for Business Men's Assurance, continued to exist only on paper for another four and a half years after being assigned to channel 41. By the time Allied's station—which was reassigned channel 50 and began as KCIT-TV in October 1969—began broadcasting and gave Kansas City its first independent station, the station was still unbuilt and needed yet more time due to a local construction strike. It had not been able to find land for a studio site in Kansas City, Missouri, and had tentatively agreed to construct facilities in Fairway, Kansas, requiring FCC approval. The picture finally came into focus in 1970. The transmitter facility was built on WDAF-TV's tower, while station offices were located on the 18th floor of the BMA Tower. The station was automated, an innovation for that period, with a computer preparing station logs and switching video inputs. The first telecast was made on the afternoon of September 28, 1970: after a welcome message from general manager Bob Wormington, the first program was the live cartoon show 41 Treehouse Lane, featuring host Ed Muscare. Within a year, Kansas City had gone from being the largest U.S. market without an independent station to having two of them run by twin brothers. It almost did not turn out this way. In late 1969 and early 1970, negotiations had taken place between Allied and Westport Television. Shortly before KCIT began broadcasting, Grant proposed to buy a controlling stake in KCIT-TV, donate the studio equipment purchased for KBMA-TV and the channel 50 physical plant to local public television station KCSD-TV to become a two-channel operation, and move KCIT-TV to channel 41. He then later proposed merging the two stations on channel 50 and donating channel 41 to the University of Missouri. Stockholders in KCIT-TV rebuffed both overtures. Within a year, however, KCIT-TV was out of business. It left the air on July 8, 1971, citing a poor economy as its reason to shut down. The move bolstered channel 41, now the only independent in the market, which moved to pick up the preempted network programs channel 50 had carried in the Kansas City area and some of its syndicated programming inventory. Benno C. Schmidt of New York acquired controlling interest in the station in 1971, with BMA remaining a major creditor. The insurer then repurchased a minority stake in Westport Television in 1975. The station continued to be a technical innovator.