St. Louis

A number of major corporations in diverse industries call St. Louis home, including Anheuser-Busch, Energizer Holdings and Ralston Purina Co. Trans World Airlines is another significant local employer. The troubled airline, which has filed for Chapter 11, is scheduled to be sold today at auction. AMR Corp., parent of American Airlines, has offered $3.5 billion for TWA and has promised to retain most of the carrier's 20,000 employees. TWA's hub, St. Louis' Lambert International Airport, recently completed a $2.6 billion expansion.

St. Louis is the country's 22nd-largest television market, with 1.12 million TV households. The market boasts several stations that are among the top affiliates in the country for their respective networks.

Gannett Broadcasting's NBC affiliate KSDK-TV is the market's perennial leader in local news (see Nielsen Media Research chart on page 17) and is one of NBC's strongest affils among viewers 25-54. In addition to its regular daytime, evening and late newscasts on weekdays, KSDK produces news on weekend mornings, running from 6 to 7 a.m. on Saturdays and from 9 to 10 on Sundays. On weekdays, the outlet's early-bird 6 a.m. news delivers strong viewership among adults 25-54 and women 25-54. Ratings for KSDK's 10 p.m. news shot up 16 percent in households in last November's sweeps.

On weekday afternoons, KSDK offers Show Me St. Louis from 3 to 3:30 p.m. The program, which celebrated its fifth anniversary last year, features softer news stories and features.

Last August, KSDK signed Kurt Warner, quarterback for the 2000 Super Bowl champion St. Louis Rams, to do sports commentaries on its newscasts. Last September, the station hired away Al Wiman, health and medical reporter for KMOV-TV, A.H. Belo's CBS affiliate in St. Louis. Because of his noncompete agreement, Wiman cannot appear on KSDK until October.

KSDK may have to battle to retain one of its top anchors, Deanne Lane, whose contract is set to expire in December. Lane has had talks with with Allan Cohen, KMOV vp/general manager. Lane, who co-anchors KSDK's 6 p.m. news with Dan Gray, has a one-year non-- compete clause in her deal.

KMOV's Cohen declined to discuss his talks with Lane. Lynn Beall, KSDK president and gm, says that the station is "having very positive conversations with [Lane], and I don't...