KREZ to resume local newscasts

KREZ to resume local newscasts

Jan 5, 2002

By Shane Benjamin
Durango Herald Staff Writer

Television news in Durango is scheduled to return to the airwaves March 4, said Hugh LeVrier, station manager for KREZ-TV (Channel 6, Durango cable channel 13).

The local news went off the air in September 1999 as a cost-cutting measure for the Albuquerque-based CBS affiliate KRQE-TV (Channel 13), which oversees KREZ.

In June 2001, LeVrier said he expected to resume local news in the fall, but Pathnet, a high-speed fiber-optics company, went bankrupt, preventing KREZ from sending video to KRQE, which broadcast the signal.

Since then, KREZ has invested in new equipment, including a transmitter on Smelter Mountain, to broadcast its own video, he said.

The station plans to hire three full-time news reporters to cover the entire Four Corners, LeVrier said. The station has 10 full-time employees and produces a show called "Z-Sports," about area sports teams, that airs at 10:30 p.m. every Friday, LeVrier said.

In addition to resuming two nightly newscasts at 5:30 and 10 p.m. Monday through Friday, KREZ also plans to produce half-hour business and real estate-oriented programs, he said.

Indianapolis-based Emmis Communications bought KREZ along with several other stations across the country for a total of $562.5 million in 2000. At the time, the new owners made a commitment to bring local news back within two years.