KCRG-TV

KCRG-TV, channel 9, is a television station, operating as the ABC affiliate for the Cedar Rapids, Iowa metropolitan area, and the nearby cities of Waterloo, Iowa City and Dubuque. The station broadcasts on VHF digital channel 9, and is the primary ABC for the northeast quarter of Iowa, and portions of southwestern Wisconsin and northwestern Illinois. Its transmitter is located in Walker, Iowa.

History
During the late 1940s, the Cedar Rapids Gazette, previous owners of KCRG-AM 1600, filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission for a TV station license. At the time, the FCC had a backlog of over 200 applications, and had decided not to proceed with action on further applications until the backlogged requests could be filled.

After the backlog was taken care of, many applications were filed for licenses. The Gazette Company didn't want to compete for a license, and decided to withdraw the initial application. It joined with a number of other investors as Cedar Rapids Television Company (CRTV), which was granted a license for channel 9. The station signed on October 15, 1953.

Initially, the station was known as KCRI because the other investors didn't want to have the new television station so closely identified with the Gazette. The radio station also took the KCRI calls because one of the television station's managers suggested that every mention of "KCRG" on air was a promotion for the newspaper—one for which the Gazette would have to pay each time. After about a year of operation, the Gazette bought out the remaining investors in CRTV and the station was renamed KCRG-TV in 1954.

Since that time the station has remained under the ownership of Gazette Communications, which was renamed the SourceMedia Group in mid-2010. After the 1996 sale of WHO-TV in Des Moines, KCRG-TV has been the only locally owned and operated television station left in Iowa.

KCRG started broadcasting in high definition television in January 2003. The station also had the first news helicopter in Iowa, "NewsCopter 9". KCRG has a digital subchannel called "Local 9.2" at channel 9.2, which has a wheel of local news, weather and features on part of the screen. The remainder of the screen has a news ticker, current weather conditions, rotating weather images and program listings. This channel can also be seen on Mediacom channel 109 by digital cable subscribers in the Cedar Rapids-Waterloo-Dubuque-Iowa City DMA.

KCRG aired wall-to-wall coverage of the Great Iowa Flood of 2008 from June 11 to 15, and continued to operate out of their downtown studios despite the flooding. Network coverage of the 2008 NBA Finals as a consequence was aired on 9.2 instead.

Programming
KCRG airs the entire ABC network schedule, although it delays Nightline by a half-hour, they delay the ABC Kids program block by an hour due to the second hour of the weekend morning newscast, and airs America This Morning a half-hour earlier than most ABC stations in the Central time zone, in order to make room for the eventual expansion of its morning newscast to 4:30 a.m. Syndicated programs on KCRG's schedule include Oprah, Inside Edition, Ellen, Rachael Ray, and reruns of According to Jim.

The station also produces PowerHouse TV, a program about energy efficiency and safety, for local utility Alliant Energy, which airs on KCRG and stations throughout Alliant's service area in Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and small portions of Illinois and Missouri.[1]

News operation
Currently, KCRG-TV broadcasts a total of 31 hours of local newscasts each week (with 5 hours on weekdays, three hours on Saturdays, and three hours on Sundays). In addition to its main newsroom at its Cedar Rapids studios, the station also operates satellite newsrooms in Iowa City and Dubuque.

KCRG-TV has the distinction of being one of only four remaining broadcast television stations in the United States currently utilizing the "24 Hour News Source" format, which it began using in 1990—the only other stations still using the format As of February 2010[update], are NBC affiliates WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids, Michigan and KFDX-TV in Wichita Falls, Texas, and CBS affiliate WISH-TV in Indianapolis.

Sports Director John Campbell and reporter Dave Franzman have been with the station since the 1970s, while Bruce Aune started anchoring at KCRG in 1986. Meteorologist Denny Frary was the station's longest-running on-air personality, working on KCRG from 1974 until he retired on November 17, 2006. Upon Frary's retirement, several pieces aired with friends and associates sharing a few words on Frary, and a roast ceremony was held the night prior to his retirement.

On January 3, 2011, KCRG-TV expanded its weekday morning newscast by one half-hour, moving it to 4:30 a.m., creating a 2½ hour block of news each weekday morning.[2]

Newscast titles

 * Night Newsdesk
 * The 5 O'Clock News/The 10 O'Clock News (1964-?)
 * TV-9 Eyewitness News (1970s–1992)
 * KCRG-TV9 News (1992–present)

Station slogans

 * We're Still the One, on TV-9 (1979–1980; localized version of ABC ad campaign)
 * You and Me and TV-9 (1980–1981; localized version of ABC ad campaign)
 * Now is the Time, TV-9 is the Place (1981–1982; localized version of ABC ad campaign)
 * Come on Along to TV-9 (1982–1983; localized version of ABC ad campaign)
 * That Special Feeling on TV-9 (1983–1984; localized version of ABC ad campaign)
 * We're With You on TV-9 (1984–1985; localized version of ABC ad campaign)
 * You'll Love It on TV-9 (1985–1986; localized version of ABC ad campaign)
 * Together on TV-9 (1986–1987; localized version of ABC ad campaign)
 * Something's Happening on TV-9 (1987–1990; localized version of ABC ad campaign)
 * Cedar Rapids is Watching TV-9 (1990–1992; localized version of ABC ad campaign)
 * If It's TV-9, It Must Be ABC (1992–1993; localized version of ABC ad campaign)
 * Your 24-Hour News Source (1992–1998)
 * TV is Good, on TV-9 (1997-1998; localized version of ABC ad campaign)
 * Your 24-Hour News (and Weather) Source (1998–present)

Current on-air staff [3]
(as of December 2010)

Current anchors First Alert Weather Team Sports team Reporters
 * Nicole Agee - weekday mornings and 11 a.m.; also reporter
 * Bruce Aune - weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
 * Nadia Crow - weekend mornings; also reporter
 * Chris Earl - Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5:30 and weekends at 10 p.m.; also weeknight reporter
 * Ashley Hinson - weekday mornings and 11 a.m.; also reporter
 * Beth Malicki - weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
 * Joe Winters (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval); Member, NWA) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
 * Kaj O'Mara (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekday mornings and 11 a.m.
 * Charlene Malin - meteorologist; weekend evenings
 * Justin Gehrts (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekend mornings
 * John Campbell - sports director; weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.
 * Scott Saville - sports anchor; Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5:30 and weekends at 10 p.m.
 * John Sears - sports reporter
 * Mark Carlson - Iowa City reporter
 * Dave Franzman - general assignment reporter
 * Mark Geary - general assignment reporter
 * Katie Wiedemann - Dubuque reporter
 * Jillian Petrus - general assignment reporter

Former on-air staff

 * Renee Chou - anchor/reporter (now at WRAL-TV in Raleigh, NC)
 * Joe Coffey - anchor (late 1990s-early 2000s; now editorial director of Premiere Guitar Magazine)
 * Dick Fletcher - (1960s?-1970s?; died in 2008)
 * Denny Frary - meteorologist (1972–2006; retired)
 * Jeff Hardin - meteorologist (now director of communications with the NC Credit Union League)
 * Josh Baynes - meteorologist (2002–2010; now marketing at Rockwell Collins)
 * Josh Hinkle - reporter (now at KXAN-TV in Austin, TX)
 * Mike LaPoint - meteorologist (now at WPXI in Pittsburgh, PA)
 * Micah Materre - reporter (now at WGN-TV in Chicago, IL)
 * Liz Mathis - anchor (then Horizons, now Four Oaks[4] in Cedar Rapids)
 * Curt Menefee - sports reporter (now co-host of Fox NFL Sunday)
 * Scott Lind (Drzycimski) - meteorologist (1997–2003; Now Communications Manager with Alliant Energy)

Digital television
On June 12, 2009, the station returned to channel 9 when the analog to digital conversion completed. The station had attempted to convert on February 17, 2009 with the majority of other Cedar Rapids stations, but the FCC requested they maintain one analog commercial network signal for the market for the remaining four months. Upon KCRG-TV's digital transition completion in June 2009, the "KCRG-TV" callsign was legally transferred from the now-defunct analog channel 9 to the new digital channel 9 with the "KCRG-DT" callsign being permanently discontinued.