KNLC (channel 24) is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, which broadcasts the classic television network MeTV. Owned and operated by Weigel Broadcasting, the station maintains a transmitter near Hillsboro-House Springs Road in House Springs, Missouri.
History
Founded by Rev. Larry Rice, head of the New Life Evangelistic Center (NLEC), the station first signed on the air on September 12, 1982, making it the first new television station in the St. Louis market since KDNL-TV (channel 30) signed-on in 1969. Originally, KNLC maintained a schedule consisting entirely of religious programming, which included shows such as The 700 Club and The PTL Club, programs by televangelists Richard Roberts and Jimmy Swaggart, and locally produced religious shows. In September 1984, KNLC transitioned into a hybrid format similar to that offered by the independent stations owned at the time by the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), incorporating a selection of secular classic television series featuring sitcoms and westerns from the 1950s and early 1960s, many of which had not been airing in many other U.S. markets.
Unlike most religious/secular independents that aired a single daily block of family-oriented secular programs within their schedules (for example, weekdays from 3 to 7 p.m.), KNLC scheduled its secular shows in a hodgepodge manner in random short-form blocks. It initially carried secular programs from 7 to 7:30 and 9 to 10:30 a.m., 2 to 3 p.m., 5 to 6 p.m. and 9 to 9:30 p.m., with religious shows filling the remaining time slots during its broadcast day between 5 a.m. and 1 a.m. By the late 1980s, the station began mixing its religious and secular shows in a more consistent pattern, and expanded its syndicated offerings with the acquisition of several barter