KTRK-TV
Encyclopedia
KTRK-TV, channel 13, is an owned-and-operated
television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company
, located in Houston, Texas
. KTRK's studios and offices are located in the Upper Kirby
district of Houston, and its transmitter is located in unincorporated northeastern Fort Bend County
.
, decided to merge as Houston Consolidated Television. They bought the studio facilities of the defunct KNUZ-TV (channel 39), a DuMont
affiliate which had gone dark. As the Chronicle was the largest shareholder in the company, the station went on the air on November 20, 1954 as KTRK-TV, derived from the Chronicle's radio station, KTRH. The station was an ABC
affiliate; during the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network
.
The original studio facilities were located at 4513 Cullen Blvd (at the defunct Texas Television Center district in the University of Houston
campus); this studio later housed KHTV (later KHWB and KHCW, now KIAH, the present channel 39) and PBS
member station KUHT
(channel 8).
In 1955, the Chronicle bought out its partners. Although this theoretically left the paper free to change its calls to KTRH-TV to match its radio sister, it opted not to do so. However, for years it called itself "The Houston Chronicle Station." Soon afterward, the station moved to its current Bissonnet Street location. The studio was the first domed structure in town, preceding the better-known Astrodome by 10 years. Both projects were built by the same architect, Hermon Lloyd. Like many stations located on "unlucky" channel 13, it used a black cat
as its mascot.
Early programs involved a heavy emphasis on local flavor and reflected themes of the day. Some of the more popular local shows included:
In 1967, the Chronicle sold KTRK to Capital Cities Broadcasting (later to become Capital Cities Communications
). CapCities bought ABC in 1986, making KTRK an ABC-owned and operated station, and one of two Capital Cities-owned stations already affiliated with ABC alongside WPVI-TV. With that distinction, KTRK would become the first network-owned station in Texas. After 1991, the station's only preemption was the first half-hour of The Home Show, an arrangement which continued when the show morphed into Mike and Maty
.
Capital Cities/ABC was sold to the Walt Disney Company in early 1996. Not long after, the new Disney-led ownership directed KTRK-TV to clear the entire ABC schedule, though there have been times when local special events are aired in place of network programming.
On April 30, 2000, a dispute between Disney and Time Warner Cable
forced KTRK off cable systems within the Houston market for over 24 hours during the May sweeps period. Other ABC stations in markets served by Time Warner Cable, such as New York City
, Los Angeles
, and Raleigh/Durham
, were also affected by the outage as well before the FCC forced TWC to restore service to those areas on May 2. In 2007, Time Warner traded the Houston franchise for Dallas-Fort Worth's Comcast
.
. The station then moved back to channel 13 for its post-transition operations.
in Philadelphia. The programs which channel 13 preempted were not widely run in many markets, though for many years KTRK pre-empted the first half-hour of Good Morning America
in favor of a local newscast. This practice continued into the early 1990s, before the newscast was moved back to a pre-7:00am start time. Despite these preemptions, ABC was more than satisfied with KTRK, one of its strongest affiliates.
Channel 13 is also different from many ABC owned-and-operated stations in that it has never aired The Oprah Winfrey Show
, or the syndicated versions of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!
. Those programs have aired on CBS
affiliate KHOU (channel 11) since 1986, while they have been mainstays on most of ABC's owned-and-operated stations for years. In fact, at one point during the late 1980s to early 1990s, Donahue
was the only daytime syndicated program on KTRK's lineup. This was largely due to its hour-long 6:00 p.m. newscast as well as its popular movie showcases and local programming at the time, including Good Morning Houston.
Since 2001, with the debut of the 4:00 p.m. newscast, channel 13 no longer has enough syndicated daytime hours of programming to back up its strong news programming outside of network programming. Thus the remaining two hours are filled by these syndicated programs during weekdays: Live! with Kelly, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (both of which are distributed by corporate cousin Disney-ABC Domestic Television), and Inside Edition
.
, from the team's inaugural season in 1962 until 1971; however the station only televised Sunday afternoon road games.
Channel 13 has been the official television home of the Houston Texans
since the expansion year in 2002. The station has televised all of the Texans' preseason games not carried on national networks since the team's inception. On Sundays during the Texans' season, it televises a post-game show, Houston Texans Inside the Game at 10:35 p.m. hosted by Bob Allen and Spencer Tillman, following its Sunday newscast. On Mondays during the regular season, it televises Look Back with Kubiak, in which sports director Bob Allen looks over the previous Sunday's game with Texans head coach Gary Kubiak
, during its 6 p.m. newscasts. On Saturdays, its Extra Points sports show is converted to a special edition entitled Extra Points: Houston Texans Edition at 6:30 PM.
As ABC lost NFL rights at the end of the 2005 NFL season
and with the Texans' regular season games broadcast on KHOU-TV
(through the NFL on CBS
), and sometimes KRIV
(through Fox NFL Sunday
and occasionally the NFL Network
and ESPN Monday Night Football) and KPRC
(through NBC Sunday Night Football
), the preseason games will be the only games broadcast on KTRK for the foreseeable future.
, the tenth-largest media market in the United States
. Many of the station's anchors and reporters have been at the station for at least 20 years, some even dating back to the station's days under Capital Cities ownership. Dave Ward
has been the station's main anchor since 1965, longer than anyone in Houston television history. Two other notable long-time personalities are sports director Bob Allen, who has served in that position since 1974, longer than any other major-market sports director, and investigative reporter Wayne Dolcefino
, who has worked for KTRK since 1985 and has won many awards for a number of high-profile civic and consumer investigations with his 13 Undercover franchise.
KTRK also became known for its legendary consumer and investigative reporter, Marvin Zindler
, whose week-long 1973 reports on a brothel in La Grange, Texas
led to the closing of the Chicken Ranch
, a bordello that was later immortalized in the musical and film, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
and ZZ Top
's hit song "La Grange
." Zindler was also widely noted in Houston for his Friday night Rat and Roach Report on Houston restaurants that failed health inspections, which ended with his trademark line "Slime in the Ice Machine". Zindler signed a lifetime contract with KTRK in 1988, making him the first person ever offered such a contract by then-owner Capital Cities, which was known as a financially frugal company. Zindler continued to work for the station until his death in 2007 from pancreatic cancer, even filing reports during his treatment. Since his death, Zindler's former producer, Lori Reingold has picked up where he left off. She was instrumental in helping find "Marvin's Angels", wrote much of his copy
and will be continuing under the segment name, "Action's Angels".
In the 1970s and 1980s, Ward, along with Allen, Zindler, and weatherman Ed Brandon, led Houston's top-rated news team at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. The lineup was later revised to include a female anchor, Shara Fryer in the 1990s, followed by current chief meteorologist Tim Heller in lieu of Brandon at 10 p.m. in 2002, and the replacement of Fryer with Gina Gaston the following year. In 2007, Brandon retired from the station after a 35-year career, but has occasionally filled in.
The station's newscast, 13 Eyewitness News, has been number one in the Houston market for most of the last 30 years. It is also one of the highest-rated newscasts in the country. In recent years, however, KTRK has faced strong challenges from rival CBS affiliate KHOU-TV, often battling with KHOU for number one during its evening newscasts. In the beginning of 2005, CBS affiliate KHOU-TV stepped up its news operations, and overtook KTRK during evening newscasts and at one time ousted KTRK's longtime No. 1 position in the mornings. KHOU-TV's victory in the ratings was mainly credited to the turn to hard news, the switch to HD, and its dedicated news team with Greg Hurst and Lisa Foronda at the helm of channel 11. KTRK-TV recently took the lead again in the mornings, as well as at midday, and 5 p.m. The rivalry is so intense that KTRK has even gone as far as advertising its newscasts as the most watched in Houston in terms of total households for all of its newscasts. KTRK-TV has always led in household ratings, something it continues to do. It broadcasts more hours of local news than any other Houston television station with six hours on weekdays, two and a half hours on Saturday and four hours on Sunday.
On August 12, 2007, KTRK began fully producing Eyewitness News in HD (HD helicopter and HD tower cam since mid-2006), making KTRK the second Houston station after KHOU and the seventh ABC owned-and-operated station after KABC in Los Angeles, WPVI in Philadelphia, WABC in New York City, WLS in Chicago, KGO in San Francisco and KFSN in Fresno to make the transition, although technically, KTRK had the first HD images broadcast during its newscasts (helicopter and weather camera) before any other station in Houston.
The victory for Channel 11 ended in 2007, as it slipped into the #2, and even #3 in some time slots. Since November 5, 2007, KTRK has reclaimed its victory as Houston's most watched station from sign-on to sign-off. Station promos state based on Nielsen's October 2007 ratings, 13 Eyewitness News is Houston's #1 newscast in Eyewitness News This Morning (5:00–7:00 am), Eyewitness News at 4 (4:00–5:00 pm), Live at Five (5:00–5:30 pm), Eyewitness News at 6 (6:00–7:00 pm) and Eyewitness News Tonight (10:00–10:35 pm). However KTRK wasn't able to recover from its 11am newscast, which came in second to KHOU's noon newscast (channel 13 was #1 at 11am though; but not for the entire midday block) until 2009, when it took the midday time slot from channel 11 which runs a noon newscast. The station also had major victories for 2008 election night and 2009 inauguration day, all the victories were won by a wide margin. This widens channel 13's lead over all other stations in the market, marking 30+ years that KTRK has remained number 1 in Houston. In the November 2009 sweeps period, Channel 11 regained the midday news lead. ABC 13 continues to dominate its competition in every other dayparts, except midday. In addition, KTRK ranks #1 among various demographics such as young women (25-35), African Americans, and suburban audiences.
On August 17, 2009, it was the first station in the market to begin airing a 4:30 AM newscast, beating KPRC by one week and KHOU by three.
/Westwood One
. On October 13, 2008 around 11 AM, Skyeye HD crashed in W.G. Jones State Forest located near the intersection of FM 1488 and Peoples Road in southern Montgomery County, Texas
. The aircraft, operated by a contractor, was in route to a breaking news story on a reported shooting when it went down. Pilot John Downhower and photographer/reporter Dave Garrett were killed in the accident. Hooks Airport, the closest airport to the crash site, confirmed that no distress call was heard prior to the crash. The last images fed to KTRK were before the crash, which showed the landing skid as the helicopter banked hard to the right. An investigation by the NTSB
concludes the loss of power came from an undetermined source. When asking an accident reconstructionist about the preliminary report, he pointed to a device that didn't function properly that would have prevented an emergency landing. The malfunctioning part wasn't mentioned in the final report without an explanation.
Off Air staff-
David Strickland- Vice president of news
Henry Florshime- President of Station
(In alphabetical order)
Weather team
(In order of rank)
Sports team
(In order of rank)
Reporters
(In alphabetical order)
in Toledo, Ohio
, only that KTRK calls itself ABC 13 while WTVG is known as 13 ABC (also WTVG's version of the logo does not include a design of the Texas state flag).
Its previous logo, which ran from 1971 until 1995, was a crooked "Circle 13." It recalled livestock branding
of the Old West and was set in Helvetica
font, with the bottom of the "3" trailing off out of the circle. In 1986 because of the Capital Cities/ABC Merger, the trailing portion was "trimmed" as the logo was turned slightly horizontal in a similar fashion to today's version. Since July 3, 1992, both logos have been superimposed over a stylized version of the Texas state flag
.
Owned-and-operated station
In the broadcasting industry , an owned-and-operated station usually refers to a television station or radio station that is owned by the network with which it is associated...
television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, located 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...
. KTRK's studios and offices are located in the Upper Kirby
Upper Kirby
Upper Kirby is a commercial district in Houston, Texas, United States.Upper Kirby contains many businesses, including restaurants. Upper Kirby is east of the Greenway Plaza, southwest of Neartown, north of the city of West University Place, and south of River Oaks.Upper Kirby is considered to be in...
district of Houston, and its transmitter is 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...
.
History
The station grew out of the VHF "freeze", when three entities vying for the channel 13 assignment, including the Houston ChronicleHouston 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...
, decided to merge as Houston Consolidated Television. They bought the studio facilities of the defunct KNUZ-TV (channel 39), a DuMont
DuMont Television Network
The DuMont Television Network, also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont, Du Mont, or Dumont was one of the world's pioneer commercial television networks, rivalling NBC for the distinction of being first overall. It began operation in the United States in 1946. It was owned by DuMont...
affiliate which had gone dark. As the Chronicle was the largest shareholder in the company, the station went on the air on November 20, 1954 as KTRK-TV, derived from the Chronicle's radio station, KTRH. The station was an ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
affiliate; during the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network
NTA Film Network
The NTA Film Network was an early American television network founded by Ely Landau in 1956. The network was not a full-time television network like CBS, NBC, or ABC. Rather, it operated on a part-time basis, broadcasting films and several first-run television programs from major Hollywood studios...
.
The original studio facilities were located at 4513 Cullen Blvd (at the defunct Texas Television Center district in the University of Houston
University of Houston
The University of Houston is a state research university, and is the flagship institution of the University of Houston System. Founded in 1927, it is Texas's third-largest university with nearly 40,000 students. Its campus spans 667 acres in southeast Houston, and was known as University of...
campus); this studio later housed KHTV (later KHWB and KHCW, now KIAH, the present channel 39) and PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
member station KUHT
KUHT
-Technical firsts:The station is also noted in Houston for many technical firsts at the local level. In 1981, KUHT became Houston's first closed captioned television station, and ten years later, in 1991, it became the first station in Houston to offer Descriptive Video Service , and other services...
(channel 8).
In 1955, the Chronicle bought out its partners. Although this theoretically left the paper free to change its calls to KTRH-TV to match its radio sister, it opted not to do so. However, for years it called itself "The Houston Chronicle Station." Soon afterward, the station moved to its current Bissonnet Street location. The studio was the first domed structure in town, preceding the better-known Astrodome by 10 years. Both projects were built by the same architect, Hermon Lloyd. Like many stations located on "unlucky" channel 13, it used a black cat
Black cat
A black cat is a feline with black fur. It is not a particular breed of cat and may be mixed or of a specific breed. The Bombay, known for its sleek black fur, is an example of a black cat. The all-black pigmentation is equally prevalent in both male and female cats...
as its mascot.
Early programs involved a heavy emphasis on local flavor and reflected themes of the day. Some of the more popular local shows included:
- KitirikKitirik- History :KTRK-TV channel 13 was just starting out in Houston, Texas, and needing a mascot they came up with a black cat since they were the unlucky 13.Bunny answered an ad for the fledgling station in 1954....
: a children's oriented program, hosted by an actress in a cat costume. - Cadet Don: A Space-themed adventure program for children, focusing on the exploits of an interstellar adventurer and the locations he visited.
- Dialing for DollarsDialing for DollarsDialing for Dollars was a franchised format local television program in the United States and Canada, popular in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.-Format:...
: A game show of sorts where a viewer would be phoned by the host and would win a cash prize by answering questions. - Good Morning Houston: The successor to Dialing for Dollars which debuted in the late 1970s and expanded to include discussions on local events and topics important to viewer's lifestyles.
In 1967, the Chronicle sold KTRK to Capital Cities Broadcasting (later to become Capital Cities Communications
Capital Cities Communications
Capital Cities redirects here. For the article about the seat of a government, see Capital .Capital Cities Communications was an American media company best known for its surprise purchase of the much larger American Broadcasting Company in 1985...
). CapCities bought ABC in 1986, making KTRK an ABC-owned and operated station, and one of two Capital Cities-owned stations already affiliated with ABC alongside WPVI-TV. With that distinction, KTRK would become the first network-owned station in Texas. After 1991, the station's only preemption was the first half-hour of The Home Show, an arrangement which continued when the show morphed into Mike and Maty
Mike and Maty
Mike and Maty was a daytime talk show that aired on ABC from April 11, 1994, to June 7, 1996. It was aired weekdays at 11:00 a.m. and was a 60-minute show. ABC aired it as a replacement for The Home Show, a daytime/nighttime informational talk show that aired on ABC from 1988 to 1994.It ran for a...
.
On April 30, 2000, a dispute between Disney and Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable is an American cable television company that operates in 28 states and has 31 operating divisions...
forced KTRK off cable systems within the Houston market for over 24 hours during the May sweeps period. Other ABC stations in markets served by Time Warner Cable, such as New York City
WABC-TV
WABC-TV, channel 7, is the flagship station of the Disney-owned American Broadcasting Company located in New York City. The station's studios and offices are located on the Upper West Side section of Manhattan, adjacent to ABC's corporate headquarters, and its transmitter is atop the Empire State...
, Los Angeles
KABC-TV
KABC-TV, channel 7, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, licensed to Los Angeles, California. KABC-TV's studios are located in Glendale, California...
, and Raleigh/Durham
WTVD
WTVD, channel 11, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, licensed to Durham, North Carolina. The station serves the areas of Durham, Raleigh, Chapel Hill, and Fayetteville, known as the Triangle...
, were also affected by the outage as well before the FCC forced TWC to restore service to those areas on May 2. In 2007, Time Warner traded the Houston franchise for Dallas-Fort Worth's Comcast
Comcast
Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...
.
Digital television
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:| Channel | Programming |
|---|---|
| 13.1 | Main KTRK programming /ABC |
| 13.2 | Live Well Network 480i letterbox on 13.3 |
| 13.3 |
Analog-to-digital conversion
KTRK-TV ended programming on its analog signal, on VHF channel 13, 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 13 for its post-transition operations.
Network and syndicated programming
Under CapCities' ownership, KTRK preempted some ABC programming, though not nearly as much as other ABC affiliates, such as sister station WPVI-TVWPVI-TV
WPVI-TV, channel 6, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. WPVI has its studios located on the border between Philadelphia and Bala Cynwyd, and its transmitter is located in the...
in Philadelphia. The programs which channel 13 preempted were not widely run in many markets, though for many years KTRK pre-empted the first half-hour of Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
in favor of a local newscast. This practice continued into the early 1990s, before the newscast was moved back to a pre-7:00am start time. Despite these preemptions, ABC was more than satisfied with KTRK, one of its strongest affiliates.
Channel 13 is also different from many ABC owned-and-operated stations in that it has never aired The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey. It ran nationally for 25 seasons beginning in 1986, before concluding in 2011. It is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....
, or the syndicated versions of Wheel of Fortune and 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...
. Those programs have aired on CBS
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 KHOU (channel 11) since 1986, while they have been mainstays on most of ABC's owned-and-operated stations for years. In fact, at one point during the late 1980s to early 1990s, Donahue
The Phil Donahue Show
The Phil Donahue Show, also known as Donahue, is an American television talk show that ran for 26 years on national television. Its run was preceded by three years of local broadcast in Dayton, Ohio, and it was broadcast nationwide between 1967 and 1996.In 2002, Donahue was ranked #29 on TV Guide's...
was the only daytime syndicated program on KTRK's lineup. This was largely due to its hour-long 6:00 p.m. newscast as well as its popular movie showcases and local programming at the time, including Good Morning Houston.
Since 2001, with the debut of the 4:00 p.m. newscast, channel 13 no longer has enough syndicated daytime hours of programming to back up its strong news programming outside of network programming. Thus the remaining two hours are filled by these syndicated programs during weekdays: Live! with Kelly, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (both of which are distributed by corporate cousin Disney-ABC Domestic Television), and Inside Edition
Inside Edition
Inside Edition is a thirty-minute American television syndicated news program, first aired on CBS on October 9, 1988. It was originally similar to the programs Hard Copy and A Current Affair, but now more closely resembles a condensed version of breakfast television, exclusively with pre-recorded...
.
Sports coverage
KTRK-TV was the original television home of the Houston AstrosHouston Astros
The Houston Astros are a Major League Baseball team located in Houston, Texas. They are a member of the National League Central division. The Astros are expected to join the American League West division in 2013. Since , they have played their home games at Minute Maid Park, known as Enron Field...
, from the team's inaugural season in 1962 until 1971; however the station only televised Sunday afternoon road games.
Channel 13 has been the official television home of 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...
since the expansion year in 2002. The station has televised all of the Texans' preseason games not carried on national networks since the team's inception. On Sundays during the Texans' season, it televises a post-game show, Houston Texans Inside the Game at 10:35 p.m. hosted by Bob Allen and Spencer Tillman, following its Sunday newscast. On Mondays during the regular season, it televises Look Back with Kubiak, in which sports director Bob Allen looks over the previous Sunday's game with Texans head coach Gary Kubiak
Gary Kubiak
Gary Wayne Kubiak is the head coach for the Houston Texans of the National Football League. Kubiak has participated in six Super Bowls, losing three as a player with the Denver Broncos and winning three as an assistant coach with Denver and the San Francisco 49ers.-High school:Kubiak passed for a...
, during its 6 p.m. newscasts. On Saturdays, its Extra Points sports show is converted to a special edition entitled Extra Points: Houston Texans Edition at 6:30 PM.
As ABC lost NFL rights at the end of the 2005 NFL season
2005 NFL season
The 2005 NFL season was the 86th regular season of the National Football League.With the New England Patriots as the defending league champions, regular season play was held from September 8, 2005 to January 1, 2006...
and with the Texans' regular season games broadcast on KHOU-TV
KHOU-TV
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...
(through the NFL 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 sometimes KRIV
KRIV
KRIV, channel 26, is an owned-and-operated television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox, located in Houston, Texas. KRIV is co-owned with MyNetworkTV affiliate KTXH...
(through Fox NFL Sunday
FOX NFL Sunday
Fox NFL Sunday is the pregame show for the TV show NFL on Fox. The program is broadcast on Fox television affiliates nationwide. The audio portion of the show is broadcast over the Fox Sports Radio network, distributed by Premiere Radio Networks...
and occasionally the NFL Network
NFL Network
NFL Network is an American television specialty channel owned and operated by the National Football League . It was launched November 4, 2003, only eight months after the league's 32 team owners voted unanimously to approve its formation...
and ESPN Monday Night Football) and KPRC
KPRC
KPRC may refer to:* KPRC-TV, a television station licensed to Houston, Texas, United States* KPRC , a radio station licensed to Houston, Texas, United States...
(through NBC Sunday Night Football
NBC Sunday Night Football
NBC Sunday Night Football is a weekly television broadcast of Sunday evening National Football League games on NBC that began airing on Sunday, August 6, 2006 with the pre-season opening Hall of Fame Game. Al Michaels serves as the play-by-play announcer, with Cris Collinsworth as the color...
), the preseason games will be the only games broadcast on KTRK for the foreseeable future.
News programming
KTRK is widely noted for having the most experienced news team in Greater HoustonGreater 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...
, the tenth-largest media market in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Many of the station's anchors and reporters have been at the station for at least 20 years, some even dating back to the station's days under Capital Cities ownership. Dave Ward
Dave Ward (reporter)
Davíd Henry Ward is most known for his career of over 40 years as anchor of the weekday 6:00 pm and 10:00 pm newscasts on KTRK-TV's Eyewitness News in Houston, Texas...
has been the station's main anchor since 1965, longer than anyone in Houston television history. Two other notable long-time personalities are sports director Bob Allen, who has served in that position since 1974, longer than any other major-market sports director, and investigative reporter Wayne Dolcefino
Wayne Dolcefino
Wayne Dolcefino is an Emmy Award-winning news reporter for KTRK-TV ABC-13 in Houston, Texas, USA. As the investigative reporter for "13 Undercover," he is responsible for a number of civic and consumer investigations....
, who has worked for KTRK since 1985 and has won many awards for a number of high-profile civic and consumer investigations with his 13 Undercover franchise.
KTRK also became known for its legendary consumer and investigative reporter, Marvin Zindler
Marvin Zindler
Marvin Harold Zindler was a news reporter for television station KTRK-TV in Houston, Texas, United States. His investigative journalism, through which he mostly represented the city's elderly and working class, made him one of the city's most influential and well-known media personalities.-Early...
, whose week-long 1973 reports on a brothel in La Grange, Texas
La Grange, Texas
La Grange is a city in Fayette County, Texas, near the Colorado River. The population was 4,478 at the 2000 census. The 2006 estimated population was 4,645. But a 2010 census estimated that the city had a population of 4,923...
led to the closing of the Chicken Ranch
Chicken Ranch (Texas)
The Chicken Ranch was as an illegal but tolerated brothel in the U.S. state of Texas that operated from 1905 until 1973. It was located in Fayette County about 2.5 miles east of downtown La Grange...
, a bordello that was later immortalized in the musical and film, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas is a musical with a book by Texas author Larry L. King and Peter Masterson and music and lyrics by Carol Hall...
and ZZ Top
ZZ Top
ZZ Top is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "That Little Ol' Band from Texas". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based boogie rock, has come to incorporate elements of arena, southern, and boogie rock. The band, from Houston Texas, formed in 1969...
's hit song "La Grange
La Grange (song)
"La Grange" is a song by the rock group ZZ Top from their album Tres Hombres, released in 1973. One of their most successful songs, it was released in 1973 and received extensive radio play, rising to #41 in the Billboard Pop Singles list in 1974. The song refers to a bordello on the outskirts of...
." Zindler was also widely noted in Houston for his Friday night Rat and Roach Report on Houston restaurants that failed health inspections, which ended with his trademark line "Slime in the Ice Machine". Zindler signed a lifetime contract with KTRK in 1988, making him the first person ever offered such a contract by then-owner Capital Cities, which was known as a financially frugal company. Zindler continued to work for the station until his death in 2007 from pancreatic cancer, even filing reports during his treatment. Since his death, Zindler's former producer, Lori Reingold has picked up where he left off. She was instrumental in helping find "Marvin's Angels", wrote much of his copy
Copy (written)
Copy refers to written material, in contrast to photographs or other elements of layout, in a large number of contexts, including magazines, advertising, and book publishing....
and will be continuing under the segment name, "Action's Angels".
In the 1970s and 1980s, Ward, along with Allen, Zindler, and weatherman Ed Brandon, led Houston's top-rated news team at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. The lineup was later revised to include a female anchor, Shara Fryer in the 1990s, followed by current chief meteorologist Tim Heller in lieu of Brandon at 10 p.m. in 2002, and the replacement of Fryer with Gina Gaston the following year. In 2007, Brandon retired from the station after a 35-year career, but has occasionally filled in.
The station's newscast, 13 Eyewitness News, has been number one in the Houston market for most of the last 30 years. It is also one of the highest-rated newscasts in the country. In recent years, however, KTRK has faced strong challenges from rival CBS affiliate KHOU-TV, often battling with KHOU for number one during its evening newscasts. In the beginning of 2005, CBS affiliate KHOU-TV stepped up its news operations, and overtook KTRK during evening newscasts and at one time ousted KTRK's longtime No. 1 position in the mornings. KHOU-TV's victory in the ratings was mainly credited to the turn to hard news, the switch to HD, and its dedicated news team with Greg Hurst and Lisa Foronda at the helm of channel 11. KTRK-TV recently took the lead again in the mornings, as well as at midday, and 5 p.m. The rivalry is so intense that KTRK has even gone as far as advertising its newscasts as the most watched in Houston in terms of total households for all of its newscasts. KTRK-TV has always led in household ratings, something it continues to do. It broadcasts more hours of local news than any other Houston television station with six hours on weekdays, two and a half hours on Saturday and four hours on Sunday.
On August 12, 2007, KTRK began fully producing Eyewitness News in HD (HD helicopter and HD tower cam since mid-2006), making KTRK the second Houston station after KHOU and the seventh ABC owned-and-operated station after KABC in Los Angeles, WPVI in Philadelphia, WABC in New York City, WLS in Chicago, KGO in San Francisco and KFSN in Fresno to make the transition, although technically, KTRK had the first HD images broadcast during its newscasts (helicopter and weather camera) before any other station in Houston.
The victory for Channel 11 ended in 2007, as it slipped into the #2, and even #3 in some time slots. Since November 5, 2007, KTRK has reclaimed its victory as Houston's most watched station from sign-on to sign-off. Station promos state based on Nielsen's October 2007 ratings, 13 Eyewitness News is Houston's #1 newscast in Eyewitness News This Morning (5:00–7:00 am), Eyewitness News at 4 (4:00–5:00 pm), Live at Five (5:00–5:30 pm), Eyewitness News at 6 (6:00–7:00 pm) and Eyewitness News Tonight (10:00–10:35 pm). However KTRK wasn't able to recover from its 11am newscast, which came in second to KHOU's noon newscast (channel 13 was #1 at 11am though; but not for the entire midday block) until 2009, when it took the midday time slot from channel 11 which runs a noon newscast. The station also had major victories for 2008 election night and 2009 inauguration day, all the victories were won by a wide margin. This widens channel 13's lead over all other stations in the market, marking 30+ years that KTRK has remained number 1 in Houston. In the November 2009 sweeps period, Channel 11 regained the midday news lead. ABC 13 continues to dominate its competition in every other dayparts, except midday. In addition, KTRK ranks #1 among various demographics such as young women (25-35), African Americans, and suburban audiences.
On August 17, 2009, it was the first station in the market to begin airing a 4:30 AM newscast, beating KPRC by one week and KHOU by three.
Skyeye 13 HD
Skyeye HD is owned by Helicopter Inc. and leased to Metro NetworksMetro Networks
http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/files/2011/04/Metro_Logo_bigger.jpgMetro Networks is a broadcasting outsourcing company based in Houston, Texas. It was a subsidiary of Westwood One until its sale to Clear Channel Communications in 2011...
/Westwood One
Westwood One
Westwood One was an American radio network and was based in New York City. At one time, it was managed by CBS Radio, the radio arm of CBS Corporation, and Viacom and was later purchased by the private equity firm The Gores Group...
. On October 13, 2008 around 11 AM, Skyeye HD crashed in W.G. Jones State Forest located near the intersection of FM 1488 and Peoples Road in southern Montgomery County, Texas
Montgomery County, Texas
Montgomery County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas within the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area. The county was created by an act of the Congress of the Republic of Texas on December 14, 1837. The county was named for the town of Montgomery, Texas. In 2000, its...
. The aircraft, operated by a contractor, was in route to a breaking news story on a reported shooting when it went down. Pilot John Downhower and photographer/reporter Dave Garrett were killed in the accident. Hooks Airport, the closest airport to the crash site, confirmed that no distress call was heard prior to the crash. The last images fed to KTRK were before the crash, which showed the landing skid as the helicopter banked hard to the right. An investigation by the NTSB
National Transportation Safety Board
The National Transportation Safety Board is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incidents, certain types of highway crashes, ship and marine...
concludes the loss of power came from an undetermined source. When asking an accident reconstructionist about the preliminary report, he pointed to a device that didn't function properly that would have prevented an emergency landing. The malfunctioning part wasn't mentioned in the final report without an explanation.
Newscast titles
- KTRK Television Newsreel (1954–1962)
- The Texas News (1962–1964)
- Channel 13 Information Center (1964-1965)
- Channel 13 News (1965–1971)
- Channel 13 Eyewitness NewsEyewitness NewsEyewitness News is a style of news broadcasting used by local television stations in different markets across the United States. It refers to a particular style of television newscast with an emphasis on visual elements and action video...
(1971–present; used as 13 Eyewitness News since 1971) - 13 Eyewitness NewsEyewitness NewsEyewitness News is a style of news broadcasting used by local television stations in different markets across the United States. It refers to a particular style of television newscast with an emphasis on visual elements and action video...
(1998–present) - 13 Eyewitness NewsEyewitness NewsEyewitness News is a style of news broadcasting used by local television stations in different markets across the United States. It refers to a particular style of television newscast with an emphasis on visual elements and action video...
HD (2007–present)
Station slogans
- The Houston Chronicle Station (1954–1971)
- Houston's Choice for News (1971–1984; news slogan)
- Houston's Great! (1985–1987; used during period station used Frank Gari's "Turn To News")
- Together We Care (1987–1992; primarily for PSAs)
- Caring Makes The Difference (1989–1992)
- 13 Cares About Texas (1992–present; often read as "We Care About Texas", still used for PSAs)
- Share the Experience (1993–1994)
- Houston's News Leader (1995–present)
Off Air staff-
David Strickland- Vice president of news
Henry Florshime- President of Station
Current on-air staff
Anchors(In alphabetical order)
- Tom Abrahams – Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5:30, weekends at 10 p.m.; also weekday reporter (1999)
- Erik Barajas – weekdays at 4 p.m.; also weeknight reporter (2008)
- Ilona CarsonIlona CarsonIlona Carson in Houston, Texas) is a reporter and late afternoon anchor for ABC owned-and-operated station KTRK in Houston. Prior to KTRK, Carson was an anchor for Fox-owned KSAZ in Phoenix, Arizona. She received her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania...
– weekdays at 4 p.m. (2005) - Gina GastonGina GastonGina Gaston is a television journalist and currently the lead female anchor for KTRK-TV in Houston, Texas.-Career:...
– weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m. (1992–1999, 2001) - Tom Koch – weekday mornings (4:30-7 a.m.) (1982)
- Melanie Lawson – weekdays at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. (1986)
- Katie McCallKatie McCallKatherine A. "Katy" McCall , known professionally as Katy McCall, is an American television journalist.- Early life and education :McCall grew up in Glenview, Illinois and graduated from Glenbrook South High School...
– weekend mornings; also weekday morning reporter (2009) - Sharron Melton – weekday mornings (4:30-7 a.m.) (2007)
- Art RasconArt RasconArt Rascon is the anchor for the five o'clock news for ABCin Houston, Texas. He is an Emmy Award winner and a former vice president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists...
– weeknights at 5 p.m. (1998) - Elissa Rivas – weekend mornings; also weekday morning reporter (2003)
- Adela Uchida – Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5:30, weekends at 10 p.m.; also weekday reporter (2008)
- Dave WardDave Ward (reporter)Davíd Henry Ward is most known for his career of over 40 years as anchor of the weekday 6:00 pm and 10:00 pm newscasts on KTRK-TV's Eyewitness News in Houston, Texas...
– weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m. (1966)
Weather team
(In order of rank)
- Tim Heller (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...
/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) – Chief Meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m. (2002) - Casey Curry – Meteorologist; weekday mornings (4:30-7 a.m.) (2006)
- Travis Herzog (AMS Member; NWA Member) – Meteorologist; weekdays at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. (2006)
- David Tillman (AMS/NWA Seals of Approval) – Meteorologist; weekend mornings, Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5:30, weekends at 10 p.m. (2000)
Sports team
(In order of rank)
- Bob Allen – Sports Director; weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m. (1974)
- Tim Melton – Sports Anchor; Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5:30, weekends at 10 p.m. (1981)
- Bob Slovak – sports reporter and fill-in sports anchor (1998)
Reporters
(In alphabetical order)
- Sonia Azad – general assignment reporter (2009)
- Andy Cerota – general assignment reporter (2003)
- Wayne Dolcefino – investigative reporter (1985)
- Cynthia Cisneros – general assignment reporter (1989)
- Christine Dobbyn – general assignment reporter (2005)
- Jeff Ehling – consumer reporter (2000)
- Demond Fernandez - general assignment reporter (2011)
- Samica Knight- general assignment reporter (2010)
- Patricia Lopez – consumer reporter (2007)
- Christi Myers – health reporter (2001)
- Don Nelson – morning traffic and entertainment reporter (1988)
- Ted Oberg – "InFocus" feature reporter (2001)
- Kevin Quinn – general assignment reporter (2003)
- Miya Shay – general assignment reporter (2002)
- Jessica Willey – general assignment reporter (2000)
- Deborah Wrigley – general assignment reporter (1994)
Notable former on-air staff
- Troy DunganTroy DunganWilliam Troy Dungan Jr. William Troy Dungan Jr. William Troy Dungan Jr. (born November 17, 1936, better known as Troy Dungan, is an American weatherman, formerly the chief weather anchor for Belo owned and ABC's Dallas affiliate WFAA-TV. He was also formerly the chief weather anchor for WBAP...
– meteorologist (To 1976; hosted "Dialing for Dollars" and "Turn On" on KTRK; later at WFAA-TVWFAA-TVWFAA, channel 8, is an ABC-affiliated television station serving the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex, one of the top ten media markets in North America. The station is the flagship of Belo Corporation and the largest ABC affiliate not owned and operated by the network...
in Dallas-Fort Worth; retired) - Sylvan RodriguezSylvan RodriguezSylvan Rodriguez was a television news personality in Texas, United States....
– anchor (1977–1987; later at KHOU-TVKHOU-TVKHOU 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...
, deceased in 2000) - Bob BoudreauxBob BoudreauxBob Boudreaux is a Vietnam veteran and former weekend news anchor for KTRK-TV in Houston, Texas.Beaudreault arrived in the United States Army through the Reserve Officers' Training Corps program, and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. During his four years on active duty, Beaudreault flew...
- former weekend news anchor - Marvin ZindlerMarvin ZindlerMarvin Harold Zindler was a news reporter for television station KTRK-TV in Houston, Texas, United States. His investigative journalism, through which he mostly represented the city's elderly and working class, made him one of the city's most influential and well-known media personalities.-Early...
– consumer anchor (1973–2007; died in 2007)
Logos
KTRK's "Circle 13" logo is similar to that of former sister station WTVGWTVG
This is about the TV station in Toledo, Ohio for the former WTVG-TV in Newark, New Jersey see WFUT-DT.WTVG, channel 13, is the ABC-affiliated television station for Northwest Ohio and licensed in Toledo, Ohio. WTVG's studios and offices are located in Toledo and its transmitter is located in...
in Toledo, Ohio
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
, only that KTRK calls itself ABC 13 while WTVG is known as 13 ABC (also WTVG's version of the logo does not include a design of the Texas state flag).
Its previous logo, which ran from 1971 until 1995, was a crooked "Circle 13." It recalled livestock branding
Livestock branding
Livestock branding is a technique for marking livestock so as to identify the owner. Originally, livestock branding only referred to a hot brand for large stock, though the term is now also used to refer to other alternative techniques such as freeze branding...
of the Old West and was set in Helvetica
Helvetica
Helvetica is a widely used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann.-Visual distinctive characteristics:Characteristics of this typeface are:lower case:square dot over the letter i....
font, with the bottom of the "3" trailing off out of the circle. In 1986 because of the Capital Cities/ABC Merger, the trailing portion was "trimmed" as the logo was turned slightly horizontal in a similar fashion to today's version. Since July 3, 1992, both logos have been superimposed over a stylized version of the Texas state flag
Flag of Texas
The Flag of the State of Texas is defined by law as follows:The Texas flag is known as the "Lone Star Flag" . This flag was introduced to the Congress of the Republic of Texas on December 28, 1838, by Senator William H. Wharton...
.
See also
- Circle 7 logo (The Circle 13 is the derivative of the Circle 7.)