KIII

The station was originally launched in 1954 as KVDO-TV, broadcasting on channel 22 as the Corpus Christi market's first television station. KVDO was a primary affiliate of the DuMont network,[1] but carried secondary affiliations with NBC until KRIS-TV took the air in May 1956, CBS until KZTV signed on in September 1956,[2] and ABC.[3] It was one of several television stations across the United States that took part in a 1956 lawsuit to prevent VHF stations from being added in their markets, on the grounds that UHF stations in that era typically suffered financially or even went out of business entirely if they had any VHF competition.[4] The lawsuit was unsuccessful, however, and KRIS and KZTV were both on air as VHF stations by fall 1956.[1] Around the same time as the VHF stations were launched, as well, the DuMont network collapsed.

KVDO carried on as an independent station, and was sold to H. J. Schmidt's South Texas Telecasting Company in April 1957.[5] It temporarily suspended broadcast operations in August pending what was announced at the time as a reorganization of its studio layout,[6] but a federal tax lien was filed against the station by the Bureau of Internal Revenue in September.[7] In October the station received FCC approval to stay off the air until January 1958,[8] but by November 1957, the former KVDO studio had been sold to KRIS-TV,[9] and the station did not relaunch.

Following the demise of the original KVDO, South Texas Telecasting petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to add a third VHF allocation on Channel 3 at Corpus Christi due to KVDO's failure as a UHF station. Other cities also wanted the Channel 3 allocation; however, following a lot of struggle, channel 3 was ultimately allocated to Corpus Christi, and hearings to award the channel began in 1961.[10] South Texas Telecasting was one of three applicants for the channel, alongside Nueces Telecasting and the Corpus Christi Caller-Times,[11] but the Caller-Times withdrew its application in 1962 after its owner, Harte-Hanks Newspapers, acquired the San Antonio Express-News.[12]

South Texas Telecasting was awarded channel 3 in December 1962,[13] but Nueces Telecasting then filed a protest alleging that awarding the channel to South Texas Telecasting would violate the FCC's regulations on concentration of media ownership.[14] Nueces withdrew its petition in June 1963 after South Texas Telecasting agreed to pay the company $40,000.[15]

The station relaunched on May 4, 1964 as a full ABC affiliate,[16] and retains that network affiliation today. It was originally planned to retain the original KVDO call sign, but its call sign was changed to KIII by the time it launched.[16]

South Texas Telecasting, which had by this time added Clinton D. McKinnon as its major stockholder and executive vice president but still retained most of its original board of directors, later evolved into McKinnon Broadcasting, who remained the station's owners until 2010.

In 1969, KIII started a satellite in Victoria, Texas, KXIX (channel 19), to bring ABC programming to that area. In 1976, KXIX was sold to local ownership. It now operates as Fox affiliate KVCT.

On April 29, 2010 it was announced that KIII would be acquired by London Broadcasting Company.[17] which the sale was closed on August 31.[18] On September 18, 2011, KIII began broadcasting newscasts in high definition.

On May 14, 2014, the Gannett Company announced that it would acquire KIII and five other LBC stations for $215 million. Gannett's CEO Gracia Martore touted that the acquisition would give the company a presence in several fast-growing markets, and opportunities for local advertisers to leverage its digital marketing platform.[19] The company also owns fellow Texas ABC affiliates WFAA and KVUE, which it had acquired in its purchase of Belo Corporation. The sale was completed on July 8.[20] 13 months later, on June 29, 2015, the Gannett Company split in two, with one side specializing in print media and the other side specializing in broadcast and digital media. KIII was retained by the latter company, named Tegna.[21]

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

KIII shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 3, on June 12, 2009, the official date in 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 8.[26] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 3.