KRBC-TV

KRBC-TV is the NBC Television Network affiliate for the Abilene-Sweetwater-Brownwoodmarket area of Texas. KRBC is Abilene's first television station and airs on digital channel 29. While the station is owned by Mission Broadcasting, KRBC has entered into various service agreements with Nexstar Broadcasting station KTAB-TV which provides various services for the station including news, production, traffic and business operations. In July 2004, the stations began operating under a joint sales agreement. In addition, after consolidation construction, the Abilene facility now provides various office and master control functions for Nexstar and Mission stations KLST-TV and KSAN-TV in San Angelo.

Technical information
KRBC is licensed to Abilene on the station on a digital signal on UHF channel 29—operating with an effective radiated power of only 2.5 kilowatts under a Special Temporary Authority, but has filed a construction permit to increase power to about 1000 kilowatts. The full power digital master control build out with high definition was completed in October 2007.

History
KRBC first began its broadcasting operation on August 30, 1953. 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-AM 1470 (now KYYW). The call letters stand for Reporter Broadcasting Company. 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[2] However, it 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 owned the station for 44 years until selling it to Sunrise Television in 1997. Two years later, Sunrise severed the electronic umbilical cord between KRBC and KACB, and KACB became a full-fledged station; it is now KSAN-TV.

Sunrise merged with LIN Television in 2001. In 2004 LIN Television sold KRBC to Mission Broadcasting. Mission Broadcasting in turn contracted with the Nexstar Broadcasting Group, owner of KTAB, to provide news, traffic, sales, engineering, and business operations.

In 2005 Nexstar moved the entire KTAB operation from 5410 South 14th Street into the KRBC building at 4510 South 14th Street in Abilene. However, KTAB is still the senior partner. The master control room now operates KTAB and KRBC, as well as KLST-TV and KSAN-TV in San Angelo. Business and traffic operations for both stations are handled here.

In 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. Luckily, the falling tower missed the transmitter building and an adjacent auxiliary antenna. The collapse also destroyed the National Weather Service NOAA Weather Radio antenna leaving the NOAA radio station off air until a new antenna was installed. Station engineers were able to get KRBC analog back on the air using that auxiliary antenna, which it continue to broadcast on analog channel 9.

A microwave link on the tower which helped provide programming to KLST and KSAN in San Angelo also was also destroyed in the collapse. In October 2007 the San Angelo link was replaced with a dual channel fiber-optic cable.

The stations digital signal went off the air until October 2007 when it returned to the air on digital channel 29 with all NBC programming presented in HD. The new digital transmitter is based in a new transmitter building at the KTAB TV tower site near Potosi, Texas. The station also shares a digital broadcast antenna with KTAB.

Digital television
The station's current digital signal:

Coverage area

 * KRBC-TV serves as the NBC affiliate for 16 counties in West Central Texas that form the Abilene-Sweetwater television market as defined by Nielsen.
 * (Taylor, Nolan, Callahan, Coleman, Brown, Runnels, Stephens, Shackelford, Jones, Eastland, Fisher, Scurry, Mitchell, Haskell,Stonewall, & Knox)
 * KRBC also provides coverage for 4 other counties that are on the fringe of the assigned market.
 * (Throckmorton in the Wichita Falls-Lawton DMA, Coke in the San Angelo DMA, Comanche in the Dallas-Fort Worth DMA, & Mills in theWaco-Temple-Killeen DMA)
 * 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.

Weekday programs

 * Abilene Today - Anchored by Maxine Ridling with John Nolan providing the weather forecasts. [Airs from 6:00 - 7:00 AM]
 * Abilene Midday - Anchored by Maxine Ridling with John Nolan providing the weather forecasts. [Airs at 11:30 AM]
 * KRBC News First at Five - Anchored by Brittany Pelletz. Chief Meteorologist Randy Turner co-anchors and provides weather forecasts. [Alex Hayes covers the weather segments on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday during the 5:00 news]
 * KRBC News at 6:00 - Anchored by Megan Dobbs. Chief Meteorologist Randy Turner co-anchors and provides weather forecasts. David Robinett & Manny Diaz (or Tyler Edwards) provide the BigCountryHomepage.Com sports report.
 * KRBC News at 10:00 - Anchored by Megan Dobbs. Chief Meteorologist Randy Turner co-anchors and provides weather forecasts. David Robinett & Manny Diaz (or Tyler Edwards) provide the BigCountryHomepage.Com sports report.

Weekend programs

 * KRBC News Weekend (Saturday 6:00 & 10:00 PM) - Anchored by Tim Johnston. Meteorologist Chris Whited provides the weather forecasts. Tyler Edwards & Manny Diaz provide the BigCountryHomepage.Com sports report.
 * KRBC News Weekend (Sunday 10:00 PM) - Anchored by Tim Johnston. Meteorologist Nikki-Dee Ray provides the weather forecasts. Tyler Edwards & Manny Diaz provide the BigCountryHomepage.Com sports report.

Current On-Air Staff
KRBC News Team:


 * Megan Dobbs - 6:00 & 10:00 PM Weeknight News Anchor
 * Randy Turner - Weeknight News Anchor & Chief Meteorologist
 * Brittany Pelletz - First at Five Anchor & Weekday Reporter
 * Maxine Ridling - Abilene Today & Abilene Midday Anchor
 * Tim Johnston - Weekend Anchor & Reporter
 * Morgan Bond - Reporter
 * Jessica Reyes - Reporter

KRBC Weather Team:


 * Randy Turner - Chief Meteorologist (AMS Seal of Approval)
 * John Nolan - Abilene Today & Abilene Midday Meteorologist
 * Alex Hayes - Meteorologist & News Reporter
 * Chris Whited - Weekend Meteorologist (Saturday) [also a meteorologist at KLBK-TV in Lubbock]
 * Nikki-Dee Ray - Weekend Meteorologist (Sunday) [also a meteorologist at KLBK-TV in Lubbock]

BigCountryHomepage.Com Sports Team:


 * David Robinett - Sports Director
 * Tyler Edwards - Sports Anchor & Reporter
 * Manny Diaz - Sports Anchor & Reporter

Station Management

 * Eric Thomas - Nexstar Abilene Vice President & General Manager
 * Marian Zett - KRBC Station Manager
 * Austin Kellerman - Nexstar Abilene News Director
 * Maria Oliver - KRBC/KTAB Assignment Manager

Newscast titles

 * Big Country News (1980s-early 1990s)
 * 9 News (approximately 1994-1998)
 * NBC 9 News (approximately 1998-2001)
 * KRBC 9 News (2001–2006)
 * KRBC News (2006–present)

Station slogans

 * Come Home To KRBC (1986–1987; localized version of NBC ad campaign)
 * Live, Local, Latebreaking News Coverage (late 1990s-2001)
 * Your Community Connection (2001–2006)
 * Abilene's First News (2006–2008)
 * Abilene's News Station (2008–2009)
 * Abilene's News (2009–present)

2005 cable dispute
<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">On January 1, 2005 at midnight, KRBC was removed from the cable television lineup in the city of Abilene after months of dispute between the station owner(s) and Cox Communications, now Suddenlink Communications. In accordance with Federal Communications Commission(FCC) regulation, KRBC station owner Mission Broadcasting (operated by Nexstar Broadcasting) tried to make an agreement with the cable system to continue carrying KRBC's NBC programming. Cox Communications, now Suddenlink Communications claimed KRBC wanted its cable system to pay for its transmission. The disagreement began with KRBC/Mission/Nexstar requesting 10 cents per subscriber for KRBC to be carried on the Cox Cable system in the Abilene area. The basic argument was that satellite providers pay for the right to rebroadcast local affiliates' signals, and that cable operators should, as well. Due to the dispute, Cox eventually dropped KRBC from its system, which caused many city residents to purchase an antenna for their homes to pick up the stations analog signal for NBC programming. Later in the year, KRBC and the other local television stations were picked up by Dish Network in a local channel package, which was strongly supported and promoted by KRBC/Mission/Nexstar. During the time KRBC was off the cable system, Cox replaced what was the KRBC spot on cable channel 5 with family oriented cable stations from its digital line-up (such as HBO Family and Noggin). The cable system also added several temporary channels to its lineup off its digital cable lineup to preview and to give disgruntled customers several new channels. After nine and a half months of negotiations between Nexstar and Cox Communications, the KRBC signal was returned to the Cox lineup in Abilene on October 20, 2005.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-2" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[3]