KRIS-TV

What is now KRIS-DT2 began on September 21, 1998, after KRIS entered into a partnership with The WB 100+, a national programming service operated by The WB for television markets ranked greater than 100, and cable systems in the Corpus Christi area. Prior to 1998, The WB's programming was available in Corpus Christi via K22BH, WGN-TV's superstation feed, and/or out-of-market WB affiliates. It was a cable-exclusive station, and as a result, used the call sign "KWDB" in a fictional manner for identification purposes. KRIS provided local advertising opportunities and performed promotional duties for the outlet.

On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation (which became separate from Viacom after 2005; the companies would remerge in 2019) and Warner Bros. Television (the company which owned The WB) announced they then would cease operating The WB and UPN networks and combine their resources to create a programming service called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of the new network's respective corporate parents.

On September 18 of that year, The CW officially launched nationwide at which point KRIS added a new second digital subchannel to simulcast "KWDB" and allowing non-cable subscribers access to the new network. With its over-their-air launch, "KWDB" began using KRIS-DT2 as its official calls and became part of The CW Plus, a successor to The WB 100+.

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

KRIS-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 6, at noon 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 13.[7] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 6. This transmitted on a frequency of 87.75 MHz (+10 kHz shift), and as a result, could be picked up on the lower end of the dial on most FM radios at 87.7. This was true of all other analog channel 6 stations in North America. This is no longer possible for full-powered stations after the conversion to digital broadcasting.

On the morning of April 29, 2020, the KRIS broadcast tower collapsed due to a guy-wire failure during a high wind event; further inspection revealed the failed guy-wire to have been heavily corroded. No personnel were on site at the time of the collapse, and collateral damage was limited to minor damage to the transmitter building.[8] The tower was shared with low-power sister station K22JA-D, as well as radio stations KPLV (88.7 FM), KLUX (89.5 FM), and KFTX (97.5 FM). Both television stations were temporarily multiplexed on KZTV's VHF channel 10 frequency and mapped to their respective virtual channel positions.[9]

The tower, built in 1988, had a history of poor maintenance. The FCC had already been investigating Cordillera Communications' management of their broadcast towers, including those of KRIS and its low-power sisters. In the spring of 2019, as a condition of the sale of Cordillera's station portfolio to Scripps, Scripps agreed to accept liability for the results of the investigation; the FCC later fined Scripps $1.13 million.[10] The fine resulted from Cordillera's "failing to conduct required daily inspections of the lighting systems of 10 antenna structures", "failing to completely log 12 lighting failures at seven antenna structures", and "failing to timely notify the Commission of its acquisition of two antenna structures". The KRIS tower was noted as not having had daily inspections of its lighting system and lighting failures that were not logged.[11]

KRIS activated their replacement transmission facility on VHF channel 13 in March 2021.[12] The station changed to their current UHF channel 26 a year later in February 2022. Both antennas were installed at an existing American Tower Corporation site approximately 1.1 miles (1.8 km) northwest of the old KRIS facilities.[13]