Ted Koplar who at one time owned KPLR in St. Louis and KRBK in Sacramento has passed away.

Koplar a St. Louis native sold both KPLR and KRBK, now known as KMAX and later got back into the TV ownership game when he founded KRBK (Channel 49) in Springfield, Missouri.

The KRBK call letters were special to Ted Koplar, as they stood as the initials of his brother Robert B. Koplar who had died years ago.

Ted Koplar sold the KRBK in Springfield back in 2018.

On a personal note I worked for Ted Koplar, when I was News Director at KRBK in Sacramento. Koplar was an interesting guy to say the least, but he did have a heart of gold.

One time, Shane Moreland, then News Director at KPLR and I were attending NAB in Las Vegas. I think both Shane and I spent more time on the casino floor, then the convention floor.

After we made a bunch of money at the craps table one day, the next day we gave it all back and more. To the point that neither Shane or I had any money left in our pockets.

After crapping out at the casino, we headed back to the convention floor, since we didn’t have any money to do anything else.

We ran into Ted Koplar on the floor and told him we lost all our money in the casino. Ted reached into his pocket, pulled out a couple of hundred dollar bills and handed them to us. It was a nice gesture from the boss.

Sadly, Shane and I ran back to the casino and lost the $200 bucks in about five minutes.

We never told Ted Koplar about that.

Ted Koplar was 77 years old.