3, 1953, at which time KCMO estimated that KCMO-TV would begin in about four months, bringing to the city additional network programs that WDAF-TV, the only pre-freeze TV station in the city, could not fit in its schedule. This was the first VHF station construction permit awarded in Kansas City since the end of the freeze; a UHF station, KCTY, had been awarded for channel 25. The grant of KCMO-TV's permit spurred KMBC and WHB, applicants for channel 9, to combine their bids and seek shared-time use of the channel. The FCC promptly approved on June 25, and KMBC-TV and WHB-TV began transmitting from an interim facility on August 2. Channel 9, under both licensees, would be the CBS affiliate in Kansas City; KCMO-TV by that point had set a start date of September 27, the end date of daylight saving time. KCMO-TV made the September 27 start date, with an official dedication featuring former president Harry Truman as the guest of honor taking place on October 4. It took the ABC affiliation, giving Kansas City four channels for the four networks: NBC on WDAF-TV, CBS on KMBC-TV and WHB-TV, DuMont on KCTY, and ABC on KCMO-TV. Before the first week of telecasting on channel 5 had concluded, the KCMO Broadcasting Company sold itself to the Meredith Publishing Company of Des Moines, Iowa, for $2 million. Meredith executives, including company founder and namesake Edwin T. Meredith, had visited several weeks prior to tour the television facility. Edwin Meredith joked that he would like to have a radio and television property closer to Des Moines than its holdings in Syracuse, New York. He was more than joking; he expressed serious interest in the property to Tom L. Evans and Lester Cox, KCMO's stockholders, with Cox letting Evans sell the stations. This gave Meredith its fourth television station: it had built WHEN-TV in Syracuse and made radio-TV purchases in consecutive years that brought WOW-TV in Omaha, Nebraska (1951) and KPHO-TV in Phoenix, Arizona (1952) into the fold. DuMont programs moved to KCMO-TV in February 1954, when the network—having bought KCTY in an unsuccessful salvage attempt—opted to shut down that station. Switch from ABC to CBS In January 1955, Meredith reached a group affiliation deal with CBS covering its radio and television properties outside Phoenix. The agreement saw KCMO radio and television become CBS secondary outlets with immediate effect. The news was received,