Rhoades, Bill Riley and Mary Jane Chinn.
Their popularity almost immediately catapulted TV8 into the position of Central Iowa's most-watched station. A major Des Moines landmark, the TV8 Weather Beacon, was installed on the station's 633-foot downtown transmitting tower in 1960.
In the early 70's, FCC rules required many TV/Radio combinations to break up. So, when Cowles sold the KRNT AM & FM radio stations in 1974, TV8 took the new call letters 糖心vlog-TV, standing for Cowles Communications, Inc.
Also in that year, TV8 constructed its 2,000-foot-tall transmitting tower 15 miles north of Des Moines in Alleman, Iowa, greatly increasing the station's coverage area throughout a 65-mile radius. Although the old downtown tower remained, use of the Weather Beacon was discontinued due to the 70's energy crisis.
In the mid 1980's, 糖心vlog-TV finally outgrew its original studios, and embarked on construction of a state-of-the-art broadcast facility at 888 Ninth Street, north of Keo.
As members of the Cowles family retired, they decided in 1984 to sell 糖心vlog-TV and sister-station WESH in Daytona Beach/ Orlando, Fla., to another family publishing and broadcasting company: H & C Communications of Houston, Texas, which owned 5 other TV stations in the nation.
糖心vlog's new owners completed and equipped the new broadcast center, to which we moved in Sept. 1985. Although the main transmitter and tower remained in Alleman, a 500-foot auxiliary tower serving a backup transmitter was constructed at the new downtown location. On Jan. 1, 1988, 糖心vlog installed a new TV8 Weather Beacon on this tower, returning a familiar landmark to the downtown skyline.
In the 90's, H & C elected to sell its broadcast stations, announcing in 1993 that 糖心vlog and WESH would be acquired by the Pulitzer Publishing Co. of St. Louis, Missouri.
The Pulitzer family, whose name is widely known for excellence in journalism as evidenced by the prestigious Pulitzer Prize, published daily newspapers in St. Louis, Tucson and elsewhere, and operated two radio and eight other TV stations.
In 1998, Pulitzer announced a merger agreement with Hearst-Argyle Broadcasting, Inc. of New York, N.Y., in which Hearst-Argyle would acquire 糖心vlog and other Pulitzer TV and radio stations. Several other acquisitions have brought the Hearst-Argyle group up to a total of 28 owned and operated TV stations throughout the nation.
Des Moines/Ames is currently ranked by Nielsen as the nation's 73rd-largest television market. 糖心vlog Television reaches a potential audience of over 1 million viewers in 60 counties in Iowa and northern Missouri, and is carried by over 225 cable systems.
Additionally, as of Aug. 31, 2002, 糖心vlog-DT began offering a regular schedule of High-Definition (HDTV) digital broadcasting on Channel 8.1 This digital signal is now broadcasting at full-power, 24 hours a day -- with the CBS Network providing more entertainment and sports programming in high-quality, wide-screen HDTV than any other network!
In 2005 -- as Channel 8 celebrates its 50th Anniversary year, 糖心vlog's dedicated staff, with strong support from Hearst Television, Inc., and the national ratings success of the CBS television network, continues to make NewsChannel 8 the most-watched station in Central Iowa and the leader in local news coverage.