KHOU-TV
Encyclopedia
KHOU is the CBS
affiliate television station in Houston, Texas
. Serving Greater Houston
, it is owned by the Belo
Corporation and broadcasts on digital and PSIP channel 11. The studio is near downtown
along Allen Parkway
in the Neartown
neighborhood and the transmitter is at an antenna farm located in unincorporated northeastern Fort Bend County
, along with all other Houston broadcast stations.
or as in "seagull" ), licensed to Galveston
, on March 23, 1953 by Paul Taft of the Taft Broadcasting Co. (not related to Taft Broadcasting Company of Cincinnati, Ohio
). It was the second television station to launch in the Houston area after KPRC-TV
. One of the original investors in the station was actor James Stewart
, along with a small group of other Galveston investors.
In June 1959, it changed its calls to KHOU and moved the city of license to Houston. The FCC license listed both the Houston and Galveston service areas for a time. On April 24, 1960, the station moved to its present location just outside downtown Houston on Allen Parkway
. To this date, KHOU is the only TV station in Houston to have its primary studios close to the downtown
area.
In 1956, the original owners sold Channel 11 to the Whitney Corporation (later Corinthian Broadcasting) of Indianapolis
, which became a subsidiary of Dun & Bradstreet
in 1971. In 1984, D&B sold the Corinthian stations to Belo.
In 1998, it was the first station to sign on with a high-definition signal.
The KHOU studios were flooded during Tropical Storm Allison
in 2001, resulting in damage to much of the station, including its newsroom. The flooding was so bad, the station had to shut down and air a feed from the station's doppler radar for roughly 90 minutes.
In 2002, the Houston Texans
began play in the National Football League
, playing in the American Football Conference
South Division
. As part of the AFC, all afternoon road games (and home games against AFC opponents) are aired on CBS
, and so they air locally on KHOU. The Texans are one of two teams never to have been blacked out at home, the other being the Baltimore Ravens
.
During Hurricane Ike
, which hit the Texas Gulf Coast the weekend of September 12–14, 2008, KHOU's coverage was distributed nationwide via DirecTV
and XM Satellite Radio
, as well as a live feed on the station's Web site.
Since the June 12, 2009 digital transition, KHOU-DT moved to channel 11, and then by the following week, the station dropped the -TV suffix like most Belo stations.
The station announced on July 12, 2011, that it would carry the new Bounce TV
digital network on one of its subchannels when it launches in September. The station had announced earlier it would carry the .2 Network
on one of its digital subchannels.
in nearby Missouri City
at 29°33′41"N 95°30′05"W. KHOU tower was built in 1992
and is used for TV broadcasting
.
. The station then moved back to channel 11 for its post-transition operations.
, Jeopardy!
, Wheel of Fortune
and The Insider.
Holiday Parade (formerly the Bank United/Washington Mutual
Thanksgiving Day Parade) for well over a decade. As a result, KHOU pre-empts the CBS Thanksgiving Day Parade.
It airs The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
a half an hour later than the network schedule at 12:05 a.m. Episodes of The Insider
air in the Late Late Shows normal network timeslot instead at 11:37 p.m. In addition, KHOU exercises CBS's seldom-used option to air The Young and the Restless
at 11:00 a.m., a half-hour before most CBS affiliates air the show.
KHOU has been widely regarded as a stepping stone for television news anchors reporters, as many of its reporters have gone on to assignments with national networks. The station's best known former staff are former CBS Evening News
anchor Dan Rather
, NBC News
Correspondent Dennis Murphy and newswomen Linda Ellerbee
and Jessica Savitch
. In sports, there was Jim Nantz
, a sports anchor/reporter, now with CBS Sports
and Ron Franklin
, a sports anchor now with ESPN
.
Beginning in the late 1980s, KHOU hired several high-profile people to its news team. The most notable was Neil Frank
, the former director of the National Hurricane Center, who was tapped by the station to be the chief meteorologist starting in July 1987. In another key move, the station also hired former KTRK anchor Sylvan Rodriguez
away from his job at the West Coast bureau of ABC News
to anchor the station's early evening newscasts. KHOU also began to use the "Spirit of Texas" slogan and TM Productions' "Spirit" music package (also used at sister station WFAA in Dallas), and incorporated a redesigned logo.
In January 1989, KHOU revamped the look of its newscasts, with an image campaign that included full-page ads in the Houston Chronicle
and Houston Post
, as well as an on-air promotional campaign that focused more on ordinary citizens throughout Greater Houston
than on its news team. With the lead news team of anchors Steve Smith and Marlene McClinton, chief meteorologist Dr. Neil Frank and sports director Giff Nielsen, along with a new set, graphics and theme music, KHOU began to mount a serious challenge to the other Houston newscasts, leading to a competitive ratings race during the 1990s.
If any year proved to be a breakout year for KHOU, it was 1999. During the May sweeps of that year, KHOU reached number one in several timeslots, unseating KTRK at midday, 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. The station's ratings boost also included an exclusive interview with Serbian and Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic
during the Kosovo War
just a month before Milosevic's indictment. This news came despite the retirement of longtime anchor Steve Smith, anchor Sylvan Rodriguez's eventually fatal bout with pancreatic cancer and the abrupt resignation of fellow anchor Marlene McClinton during one of the station's newscasts.
On February 4, 2007, following CBS' coverage of Super Bowl XLI
, KHOU aired its first newscasts in high definition
(HD), branding themselves as 11 News HD, and heavily promotiong the technology.
On September 7, 2009, KHOU-TV launched Houston's third morning newscast to begin at 4:30 a.m., "First Look." The newscast is anchored by former KIAH (channel 39) anchor Sherry Williams, with meteorologist David Paul. Despite being the last station in the Houston market to launch its early-morning newscast, KHOU was the first station in the market to send a news release announcing its intentions to do so. In a race to capture the lucrative insomniac/very early commuter market, all three major network affiliates in Houston launched 4:30 a.m. newscasts within three weeks of each other in the late summer of 2009.
In March 2011, KHOU started using a new set of on-air HD visual graphics, which also incorporated a new logo and new newscast title, "KHOU 11 News." This new graphics replaces their old yellow-red-white-and-blue HD graphics, which were also created by the Giant Octopus design group. On July 13, 2011 KHOU announced that it would debut a new half-hour 4 p.m. newscast on August 1, 2011; the newscast is the third newscast in the Houston market in that timeslot, as KPRC debuted their 4 p.m. newscast in 1996 and KTRK debuted a 4 p.m. newscast in 2001.
KHOU's is currently second place in the Houston market behind KTRK
. However they rank well among middle aged (35-55) and suburban audiences. This is noted as currently as of 2011, KHOU is the only station that focuses traffic in the suburbs in addition to the Houston freeways.
Another investigative report in the early 2000s by former reporter Anna Werner led to the shutdown of the Houston Police Department's crime lab. The 11 News Defenders unit has also exposed allegations of dropout rate fraud in the Houston Independent School District
, which resulted in the dismissal of several HISD officials. The unit was briefly rebranded to the name "11 News Investigates" on July 24, 2006, when KHOU unveiled a new look on its newscasts. The name was switched back to "Defenders" in 2008 to distinguish the unit after several local stations in the market also began using the "Investigates" label. In 2010, the station's investigative team was rebranded the "11 News I-Team." In 2011, it became the "KHOU 11 News I-Team."
(In alphabetical order)
Weather
(In order of rank)
Sports
(In order of rank)
Reporters
(In alphabetical order)
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
affiliate television station in Houston, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. Serving Greater Houston
Greater Houston
Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown is a 10-county metropolitan area defined by the Office of Management and Budget. It is located along the Gulf Coast region in the U.S. state of Texas...
, it is owned by the Belo
Belo
Belo Corp. is a Dallas-based media company that owns 20 commercial broadcasting television stations and two regional 24-hour cable news television channels. The company was previously known as A.H. Belo Corp. after one of the early owners of the company, Alfred Horatio Belo, now the name of the...
Corporation and broadcasts on digital and PSIP channel 11. The studio is near downtown
Downtown Houston
Downtown Houston is the largest business district of Houston, Texas, United States. Downtown Houston, the city's central business district, contains the headquarters of many prominent companies. There is an extensive network of pedestrian tunnels and skywalks connecting the buildings of the district...
along Allen Parkway
Allen Parkway
Allen Parkway is an arterial road west of Downtown Houston, Texas. It has a distance of approximately 2.3 miles , running from Interstate 45 west to Shepherd Drive, where it becomes Kirby Drive...
in the Neartown
Neartown Houston
Neartown is an area located in west-central Houston, Texas, United States and is one of the city's major cultural areas. Neartown is roughly bounded by U.S. Highway 59 to the south, Allen Parkway to the north, Bagby Street on the east, and Shepherd Drive to the west...
neighborhood and the transmitter is at an antenna farm located in unincorporated northeastern Fort Bend County
Fort Bend County, Texas
Fort Bend County is a county located along the Gulf Coast region in the U.S. state of Texas within the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area. In 2000 its population was 354,452, while the 2010 U.S...
, along with all other Houston broadcast stations.
History
KHOU signed on as KGUL-TV (as in gulfGulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
or as in "seagull" ), licensed to Galveston
Galveston, Texas
Galveston is a coastal city located on Galveston Island in the U.S. state of Texas. , the city had a total population of 47,743 within an area of...
, on March 23, 1953 by Paul Taft of the Taft Broadcasting Co. (not related to Taft Broadcasting Company of Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
). It was the second television station to launch in the Houston area after KPRC-TV
KPRC-TV
KPRC-TV is the NBC affiliated television station based in Houston, Texas, and serving the Greater Houston television market. It has studios located in the Sharpstown district on the Southwest portion of the city, and has a transmitter site in unincorporated Fort Bend County near Missouri City...
. One of the original investors in the station was actor James Stewart
James Stewart (actor)
James Maitland Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and his everyman persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...
, along with a small group of other Galveston investors.
In June 1959, it changed its calls to KHOU and moved the city of license to Houston. The FCC license listed both the Houston and Galveston service areas for a time. On April 24, 1960, the station moved to its present location just outside downtown Houston on Allen Parkway
Allen Parkway
Allen Parkway is an arterial road west of Downtown Houston, Texas. It has a distance of approximately 2.3 miles , running from Interstate 45 west to Shepherd Drive, where it becomes Kirby Drive...
. To this date, KHOU is the only TV station in Houston to have its primary studios close to the downtown
Downtown Houston
Downtown Houston is the largest business district of Houston, Texas, United States. Downtown Houston, the city's central business district, contains the headquarters of many prominent companies. There is an extensive network of pedestrian tunnels and skywalks connecting the buildings of the district...
area.
In 1956, the original owners sold Channel 11 to the Whitney Corporation (later Corinthian Broadcasting) of Indianapolis
Indianapolis
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
, which became a subsidiary of Dun & Bradstreet
Dun & Bradstreet
Dun & Bradstreet is a Fortune 500 public company headquartered in Short Hills, New Jersey, USA that provides information on businesses and corporations for use in credit decisions, B2B marketing and supply chain management...
in 1971. In 1984, D&B sold the Corinthian stations to Belo.
In 1998, it was the first station to sign on with a high-definition signal.
The KHOU studios were flooded during Tropical Storm Allison
Tropical Storm Allison
Tropical Storm Allison was a tropical storm that devastated southeast Texas in June of the 2001 Atlantic hurricane season. The first storm of the season, Allison lasted an unusually long period of time for a June storm, remaining tropical or subtropical for 15 days...
in 2001, resulting in damage to much of the station, including its newsroom. The flooding was so bad, the station had to shut down and air a feed from the station's doppler radar for roughly 90 minutes.
In 2002, the Houston Texans
Houston Texans
The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston, Texas. The team is currently a member of the Southern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
began play in the National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
, playing in the American Football Conference
American Football Conference
The American Football Conference is one of the two conferences of the National Football League . This conference and its counterpart, the National Football Conference , currently contain 16 teams each, making up the 32 teams of the NFL....
South Division
AFC South
The AFC South is a division of the National Football League's American Football Conference. It was created before the 2002 season when the league realigned divisions after expanding to 32 teams...
. As part of the AFC, all afternoon road games (and home games against AFC opponents) are aired on CBS
NFL on CBS
The NFL on CBS is the brand name of the CBS television network's coverage of the National Football League's American Football Conference games, produced by CBS Sports.-Market coverage and television policies:...
, and so they air locally on KHOU. The Texans are one of two teams never to have been blacked out at home, the other being the Baltimore Ravens
Baltimore Ravens
The Baltimore Ravens are a professional football franchise based in Baltimore, Maryland.The Baltimore Ravens are officially a quasi-expansion franchise, having originated in 1995 with the Cleveland Browns relocation controversy after Art Modell, then owner of the Cleveland Browns, announced his...
.
During Hurricane Ike
Hurricane Ike
Hurricane Ike was the second-costliest hurricane ever to make landfall in the United States, the costliest hurricane ever to impact Cuba and the second most active hurricane to reach the Canadian mainland in the Great Lakes Region after Hurricane Hazel in 1954...
, which hit the Texas Gulf Coast the weekend of September 12–14, 2008, KHOU's coverage was distributed nationwide via DirecTV
DirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
and XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio is one of two satellite radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Radio. It provides pay-for-service radio, analogous to cable television. Its service includes 73 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional...
, as well as a live feed on the station's Web site.
Since the June 12, 2009 digital transition, KHOU-DT moved to channel 11, and then by the following week, the station dropped the -TV suffix like most Belo stations.
The station announced on July 12, 2011, that it would carry the new Bounce TV
Bounce TV
Bounce TV is a United States television network airing on digital terrestrial television stations. Promoted as "the first 24/7 digital multicast broadcast network created exclusively for African Americans," Bounce TV launched on September 26, 2011 and features programming geared toward blacks in...
digital network on one of its subchannels when it launches in September. The station had announced earlier it would carry the .2 Network
.2 Network
.2 Network was the name of a planned television network designed for digital television subchannels owned by Guardian Enterprise Group that will replace the GTN network on a date never announced....
on one of its digital subchannels.
KHOU tower
KHOU tower is a 602 m (1,975 ft) high guyed mastRadio masts and towers
Radio masts and towers are, typically, tall structures designed to support antennas for telecommunications and broadcasting, including television. They are among the tallest man-made structures...
in nearby Missouri City
Missouri City, Texas
Missouri City is a city located in the U.S. state of Texas within the metropolitan area. The city is mostly in Fort Bend County with a small portion within Harris County. As of the 2000 U.S...
at 29°33′41"N 95°30′05"W. KHOU tower was built in 1992
1992 in television
The year 1992 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1992.-Events:-Debuts:-1950s:*Hallmark Hall of Fame .*Guiding Light .*The Today Show ....
and is used for TV broadcasting
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
.
Digital television
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:| Channel | Programming |
|---|---|
| 11.1 | Main KHOU programming / CBS |
| 11.2 | Bounce TV Bounce TV Bounce TV is a United States television network airing on digital terrestrial television stations. Promoted as "the first 24/7 digital multicast broadcast network created exclusively for African Americans," Bounce TV launched on September 26, 2011 and features programming geared toward blacks in... |
Analog-to-digital conversion
KHOU ended programming on its analog signal, on VHF channel 11, on June 12, 2009, as part of the DTV transition in the United StatesDTV transition in the United States
The DTV transition in the United States was the switchover from analog to exclusively digital broadcasting of free over-the-air television programming...
. The station then moved back to channel 11 for its post-transition operations.
Programming
KHOU has been one of the top-rated CBS affiliates in Texas for over 20 years, aided by a strong programming lineup featuring popular syndicated shows like The DoctorsThe Doctors (2008 TV series)
The Doctors is an American syndicated talk show airing daily in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Ireland, Sweden and Finland. It debuted on September 8, 2008. The hour-long daytime program is produced by Phil McGraw and his son Jay McGraw and is distributed domestically and globally by CBS Television...
, Jeopardy!
Jeopardy!
Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories...
, Wheel of Fortune
Wheel of Fortune (U.S. game show)
Wheel of Fortune is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin, which premiered in 1975. Contestants compete to solve word puzzles, similar to those used in Hangman, to win cash and prizes determined by spinning a large wheel. The title refers to the show's giant carnival wheel that...
and The Insider.
Preemptions
KHOU has hosted Houston's annual Thanksgiving Day parade, the H-E-BH-E-B
HEB Grocery Company, LP is a privately held San Antonio, Texas-based supermarket chain with more than 315 stores throughout Texas and northern Mexico. The company also operates Central Market, an upscale organic and fine foods retailer.H-E-B ranked No...
Holiday Parade (formerly the Bank United/Washington Mutual
Washington Mutual
Washington Mutual, Inc. , abbreviated to WaMu, was a savings bank holding company and the former owner of Washington Mutual Bank, which was the United States' largest savings and loan association until its collapse in 2008....
Thanksgiving Day Parade) for well over a decade. As a result, KHOU pre-empts the CBS Thanksgiving Day Parade.
It airs The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson is a Peabody Award-winning American late-night talk show hosted by Scottish American comedian Craig Ferguson. Ferguson, the third regular host of the Late Late Show franchise, follows Late Show with David Letterman in the CBS late-night lineup...
a half an hour later than the network schedule at 12:05 a.m. Episodes of The Insider
The Insider
An insider is a member of a group of people of limited number and with restricted access.The Insider may refer to:-Film media:*The Insider , a 1999 film drama about a 60 Minutes exposé of the tobacco industry, by director Michael Mann*"The Insider" , a 2002 episode of the American television crime...
air in the Late Late Shows normal network timeslot instead at 11:37 p.m. In addition, KHOU exercises CBS's seldom-used option to air The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
at 11:00 a.m., a half-hour before most CBS affiliates air the show.
Newscasts
CBS Evening News
CBS Evening News is the flagship nightly television news program of the American television network CBS. The network has broadcast this program since 1948, and has used the CBS Evening News title since 1963....
anchor Dan Rather
Dan Rather
Daniel Irvin "Dan" Rather, Jr. is an American journalist and the former news anchor for the CBS Evening News. He is now managing editor and anchor of the television news magazine Dan Rather Reports on the cable channel HDNet. Rather was anchor of the CBS Evening News for 24 years, from March 9,...
, NBC News
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of American television network NBC. It first started broadcasting in February 21, 1940. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is...
Correspondent Dennis Murphy and newswomen Linda Ellerbee
Linda Ellerbee
Linda Ellerbee is an American journalist who is most known for several jobs at NBC News, including Washington, DC correspondent, host of the Nickelodeon network's Nick News, and reporter and co-anchor of NBC News Overnight, which was recognized by the jurors of the duPont Columbia Awards as...
and Jessica Savitch
Jessica Savitch
Jessica Beth Savitch was an American television broadcaster and news reporter, host of PBS' Frontline and New York weekend anchor of NBC Nightly News during the short-lived Roger Mudd/Tom Brokaw era....
. In sports, there was Jim Nantz
Jim Nantz
James William Nantz, III is an American sportscaster, known primarily for his work with CBS Sports television.-Early life:...
, a sports anchor/reporter, now with CBS Sports
CBS Sports
CBS Sports is a division of CBS Broadcasting which airs sporting events on the American television network. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on West 52nd Street in midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on West 57th Street.CBS...
and Ron Franklin
Ron Franklin
Ron Franklin is an American sportscaster, most notably with ESPN, where he was employed from 1987-2011. He was fired by ESPN on January 4, 2011 after allegedly making sexist comments to and then berating a colleague.He is married with one child...
, a sports anchor now with ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
.
Beginning in the late 1980s, KHOU hired several high-profile people to its news team. The most notable was Neil Frank
Neil Frank
Dr. Neil Frank, Ph.D. is an American meteorologist and former director of the National Hurricane Center in Florida. He was instrumental in advancing both the scientific and informational aspects of hurricane forecasting. He retired as Chief Meteorologist at KHOU-TV in Houston. Dr...
, the former director of the National Hurricane Center, who was tapped by the station to be the chief meteorologist starting in July 1987. In another key move, the station also hired former KTRK anchor Sylvan Rodriguez
Sylvan Rodriguez
Sylvan Rodriguez was a television news personality in Texas, United States....
away from his job at the West Coast bureau of ABC News
ABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
to anchor the station's early evening newscasts. KHOU also began to use the "Spirit of Texas" slogan and TM Productions' "Spirit" music package (also used at sister station WFAA in Dallas), and incorporated a redesigned logo.
In January 1989, KHOU revamped the look of its newscasts, with an image campaign that included full-page ads in the Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle
The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...
and Houston Post
Houston Post
The Houston Post was a newspaper that had its headquarters in Houston, Texas, United States. In 1995, the newspaper was absorbed into the Houston Chronicle.-History:The newspaper was established on February 19, 1880, by Gail Borden Johnson...
, as well as an on-air promotional campaign that focused more on ordinary citizens throughout Greater Houston
Greater Houston
Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown is a 10-county metropolitan area defined by the Office of Management and Budget. It is located along the Gulf Coast region in the U.S. state of Texas...
than on its news team. With the lead news team of anchors Steve Smith and Marlene McClinton, chief meteorologist Dr. Neil Frank and sports director Giff Nielsen, along with a new set, graphics and theme music, KHOU began to mount a serious challenge to the other Houston newscasts, leading to a competitive ratings race during the 1990s.
If any year proved to be a breakout year for KHOU, it was 1999. During the May sweeps of that year, KHOU reached number one in several timeslots, unseating KTRK at midday, 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. The station's ratings boost also included an exclusive interview with Serbian and Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
during the Kosovo War
Kosovo War
The term Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict was two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" , who sought independence...
just a month before Milosevic's indictment. This news came despite the retirement of longtime anchor Steve Smith, anchor Sylvan Rodriguez's eventually fatal bout with pancreatic cancer and the abrupt resignation of fellow anchor Marlene McClinton during one of the station's newscasts.
On February 4, 2007, following CBS' coverage of Super Bowl XLI
Super Bowl XLI
Super Bowl XLI was an American football game that featured the American Football Conference champion Indianapolis Colts and the National Football Conference champion Chicago Bears to decide the National Football League champion for the 2006 season...
, KHOU aired its first newscasts in high definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
(HD), branding themselves as 11 News HD, and heavily promotiong the technology.
On September 7, 2009, KHOU-TV launched Houston's third morning newscast to begin at 4:30 a.m., "First Look." The newscast is anchored by former KIAH (channel 39) anchor Sherry Williams, with meteorologist David Paul. Despite being the last station in the Houston market to launch its early-morning newscast, KHOU was the first station in the market to send a news release announcing its intentions to do so. In a race to capture the lucrative insomniac/very early commuter market, all three major network affiliates in Houston launched 4:30 a.m. newscasts within three weeks of each other in the late summer of 2009.
In March 2011, KHOU started using a new set of on-air HD visual graphics, which also incorporated a new logo and new newscast title, "KHOU 11 News." This new graphics replaces their old yellow-red-white-and-blue HD graphics, which were also created by the Giant Octopus design group. On July 13, 2011 KHOU announced that it would debut a new half-hour 4 p.m. newscast on August 1, 2011; the newscast is the third newscast in the Houston market in that timeslot, as KPRC debuted their 4 p.m. newscast in 1996 and KTRK debuted a 4 p.m. newscast in 2001.
KHOU's is currently second place in the Houston market behind KTRK
KTRK-TV
KTRK-TV, channel 13, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, located in Houston, Texas...
. However they rank well among middle aged (35-55) and suburban audiences. This is noted as currently as of 2011, KHOU is the only station that focuses traffic in the suburbs in addition to the Houston freeways.
KHOU 11 News I-Team
KHOU also has gained a reputation for its investigative news team, the 11 News Defenders, which has uncovered numerous stories, the most notable being its 2000 investigation into defective tire designs by Firestone. That investigation led to the mandatory recall of Wilderness AT, Firestone ATX and ATX II tires, as well as numerous lawsuits. The defective tires resulted in a number of deaths, including that of Stephen Gauvain, a reporter for rival ABC affiliate KTRK.Another investigative report in the early 2000s by former reporter Anna Werner led to the shutdown of the Houston Police Department's crime lab. The 11 News Defenders unit has also exposed allegations of dropout rate fraud in the Houston Independent School District
Houston Independent School District
The Houston Independent School District is the largest public school system in Texas and the seventh-largest in the United States. Houston ISD serves as a community school district for most of the city of Houston and several nearby and insular municipalities...
, which resulted in the dismissal of several HISD officials. The unit was briefly rebranded to the name "11 News Investigates" on July 24, 2006, when KHOU unveiled a new look on its newscasts. The name was switched back to "Defenders" in 2008 to distinguish the unit after several local stations in the market also began using the "Investigates" label. In 2010, the station's investigative team was rebranded the "11 News I-Team." In 2011, it became the "KHOU 11 News I-Team."
Newscast titles
- The News with Ron Stone (1953-1968)
- Newswatch 11 (1968-1974)
- Newswatch 11 Houston (1974-1975)
- News 11 (1975–1979)
- NewsCenter 11 (1979–1984)
- 11 News (1984–1987 and 1991–2011)
- Channel 11 News (1987–1989)
- KHOU 11 News (1989–1991 and 2011-present)
Station slogans
- Houston's Way of Looking at the World (1980–1983)
- The Spirit of Texas (1987–2011; used as primary slogan starting in 1999)
- It's Time To Choose. 11 News. (1999–2002; news slogan)
- We Go There (2002–2005; news slogan)
- Make Sense of Your World (2006–2008)
- Standing By You (2008-2011; used after Hurricane Ike)
- KHOU Stands For Houston (2011–present)
Current on-air staff
Anchors(In alphabetical order)
- Vicente Arenas – Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5:30 and weekends at 10 p.m.; also weeknight reporter (2004)
- Len Cannon – weekdays at 4 and 6 p.m. (2006)
- Shern-Min Chow – weekdays at 4 p.m. (1996)
- Greg HurstGreg HurstGreg Hurst is an American journalist. He is currently employed by CBS affiliate KHOU-TV in Houston, Texas, where he has been since leaving New York's WABC-TV in 1997. Hurst anchors KHOU's 5, 6, and 10 p.m...
– weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m. (1999) - Lisa Hernandez – weeknights at 5 and 10 p.m. (2011)
- Christine Haas – weekday mornings "KHOU 11 News This Morning" (4:30-7 a.m.) (2008)
- Ron Trevino – weekday mornings "KHOU 11 News This Morning" (4:30-7 a.m.) and noon (1994)
- Sherry Williams – Saturday mornings "KHOU 11 News Saturday Morning" (7-9 a.m.); also reporter (2006)
Weather
(In order of rank)
- Gene Norman (AMSAmerican Meteorological SocietyThe American Meteorological Society promotes the development and dissemination of information and education on the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences and the advancement of their professional applications. Founded in 1919, the American Meteorological Society has a membership...
Certified Broadcast MeteorologistCertified Broadcast MeteorologistCertified Broadcast Meteorologist is a rating for meteorologists given by the American Meteorological Society.The Certified Broadcast Meteorologist program was established to raise the professional standard in broadcast meteorology and encourage a broader range of scientific understanding,...
Seal of Approval) – Chief Meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m. (2008) - Mario Gomez (AMS Seal of Approval) – Meteorologist; Saturday mornings and 6 p.m., Sundays at 5:30 and weekends at 10 p.m.; also fill-in (1992)
- David Paul (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) – Meteorologist; weekday mornings "KHOU 11 News This Morning" (4:30-7 a.m.) (1997)
- Chita Johnson (AMS Seal of Approval, NWA member) – Meteorologist; weekdays at noon and 4 p.m. (2011)
Sports
(In order of rank)
- Butch Alsandor – Sports Director; weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m. (1993)
- Matt Musil – Sports Anchor; Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5:30 and weekends at 10 p.m. (1980)
- Daniel Gotera - on-air and khou.com sports reporter (2009)
Reporters
(In alphabetical order)
- Lisa Chavarria - general assignment reporter (2010)
- Tiffany Craig - general assignment reporter (2010)
- Jeremy Desel – general assignment reporter (1999)
- Leigh Frillici – general assignment reporter (2007)
- Mark Greenblatt – investigative reporter (1986)
- Gabe Gutierrez - general assignment reporter (2010)
- Angela Kocherga – Mexico City bureau reporter (2000)
- Jeff McShan – general assignment reporter (2008)
- Doug Miller – general assignment reporter (1993)
- Rucks Russell – general assignment reporter (2004)
- Kevin Reece – general assignment reporter (2007)
- Jeremy Rogalski – investigative reporter (2001)
- Alex SanzAlex SanzAlex Sanz covers government for KHOU-TV in Houston, Texas. He reports on Harris County and suburban communities in the greater Houston area. He previously covered Houston City Hall. He joined the CBS station in 2007 after working as a reporter for WTHR-TV in Indianapolis, Indiana...
– Government reporter (2007) - Larry Seward - general assignment reporter (2011)
- Prof. Gerald Treece – legal analyst (1989)
- Allison Triarsi – weekday reporter (2008)
- Michael Branson - traffic reporter (2011)
- Katherine Whaley - traffic reporter (2009)
- Brad Woodard – general assignment reporter (2006)
- Courtney Zubowski – general assignment reporter (2008)
Notable former on-air staff
- "Utah" Carl Beach – host and performer of local music show (1953–1967)
- Steve EdwardsSteve Edwards (talk show host)Steve Edwards is an American television personality on Los Angeles, California, morning shows, including AM Los Angeles, Two on The Town, and Good Day L.A....
– anchor/talk show host (1972–1975; now KTTVKTTVKTTV, channel 11, is an owned-and-operated television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in Los Angeles, California. Serving the vast Los Angeles metropolitan area, KTTV is a sister station to KCOP , Los Angeles' MyNetworkTV station...
Los Angeles) - Linda EllerbeeLinda EllerbeeLinda Ellerbee is an American journalist who is most known for several jobs at NBC News, including Washington, DC correspondent, host of the Nickelodeon network's Nick News, and reporter and co-anchor of NBC News Overnight, which was recognized by the jurors of the duPont Columbia Awards as...
– reporter (mid 1970s; later NBC NewsNBC NewsNBC News is the news division of American television network NBC. It first started broadcasting in February 21, 1940. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is...
now Nick News) - Dave Fehling – former general assignment reporter (also weekend fill-in anchor) (1989–2011; now at NPRNPRNPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
) - Dr. Neil FrankNeil FrankDr. Neil Frank, Ph.D. is an American meteorologist and former director of the National Hurricane Center in Florida. He was instrumental in advancing both the scientific and informational aspects of hurricane forecasting. He retired as Chief Meteorologist at KHOU-TV in Houston. Dr...
– chief meteorologist (1987–2008; now retired; returns periodically for special weather events) - Ron FranklinRon FranklinRon Franklin is an American sportscaster, most notably with ESPN, where he was employed from 1987-2011. He was fired by ESPN on January 4, 2011 after allegedly making sexist comments to and then berating a colleague.He is married with one child...
– sports director (1970s; now ESPNESPNEntertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
) - Dennis MurphyDennis Murphy (television journalist)Dennis J. Murphy is an American television journalist and winner of four national Emmys for excellence in news reporting, known for regular contributions to NBC News, NBC Nightly News, Dateline NBC, and The Today Show.-Personal life:...
– reporter/assignment editor (1975–1978; now NBC NewsNBC NewsNBC News is the news division of American television network NBC. It first started broadcasting in February 21, 1940. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is...
) - Jim NantzJim NantzJames William Nantz, III is an American sportscaster, known primarily for his work with CBS Sports television.-Early life:...
– sports anchor/reporter (1981–1983; now CBS SportsCBS SportsCBS Sports is a division of CBS Broadcasting which airs sporting events on the American television network. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on West 52nd Street in midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on West 57th Street.CBS...
) - Lucy NolandLucy NolandLucy Noland is a Vietnamese-American news anchor. She is currently a news anchor and reporter at KNBC in Los Angeles, California...
- 5/10pm anchor (2007-2011; now at KNBC) - Giff Nielsen – sports director (1984–2009)
- Dan Patrick – sports anchor (1980s; later conservative talk show host KSEV-AM; now Republican State Senator from Houston)
- Dan RatherDan RatherDaniel Irvin "Dan" Rather, Jr. is an American journalist and the former news anchor for the CBS Evening News. He is now managing editor and anchor of the television news magazine Dan Rather Reports on the cable channel HDNet. Rather was anchor of the CBS Evening News for 24 years, from March 9,...
– anchor/reporter (early 1960s; former anchor CBS Evening NewsCBS Evening NewsCBS Evening News is the flagship nightly television news program of the American television network CBS. The network has broadcast this program since 1948, and has used the CBS Evening News title since 1963....
) - Sylvan RodriguezSylvan RodriguezSylvan Rodriguez was a television news personality in Texas, United States....
– Noon and 6 PM anchor (1987–1999; died April 6, 2000 of pancreatic cancerPancreatic cancerPancreatic cancer refers to a malignant neoplasm of the pancreas. The most common type of pancreatic cancer, accounting for 95% of these tumors is adenocarcinoma, which arises within the exocrine component of the pancreas. A minority arises from the islet cells and is classified as a...
) - Rick SanchezRick SanchezRicardo León "Rick" Sánchez de Reinaldo , known professionally as Rick Sanchez, is a Cuban-American journalist, author and former TV news anchor...
– reporter (1986–1988; formerly with CNNCNNCable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
) - Jessica SavitchJessica SavitchJessica Beth Savitch was an American television broadcaster and news reporter, host of PBS' Frontline and New York weekend anchor of NBC Nightly News during the short-lived Roger Mudd/Tom Brokaw era....
– anchor/reporter (1971–1972; later KYW-TVKYW-TVKYW-TV, virtual channel 3, is an owned and operated television station of the CBS Television Network, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. KYW-TV shares a studio facility with its sister station, CW flagship WPSG just north of Center City Philadelphia...
and NBC NewsNBC NewsNBC News is the news division of American television network NBC. It first started broadcasting in February 21, 1940. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is...
, deceased) - Janet ShamlianJanet ShamlianJanet Shamlian is a national correspondent for NBC News and appears on The Today Show, NBC Nightly News, and MSNBC. She is a contributor to the prime time news magazine Dateline NBC and to CNBC, the business news channel owned and operated by NBC Universal....
– anchor/reporter (1987–1995; now NBC NewsNBC NewsNBC News is the news division of American television network NBC. It first started broadcasting in February 21, 1940. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is...
)) - Ron StoneRon Stone (reporter)Ron Stone was an American news anchor at KPRC-TV in Houston, Texas for 20 years from 1972 to 1992. He was called "the most popular and revered news anchor the city has ever known" by...
– 6 and 10 PM anchor (1961–1972; later KPRC-TVKPRC-TVKPRC-TV is the NBC affiliated television station based in Houston, Texas, and serving the Greater Houston television market. It has studios located in the Sharpstown district on the Southwest portion of the city, and has a transmitter site in unincorporated Fort Bend County near Missouri City...
, deceased)