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.