KRBC-TV

KRBC-TV first began its broadcasting operation on August 30, 1953, as the first television station in Abilene. The station was owned by the Ackers family, who had bought the construction permit from Harte-Hanks Communications a few months earlier, along with KRBC radio (1470 AM, now KYYW). The call letters stand for Reporter Broadcasting Company, after the Harte-Hanks-owned Abilene Reporter-News. The tower was originally located atop Rattlesnake Mountain in Cedar Gap. KRBC originally carried a mixture of programming from all four networks of the time—NBC, CBS, ABC, and DuMont.[1] It however was a primary NBC affiliate. It lost CBS in 1956 when KPAR-TV (now KTXS-TV) signed on. The two stations shared ABC until KTAB-TV signed on and took CBS, leaving KRBC as an NBC affiliate.

In 1962, KACB-TV signed on from San Angelo as a semi-satellite of KRBC. The Ackers family's broadcast holdings, Abilene Radio and Television Company,[2] owned the station for 44 years until selling it to Sunrise Television in 1997. Two years later, Sunrise severed the connection between KRBC and KACB, and KACB became a full-fledged station; it is now KSAN-TV.

In 2002, Sunrise merged with LIN Television.[3] In 2003, LIN sold KRBC to Mission Broadcasting.[4] Mission Broadcasting, in turn, contracted with the Nexstar Broadcasting Group, owner of KTAB, to provide news, traffic, sales, engineering, and business operations under a shared sales agreement.

In 2005, Nexstar completed the consolidation of the KTAB operations into the older, larger KRBC building at 4510 South 14th Street in Abilene. Nexstar had already taken over KRBC's operations a year earlier under a joint sales agreement with KTAB as the senior partner. The original KTAB building was sold and has subsequently been converted into an office building. The computerized and automated master control facility not only operates KRBC and KTAB in Abilene, but also sister Nexstar/Mission stations KLST and KSAN-TV in San Angelo. All syndicated programming and local advertising for the four stations is delivered via Harris/Leitch Nexio servers with Avid/Sundance FastBreak automation providing all switching and playback operations. Business and traffic operations for all four stations are also handled here.

KRBC's logo prior to February 2, 2013

During a January 14, 2007 ice storm, the KRBC main transmission tower collapsed, taking the station's analog signal off the air for 13 hours. The collapse not only destroyed the tower and the analog antenna, but also the station's low-power digital transmission antenna. However, the falling tower missed the transmitter building and an adjacent auxiliary antenna; station engineers were able to get KRBC's analog channel 9 signal back on the air using that auxiliary antenna. The collapse also destroyed the antenna for NOAA Weather Radio station WXK29, leaving it off the air until a new antenna was installed. A microwave link on the tower which helped provide programming to KLST and KSAN in San Angelo was also destroyed in the collapse. In December 2007, Nexstar set up a dual-path fiber-optic cable link to the San Angelo broadcast facility.[5][6]

The station's digital signal remained off the air until October 2007, when it returned to the air on digital channel 29 with all NBC programming presented in HD.[6][7]

In May 2007, KTAB and KRBC's websites were combined into one, BigCountryHomepage.com. The site is maintained with content produced by both stations, and serves as a community portal to Abilene and the surrounding areas.

In addition to the NBC network schedule, syndicated programming on KRBC includes Entertainment Tonight, Family Feud, Judge Judy, Rachael Ray, and The Doctors.

KRBC presently broadcasts 16½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with three hours each weekday, one hour on Saturdays and a half-hour on Sundays).

KRBC's news coverage primarily centers around Abilene and surrounding communities. The station does provide news coverage outside the greater Abilene area. Weather coverage includes all the above-mentioned counties, but forecasts do center primarily for the general area near Abilene.

On February 2, 2013, KRBC began broadcasting its local newscasts in 16:9 widescreen standard definition with a new set, logo, and graphics, becoming the second station to make the switch.[13][14] In the fourth week of August 2016, the station began broadcasting its newscasts in high definition, becoming the third station in the market to make the upgrade.[15]

• Official website
• KRBC in the FCC's TV station database
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KRBC-TV