KACY (TV)
| Company type | Television station |
|---|---|
| Industry | Broadcasting |
| Founded | November 25, 1953 |
| Defunct | April 2, 1954 |
| Headquarters | Festus, Missouri , United States |
Area served | St. Louis market |
| Products | Television broadcasting |
KACY (channel 14) was a television station licensed to Festus, Missouri that served the St. Louis market. As one of the pioneering UHF broadcasters, KACY marketed itself as the "most powerful new television station in the Middle West," yet it struggled financially and operated only from November 25, 1953, until April 2, 1954. The station claimed that a rival St. Louis–area broadcaster conspired to prevent it from accessing network programming.
History
On December 31, 1952, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a construction permit for UHF channel 14 to Ozark Television Corporation, which initially planned to build studios near Kimmswick. After determining the original location was unsuitable, the permit was modified to position the transmitter on Rock Creek Road in rural Jefferson County, Missouri. Equipped with a directional antenna and beam tilt technology, it delivered an effective radiated power of 324,000 watts (rising to 491,000 watts with beam tilt). This configuration produced a "boomerang"-shaped signal pattern focusing coverage on Festus and St. Louis. While licensed to Festus, KACY concentrated its efforts on St. Louis by opening sales offices on Lindell Boulevard.
Following test transmissions in late October 1953, KACY commenced full programming on November 25 without securing a complete network affiliation. The station intended to broadcast some CBS content alongside locally produced news and feature shows created at its transmitter-site studio. Among its personalities was Laurent Torno, formerly a flutist with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, who hosted the cooking program Man About the House.
Obtaining CBS programming proved essential for KACY’s viability. Before KACY began operations, two other UHF stations had launched: KSTM-TV (channel 36) in St. Louis and WTVI (channel 54) in Belleville, Illinois. In March 1954, Ozark filed a lawsuit against WTVI’s owner Signal Hill Television Corporation and CBS seeking over $840,000 in damages plus $2.5 million in treble antitrust damages. The suit alleged a conspiracy that prevented KACY from airing CBS shows not approved by the sole VHF station operating at the time, KSD-TV. This severely impaired KACY’s financial prospects; instead of realizing an expected profit of $100,000 shortly after launch, it reported losses totaling $244,282 and experienced a $500,000 reduction in its physical plant’s value.
Faced with mounting deficits and blocked from network access, KACY discontinued broadcasts on April 2, 1954. It declared bankruptcy one week later but expressed optimism about resuming operations due to an installed base of approximately 200,000 UHF-capable television sets. However, industry acknowledgment of UHF’s inherent technical limitations—compounded by the absence of mandatory UHF tuners in most TV sets—hampered revival efforts. Station president Jack Garrison testified before a Senate subcommittee advocating legislation requiring all television receivers to include UHF tuning capability.
In May 1955, KACY’s assets were sold at auction for $79,000; notably, United Broadcasting Company acquired the transmitter for $20,000. Due to inactivity, the FCC canceled the channel 14 construction permit on September 13, 1955. The legal case against WTVI and CBS (which later incorporated KSD-TV) was dismissed in December 1956.