Texas TV station employee is fired after a live newscast was interrupted by vulgar audio of a reporter saying 'F*** it, lick it, smell it'

A Texas TV station employee has been fired after a crude audio recording was played in the middle of a live newscast.

Viewers of KRIS were in for a shocking surprise on Monday when a report on a new harbor bridge was interrupted by the vulgar clip.

The screen suddenly went to black and a man could be heard uttering the words 'F**k it, lick it, smell it' on the 9pm news report.

KRIS, a local station in Corpus Christi, has since revealed that the voice belonged to a reporter at the station.  

'We do apologize for that, we just had some incident there,' evening anchor Stephania Jimenez told viewers after the audio aired. 

KRIS Communications News Director Paul Alexander also apologized to viewers for the error. 

Alexander said the station 'immediately began an investigation' into the audio and how it was able to play on-air. 

'We learned that a series of technical and human errors lead to the mistake,' he said. 

'We have taken swift and appropriate action with the employees who were involved in the broadcast in accordance with our company policies.' 

Alexander said one employee was fired and another was suspended. There were also unspecified 'reprimands'. 

'We have also modified our editing workflow and procedures to ensure that mistakes like this cannot happen again,' he added. 

The names of the employees who were punished have not been released. 

One viewer who caught the newscast posted it on Facebook, where it has since been viewed more than 32,000 times.