CBS 2 @ 50

(Note: The 1 Hour Special "CBS 2 at 50" that aired on CBS 2 in September of 2003 has been awarded 1st Place Documentary by the Northwest Broadcast News Associationand has won the Award of Excellence (1st Place) from the Iowa Motion Picture Association.)

CBS 2 KGAN-TV signed on the broadcast airwaves as WMT-TV September 30, 1953 from it’s not quite finished studios at Broadcast Park, a 7 acre site carved out of a corn field on Cedar Rapids’ northeast side in the 600 block of Old Marion Road. (For the first few weeks, employees had to wait for bathrooms to be completed.)

The station went on the air using every kilowatt of the 100,000 authorized by the Federal Communications system, the first station the U.S. to begin broadcasting at full power. Channel Two was licensed to serve the Cedar Rapids/Waterloo/Dubuque/ area, the first station in the nation to be granted a split market status by the FCC.

After General Manager William B. Quarton made some on camera remarks, the first broadcast was a World Series game between the Yankees and the Dodgers (with the Yankees winning 9 to 5 and Yanks taking the Series too, four games to two.)

For it’s first four years, the Channel 2 signal was broadcast from the 702 foot tower at Broadcast Park. A taller tower was being built when a storm, on December 10, 1956, blew it down.

It was rapidly rebuilt to loom 1,450 feet over the countryside west of Walker, Iowa. The smaller Broadcast Park tower was used as a back up in the early days. Today it continues to send out a WMT-FM signal, relays TV microwave signals and will relay Channel Two HDTV transmision from the station to a taller tower.

Channel Two went on the air as WMT-TV (owned by American Broadcasting Stations, Inc, William B. Quarton and others) and has been a CBS network affiliate since day one.

The TV station was a sister station of WMT Radio, which began broadcasting in 1922. WMT Radio relocated from it’s downtown Cedar Rapids offices in the Paramount Theatre building to Broadcast Park on March 3, 1975.

Ownership has changed over the years. The WMT Stations were sold July 16, 1968 to WAVE, Inc. (Orion Broadcasting of Louisville, Kentucky). Orion sold to Cosmos Broadcasting in 1981. Because of FCC rules at the time, a corporation could own only 5 television stations and 7 radio stations. The purchase put Cosmos’ television station holdings over the limit so The WMT Stations were split apart, with WMT-AM and FM remaining with Cosmos and WMT-TV sold to WHYN Stations Corporation (Guy Gannett Publishing Company) headquartered in Portland, Maine. WMT-TV’s call letters were then changed to KGAN-TV (as in Gannett) October 16, 1981.

An ownership change occurred July 1, 1999 when the station was purchased by Sinclair Communications, Inc (headquartered in Cockeysville, Maryland).

A Joint Service Agreement between Sinclair Communications, Inc. and 2nd Generation of Iowa, owners of Fox affiliate KFXA-TV (Channel 28 in Cedar Rapids) was in effect from July 9, 2002 to February 1, 2008 which allowed 2nd Generation to oversee operations of KGAN-TV.

On February 1, 2008 Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. acquired the non-licensed assets of KFXA-TV (FOX 28 in Cedar Rapids) from 2nd Generation of Iowa, Ltd. Sinclair now oversees operations of KGAN-TV and KGAN provides sales and other non-programming related services to KFXA-TV.

In the early days of television, local stations generated a great deal of live programming from their studios. On Channel Two, some were: "The Marshall Jay Show" (3/1/54 to 1961); "Home Fare" (9/28/54) with Marguerite Ashlock and Jackie Grant; and "The Dr. Max Show" (1/23/61-9/25/81). "Modern Woman" (10/18/65) with Jan Voss; "Exercise With Marlyce (Heidt)" (Feb. 1969 to April 1981).

A weeknight 6 p.m. newscast began early in 1954 with a 10 p.m. weeknight newscast added in the fall of 1954. A weekday noon newscast was added in late 1956. All are still on the air.

In April, 1956 WMT-TV won the prestigious George Foster Peabody Television Award for "The Secret of Flight", a series of seven television programs focusing on aerodynamic education developed in cooperation with Dr. Alexander M. Lippisch, director of the Collins Aeronautical Research Laboratory in Cedar Rapids.

A second coveted Peabody award was won 28 years later, in 1994, for the "Sewer Solvent Scandal", a news series developed by investigative reporter Sandy Riesgraf.

Over the span of 50 years, Channel Two viewers have witnessed changes in television technology, some obvious and some not. Newsgathering went from film to video tape and from giant video tape reels to smaller tape formats and to digital.

Weatherman Conrad Johnson brought a radar unit across the street from Collins Radio and became one of the first TV weathermen to actually show "radar weather" in his weathercasts. Channel Two was the first station in the Cedar Rapids/Waterloo/Dubuque market to begin broadcasting in color, live, during a 6 p.m. newscast April 12, 1967. The newsroom began using a "live" "Instacam" for news stories from the field in the early 1970’s. Network feeds changed from coaxial phone lines to satellite transmission.

The newsroom was computerized in April, 1992 which brought closed captioning service to hearing impaired viewers. Digital transmission began with an ERP (effective radiated power) of 5,000 watts October 26, 2002.

Hours of Channel 2 community service programming have aired in the last half century. For the last 32 years, viewers have tuned in annually to the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethon on Channel two.

On July 9, 1982, the station pre-empted local and network programming from 6:30-10 p.m. to present a live "Job-a-Thon" from Broadcast Park in Cedar Rapids, Crossroads Shopping Center in Waterloo and reports from Dubuque offering unemployed workers a platform to announce their job wants. Iowa Senator Charles Grassley appeared to offer a job in his Washington office. President Ronald Reagan phoned in during the telecast and spoke live with co-host Barry Norris.

The "Job-a-Thon" story was reported in national newspapers, CBS, NBC and ABC television and appeared subtitled on a Japanese broadcast.

Since 1987, another successful partnership has been with the University of Iowa Hawkeyes. Channel 2, proud to be the “Home of the Hawks”, has been bringing eastern Iowans exclusive coverage of The University of Iowa Hawkeye basketball, football and the coaches shows for 16 straight years.

As the 21st Century begins, award winning broadcast journalism continues at what is now called KGAN CBS 2 Television. For coverage continuing through the night of December 31, 1999 and into January 1, 2000, the Iowa Broadcast News Association cited Channel 2 for "Best Y2K" coverage in the state.

For three consecutive years, the CBS 2 Sports Department has taken home First Place Awards from the Associated Press for "Best Sports Program" for coverage of the Iowa Hawkeyes "Midnight Madness" basketball season kick-off (2001 and 2002) and for the hour long football program "The Select Heartland Chevy Orange Bowl Preview Special" awarded in 2003.

November 2002 Election Night coverage won an AP "Technical Excellence Award" for CBS 2’s Chief Engineer Randy Schildmeyer and his staff for linking live shots from Des Moines and other campaign headquarters to four stations simultaneously: CBS 2 and Fox affiliates in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids-Waterloo and Dubuque.

This is proof that in the station’s 50th anniversary year of 2003, Channel 2, first as WMT-TV and now CBS 2 KGAN-TV, continues to proudly serve Eastern Iowa viewers.

(For more pictures, be sure to check out the slide-shows at the top of this page in the right-hand column.)

CBS 2 NEWS TEAM

Sports

Jared Aarons
Mitch Fick
Heather Gilchrist

Reporters

Alice Barr
Brian Scott
David Scanlon
Josh Scheinblum
Kelsey Minor

Anchors

Jack Miller
Kelly O Connell
Sadie Hughes
Gabe Erickson
Tiffany O Donnell
Tim Seymour

Weather

Justin Roberts