KREM (TV)

KREM (channel 2) is a television station in Spokane, Washington, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside CW affiliate KSKN (channel 22). Both stations share studios on South Regal Street in the Southgate neighborhood of Spokane, while KREM's transmitter is on Krell Hill to the southeast.

This article is about the CBS affiliate in Spokane, Washington. For the Belizean cable television station, see Krem Television.
Not to be confused with KREN-TV.

KREM
CitySpokane, Washington
Channels
BrandingKREM 2 (pronounced "crem")
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
KSKN
History
First air date
October 29, 1954 (1954-10-29)[1]
Former call signs
KREM-TV (1954–2009)
Former channel number(s)
Analog: 2 (VHF, 1954–2009)
  • ABC (1954–1976)
  • DuMont (secondary, 1954–1956)
  • NTA (secondary, 1956–1961)
Technical information[2]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID34868
ERP893 kW
HAAT641 m (2,103 ft)
Transmitter coordinates47°35′41″N 117°17′57″W
Translator(s)see § Translators
Links
Public license information
Websitewww.krem.com

The station is carried on cable systems in Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, both of which are double the size of KREM's American coverage area. One result of this is that stations in Calgary and Edmonton air American shows on Pacific Time, even though Calgary and Edmonton are both on Mountain Time. It is one of five local Spokane area television stations seen in Canada on the Shaw Direct satellite service. It can also been seen on local cable systems in southeastern British Columbia.

KREM is one of two CBS affiliates based in the Spokane television market; KREM is typically considered the primary CBS affiliate for the market. However, Sinclair Broadcast Group-owned KLEW-TV (channel 3), based in Lewiston, Idaho, focuses on the southern portion of the market including the Lewis–Clark Valley and the Palouse. Both KREM and KLEW are available on Dish Network and DirecTV throughout the Spokane market.

History

KREM-TV signed on October 31, 1954, with an "inaugural program" at 6:30 p.m.,[3] followed by a showing of the 1933 movie The Private Life of Henry VIII.[4] It was originally owned by Cole Wylie alongside KREM radio (AM 970, now KTTO; and FM 92.9, now KZZU-FM). The King Broadcasting Company, run by Seattle businesswoman Dorothy Bullitt, bought the KREM stations from Wylie in 1957; the radio stations were sold off in 1984. (Coincidentally, the former KREM-FM is now a sister station to KXLY-TV.) However, channel 2 retained the -TV suffix in its callsign until 2009.

KREM-TV initially had a dual affiliation with ABC and the DuMont Network, the latter shared with cross-town competitor KXLY-TV because of its then-CBS affiliation at the time. After DuMont dissolved, KREM continued as an exclusive ABC affiliate. In the late 1950s, the station was briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network.[5] KREM-TV was affiliated with ABC until August 8, 1976, when it swapped affiliations with KXLY-TV, whom CBS announced would be dropped in February for constantly preempting or delaying its network shows; however, CBS did not announce initially who would become their new affiliate in the market.[6] On August 8, the affiliation switch went into full effect,[7] with CBS programming moving to KREM (KREM wanted to wait until ABC finished airing the network's coverage of the 1976 Summer Olympics to make the switch).[8] KXLY then picked up KREM's old ABC affiliation,[9][10] KREM thus became Spokane's new CBS affiliate. Initially, CBS had approached KHQ-TV, while KREM was considered for a possible NBC affiliation because of the King Broadcasting Company's sister stations in Seattle and Portland also being NBC affiliates, but KREM elected to take the CBS affiliation instead. It was the only non-NBC affiliated station in the King Broadcasting portfolio.

King Broadcasting was sold in 1992 to the Providence Journal Company, which merged with Belo Corporation five years later. On June 13, 2013, the Gannett Company announced that it would acquire Belo.[11] The sale was completed on December 23.[12]

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. KREM and KSKN were retained by the latter company, named Tegna.[13]

KREM and KSKN are a part of a cluster of television stations in the Northwestern United States owned by Tegna, which includes KING-TV and its sister station KONG in Seattle; KGW in Portland, Oregon; and KTVB in Boise. All four stations had provided material to co-owned Northwest Cable News, a regional 24-hour cable news service based in Seattle that served much of the region. KREM was the only non-NBC affiliate to be a primary contributor to NWCN, with the exception of KSKN and Seattle independent station KONG. The channel, which started in 1995, shut down on January 6, 2017.

Programming

In 1987, KREM was one of numerous CBS affiliates that declined to carry an adaptation of Garbage Pail Kids, owing to concerns about it being a promotion for the then-popular trading card line of that name and about its heavy violence and ridiculing of the disabled; because of these decisions, CBS opted to remove the cartoon from its Saturday morning lineup and the series, to date, has never aired in the United States.[14][15]

KREM aired the Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball team's NCAA tournament championship game appearances in 2017 and 2021.

News operation

KREM airs 28+1⁄2 hours of newscasts with a two-hour morning broadcast, a noon telecast, and evening telecast at 4:00, 5:00, 6:00, and 11:00 p.m., along with weekend telecasts every Saturday and Sunday at 5:00, 6:00, and 11:00 p.m. KREM is still the only station in Spokane to hold a monopoly on midday newscasts for the Spokane area as of 2021.

In 1997, KREM, with its reporter Tom Grant, won an Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award "for Investigative Reporting on the Wenatchee Child Sex Ring."[16][17][18]

In April 2010, KREM and KSKN began broadcasting its local newscasts in 16:9 enhanced definition widescreen, and KREM became the third station in Spokane to switch in either HD or widescreen.[19][20][21]

From September 15, 2014, to January 2, 2015, KREM was the only station to air their newscasts from 7:00-9:00 a.m. on its sister station KSKN.[22] KREM switched to Gannett's "This is Home" music and graphics package on October 25, 2014, at the 5:00 newscast.[23] KREM became the last station in the Spokane market to switch their newscasts to HD.

On October 17, 2021, the station had to apologize for showing a moving image from a pornographic video on a weather center monitor during that evening's 6 p.m. newscast, and the origin of the video's appearance on an internal station monitor, be it internally or from another source, is under police and corporate investigation.[24]

Notable former on-air staff

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of KREM[31]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
2.1 1080i16:9KREM-HDMain KREM programming / CBS
2.2 480iCrimeTrue Crime Network
2.3 CourtTVCourt TV
2.4 TwistTwist
2.5 Shop LC
2.6 4:3getTV
2.7 QVC2[32]
2.9 Cozi TV[32][33]

Analog-to-digital conversion

KREM discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 2, on June 12, 2009, the official date on 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 UHF channel 20.[34][35] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 2.

Translators

References
  1. The Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook says October 31, while the Television and Cable Factbook says October 29.
  2. "Facility Technical Data for KREM". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  3. "New TV Station Plans Inaugural on Sunday Night". Spokane Television History. October 29, 1954. Retrieved February 5, 2023.
  4. Spokane Daily Chronicle - "Announcing the Telecast Premiere of KREM-TV" (advertisement) - October 30, 1954
  5. "Require Prime Evening Time for NTA Films", Boxoffice: 13, November 10, 1956
  6. "KREM-TV to Join CBS Chain". Spokane Television History. March 29, 1976. Retrieved February 5, 2023.
  7. "On Sunday: TV Stations Switching". Spokane Television History. August 6, 1976. Retrieved February 5, 2023.
  8. "Timing decided for TV shift". Spokane Television History. March 30, 1976. Retrieved February 5, 2023.
  9. ""Early Summer" – KXLY Set to Join ABC". Spokane Television History. May 6, 1976. Retrieved February 5, 2023.
  10. "CBS Plans to Terminate KXLY-TV Affiliation". Spokane Television History. March 3, 1976. Retrieved February 5, 2023.
  11. "Gannett to buy KREM-TV owner Belo for $1.5 billion". KREM.com. Associated Press. June 13, 2013. Retrieved June 13, 2013.
  12. "Gannett Completes Its Acquisition Of Belo". TV News Check. December 23, 2013. Retrieved February 5, 2023.
  13. "Separation of Gannett into two public companies completed | TEGNA". Tegna. June 29, 2015. Retrieved June 29, 2015.
  14. "Spokane Chronicle – Google News Archive Search". Retrieved December 18, 2014.
  15. "WebCite query result". Geocities.com. Archived from the original on October 21, 2009. Retrieved December 18, 2014. {{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
  16. Silver Batons: Medium Market Television
  17. "Grant Wins 'Pulitzer of Broadcasting' | the Spokesman-Review".
  18. "KREM-TV, Investigative Reporting on the Wenatchee Child Sex Ring | 1997 duPont-Columbia Award Winner in 1997 duPont Winners on Vimeo". Vimeo.com. April 1, 2013. Retrieved May 18, 2020.
  19. "Is Your local news in HD?". Avsforum.com. February 17, 2011. Retrieved August 23, 2012.
  20. "KXLY 4 HD". Youtube.com. August 1, 2008. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021. Retrieved August 23, 2012.
  21. "KHQ Local News 11@11 HD Open - 2008". Youtube.com. October 18, 2008. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021. Retrieved August 23, 2012.
  22. "For the first time, 7:00-9:00 a.m. morning news in Spokane". changingnewscasts.wordpress.com. August 31, 2014. Retrieved October 15, 2014.
  23. "New design coming to KREM 2 newscasts". krem.com. October 23, 2014. Retrieved October 23, 2014.
  24. Epperly, Emma (October 18, 2021). "Pornographic video shown on KREM's evening newscast; police investigating". The Spokesman Review. Retrieved October 19, 2021.
  25. "KPIX's Paul Deanno, two others leaving station". EastBayTimes.com. September 27, 2019. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  26. "Eric Johnson". KOMOnews.com. November 20, 2015. Retrieved April 15, 2020.
  27. "Sports Anchor Tim Lewis Leaving Spokane to Join His Dad at Seattle's KOMO". AdWeek.com. Retrieved July 3, 2019.
  28. "Dan Lewis, Tim Lewis share anchor desk for first time". KOMONews.com. July 18, 2012. Retrieved July 3, 2019.
  29. Shanks, Adam. "Spokane's Next Mayor". The Spokesman-Review. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
  30. "Woodward claims victory in race for mayor | The Spokesman-Review". www.spokesman.com. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
  31. RabbitEars TV Query for KREM
  32. "TV Listings (via Titan TV)". krem.com. Spokane: KREM-TV. Retrieved June 27, 2023.
  33. "Get Cozi TV".
  34. "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
  35. CDBS Print
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