KMCI-TV

The station first signed on the air on February 13, 1988. Founded by Miller Television, it originally served as an affiliate of the Home Shopping Network. Beginning sometime in 1995, KMCI began carrying a minimal amount of syndicated sitcoms, cartoons and other programs, alongside HSN programming. When KSHB-TV (channel 41) lost the Fox affiliation to WDAF-TV (channel 4) and gained the NBC affiliation that was displaced by that station in September 1994, KSHB sold very little of its programming to KSMO-TV (channel 62) or WDAF. The station had a lot of acquired programming that it did not have room to run on its schedule due to NBC's heavy lineup of network programming as well as the station's new news programming commitments; most of these shows were acquired by KMCI. Early programs on KMCI included shows such as I Love Lucy, Leave It to Beaver, Tom and Jerry and Popeye cartoon shorts, Happy Days and Taxi.

In the summer of 1996, KSHB owner Scripps Howard Broadcasting began to manage KMCI under a local marketing agreement;[1] KMCI then rebranded as "38 Family Greats", with a family-oriented general entertainment format from 6:00 a.m. to midnight, with HSN programming being relegated to the overnight hours. More recent programs also airing regularly on KSHB were integrated onto KMCI's schedule. HSN programming was subsequently dropped from the station in 1999. That fall, KMCI began carrying weekday afternoon and Saturday morning programming from Fox Kids, after the block was dropped by UPN affiliate KCWE (channel 29, now a CW affiliate); WDAF chose to decline Fox's children's programming lineup after affiliating with the network. The weekday afternoon Fox Kids block was discontinued nationwide by Fox in January 2002, leaving only the Saturday morning block.

The station was acquired by the E. W. Scripps Company outright in 2002, forming a legal duopoly with KSHB.[2] That same year, KMCI dropped the "Family Greats" branding and simply branded by its channel number. Then in July 2003, the station officially became known as "38 the Spot". The station continued to run children's programming from Fox after it was relaunched under the "Fox Box" banner in September 2002 and again under the "4Kids TV" banner from January 2005 until Fox discontinued its children's programming in December 2008, following a dispute with 4Kids Entertainment, which subsequently began programming The CW's Saturday morning children's programming that same year. Neither WDAF nor KMCI opted to air Weekend Marketplace, the infomercial block that replaced the 4Kids TV block, which ended up not airing at all in the Kansas City market.

Syndicated programs broadcast on KMCI as of September 2020 include The Simpsons, Last Man Standing, Family Guy, Divorce Court and 2 Broke Girls.[6] KMCI features hosts that promote the station's programming, as well as local events during commercial breaks. Taunia Hottman was the first spokesperson for KMCI as "38 the Spot".[7] Meredith Hoenes (who became a traffic reporter for KSHB-TV around this time) replaced Hottman after she left in 2004 to join KUSA in Denver. Holly Starr took over after Hoenes left in February 2008 to become a weekday anchor/reporter for WDAF-TV; Starr remained with KMCI as its program host until 2011, replaced by Crystle Lampitt in 2012.

In 2000, KSHB-TV began producing a half-hour 9:00 p.m. newscast on KMCI to compete with the in-house newscast in that timeslot on WDAF-TV (which debuted in September 1994, when that station switched from NBC to Fox). The program was canceled in 2003, one week after KMCI's rebranding as "38 The Spot"; by this point, the newscast was called 38 News Now and had completely differentiated itself from KSHB's newscasts, using different graphics, a different – and drastically smaller – set, and a different all-percussion theme ("Third Coast" by Stephen Arnold, which KSHB used as its news theme from 1999 until it rebranded as NBC Action News in 2003, and was used on the KMCI newscast from its launch).

On August 1, 2011, KMCI began airing a rebroadcast of KSHB's 11:00 a.m. newscast at noon on weekdays. In addition to airing rebroadcasts of local news programming from KSHB-TV, KMCI will take on the responsibility of preempting regular programming and running NBC network shows in the event of extended breaking news or severe weather coverage on KSHB.

On April 6, 2015, KMCI began airing a 3rd hour of 41 Action News Today from 7 to 8 a.m., after KSHB begins airing NBC's Today show.[10][11]

• Official website
• KSHB-TV website
• KMCI in the FCC's TV station database
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KMCI-TV