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-powered 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. 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.