KREX-TV

KREX-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Grand Junction, Colorado, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for Colorado's Western Slope region. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group and operated alongside KFQX (channel 4), a Fox affiliate, and KGJT-CD (channel 27), an independent station with MyNetworkTV. The three stations share studios on Hillcrest Avenue in Grand Junction, where KREX-TV's transmitter is also located.

This station began broadcasting programming on May 30, 1954, as KFXJ-TV before becoming KREX-TV in 1956. Owned by Rex Howell, who had brought radio to the area by relocating KFXJ radio to Grand Junction in 1930, it was the only television station on the Western Slope for 25 years; though it aired programming from all major networks, its primary affiliation was CBS. The establishment of satellite stations KREY-TV in Montrose (1956) and KREZ-TV in Durango (1965) extended the station's reach. ABC programs moved to KJCT (channel 8) in 1979, but KREX-TV continued as an affiliate of CBS and NBC until KKCO (channel 11) began in 1996. Aside from a period between 1966 and 1970, Howell was the primary owner of KREX-TV until his death in 1978.

Withers Broadcasting acquired KREX-TV in 1985; it added a third satellite, KREG-TV in Glenwood Springs, in 1987 but sold off KREZ-TV in 1995. Under Withers, KREX acquired the franchise to broadcast Fox programming to the Western Slope, which became KFQX. Hoak Media bought the station in 2003. Its studios burned to the ground in a 2008 fire; after reporting for the station's website and later using facilities at Western Colorado Community College, the facility was rebuilt in 2009. Nexstar acquired the station in 2014 after most of Hoak was bought by Gray Television, owner of KKCO.

History

On March 25, 1953, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted Western Slope Broadcasting Company—owned by Rex Howell, owner of Grand Junction radio station KFXJ—a construction permit to build a new television station on channel 5.[2][3] Howell, who had brought radio to Grand Junction when KFXJ moved from the Denver suburb of Edgewater to Grand Junction in 1930,[4] was getting into television earlier than he had anticipated. He told the Grand Junction Rotary Club shortly after the permit was authorized that he would rather have waited five years to build a TV station but felt it necessary to "move now".[5] To house the station, KFXJ's radio studios were expanded with a new television wing.[6] KFXJ-TV began broadcasting a test pattern on May 22 and regular programming on May 30, 1954. It held affiliations at its start with NBC and the DuMont Television Network.[7] CBS affiliated with the station in December 1954 as part of its Extended Market Plan, which provided CBS programs to small-market stations.[8]

Shortly after going on the air, in August 1955, Howell announced plans to build satellite stations for KFXJ-TV to expand its coverage to Montrose (65 mi south of Grand Junction) on channel 10 and Durango (130 mi south of Grand Junction) on channel 6.[9] The Grand Junction KFXJ stations became KREX and KREX-TV on May 1, 1956, with the KFXJ-TV call sign moved to the new Montrose station,[10] which became KREY-TV on July 21, 1958.[11] Later that year, KREX-TV obtained a live hookup to CBS;[12] other networks were not included. To broadcast the 1958 World Series from NBC live, the station had to set up a portable microwave transmission antenna at a home in Price, Utah, that could receive the network signal from Salt Lake City so it could be beamed back to Grand Junction.[13] In 1961, the station announced plans to obtain a permanent microwave link for NBC and ABC programs; by that time, KREX-TV was a primary CBS affiliate, and that network accounted for 80 percent of its national programming.[14] The microwave link began use in 1966 and allowed the station to air more sports telecasts from NBC and ABC.[15]

The Durango channel was not originally built by Howell and instead went on the air as a separate station, KJFL-TV. That station burned to the ground in a February 1964 fire;[16] an affiliated company of KREX purchased the construction permit[17] and put the station back on the air as KREZ-TV.[18] The combination of KREX-TV, KREY-TV, and KREZ-TV was promoted as the XYZ network.[19] Further, "Rex" and "rey" meant "king" in Latin and Spanish, respectively.[20]

In 1966, Howell sold KREX-TV and its satellites for $2.092 million to XYZ Television, Inc., in which an 81-percent controlling stake was held by Cincinnati-based Forestville Realty Corporation including James and William Williams.[21] The buyers struggled to make payments on the transaction, and in 1970 Howell reassumed managerial control over the XYZ stations.[22] Howell—who also served as a state senator and was known as a pilot and for his activity in the community—died in 1978.[23] The Williams brothers and other out-of-state interests continued to hold minority shares in the stations.[24]

From the 1950s to 1979, KREX-TV was the only television station in Grand Junction and maintained affiliations with all three major networks: CBS, NBC, and ABC. The XYZ stations thus aired most of television's top programs.[25] A second Grand Junction station, KJCT (channel 8), arrived on October 22, 1979.[26] It was built by Pikes Peak Broadcasting, owners of KRDO-TV in Colorado Springs, and was an ABC affiliate.[27] KREX-TV continued as an affiliate of CBS and NBC with a primary emphasis on CBS. In 1981, when CBS extended its national morning program Morning from 60 to 90 minutes, KREX-TV ceased carrying Today from NBC.[28] KREX-TV tended to schedule selected NBC prime time programs for air in the 6 p.m. hour.[29] A Mesa County–operated system of translators and the local cable system provided Denver's NBC affiliate, KCNC-TV, to Grand Junction viewers.[30] During the 1988 Summer Olympics, which aired on NBC, KREX-TV temporarily dropped most CBS programs to show the Olympics.[31]

News operation

In the early days, KREX-TV news was a one-man operation. News director Bill Cleary recounted that he was the news anchor and presented the weather and sports, with the occasional aid of photos he had taken of news events.[69] When KJCT came on the air in 1979, it provided the first local news competition to KREX. It initially was a distant second but pulled into a more competitive position, particularly for the 10 p.m. news; KREX retained viewers at 5:30 p.m., when its local newscast followed the CBS Evening News.[70][71] The XYZ network afforded opportunities for local news inserts. In the early 1960s, the network experimented with local news segments at its satellite stations, but they were delivered by local salesmen and rarely contained hard news items. The station tried again in the 1980s, introducing five-minute news segments in Montrose, Durango,[72] and—after 1987—Glenwood Springs.

By the time Hoak acquired KREX in 2004, the news department had slipped to third in the ratings, behind KJCT and KKCO. The company invested in new news sets to upgrade the quality of the station's newscasts and improve ratings. By 2013, KREX was third in early evening news and second in late news.[73]

Technical information

External links