KRIS-TV

KRIS-TV (channel 6) is a television station in Corpus Christi, Texas, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside low-power dual Telemundo affiliate/independent station K22JA-D; Scripps also provides certain services to CBS affiliate KZTV (channel 10) under a shared services agreement (SSA) with SagamoreHill Broadcasting. The three stations share studios on Artesian Street in downtown Corpus Christi; KRIS-TV's transmitter is located in Robstown, Texas.

History

KRIS-TV began broadcasting on May 23, 1956,[3] as the first VHF television station in the area beating former rival KZTV by four months. It aired an analog signal on VHF channel 6 and originally had studios on South Staples Street in Downtown Corpus Christi.

News operation

KRIS-TV currently broadcasts 31 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with five hours each weekday, 2 1/2 hours on Saturdays, and 3 1/2 hours on Sundays). A half-hour newscast airs seven days a week on CW South Texas (channel 6.2), as well as sister station KDF-TV as KRIS 6 News at Nine.

After Evening Post bought KZTV, the company merged operations at KZTV's studios. The move took place in September 2010. Due to technical issues with the move, it was not able to air newscasts from September 26 until September 28.

At the new location, KRIS-TV unveiled a new, high-definition-ready set and graphics package on September 29, 2010. The station has now become the area's first to air newscasts in 16:9 enhanced definition widescreen. As of October 16, KZTV began simulcasting KRIS-TV's weekday morning, noon, and weekend broadcasts after dropping its own shows in those time periods. For the weekend newscasts, however, there are occasionally preemptions on one channel due to network obligations.

On August 7, 2011, KRIS began broadcasting news in "true" HD, where the newscasts are known as KRIS 6 News in HD. KRIS-TV is the second television station in Corpus Christi to broadcast in HD, behind sister station KZTV, who began broadcasting in HD on August 1, 2011.

In early 2014, KRIS-TV rebranded its newscasts as KRIS 6 News. With the rebranding came a new logo and a new opening to the newscasts.

In late 2014, KRIS expanded their 9 p.m. newscasts on KDF and The CW South Texas to Saturdays and Sundays.

In April 2015, KRIS have expanded their newscasts to Sundays at 5 p.m. and expanded 6 News at Sunrise to Saturdays and Sundays at 6 a.m.

In July 2018, KRIS expanded their noon newscast to one hour; only the first half hour continues to be simulcast on sister station KZTV.

In October 2023, KRIS-TV began simulcasting their newscasts on KZTV (branded as KRIS 6 News on KZTV), replacing KZTV's own.[8] Around mid-2024, the news team for KZTV transferred over to KRIS,[9] and the news operation for KZTV is now non-existent.[10]

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is multiplexed:

Analog-to-digital conversion

KRIS-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 6, at noon 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 VHF channel 13, using virtual channel 6.[12] The station's analog signal transmitted on a frequency of 87.75 MHz (+10 kHz shift), and as a result, could be picked up on the lower end of the dial on most FM radios at 87.7. This was true of all other analog channel 6 stations in North America. This is no longer possible for full-power stations after the conversion to digital broadcasting.

Tower collapse

On the morning of April 29, 2020, the KRIS broadcast tower collapsed due to a guy-wire failure during a high wind event; further inspection revealed the failed guy-wire to have been heavily corroded. No personnel were on site at the time of the collapse, and collateral damage was limited to minor damage to the transmitter building.[13] The tower was shared with low-power sister station K22JA-D, as well as radio stations KPLV (88.7 FM), KLUX (89.5 FM), and KFTX (97.5 FM). Both television stations were temporarily multiplexed on KZTV's VHF channel 10 frequency and mapped to their respective virtual channel positions.[14]

The tower, built in 1988, had a history of poor maintenance. The FCC had already been investigating Cordillera Communications' management of their broadcast towers, including those of KRIS and its low-power sisters. In the spring of 2019, as a condition of the sale of Cordillera's station portfolio to Scripps, Scripps agreed to accept liability for the results of the investigation; the FCC later fined Scripps $1.13 million.[15] The fine resulted from Cordillera's "failing to conduct required daily inspections of the lighting systems of 10 antenna structures", "failing to completely log 12 lighting failures at seven antenna structures", and "failing to timely notify the Commission of its acquisition of two antenna structures". The KRIS tower was noted as not having had daily inspections of its lighting system and lighting failures that were not logged.[16]

KRIS activated their replacement transmission facility on VHF channel 13 in March 2021.[17] The station changed to their current UHF channel 26 a year later in February 2022. Both antennas were installed at an existing American Tower Corporation site approximately 1.1 mi northwest of the old KRIS facilities.[18]

callsign	KRIS-TV
branding	KRIS-TV 6 (pronounced "Chris") KRIS 6 News
digital	26 (UHF)‡R1R‡‡R2R‡
virtual	6
affiliations	6.1: NBC for others, see
country	United States
airdate	May 23, 1956
location	Corpus Christi, Texas
callsign meaning	Corpus K(C)hristi
former channel numbers	Analog: 6 (VHF, 1956–2009) Digital: 13 (VHF, 2004–2022)
owner	E. W. Scripps Company
licensee	Scripps Broadcasting Holdings LLC
sister stations	KZTV, K22JA-D
former affiliations	Both secondary: ABC (1956–1964) Fox (1989–1991)
erp	1,000 kW‡R1R‡
haat	295 m
facility id	25559
coordinates	27.75914°N, -97.60758°W
licensing authority	FCC
website	http://www.kristv.com

History

KRIS-DT2

News operation

Technical information

Subchannels

Analog-to-digital conversion

Tower collapse

External links

References