Press Releases
Harris Corporation Gets KREX Back on Air After Fire Destroys Station
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LAS VEGAS, April 13, 2008 (NAB2008, Booth N2502) — Within 24 hours of the fire that destroyed nearly all of the studio and transmission facilities of KREX Televison on January 20, Harris Corporation (NYSE:HRS), an international communications and information technology company, deployed a team of engineers and technicians to Grand Junction, Colorado, to help re-establish CBS, Fox and MyNetwork programming to most of western Colorado. The station was returned to air within eight days, in time for KFQX-TV to broadcast Super Bowl XLII in high definition. The early morning fire gutted CBS-affiliate KREX, one of Colorado's oldest operating TV stations, and satellite stations KREY-TV (Montrose, Colorado) and KERG-TV (Glenwood Springs, Colorado). It also darkened KFQX-TV, a Fox affiliate operated for Parker Broadcasting and co-located at the KREX studios, as well as KGJT, a MyNetwork affiliate, both of which provide programming to the Grand Junction designated market area. "Looking at total loss the morning after the fire, we knew we would need a lot of help to get back on our feet — and an experienced broadcaster knows there's only one company that can answer that kind of call," said Rich Adams, chief operating officer of Hoak Media Corp., which owns KREX. "We've had a great relationship with Harris for over three decades, and I knew the extent of their product offer. But I never anticipated their tremendous logistical mobilization capabilities. They actually knew what we needed before we did." The first Harris employees arrived on scene Monday afternoon and worked with KREX and Hoak Media management to establish a three-phase recovery plan: first, return the five KREX channels to air as quickly as possible by constructing a temporary technical operations and transmission center at the base of KREX's tower; second, reestablish local programming and commercial content services for Montrose and Glenwood Springs and get MyNetwork program schedule fully operational; and third, construct a permanent station that will reunite all the KREX departments under one roof. "Since many of the rural areas in western Colorado receive KREX from over-the-air transmitters, getting a signal back on the air quickly was critical," said Skip Erickson, manager of the Systems Engineering Group for Harris Technical Solutions, Harris Broadcast Communications. "During our first three days on-site, the entire area was cordoned off by fire investigators, so we were unable to get an accurate assessment of the damage. Not knowing what we faced, we started to stockpile equipment that we guessed might be needed to get the station up and running. We pulled Harris equipment from regular and demo stock, repair depots, individual product managers, sales managers — essentially anywhere we could get it and have it overnighted to Grand Junction." Once the team was able to assess the damage, they discovered that most of the equipment, broadcast logs and video library had been lost. The technical crew worked round the clock to get the station back on air by the Super Bowl, as loss of advertising for the event would have been another devastating blow for the station. By February 3, the Fox feed was manned all day, the station was able to insert local commercials and viewers were able to watch Super Bowl XLII on their hometown channel. "I was frankly floored at the scope of resources — including equipment and engineers — that Harris threw at our very bleak predicament," continued Adams. "Harris and their exceptional field engineers like Skip Erickson got us out of the ashes and up and running with astonishing speed." The temporary, fully interoperable Harris system includes the Platinum Series® transmitter, NEXIO™ video server, IconMaster™ master control, Videotek® test and measurement products, NEO® XHD-3902 and 6800+™ conversion and processing products, Inscriber® character generators and Harris multiviewers. Harris will have an ongoing technical role — including TV RF, master control, EAS, microwave, video servers and A/V infrastructure — throughout all phases of the reconstruction process. "I am very proud of the way Harris Technical Services acted quickly and decisively to put all of Harris into action to assist one of our customers in a time of emergency," said Tim Thorsteinson, president of Harris Broadcast Communications. "It was particularly impressive to see employees from across our company pull together from various departments and various locations from Ohio and Virginia, to California and Toronto. This is the very best example of the Harris ONE™ approach in action." Harris Broadcast Communications offers products, systems and services that provide interoperable workflow solutions that span the entire broadcast delivery chain. The Harris ONE™ approach brings together highly integrated and cost-effective products that are ideal for emerging media business models and for customers upgrading media operations to digital and high-definition services. About Harris Corporation # # # Contact Information: David Glidden
Robin Hoffman
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