Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
WSIL-TV
WSIL-TV (channel 3) in Harrisburg, Illinois, and KPOB-TV (channel 15) in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, are television stations serving as the ABC affiliates for Southern Illinois, Southeast Missouri, the Purchase area of Western Kentucky, and Northwest Tennessee. Owned by Allen Media Group, the stations maintain studio facilities on Country Aire Drive (near the IL 13–Wolf Creek Road interchange) in Carterville, Illinois. WSIL-TV's transmitter is located near Creal Springs, Illinois, while KPOB's tower is on US 60 northwest of Poplar Bluff.
KPOB-TV serves as a full-time satellite of WSIL-TV, covering the Missouri Bootheel and northeastern Arkansas. WSIL-TV also operates translator K10KM-D (channel 10) in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
WSIL-TV was the first television station in southern Illinois, debuting on ultra high frequency (UHF) channel 22 on December 6, 1953. It soon affiliated with ABC and NBC before moving to channel 3 in 1959 and becoming a sole ABC affiliate. KPOB-TV went on the air in 1961; aside from a brief period in the 1980s, it has simulcast WSIL with separate legal identifications for the better part of its history. The station has focused its news coverage almost exclusively on Southern Illinois since the 1980s, since its broadcast coverage area is not as large as those of the other major stations in the market. It has traditionally fallen behind its two rivals in the market in news ratings and resources, though less so now than in decades past. After having two ownership groups almost all of its first 65 years on air, it was sold first to Quincy Media in 2018 and to Allen in 2021.
When the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) lifted its four-year freeze on new television station allocations in 1952, channel 22 in the then-new ultra high frequency (UHF) band was assigned to Harrisburg. The Turner-Farrar Association, whose partners owned movie theaters in Southern Illinois, applied for the channel on June 23, 1952, and received a construction permit on March 11, 1953.
With the permit in hand, Turner-Farrar began construction on the station's studio facility in what was known as the Lockwood building on Poplar Street in Harrisburg, absorbing a former billiards hall in the process. A 550-foot (170 m) tower was erected on the site for the transmission facility. The station began broadcasting a test pattern on December 3, 1953. Two days later, an open house was held at the studios, and regular programming from Southern Illinois's first TV station began on December 6.
The station had no network affiliation in its early months, but it added ABC in March 1954, followed by NBC in December 1955.
Soon after starting WSIL-TV on channel 22, Turner-Farrar petitioned for the FCC to assign a channel in the more widely available VHF band. In its first attempt, denied in July 1956, the company attempted to have channel 13 relocated to Harrisburg from Bowling Green, Kentucky. The next month, Turner-Farrar applied to have channel 22 changed to channel 3. This proposal, along with the addition of educational channel 8 to Carbondale, was approved by the FCC in March 1958; in doing so, the commission rejected a competing proposal to allocate channel 3 to Carbondale. Construction of the channel 3 facility was completed in early March 1959, and on March 4, WSIL-TV signed on channel 3 from a new transmitter in Creal Springs, increasing its coverage area; the original tower at Harrisburg remained in place and was utilized for communications purposes. Coinciding with the move to VHF, WSIL-TV became ABC's 87th primary affiliate.
In May 1960, the Turner–Farrar Association applied to the FCC to build UHF channel 15 in Poplar Bluff to serve southeast Missouri. The transmitter was completed in August 1961, and KPOB-TV began broadcasting programs on September 1 of that year. KPOB-TV was off the air on several occasions in its first 15 years: for over a month in June and July 1962 (due to lack of network signal), from September 1966 to October 1967 for renovations, and for more than a month in 1974 for construction. The last of these outages, from April 1976 to January 1977, was for financial reasons. During this time, WSIL attempted to sell KPOB-TV to the Hernreich Group, which would have switched it to rebroadcasting KAIT in Jonesboro, Arkansas, but negotiations proved unfruitful. In the early 1980s, KPOB briefly broadcast some local programming of its own.
Hub AI
WSIL-TV AI simulator
(@WSIL-TV_simulator)
WSIL-TV
WSIL-TV (channel 3) in Harrisburg, Illinois, and KPOB-TV (channel 15) in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, are television stations serving as the ABC affiliates for Southern Illinois, Southeast Missouri, the Purchase area of Western Kentucky, and Northwest Tennessee. Owned by Allen Media Group, the stations maintain studio facilities on Country Aire Drive (near the IL 13–Wolf Creek Road interchange) in Carterville, Illinois. WSIL-TV's transmitter is located near Creal Springs, Illinois, while KPOB's tower is on US 60 northwest of Poplar Bluff.
KPOB-TV serves as a full-time satellite of WSIL-TV, covering the Missouri Bootheel and northeastern Arkansas. WSIL-TV also operates translator K10KM-D (channel 10) in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
WSIL-TV was the first television station in southern Illinois, debuting on ultra high frequency (UHF) channel 22 on December 6, 1953. It soon affiliated with ABC and NBC before moving to channel 3 in 1959 and becoming a sole ABC affiliate. KPOB-TV went on the air in 1961; aside from a brief period in the 1980s, it has simulcast WSIL with separate legal identifications for the better part of its history. The station has focused its news coverage almost exclusively on Southern Illinois since the 1980s, since its broadcast coverage area is not as large as those of the other major stations in the market. It has traditionally fallen behind its two rivals in the market in news ratings and resources, though less so now than in decades past. After having two ownership groups almost all of its first 65 years on air, it was sold first to Quincy Media in 2018 and to Allen in 2021.
When the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) lifted its four-year freeze on new television station allocations in 1952, channel 22 in the then-new ultra high frequency (UHF) band was assigned to Harrisburg. The Turner-Farrar Association, whose partners owned movie theaters in Southern Illinois, applied for the channel on June 23, 1952, and received a construction permit on March 11, 1953.
With the permit in hand, Turner-Farrar began construction on the station's studio facility in what was known as the Lockwood building on Poplar Street in Harrisburg, absorbing a former billiards hall in the process. A 550-foot (170 m) tower was erected on the site for the transmission facility. The station began broadcasting a test pattern on December 3, 1953. Two days later, an open house was held at the studios, and regular programming from Southern Illinois's first TV station began on December 6.
The station had no network affiliation in its early months, but it added ABC in March 1954, followed by NBC in December 1955.
Soon after starting WSIL-TV on channel 22, Turner-Farrar petitioned for the FCC to assign a channel in the more widely available VHF band. In its first attempt, denied in July 1956, the company attempted to have channel 13 relocated to Harrisburg from Bowling Green, Kentucky. The next month, Turner-Farrar applied to have channel 22 changed to channel 3. This proposal, along with the addition of educational channel 8 to Carbondale, was approved by the FCC in March 1958; in doing so, the commission rejected a competing proposal to allocate channel 3 to Carbondale. Construction of the channel 3 facility was completed in early March 1959, and on March 4, WSIL-TV signed on channel 3 from a new transmitter in Creal Springs, increasing its coverage area; the original tower at Harrisburg remained in place and was utilized for communications purposes. Coinciding with the move to VHF, WSIL-TV became ABC's 87th primary affiliate.
In May 1960, the Turner–Farrar Association applied to the FCC to build UHF channel 15 in Poplar Bluff to serve southeast Missouri. The transmitter was completed in August 1961, and KPOB-TV began broadcasting programs on September 1 of that year. KPOB-TV was off the air on several occasions in its first 15 years: for over a month in June and July 1962 (due to lack of network signal), from September 1966 to October 1967 for renovations, and for more than a month in 1974 for construction. The last of these outages, from April 1976 to January 1977, was for financial reasons. During this time, WSIL attempted to sell KPOB-TV to the Hernreich Group, which would have switched it to rebroadcasting KAIT in Jonesboro, Arkansas, but negotiations proved unfruitful. In the early 1980s, KPOB briefly broadcast some local programming of its own.