Channel 4 in Reno began broadcasting in 1962 as KCRL, the second station on the air in Reno. Founded by E. L. Cord and owned after his 1974 death by his estate and charitable foundation, it was an NBC affiliate from the moment it began broadcasting but was not much of a success, eventually becoming the perennial third-rated outlet in the market. The station was purchased by Sunbelt Communications (later known as Intermountain West Communications Company, IWCC) in 1989 and relaunched the next year as KRNV, including a comprehensive overhaul of the station's local newscasts. This was successful at moving KRNV from third to second place locally. Sunbelt also embarked on several extensions of the KRNV brand, including rebroadcasters in Northern Nevada and a news/talk radio station in the Reno area.
In 2013, Sinclair acquired KRNV's non-license assets and began operating the station; Cunningham eventually acquired the license from IWCC.
The first application for channel 4 in Reno was made by Western Television Company in January 1953.[2] The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted an application made by Nevada Telecasting Corporation in April 1955,[3] but that station never materialized because the company misrepresented its ownership to the commission, and a Zephyr Cove man, Charles E. Halstead, filed for the channel in 1956.[4]
E. L. Cord—a businessman, Nevada state senator, and owner of KFACinLos Angeles—asked the FCC to insert channel 11 at Reno in 1958, with channel 4 mired in litigation.[5] Cord then applied for channel 4 on June 25, 1959,[6] with Halstead and the Electron Corporation of Dallas also seeking the permit.[7][8] As many as six applicants sought the channel, but all except Cord's Circle L, Inc., had withdrawn by 1961, when an FCC hearing examiner recommended Cord's application; the FCC then awarded the construction permit on June 15, 1961.[9]
In 1962, Circle L began constructing offices at Vassar Street and Harvard Way, and approval was received to erect an antenna in rural Washoe County.[10] The station began broadcasting on September 30, 1962, as KCRL.[11] In addition to NBC, the station split ABC programming with Reno's first station, KOLO-TV (channel 8), until 1967, when KTVN (channel 2) debuted.[12]
Under a separate corporation, the Cord family started a radio station, KCRL (780 AM), in October 1970.[13] The station was sold in 1981 and became KROW, now KKOH.[14]
Cord died in 1974, setting off a years-long court dispute for control of his estate.[15] A preliminary sale agreement was reached with 20th Century Fox for a $17.5 million acquisition of KCRL in 1980,[16] but ownership never changed hands. At the time, Chris-Craft Industries owned a 19-percent stake in 20th Century Fox. Between them, they already owned the limit of five very high frequency (VHF) stations, creating possible legal issues for any attempt by Fox to purchase stations.[17]
Beginning in 1985, an affiliate of Sunbelt Broadcasting Company, a company of James Rogers and owners of KVBCinLas Vegas, began pushing for the Cord Foundation to sell its 90 percent stake in Circle L, Inc. It believed that the Cord Foundation's management of the station was so poor and underperforming as to not fulfill its fiduciary duty; it also filed a license challenge, seeking to force the FCC to choose it over Circle L to run channel 4.[15] The owner of the other 10 percent, estate co-executor Charles Cord, died in 1986 at the age of 70.[18]
The Cord Foundation put KCRL on the market in February 1989, in part because Nevada law stipulated a non-profit foundation could not own a commercial TV station.[19] In July 1989, after two months of negotiations, the Cord Foundation signed a deal with Sunbelt to sell the station for $27 million. Sunbelt was attracted to KCRL because it was an NBC affiliate with obvious efficiencies and synergy with its Las Vegas station, also an NBC affiliate.[20] The move promised major changes for KCRL, long Reno's third-rated local TV station. Over the course of the 1980s, Sunbelt had turned KVBC from a distant second place to fighting for the market lead.[21][22][23]
Upon taking control in October, Sunbelt replaced the station's management and several on-air staffers.[24] Among those dismissed was John Firpo, who had been news director and 6:30 news anchor for 26 years.[25] Sunbelt also applied for new KRNV call letters for channel 4.[26]
On January 22, 1990, the station officially relaunched as KRNV and overhauled its newscasts. Only three news anchors were held over from the pre-Sunbelt operation.[27] KRNV slowly picked itself up into second place; the addition of the market's only 5 p.m. newscast proved to be successful, leading the local ratings in its time slot.[28]
From 1993 to 2000, Sunbelt expanded the KRNV brand to radio by purchasing KTHX (101.7 FM).[29] On July 11, 1994, KRNV-FM debuted, mixing local morning and daytime rolling news coverage with audio simulcasts of the television station's 5 p.m., 6 p.m., and 11 p.m. newscasts.[30] The format proved successful enough that a Sunbelt affiliate leased out and then bought a radio station in Las Vegas, which became KVBC-FM, in 1995;[31] Sunbelt exited radio in December 1999 by selling the stations to EXCL Communications.[32]
Another way Sunbelt sought to expand KRNV was building semi-satellite stations in rural Northern Nevada. From studios at Great Basin College in Elko, KENV (channel 10) began broadcasting in March 1997; it broadcast KRNV's programming with morning news inserts for the Elko area.[33] KENV continued to air NBC programming until December 31, 2017, when NBC refused to renew its affiliation because Elko is assigned to the Salt Lake City TV market.[34] Another such station, KWNV (channel 7) in Winnemucca, operated from 1998[35] to 2008, when it was closed down for economic reasons.[36]
On December 19, 2006, KRNV began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition, making it the first station in the market to do so.[37][38]
On November 22, 2013, Sinclair Broadcast Group announced the acquisition of KRNV's non-license assets for $26 million. Sinclair could not acquire the license directly; it already owned KRXI-TV and operated KAME-TV in Reno. In addition, Reno has only six full-power stations—three too few to legally permit a duopoly.[39]Cunningham Broadcasting then filed on December 19, 2013, to purchase the license assets of KRNV and KENV for $6.5 million—a transaction the FCC did not approve until September 22, 2017.[40] While the sale remained pending, Rogers announced that his bladder cancer had recurred[41] before dying in June.[42]
KRNV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 4, 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 VHF channel 7, using virtual channel 4.[48]
^"Seek TV Permit". Reno Evening Gazette. Associated Press. January 16, 1953. p. 9. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved April 8, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^"New TV Station Is authorized". Reno Evening Gazette. April 20, 1955. p. 24. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved April 8, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^"Seeks TV Permit". Reno Evening Gazette. August 7, 1956. p. 12. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved April 8, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^"Cord to Seek TV Channel". Reno Evening Gazette. July 28, 1958. p. 11. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved April 8, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^"TV Channel 4 Permit Sought". Reno Evening Gazette. Associated Press. July 2, 1959. p. 1. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved April 8, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^"Permit Sought For Channel 4". Reno Evening Gazette. July 9, 1959. p. 1. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved April 8, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^"Cord Station Application Is Approved". Reno Evening Gazette. Associated Press. April 26, 1961. p. 15. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved April 8, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^"Special Permit Issued by Board". Reno Evening Gazette. June 20, 1962. p. 23. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved April 8, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^"KCRL"(PDF). Television Factbook. 1966. p. 410-b. Archived(PDF) from the original on January 31, 2023. Retrieved April 15, 2023 – via World Radio History.
^"Legal Maneuver Delaying 3d Reno TVer; Maybe Jan". Variety. September 28, 1966. p. 33. ProQuest1017139417.
^"KCRL(AM)"(PDF). Broadcasting Yearbook. 1973. p. B-124. Archived(PDF) from the original on February 20, 2022. Retrieved April 16, 2023.
^Voyles, Susan (December 24, 1981). "Program change for radio station". Reno Evening Gazette. p. 19. Archived from the original on April 16, 2023. Retrieved April 16, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^Melton, Rollan (April 16, 1989). "Reno author offers heartfelt message". Reno Gazette-Journal. p. 1C. Archived from the original on April 16, 2023. Retrieved April 15, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^"News is new at Channel 4". Reno Gazette-Journal. January 21, 1990. p. TV Week 4. Archived from the original on April 16, 2023. Retrieved April 15, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^Melton, Wayne R. (March 11, 1994). "KOLO News joins KRNV at 5 p.m. slot". Reno Gazette-Journal. p. 1D. Archived from the original on April 16, 2023. Retrieved April 15, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^Melton, Wayne R. (March 29, 1994). "Plug again may be pulled on KTHX". Reno Gazette-Journal. Reno, Nevada. p. 1A, 6A. Archived from the original on June 17, 2022. Retrieved June 17, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
^Harding, Adella (March 29, 1997). "Elko gets new TV station". Elko Daily Free Press. p. 16. Archived from the original on April 16, 2023. Retrieved April 15, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^Featherston, Suzanne (December 14, 2017). "NBC to pull KENV affiliation". Elko Daily Free Press. Archived from the original on December 14, 2017. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
^"KWNV"(PDF). Television Factbook. 2002. p. A-852. Archived(PDF) from the original on January 31, 2023. Retrieved April 15, 2023 – via World Radio History.
^Vierria, Dan (July 9, 1991). "Father, son make moves, keep in step". The Sacramento Bee. p. F5. Archived from the original on December 17, 2021. Retrieved April 15, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
