Quest TV station in Conroe, Texas
KTBU
(channel 55) is a
television station
licensed to
Conroe, Texas
, United States, serving as the
Houston
area outlet for the
digital multicast network
Quest
.
[2]
It is
owned and operated
by
Tegna Inc.
alongside
CBS
affiliate
KHOU
(channel 11). The two stations share studios on
Westheimer Road
near
Uptown Houston
; KTBU's transmitter is located near
Missouri City
, in
unincorporated
northeastern
Fort Bend County
. Previously, KTBU maintained separate facilities on Old Katy Road in the northwest side of Houston, while the KHOU studios only housed KTBU's
master control
and some internal operations.
History
[
edit
]
Lakewood Church and Humanity Interested Media's "The Tube" (1998?2006)
[
edit
]
The station first signed on the air on July 15, 1998, from facilities located on Old Katy Road near
Memorial Park
in northwest Houston. It was established as a for-profit corporation jointly owned by Charles Dowen Johnson's Humanity Interested Media, Inc. (later Shepherds for the Savior) and
John Osteen
's
Lakewood Church
.
[3]
[4]
Lakewood Church bought a 49% share in the station for $2 million.
Joel Osteen
ran the station until his father's death in 1999, when Joel began preaching at their church.
[5]
KTBU launched as an
independent station
with a general entertainment format including classic and syndicated television series, movies and sports, plus a slate of locally produced shows focusing on sports, history and other topics of interest to Houstonians.
[6]
However, Shepherds for the Savior later stated,
[7]
The idea behind the acquisition of the TV license was to have a local Christian-based TV station that would generate enough income to support his ministry of spreading the message of Jesus by supporting ministries worldwide.
The station started its first broadcast with a religious devotional. Lakewood Church, which previously broadcast their church services on the local CBS affiliate
KHOU
, began broadcasting them on KTBU, and KTBU added religious programming from 6 a.m. to noon and 10 p.m. to midnight on Sundays, and from 6 to 7 a.m. every weekday from
Joyce Meyer
and Walter Hallam's megachurch in Texas.
[8]
When interviewed in 1998, the Vice President of Marketing (and Joel Osteen's brother-in-law) Don Iloff said they would "reluctantly" broadcast sports shows with beer ads.
[8]
In 1999, they added a local news program with
The News of Texas
[9]
and began broadcasting live telecasts of
University of Houston
football, basketball, and baseball games and weekly shows featuring University of Houston coaches.
[10]
In 2000, KTBU added more local programming and briefly broadcast
Houston Rockets
and
Houston Comets
games.
[11]
[12]
The station was not able to successfully broadcast the Houston Rockets and Comets games, and the sports teams ended their contracts early. The same year, KTBU also decided to end most local programming and layoff between 12 and 16 people. At that time, the General Manager was (later
Texas Lt. Governor
)
Dan Patrick
, who was simultaneously the General Manager at
KSEV
AM radio station; he stepped down from the KTBU in 2001 after the programming problems and scaling back.
[13]
[14]
In 2004, Lakewood Church bought the remaining stake in the station for $6 million.
In 2006, they sold KTBU to
USFR Media Group
for $30.5 million to pay down debts associated with their purchase of the former Compaq Center sports arena (now the
Lakewood Church Central Campus
).
[5]
USFR Media Group's "Houston's 55" (2006?2011)
[
edit
]
Under the new ownership with
USFR Media Group
, the station moved from its original studios on Old Katy Road to a purpose-built facility on Equity Drive in northwest Houston previously built for the ill-fated
News 24 Houston
cable news channel, and changed its on-air moniker to "Houston's 55".
Spanish Broadcasting System's "Mega TV" (2011?2020)
[
edit
]
In May 2011, the station was sold to the
Spanish Broadcasting System
for $16 million. Upon the completion of the sale, KTBU dropped all local and national syndicated programs and joined SBS'
Mega TV
network.
[15]
[16]
Tegna's "Quest" (2020?present)
[
edit
]
On January 21, 2020,
Tegna Inc.
agreed to acquire KTBU for $15 million.
[17]
The sale was completed on March 24, 2020, making KTBU a sister station to Tegna's
CBS
affiliate
KHOU
.
[18]
Three days later, KTBU's main channel flipped to the Tegna-owned
Quest
multicast network,
[2]
and eventually KTBU's operations were moved into KHOU's studios near
Uptown Houston
.
Upon becoming a Tegna property, it was announced that KTBU would take over as the official local television partner of
Major League Soccer
's
Houston Dynamo
.
[19]
KTBU may air CBS network programming should it be preempted by KHOU for long-form breaking news or severe weather coverage or other special programming. Its main role however, is serving as a UHF rebroadcaster for KHOU via its DT11 subchannel, allowing full-market access to the station for viewers who only have a UHF antenna.
On February 22, 2022, Tegna announced that it would be acquired by
Standard General
and
Apollo Global Management
for $5.4 billion. As a part of the deal, KTBU and KHOU, along with their
Austin
sister station
KVUE
and
Dallas
sister stations
WFAA
and
KMPX
, would be resold to
Cox Media Group
.
[20]
[21]
The sale was canceled on May 22, 2023.
[22]
Technical information
[
edit
]
Subchannels
[
edit
]
The station's signal is
multiplexed
:
Simulcast of subchannels of another station
Analog-to-digital conversion
[
edit
]
KTBU discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over
UHF
channel 55, on June 12, 2009, as part of the
federally mandated transition from analog to digital television
.
[24]
The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 42,
[25]
[26]
using
virtual channel
55.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Facility Technical Data for KTBU"
.
Licensing and Management System
.
Federal Communications Commission
.
- ^
a
b
"TEGNA takes over KTBU 55 MegaTV leaves KTBU 55 as TEGNA brings in Quest"
.
mikemcguff.com
. Retrieved
March 31,
2020
.
- ^
"Ownership Reports, KTBU"
.
Licensing and Database Public Inspection File
. United States Federal Communications Commission
. Retrieved
February 25,
2024
.
- ^
"THE CHANNEL 55 PRODUCTION COMPANY, INC"
.
OpenCorporates: The Open Database of the Corporate World
. Archived from
the original
on February 25, 2024
. Retrieved
February 25,
2024
.
- ^
a
b
Dawson, Jennifer (November 24, 2006).
"Church sells The Tube to network"
.
Houston Business Journal
. Archived from
the original
on December 2, 2008
. Retrieved
February 25,
2024
.
- ^
"Other Stuff & Forum"
.
VHF-UHF Digest
. September 1998. Worldwide TV-FM DX Association: 21.
- ^
"About Us"
.
Shepherds for the Savior
. Archived from
the original
on May 7, 2021
. Retrieved
February 25,
2024
.
- ^
a
b
McDaniel, Mike (July 15, 1998). "New TV station takes careful aim at family - Channel 55 Launches with Vintage Shows, Fresh Attitude".
Houston Chronicle
. Houston section. p. 1.
- ^
McDaniel, Mike (February 23, 1999). "Channel 55 is Texas Network's new home".
Houston Chronicle
. Houston section. p. 6.
- ^
Barron, David (August 16, 1999). "Channel 55 joins UH in sports partnership".
Houston Chronicle
. Sports section. p. 8.
- ^
Stickney, W. H. Jr. (July 1, 2000). "Comets a welcome sight on the Tube".
Houston Chronicle
. Sports section. p. 6.
- ^
Barron, David (November 9, 2000). "Station break Rockets back on Channel 20 after ending deal with Channel 55".
Houston Chronicle
. Sports section. p. 7.
- ^
McDaniel, Mike (August 24, 2001). "Dan Patrick steps down at Channel 55".
Houston Chronicle
. Houston section. p. 8.
- ^
McDaniel, Mike (September 19, 2000). "Patrick eager to dive into role as KTBU general manager".
Houston Chronicle
. Houston section. p. 6.
- ^
"Spanish Broadcasting System pays $16 million for a TV station in Houston"
.
Radio-Info.com
. May 6, 2011. Archived from
the original
on May 11, 2011
. Retrieved
May 7,
2011
.
- ^
Globe Newswire Press Release: "Spanish Broadcasting System, Inc. to Acquire Houston Television Station", May 6, 2011.
- ^
"Application for Consent to Assignment of Broadcast Station Construction Permit or License"
.
CDBS Public Access
.
Federal Communications Commission
. Retrieved
January 29,
2020
.
- ^
Consummation Notice
- ^
Barron, David (July 24, 2020).
"Dynamo to televise games on KTBU"
.
HoustonChronicle.com
. Retrieved
August 21,
2020
.
- ^
Weprin, Alex; Szalai, Georg (February 22, 2022).
"Local TV Giant TEGNA Sold to Private Equity Firms in Mega-Deal"
.
The Hollywood Reporter
. Retrieved
February 22,
2022
.
- ^
"WFAA and Houston, Austin TV stations expected to go to Cox Media in Tegna's $5.4 billion sale"
.
Dallas News
. February 22, 2022
. Retrieved
February 22,
2022
.
- ^
Shields, Todd; Shah, Jill R. (May 22, 2003).
"Standard General's Tegna Takeover Dies After Money Goes"
.
Bloomberg
. Retrieved
May 22,
2023
.
- ^
RabbitEars TV Query for KTBU
- ^
List of Digital Full-Power Stations
Archived
August 29, 2013, at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
CDBS Print
- ^
Consumer Watch: Stations have more DTV work to do
,
Houston Chronicle
, February 6, 2009.
External links
[
edit
]
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Full power
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, 38.6 Iglesia JEMIR, 38.7 Mana Musica, 38.8
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, 38.9 Joe FM)
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, 50.2 Daystar Espanol)
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Other asset
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Acquisitions
| |
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- 1
Owned by Tegna,
Gray Television
operates KMSB & KTTU through a
SSA
.
- 2
Owned by
American Spirit Media
, Tegna operates WUPW through a SSA.
- 3
These stations broadcast these networks on their digital subchannels.
|