“His career was filled with accomplishments,” begins a three-minute report that encapsulates as best as possible the life and professional career of Ted Koplar.
Koplar, whose family helped make KPLR-11 in St. Louis one of the nation’s most-viewed independent television stations, died April 4.
Today, KPLR is an affiliate of The CW Network owned by Nexstar Media Group, part of a duopoly the nation’s No. 1 owner of broadcast TV stations enjoys in the market; KPLR today is a sibling of FOX affiliate KTVI-2.
But, KPLR, with call letters signifying its years under the Koplar family’s leadership, owes its long success largely to “Teddy” Koplar. His son, Bob Koplar, noted how when he came to work, he always saw his employees — all of them — as family. “He truly cared for them,” Bob Koplar said. “He wanted them to thrive.”
Former KPLR anchor Christine Buck noted that few understood just how much of a futurist Ted Koplar was. “We had the first satellite uplink,” she noted. “We had the first weather RADAR. He had his pulse on what was coming … That’s what really made him different from most people.”
Ted Koplar assumed the CEO position of KPLR Television in 1979. At the time, St. Louis Cardinals and St. Louis Blues telecast were part of the programming mix. In the 1980s, he brought Voltron to U.S. audiences for the first time, ushering in its nationwide popularity as an animated series alongside Transformers.
KPLR is directly responsible for his children and grandchildren. Ted Koplar in 1973 met his wife of 45 years, Nancy Scanlon, after she appeared on the “Harry Fender Show,” broadcast out of the Steeplechase Room of the Chase Park Plaza. He asked the producer for an introduction, they talked the rest of the evening in the lobby of the Chase, and he knew right away she was the woman he wanted to marry. They were married in 1974.
Ever eager to search of new ways to engage audiences, Koplar in 1987 formed Koplar Interactive Systems, which developed a way of sending information through a television’s video signal. Koplar would move KISI’s headquarters from Beaverton, Ore., to Rolla, Mo., using the capabilities of the Missouri School of Science and Technology to advance KISI from analog to digital, advancing from a video-based technology to an audio-based system.
A SOUTHWEST MISSOURI SECOND ACT
The Koplar family sold KPLR to Acme Communications in 1998. But, he was far from finished with showing viewers great TV programming in the Show-Me State.
In 2009, Ted Koplar obtained a new construction permit from the FCC and founded KRBK-49, today a FOX affiliate serving the Ozarks licensed to Osage Beach that serves the Springfield, Mo., DMA. KRBK was built from the ground up as a state-of-the-art digital station and has remained at the forefront of the latest technology, pioneering one of the nation’s first distributed transmission systems (DTS). Koplar sold the station in 2018.
Ted Koplar is also survived by five children: Emilee Koplar Wolfe (Brian), Robert “Bob” (Emily), Alison Koplar Wyatt (Zach), Sam Koplar (Ashley Beleos) and Kevin Koplar. He is also survived by his sister, Susan Brown, and 11 adoring grandchildren.
Funeral services will be private.
