WXSL-LD in St. Elmo, IL appears to be poised to make a de facto move into the St. Louis market. Three job postings show on Indeed.com for positions at “WXSL Telemundo St. Louis”. The current WXSL is a low-power signal in St. Elmo, IL, southwest of Effingham. It is owned by SagamoreHill Kansas City, operator of KGKC Kansas City and its Columbia simulcast, KGKM. WXSL-LD cannot directly move into the market due to being co-channel with KNLC, so it is at this point a bit of a mystery how SagamoreHill intends to work this out.
Furthermore, the website https://telemundostl.com/ is live with St. Louis-specific content, and Facebook and Twitter accounts have been active for some time. Telemundo St. Louis is also a sponsor of this weekend’s upcoming “Fiesta in Florissant” festival.
Telemundo programming in St. Louis currently airs on WODK-LD RF channel 30, virtual 45. While I have not previously seen any local content or advertising on 45.1, thinking it to be a basic national feed, it appears that this either has changed or is about to. I will pay more attention to this channel going forward to see what kind of local content emerges and if I can get an ID screen. (Edit: Yes, local ads and IDs are running.)
WXSL-LD in St. Elmo has filed a STA to reduce power to 1,200 watts due to interference caused to a local electric utility that uses the same frequency range for communication services.
SagamoreHill intends to file a channel change modification.
This could also eliminate the issue of being unable to move closer to St. Louis due to being co-channel with KNLC.
And now the first move toward St. Louis is in the works. WXSL-LD has applied for a channel change to 21 but also a move to a new tower between Vandalia and Greenville. Highland is the nearest town to St. Louis within the coverage of the new site, but this is probably the first of several hops.
Telemundo is now also on KEFN-CD 20.1 (really program stream 4) with the same WXSL-LD ID screen. Confirmed 11/25/2023 between 4:50 and 5 PM CST.