List of Platte County Communications channels (January 1979)

Parent Page: List of Retro Cable lineups in the United States

Residents of Platte County, Missouri (through Platte County Communications) had access to the channels listed below in January of 1979. Today, the county is served by Spectrum.

Legend

• CALL — The call letters of an over-the-air television station in bold text.
• CABLE — Cable channels in regular text.
•  ##  — Over-the-air channel number for stations within the Kansas City television market, according to current laws by the FCC and mapping of markets by Nielsen Media Research. Also, some stations may service areas outside of the television market as well.
•  ##  — Over-the-air channel number for distant out-of-market stations, including regional and national "superstations", according to current laws by the FCC and mapping of markets by Nielsen Media Research.
• Network affiliated stations will have the network's logo (of the corresponding era) next to them and independent stations are unmarked.

Market

The Kansas City television market includes 33 counties in Kansas and Missouri, with market hubs in bold text:

• Kansas:
  • Counties: Anderson, Atchinson, Douglas, Franklin, Johnson, Leavenworth, Linn, Miami and Wyandotte
  • Cities: Atchinson, Bonner Springs, Kansas City, Kickapoo, Lancaster, Lawrence, Leavenworth, Olathe, Overland Park, Pleasant Grove, Prairie Village, Shawnee and Tonganoxie
• Missouri:
  • Counties: Bates, Caldwell, Carroll, Cass, Clay, Clinton, Daviess, Gentry, Grundy, Harrison, Henry, Holt, Jackson, Johnson, Lafayette, Linn, Livingston, Mercer, Nowaday, Pettis, Platte, Ray, Saline and Worth
  • Cities: Bethany, Carrollton, Chillicothe, Concordia, Gladstone, Independence, Kansas City, Lee's Summitt, Marshall, Missouri City, Platte City, Pleasant Hill, Pleasant Valley and Sedalia

Lineup

Source: Newspapers.com (Paid subscription to "Publisher Extra" may be required for some sections)

CH#	Names	Notes/Today
2	27  WYAH Portsmouth, VA	Then a religious independent station owned by the Christian Broadcasting Network (Now a general entertainment station as CW affiliate WGNT, part of a duopoly with CBS affiliate  3  WTKR out of Norfolk, owned by The E. W. Scripps Company)
3	Home Box Office	A premium pay subscription network, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery (Home Box Office is still used as the network's legal corporate name, though it operates on-air and online exclusively by the acronym HBO)
4	4  WDAF-TV Kansas City	Currently a Fox affiliate, owned by Nexstar Media Group (WDAF became the Fox affiliate in a major mass-affiliation deal starting in 1994, sending its former NBC affiliation to the then-Fox affiliate  41  KSHB-TV (the former KBMA) as a result)
5	5  KCMO-TV Kansas City	Then and now, still a CBS affiliate to this day, as KCTV (Owned by Gray Television as part of a duopoly with MyNetworkTV affiliate  62  KSMO-TV, calls changed to the current KCTV, short for Kansas City TeleVision in 1983)
6	11  KPLR St. Louis	Later a WB affiliate, now a CW network owned-and-operated station (Owned by Nexstar Media Group as part of a duopoly with Fox affiliate and former network O&O  2  KTVI, Nexstar Media acquired a 75 percent stake in The CW in October of 2022, with founders Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery splitting the remaining 25 percent -- at 12.5 percent each, essentially and technically making KTLA a network owned-and-operated station along with other CW network stations owned and/or operated by Nexstar (and its partner company Mission Broadcasting) and Paramount)
7	41  KBMA-TV Kansas City	Sold nearly two years earlier to current owner, The E. W. Scripps Company, and calls changed to the current KSHB-TV in 1981 and also an NBC affiliate since 1994 (KSHB became Kansas City's current NBC affiliate after its former Fox affiliation went to then-affiliate  4  WDAF-TV in a major mass-affiliation deal starting in 1994, KSHB short for Scripps Howard Broadcasting, the former name of what is now Scripps Media, also known as Scripps Broadcasting Holdings, and sister to independent station  38  KMCI out of Lawrence, Kansas)
8	Park College Cable Access	Fate unknown (likely defunct), a local cable access channel (Was owned and operated by Park College in Parkville, Missouri, renamed Park University in 2000)
9	9  KMBC-TV Kansas City	Then and now, still an ABC affiliate, now owned by Hearst Television (Owned by Hearst since 1981, acquiring it from then-owner Metromedia (the predecessor company to what is now Fox Television Stations), also sister station to CW affiliate  29  KCWE)
10	24-Hour News	Defunct, likely a teletext channel
11	19  KCPT Kansas City	Still a PBS member station, owned by Public Television 19, Inc.
12	17  WTCG Atlanta, GA	The direct OTA feed at the time, now as WPCH-TV, owned by Gray Television (Both the station (calls changed to WTBS in 1979) and the TBS network (short for Turner Broadcasting System), were separated from each other in 2007, TBS today, is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery)
13	11  KTWU Topeka, KS	Then and now, still a PBS member station, owned by Washburn University in Topeka
20	Stocks and Financial News	Defunct, likely a teletext and ticker channel
21	13  WIBW-TV Topeka, KS	Currently a dual CBS and MyNetworkTV affiliate, owned by Gray Television (The Kansas City Star newspaper erroneously listed the station as KIBW, also split the ABC affiliation with NBC affiliate  27  KTSB (now KSNT) until 1983, when  49  KLDH (now KTKA-TV) signed onto the air, and assumed the affiliation outright)
22	27  KTSB Topeka, KS	Currently a dual NBC and Fox affiliate, calls changed to the current KSNT in 1982 (Owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also owns Fox affiliate  43  KTMJ-CD (also on  27-2  KSNT-DT2) and operates dual ABC and CW+ affiliate  49  KTKA-TV, owned by Vaughan Media, KSNT is also the oldest active UHF television station in the state of Kansas, also split the ABC affiliation with CBS affiliate  13  WIBW-TV until 1983, when KTKA (then KLDH) signed onto the air, assumed the affiliation outright)
23	2  KQTV St. Joseph	Still an ABC affiliate, owned by Heartland Media (One of only two full-power television stations within the St. Joseph market, the other being TBN network owned-and-operated  16  KTAJ-TV, owned by the Trinity Broadcasting Network)