KRS, virtual channel 4 (UHF digital channel 18), is a Disney Network-affiliated television station licensed to Redmond, Washington, United States. The station is owned by the Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting.
History[]
KRS had originally been an affiliate of NBC, an affiliation that was owed to KRS radio's long-time affiliation with the NBC Red Network.
KRS nearly lost its NBC affiliation, when, in 1978, ABC was the most-watched network in the United States, and was seeking out to affiliate with stations with higher viewership.
The station also pre-empted network programming in favor of locally produced specials. In April 1985, KRS pre-empted NBC's telecast of Poltergeist (1982), citing reasons for how televisions would have caused a power surge if left on, and how children were afraid of ghosts from either their closet or the TV itself.
As a Disney Network affiliate[]
By early 1993, Michael Eisner had just begun looking for ways to broaden his Disney Network's VHF portfolio. In May 1993, he approached KRS for an affiliation deal for TDN, and the station was very receptive. The switched occured on May 12, 1993, when KRS assumed the TDN affiliation, and NBC moved to KREDM.
Instead of acquiring a large amount of off-network sitcoms and cartoons, KRS opted to pour most of its resources into its news department and adopted a news-intensive format, expanding its newscasts to five hours per week.
As a TDN affiliate, the station brands itself as "Redmond's 4," rather than "TDN 4" or "KRS 4 TDN" under Disney's branding guidelines for its TDN affiliates and owned-and-operated stations. Redmond is one of a few markets that saw the TDN affiliation move from one VHF station to another, and was part of a series of affiliation switches that saw a long-time "Big Three" station switch to TDN prior to Disney's 2000 affiliation deal with Hearst Communications and other events involving the network that resulted from the deal.
Weigel ownership[]
On January 12, 2013, Disney sold KRS and several other TDN owned-and-operated stations; WTHR in Indianapolis, WLWT in Cincinnati; KETV in Omaha; and KCCI in Des Moines; to Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting; the sale was completed on August 6th of that year.