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KREZ-TV

KREZ-TV (channel 6) is a television station licensed to Durango, Colorado, United States, affiliated with CBS and Fox. It is a satellite of Albuquerque, New Mexico–based KRQE (channel 13), which is owned by Nexstar Media Group. KREZ-TV's offices are located on Turner Drive in Durango, and its transmitter is located atop Smelter Mountain; its parent station maintains studios on Broadcast Plaza in Albuquerque.

KBIM-TV (channel 10) in Roswell, New Mexico, also serves as a satellite of KRQE. These satellite operations provide additional news bureaus for KRQE and sell advertising time to local sponsors.

History

The station began operations on September 15, 1963, as KJFL-TV, a free-standing local independent station owned by Jeter Telecasting;[2] it went off the air after its facilities were destroyed in a February 1964 fire,[3] and the station was sold, rebuilt and returned to the air on September 9, 1965, as KREZ-TV, a satellite of CBS affiliate KREX-TV (channel 5) in Grand Junction, Colorado.[4] KREZ operated as such for nearly 30 years (with many attempts at regional news along the way) before being sold to Davenport, Iowa-based Lee Enterprises and becoming a KRQE satellite in 1995.[5]

In 1998, Lee Enterprises rebranded the combination of KRQE, KREZ-TV, and KBIM-TV as "CBS Southwest" and revamped the Durango and Roswell stations' news services to produce inserts into KRQE's early evening newscasts.[6] Two years later, Lee would exit broadcasting and sell KRQE, KREZ-TV, KBIM-TV, and most of its other television properties to Emmis Communications; in 2005, Emmis, in its own exit from television, sold its New Mexico outlets to LIN TV Corporation.

A deal to sell KREZ to Native American Broadcasting, LLC was reached in April 2011;[7] upon the sale's completion, KREZ was to become a full-scale independent station (with plans for extensive local programming), and change its call letters to KSWZ-TV.[8] However, the sale was never finalized, and KREZ remains a KRQE satellite.

On March 21, 2014, it was announced that Media General would acquire LIN.[9] The merger was completed on December 19.[10] Just over a year later, on January 27, 2016, it was announced that the Nexstar Broadcasting Group would buy Media General for $4.6 billion. After selling then-Fox affiliate KASA-TV to Ramar Communications, KRQE and its satellites became part of "Nexstar Media Group."[11] The sale was completed on January 17, 2017, reuniting KREZ with former parent station KREX.[12]

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is multiplexed:

Analog-to-digital conversion

KREZ-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 6, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 15, using virtual channel 6.[14]

Translators

  • Bayfield & Ignacio
  • Cortez
  • Durango & Hermosa
  • Farmington, NM
  • Hesperus
  • Pagosa Springs

References

  1. FCC History Cards for KREZ-TV^
  2. Broadcasting Yearbook 1964 1964^
  3. And the West is History Durango Herald, February 18, 2014, retrieved September 2, 2020^
  4. New TV stations Broadcasting, September 20, 1965, retrieved May 15, 2011^
  5. Application Search Details CDBS Public Access, Federal Communications Commission, December 9, 2021, retrieved December 9, 2021^
  6. CBS Southwest Albuquerque Journal, August 9, 1998, retrieved December 7, 2021^
  7. LIN sends an Albuquerque TV satellite out of its orbit Television Business Report, April 22, 2011, retrieved April 23, 2011^
  8. Local company agrees to buy KREZ-TV The Durango Herald, May 8, 2011, retrieved May 15, 2011^
  9. Sruthi Ramakrishnan. Media General to buy LIN Media for $1.6 billion Reuters, March 21, 2014, retrieved March 21, 2014^
  10. Media General Completes Merger With LIN Media, Press Release, Media General, Retrieved December 19, 2014^
  11. Nexstar Broadcasting Group Enters into Definitive Agreement to Acquire Media General for $4.6 Billion in Accretive Cash and Stock Transaction retrieved January 28, 2016^
  12. Nexstar Broadcasting Group Completes Acquisition of Media General Creating Nexstar Media Group, The Nation’s Second Largest Television Broadcaster Nexstar Media Group, January 17, 2017. Retrieved January 17, 2017.^
  13. RabbitEars TV Query for KREZ RabbitEars, retrieved December 5, 2021^
  14. DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds retrieved March 24, 2012^