KRCG

KRCG

Jefferson City/Columbia, Missouri United States
City	Jefferson City, Missouri
Branding	KRCG 13 (general) KRCG News (newscasts)
Slogan	Where Accuracy Matters
Channels	Digital: 12 (VHF) Virtual: 13 (PSIP)
Subchannels	13.1 CBS 13.2 Comet 13.3 Grit 13.4 GetTV
Affiliations	CBS
Owner	Sinclair Broadcast Group (KRCG Licensee, LLC)
First air date	February 13, 1955 (1955-02-13)
Call letters' meaning	Robert C. Goshorn (named in memory of original owner's father)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 13 (VHF, 1955–2009)
Former affiliations	All secondary: ABC (1955–1971) Fox (late 1980s–early 1990s) UPN (1995–2004)
Transmitter power	15.1 kW (digital)
Height	307.8 m (digital)
Facility ID	41110
Transmitter coordinates	38°41′29.9″N 92°5′44″W / 38.691639°N 92.09556°W / 38.691639; -92.09556
Licensing authority	FCC
Public license information:	Profile CDBS
Website	krcgtv.com

KRCG, virtual channel 13, is the CBS-affiliated television station for the Columbia/Jefferson City, Missouri television market. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station is licensed to Jefferson City, with studios and transmitter located on U.S. 54 in the nearby town of New Bloomfield.

History

The station was founded on February 13, 1955 and was owned by the Jefferson City News Tribune. The paper's publisher, Betty Goshorn Weldon, named the station in honor of her late father, Robert C. Goshorn, who had long wanted to bring a television station to the area. Ms. Weldon inherited the paper on his death in 1953 and took over his dream. She thus became one of the first women to own and operate a television station.

KRCG has always been a CBS affiliate, although it had shared some ABC programming with KOMU-TV until KCBJ-TV (now KMIZ-TV) signed on in 1971.^[1] It is the only station in Mid-Missouri to have never changed its affiliation. KOMU and KMIZ have switched their networks twice (first in 1982, then reverting to their original networks in 1986). During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network.^[2]

In 1961, the News Tribune bought KMOS-TV in Sedalia, operating it as a full-time satellite for the western portion of the market. However, later in the decade, KMOS began breaking away from KRCG to produce its own newscasts at 6 and 10 p.m. KRCG operated KMOS at a relatively low power level, and shied away from selling KMOS to another commercial owner. By this time, the Columbia/Jefferson City area was just barely big enough to support a third full network affiliate. With this in mind, KRCG and KOMU feared that if KMOS was sold, the station could potentially become a full-power ABC affiliate.

In 1967, KRCG and KMOS were sold to Kansas City Southern Industries. In 1978, Kansas City Southern donated KMOS to Central Missouri State University (now the University of Central Missouri) in Warrensburg. At that time, KMOS was converted to a stand-alone PBS affiliate. KRCG then signed on a Sedalia translator, K11OJ. In the late 1980s and early 90's, KRCG carried some Fox programming on late night weekends. In 1985, Kansas City Southern sold the station to Price Communications. In 1988, KRCG was sold to Mel Wheeler, Inc., which owned the station until March 2005, when KRCG was purchased by Barrington Broadcasting. On February 28, 2013, Barrington Broadcasting announced the sale of its entire group, including KRCG, to Sinclair Broadcast Group.^[3] The sale was completed on November 25.^[4]

On or before August 2, 2014, KRCG launched its first digital subchannel, broadcasting GetTV programming on PSIP channel 13.2.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Analog-to-digital conversion

KRCG shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 13, 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 12.^[6][7] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 13.

News operation

Although KRCG has traditionally dominated the western side of the market, it spent most of its history as a distant runner-up to KOMU. In November 2006, however, KRCG's 10 p.m. newscast took first place in the market—the first time in memory that long-dominant KOMU had lost any timeslot. As of the February 2011 sweeps, KRCG remains first at 10 p.m.^[8]

On May 9, 2016 KRCG began broadcasting from a remodeled studio. With the remodel, KRCG became the final news operation in the Columbia-Jefferson City market to broadcast its news in high definition.^[9]

Out of market coverage

Until 2010, KRCG operated an analog translator, K11OJ, on analog VHF channel 11, in Sedalia, Missouri, located within the Kansas City market. That translator has long been shut down, and the station files associated with that translator was deleted by the FCC no later than March 2014. ^[10]

See also

• KMOS-TV (Former KRCG satellite, now a PBS member station)

References

External links

• KRCG website
• http://www.skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?b6809
• "Listing 1012934". Antenna Structure Registration database. U.S. Federal Communications Commission. 
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KRCG
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KRCG-TV