KRIV
Encyclopedia
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
-owned Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
, located in Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
. KRIV is co-owned with MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
affiliate KTXH
KTXH
KTXH, digital channel 19 , is a MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station in Houston, Texas. It is owned by the Fox Television Stations, a division of the News Corporation, and is one-half of a duopoly with Fox network station KRIV .Along with programming from MyNetworkTV, the station also airs...
(channel 20). Both stations share a studio complex on Southwest Freeway in Houston between the Uptown
Uptown Houston
The Uptown District of Houston is located 6.2 miles west of downtown and is centered along Post Oak Boulevard, Westheimer Road , and the Galleria...
and Greenway Plaza
Greenway Plaza
Greenway Plaza is a master-planned mixed-use development off U.S. Highway 59 in Houston, Texas, United States, five miles west of Downtown Houston and three miles east of Uptown Houston. Greenway Plaza is Houston's first totally planned business-commercial-residential complex developed by the...
districts, and KRIV transmits from a tower located southwest of Houston 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...
near Missouri City, Texas
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...
.
History
Channel 26 signed on for the first time on August 15, 1971 as KVRL. It was the second UHF station in Houston after KHTV (channel 39, later KHWB, then KHCW, now KIAH) to sign on the air. Four years after signing on, the call letters were changed to KDOG. The former GM of the station, Leroy Gloger, chose the letters. Another former general manager, Jerry Marcus commented (upon his retirement) that he saw them appropriate during the station's formative years as, in his words, it was a "dogged station" ratings-wise. The station's motto was "Where Every Dog Has His Day." During this period, the station aired a wide variety of programs. During the day it ran English general entertainment programming such as old cartoons, sitcoms, and old movies. At night the station ran Spanish programming such as Spanish-language telenovelas, Spanish language movies, and Spanish serials. Channel 26 was originally located at 3935 Westheimer for over two decades throughout this time.As a Metromedia station
In May 1978, MetromediaMetromedia
Metromedia was a media company that owned radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986 and owned Orion Pictures from 1986-1997.- Overview :...
purchased the station and changed the station's call letters to KRIV. The new call letters were in honor of Albert Krivin, then a top Metromedia executive. Jerry Marcus, general sales manager of Metromedia's WTTG
WTTG
WTTG, channel 5, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Fox Broadcasting Company, located in the American capital city of Washington, D.C...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, was brought to Houston to manage the station, where he remained until his retirement in December 1999. This influx of dollars caused the station to begin taking more risks by picking up higher profile syndicated programming and forming a news department (this happened in 1983), featuring the first major prime time newscast in the market. The first co-anchors were Hank Plante
Hank Plante
Hank Plante is an American television reporter and editor. Winner of the George Foster Peabody Award and multiple Emmys, he covered California for three decades for TV stations in San Francisco and Los Angeles. He now writes occasional columns for newspapers in California, usually focusing on...
and Ginger Casey. The station was running a general entertainment format complete with cartoons, sitcoms, movies, first run syndicated shows, locally produced talk shows, and one of the few Spanish language forums on television at the time. Overall, the station ranked near KHTV, a more well-established outlet, over the years.
As a Fox O&O
Six years later in 1986 Australian newspaper tycoon Rupert MurdochRupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....
purchased Metromedia television stations, including KRIV, which became one of six founding owned-and-operated stations of his new Fox television network. The acquisition caused the station, along with a number of other former Metromedia outlets, to suddenly adopt a more sophisticated look for a network that at the time. A unified music and graphics package was featured on this station, as well as the original Fox-owned stations, which is consistently noted for featuring graphics that were among the first of their kind for local television. Since 1986 KRIV has been known as "Fox 26".
As a Fox-owned station, KRIV added more first-run syndicated programming. In 1993 KRIV joined several other Fox-owned stations in launching a weekday morning newscast. The morning cartoons were dropped but it continued its afternoon kids block from Fox Kids
Fox Kids
Fox Kids was the Fox Broadcasting Company's American children's programming division and brand name from September 8, 1990 until September 7, 2002. It was owned by Fox Television Entertainment airing programming on Monday–Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings.Depending on the show, the...
until the end of 2001 when Fox ended the weekday kids' block nationwide.
A new era
In 1997 KRIV moved from its original studios on Westheimer Road in the Greenway Plaza area of Houston to a state-of-the-art digital facility and upgraded the look of its newscasts, debuting a brand new set, new graphics and a new logo similar to other Fox O&O station logos implemented following the 1994 New World affiliation dealFox affiliate switches of 1994
The United States television network affiliate switches of 1994 were a series of events resulting from a multi-million dollar deal between Fox Broadcasting Company, known commonly as Fox, and New World Communications, an owner of several VHF television stations affiliated with major networks,...
, in which Fox gained several VHF stations nationally, many of them former CBS affiliates in cities that are home to teams in the National Football Conference
National Football Conference
The National Football Conference is one of the two conferences of the National Football League . This conference and its counterpart, the American Football Conference , currently contain 16 teams each, making up the 32 teams of the NFL.-Current teams:Since 2002, the NFC has comprised 16 teams,...
of 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...
, after Fox gained broadcast rights to that conference from CBS. The former studios have since been replaced on-site by what is now a Central Market
Central Market (Texas)
Central Market is a gourmet grocery store chain owned by San Antonio, Texas-based H-E-B Grocery Company. It specializes in high-quality, hard-to-find gourmet foods. Most locations also have a full-service kitchen, offer cooking and wine classes in their culinary school, and offer catering...
food store, owned by the grocery chain H-E-B
H-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...
.
With this upgraded presence in the Houston television market, Fox 26 went from outperforming former independents KTXH and KHWB (the former KHTV, now KIAH) to regularly challenging Houston's major-network stations, KPRC
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...
, KHOU, and KTRK-TV
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...
, in the ratings. During this time KRIV's studios also became a studio site for various syndicated Fox programs, including the courtroom shows Texas Justice
Texas Justice
Katherine Levine a now Broadcasting Professor at Montclair State University, was the Producer and creator of the show.Texas Justice is a syndicated television program in the U.S. In the program, cases were judged by Larry Joe Doherty, and the program was recorded at the studios of Fox station KRIV...
, Cristina's Court and Judge Alex
Judge Alex
Judge Alex is a United States syndicated courtroom television show that debuted September 12, 2005. The host/arbitrator is the Hon. Alex Ferrer, a former police officer, lawyer, and Florida judge. The show was produced in Houston at the television studios of Fox's KRIV , as was previously done with...
.
On July 26, 2006 days after competitor KHOU launched a new graphics package, KRIV also launched a new graphics and music package, which is being gradually rolled out to each of Fox's owned and operated stations as a part of a new, unified look that is similar to the graphics used on Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
. In mid-August 2006 the station launched its version of Fox's MyFox O&O website initiative with MyFoxHouston.com, which technically marks the station's first venture onto the Internet in a number of years, as the station's previous 2001-era website was somewhat of a placeholder and contained little information. On October 30, 2006 KRIV debuted a new set for newscasts. The old set was donated to the communications school at Texas Southern University
Texas Southern University
Texas Southern University is a historically black university located in Houston, Texas, United States....
.
Logo history
The KDOG logo featured the station's call letters, with the "g" resembling the profile of a dog's head. This coordinated with the motto, "Where Every Dog Has His Day."
In 1986 after becoming a Fox affiliate, the logo was changed to a new serif
Serif
In typography, serifs are semi-structural details on the ends of some of the strokes that make up letters and symbols. A typeface with serifs is called a serif typeface . A typeface without serifs is called sans serif or sans-serif, from the French sans, meaning “without”...
font similar to the other O&O affiliates. One example of the logo just shows a bold "26" with the "KRIV" and "Houston" underneath http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/1/13/Kriv86.jpg, another shows a horizontally oriented logo with a diagonal Fox logo on the left and the "KRIV 26" on the right http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/a/af/E51c.jpg
In 1989 the logo was changed again, this time to a vertically oriented rectangle with the Fox searchlight above the number 26, with the call letters in a slightly diagonal line in the middle, and the word Houston in the border underneath. http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/7/76/Kriv2688.jpg
In 1994 the logo was changed to a bold "Fox 26" in a sans-serif font, with "KRIV" and "Houston" underneath in the old serif font.http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/b/b9/E94e.jpg
In 1997 after the station moved studios, the logo was changed again, along with most other Fox affiliates. This logo was a multi-paned rectangle with the word "Fox" in white letters on a blue background, a blue "26" on a white background, and the words "KRIV - HOUSTON" underneath on a black background with a red line underneath.http://web.petabox.bibalex.org/web/20020626220948/http://jonesgsm.rice.edu/images/jonesgsm/Logos/kriv_logo.jpg This logo was used until 2006, when the current logo was adopted.
Also in 2006 the KRIV website launched, and began using the "MyFox Houston" logo, a rounded rectangle consisting of a white lowercase "my" similar to the font used for MySpace
MySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
(also owned by Fox), on a blue background, a white capital "Fox" on a red background, and the word "Houston" underneath.http://www.myfoxhouston.com/myfox/photo_servlet?contentId=676337&version=1&locale=EN-US&subtype=MIMG
Digital television
The station's digital signal, UHF 26, is not multiplexed:| Subchannel | Programming |
|---|---|
| 26.1 | main KRIV/Fox programming |
Analog-to-digital conversion
KRIV ended programming on its analog signal, on UHF channel 26, 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 returned to channel 26 for its post-transition operations.
Programming
In addition to Fox primetime, Saturday late night and sports programming (as well as the Saturday morning Weekend MarketplaceWeekend Marketplace
Weekend Marketplace is a two hour Saturday morning block of paid programming airing on Fox that began airing on January 3, 2009, replacing the 4Kids TV Saturday morning cartoon block that aired using time leased by 4Kids from Fox from 2002 until the last Saturday of 2008...
infomercial block and the Sunday morning political talk program Fox News Sunday
Fox News Sunday
Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace is a public affairs program on the Fox network, hosted by Chris Wallace and airing on Sunday mornings. The show began on April 28, 1996, which predated the launch of Fox News Channel, and usually talks about items similar to Sunday morning talk shows...
), KRIV also broadcasts off-network sitcoms, syndicated talk and courtroom shows, and reality shows, as well as religious programming on weekends.
News operation
KRIV broadcasts a total of 35 hours of local news a week (6½ hours on weekdays, one hour on Saturdays and an hour-and-a-half on Sundays), more than any other station in the Houston market. KRIV is the only Fox O&O without a weekend early evening newscast.In 1987, the station formed an investigative unit, and a program called "City Under Siege" which aired after the evening news. Originally hosted by anchors Jim Marsh and Fran Fawcett, the show was actually a predecessor to one of the Fox network's later standouts: COPS
COPS (TV series)
Cops is an American documentary/reality television series that follows police officers, constables, and sheriff's deputies during patrols and other police activities...
.
The station launched an hour-long 5 p.m. newscast on August 18, 2008. On January 31, 2009, KRIV became the fourth station in Houston behind KHOU, KTRK-TV
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...
and 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...
to launch local news in high definition. With the change to HD came new Fox O&O HD graphics currently used on sister stations WNYW
WNYW
WNYW, virtual channel 5 , is the flagship television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in New York City. The station's transmitter is atop the Empire State Building and its studio facilities are located in the Yorkville section of Manhattan...
, KTTV
KTTV
KTTV, 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...
, KDFW
KDFW
KDFW, virtual channel 4 , is the Fox owned-and-operated television station in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex designated market area....
and WTTG
WTTG
WTTG, channel 5, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Fox Broadcasting Company, located in the American capital city of Washington, D.C...
. On September 7, 2009, the station launched Fox 26 Morning News Extra, which is a less formal, hour-long newscast which airs at 9 a.m. and effectively extended the entire morning news program to five hours. On March 29, 2010 a sixth hour of news was added with the introduction of Fox 26 News at 4 AM, allowing the station to compete with the 4:30 a.m. newscasts offered by KPRC, KTRK and KHOU.
Since February 2008, KRIV's 9 p.m. newscast has been simulcast on Fox affiliate KUQI
KUQI
KUQI is a full-power broadcast television station in the Corpus Christi, Texas market. It airs digitally over UHF channel 38. It is the Fox affiliate for the area, replacing the affiliation previously held by low-power station K47DF...
(channel 38) in Corpus Christi, since that station does not have a news department of its own. On September 14, 2009, KUIL-LP
KUIL-LP
KUIL-LD is a low-powered MyNetworkTV station, broadcasting on digital channel 43 and digital channel 36 for the Beaumont / Port Arthur, Texas area of the United States...
in Beaumont, Texas also began simulcasting KRIV's 9 p.m. newscast (ironically, KUIL-LP lost its Fox affiliation nine months earlier to KBTV-TV
KBTV-TV
KBTV-TV, channel 4, is the Fox affiliated television station serving the Beaumont/Port Arthur, Texas designated market area, and is licensed to Port Arthur. The station is owned by Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc., and its studios are located at Parkdale Mall in Beaumont...
(channel 4), rendering KUIL an independent). KRIV is the third station to have been owned by Fox to simulcast its newscasts on a station in a nearby market, as WJBK
WJBK
WJBK is the Fox–owned and operated television station in Detroit, Michigan broadcasting on digital channel 7...
in Detroit simulcasted two hours of its weekday morning newscast on WFQX
WFQX-TV
WFQX-TV is the Fox-affiliated television station for the northern Lower and eastern Upper Peninsulas of Michigan. Licensed to Cadillac, it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 32 from a transmitter at studios on 130th Avenue/Dighton Road in Tustin on Grove Hill...
in Cadillac, Michigan, and then began simulcasting the second half of its weeknight 10 p.m. newscast from 2007 to 2008. Former Fox-owned station WDAF-TV
WDAF-TV
WDAF-TV, virtual channel 4.1, is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the Kansas City, Missouri-Kansas designated market area. The station is owned by Local TV LLC, the media arm of private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners. Its studios and transmitter are located in the Signal Hill...
in Kansas City also simulcast its morning and 9 p.m. newscasts on Fox affiliate KTMJ-CA
KTMJ-CA
KTMJ-CA is the Class A Fox-affiliated television station for Topeka, Kansas. It broadcasts an analog signal on UHF channel 43 from a transmitter in the city between the Kansas River and I-70/U.S. 40/U.S. 75/KS 4...
in Topeka, Kansas during that same timeframe.
Ratings
KRIV has touted its newscasts as the fastest growing in the Houston area, and has outperformed KPRC's newscasts as of the February 2007 sweeps period. During morning anchor Jan Jeffcoat's November 2004 to June 2007 tenure, KRIV saw a major jump in ratings, passing KPRC in the mornings, still far away from KTRK and KHOU. The station's 9 p.m. newscast trails behind in ratings. The station still trails behind newscasts on CBS affiliate KHOU and ABC owned-and-operated KTRK, both of which battle for first place in Houston TV ratings books, with KTRK's dominance dating back to the 1970s. KRIV also does well among young women 25-35, and teenagers which are both key audiences for KRIV.Newscast titles
- TV-26 News (1971–1975)
- KDOG News (1975–1978)
- Channel 26 Metromedia News (1978–1986)
- Fox News (1986–2001)
- Fox 26 News (1986–present)
Station slogans
- Houston's Very Own, TV-26 (1971–1975)
- KDOG, Where Every Dog Has His Day (1975–1978)
- Channel 26, Your Metromedia Station (1978–1986)
- News That Works For You (2001–2006)
- Your Gulf Coast Weather Authority (2006–2010)
- Connected to You (2010–present)
News team (as of August 2, 2011)
Current anchors (In alphabetical order)- Ford Atkinson - weekends at 9 p.m.; also weekday reporter (1991; alternates weekend anchor duties with Damali Keith)
- Natalie Bomke - weekday mornings Fox 26 Morning News (5-6 a.m.) (2010)
- Ruben Dominguez - weekday mornings Fox 26 Morning News Extra (9-10 a.m.) (1995)
- José Griñan - weekday mornings Fox 26 Morning News (6-9 a.m.) and noon (1994)
- Damali Keith - weekends at 9 p.m.; also weekday reporter (alternates weekend anchor duties with Ford Atkinson) (1989)
- Melinda Spaulding - weekdays at 5, 5:30 and 9 p.m. (1992)
- Chris Stipes - weekday mornings Fox 26 Morning News (4-6 a.m.) (2008)
- Don Teague - weeknights at 5, 5:30 and 9 p.m. (2011)
- Melissa Wilson - weekday mornings Fox 26 Morning News (6-9 a.m.) and "Fox 26 Morning News Extra" (9-10 a.m.) (1994)
- Tom Zizka - weekday mornings Fox 26 Morning News (4-5 a.m.) (2011)
FoxRAD Weather Team (In order of rank)
- Dr. Jim Siebert (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 and 9 p.m. (2000) - John Dawson - meteorologist; weekends at 9 p.m.; also fill-in (2006)
- Mike Iscovitz (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekday mornings (4-8 a.m.) (2007)
- Kristi Powers (AMS and NWANational Weather AssociationThe National Weather Association is an American professional association with a mission to support and promote excellence in operational meteorology and related activities...
Seals of Approval) - meteorologist; weekday mornings (8-10 a.m.) and noon (1999)
Sports team (In order of rank)
- Mark Berman - sports director; weeknights at 9 p.m. (2002)
- Keith Calkins - sports anchor; weekends at 9 p.m., also weeknight fill-in sports anchor (2003)
Reporters (In alphabetical order)
- Emily Akin - "Take it to Akin" consumer reporter (2006)
- Isiah CareyIsiah CareyIsiah Carey is an American television broadcast journalist and reporter who has worked for television and radio stations throughout the southeast portion of the United States and whose reporting videos have been seen by millions of people around the world.-Background:Carey was born in Baton Rouge,...
- general assignment reporter (1997) - Doug Delony - "My Tech Guy" technology reporter (2006)
- John Donnelly - general assignment reporter (2004)
- Kristine Galvan - general assignment reporter (2002)
- Greg Groogan - special assignment reporter (2008)
- Ned Hibberd - general assignment reporter (2004)
- Kristin Kane - general assignment reporter (2011) (also fill-in anchor)
- Sally MacDonald - general assignment reporter (2009)
- Michelle Merhar - morning traffic reporter (2010)
- Pattie Shieh - general assignment reporter (2005)
- Randy Wallace - investigative reporter (2005)
- Andrea Watkins - morning reporter (2008)