CBS affiliate in Houston
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KHOU
(channel 11) is a
television station
in
Houston, Texas
, United States, affiliated with
CBS
. It is owned by
Tegna Inc.
alongside
Conroe
-licensed
Quest
station
KTBU
(channel 55). The two stations share studios on
Westheimer Road
near
Uptown Houston
; KHOU's transmitter is located near
Missouri City
, in
unincorporated
northeastern
Fort Bend County
.
History
[
edit
]
The station first signed on the air on March 22, 1953, as KGUL-TV (either
Gulf of Mexico
or
seagull
).
[2]
[3]
It was founded by Paul Taft of the Taft Broadcasting Co.
[4]
(no relation to the
Cincinnati
-based
company of the same name
nor its associated
Taft family
). Originally licensed to
Galveston
, it was the second television station to debut in the Houston
market
(after
KPRC-TV
, channel 2), taking the secondary CBS affiliation from KPRC-TV as the network's new primary affiliate, and has stayed aligned with the network ever since. One of the original investors in the station was actor
James Stewart
, along with a small group of other Galveston investors. The studio was located at 2002 45th Street in Galveston.
In 1956, the original owners sold the station to the
Indianapolis
-based Whitney Corporation (later Corinthian Broadcasting), which became a subsidiary of
Dun & Bradstreet
in 1971. In June 1959, the station changed its callsign to KHOU-TV (the "-TV" suffix was dropped from the call letters the week following the June 12, 2009, digital transition, as most Belo stations did at the time) and had its city of license relocated to Houston. The
Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) license listed both the Houston and Galveston service areas for a time. On April 24, 1960, the station moved to its first Houston facilities at 1945
Allen Parkway
, along
Buffalo Bayou
in the
Neartown
neighborhood west of
downtown Houston
.
[5]
Belo ownership
[
edit
]
In 1984, Dun & Bradstreet sold its entire broadcasting division, including KHOU, to the
Belo Corporation
, who spun off its
Beaumont
station,
KFDM-TV
(channel 6) in order to comply with FCC regulations at the time. KFDM provided at least grade B coverage to much of the eastern portion of the Houston market, with portions of
Liberty County
getting a city-grade signal. In those days, the FCC normally did not allow common ownership of two stations with overlapping signals, and would not even consider a waiver for a city-grade overlap.
Known for its ownership of
The Dallas Morning News
and its flagship TV station in its home city of Dallas,
WFAA
(historically one of
ABC
's strongest affiliates and a local news powerhouse in that city), Belo began to make significant investments into KHOU, which had become one of CBS' weakest affiliates during the 1980s under the final years of Dun & Bradstreet ownership. With the addition of stronger syndicated programming including the popular game shows
Wheel of Fortune
and
Jeopardy!
(both of which were picked up from KPRC-TV) and
The Oprah Winfrey Show
(which
KTRK-TV
turned down), the revamping of its news department, and the carrying over of both its Dallas flagship's theme music and popular image branding,
The Spirit of Texas
, KHOU began to challenge KTRK and KPRC in the local ratings, and eventually became one of CBS' strongest affiliates by the 1990s during a very challenging period for the network. In 1998, KHOU became the first television station in the market to begin broadcasting a
high definition
digital signal.
On June 13, 2013, the
Gannett Company
announced that it would acquire Belo for $1.5 billion and the assumption of debt,
[6]
marking the company's entry into the Texas market and ending KHOU's nearly three decades of ownership by Belo The sale was completed on December 23.
[7]
Two years later, on June 29, 2015, the Gannett Company split in two, with one side specializing in print media and the other side specializing in broadcast and digital media. KHOU was retained by the latter company, which would be named
Tegna
.
[8]
Hurricane Harvey
[
edit
]
Being situated near Buffalo Bayou in an area that had become prone to flooding, KHOU's longtime studios had become vulnerable to damage from major hurricanes and severe weather as the Houston area grew exponentially over the last six decades. On the night of June 8, 2001, the station's studios flooded during
Tropical Storm Allison
, resulting in damage to much of the station's offices including its newsroom. The damage was so severe that the station had to cease its ongoing coverage of the ensuing flash flood emergency (which itself had interrupted regular programming that night) and instead broadcast a West Coast feed of the
Late Show with David Letterman
, followed by a feed from the station's
doppler radar
for roughly 90 minutes until the station could resume its breaking news coverage which lasted the entire weekend. During
Hurricane Ike
, which hit the Texas Gulf Coast in mid-September 2008, KHOU's storm coverage was distributed nationwide via
DirecTV
and
XM Satellite Radio
, as well as through a live feed on the station's website.
On August 21, 2017, KHOU began covering
Hurricane Harvey
as the storm was projected to hit the Texas Gulf Coast with extensive rainfall expected in the Greater Houston area. The station began wall-to-wall coverage on August 25, 2017, with extensive coverage of the storm's landfall in
Rockport
(near
Corpus Christi
). While initial coverage focused on storm damage and cleanup in parts of KHOU's viewing area, by the following Saturday, August 26, massive and continuous rain bands from the Gulf of Mexico led to catastrophic flooding throughout the metropolitan area, with much of the flooding being unprecedented in many places.
On the early morning of Sunday, August 27, KHOU was forced to evacuate its studios due to rising floodwaters from the nearby Buffalo Bayou. Around 6 a.m., the first floor of the building became inundated with floodwaters, forcing station employees to completely abandon its facility nearly three hours later after a move to a second floor
conference room
proved to only be a short-term option, though critical equipment (such as the studio's robotic cameras) was also moved up to the second floor before the flooding became worse. The station's brand-new news set (which had debuted in November 2016), weather center, newsroom and master control were destroyed by the floodwaters, which rose up to five feet (2 m) within the building.
[9]
Additionally, the station's
over the air
signal, including its CBS and diginet feeds, were knocked off the air as computers and other equipment became submerged by floodwaters, with staff relegated to providing updates on
social media
.
[10]
After KHOU's signal was knocked off the air, sister station WFAA began providing live news coverage for KHOU by live-streaming on both station's websites and social media profiles until the station was able to resume broadcasting on its own. The station's staff then evacuated to the nearby
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Houston Branch
building on higher ground while a new contingency plan was drafted.
With the assistance of
PBS
member station
KUHT
(channel 8) and
master control
from WFAA, KHOU eventually resumed live broadcasting later that night from temporary facilities at the LeRoy and Lucile Melcher Center for Public Broadcasting on the campus of the
University of Houston
. At various times, WFAA, along with Tegna
NBC
affiliate
KUSA
in
Denver
, provided assistance with weather graphics and master control. Due to technical difficulties, WFAA originated the August 27 edition of the 10 p.m. news that was simulcast in both cities. Eventually a reliable signal was established an hour later from KUHT's studios at the Melcher Center and storm coverage continued. KHOU is the third commercial station in Houston to utilize a part of the UH campus for its facilities, after ill-fated
KNUZ-TV
(channel 39) from 1953 to 1954 and KTRK-TV (channel 13) from its 1954 launch until its 1961 move to its current studios in the
Upper Kirby
district.
On the evening of August 31, the station resumed CBS programming with its prime time lineup. For the first month, the station only broadcast its main HD channel while its two subchannels (at the time
Bounce TV
and
Justice Network
) remained shut down. The following week, on September 4, KHOU began to reuse parts of its previous 2011?2016 news set in the temporary studio.
[11]
On October 4, the subchannels returned as widescreen SD simulcasts of the main channel in preparation for the eventual return of the diginets, which would finally return on October 12. Around the same time, the station's on-air look returned to normal with full news and weather graphics restored and program guide listings on the terrestrial signal. A temporary news set, similar in design to its previous news set destroyed in the Harvey floods with additional brick accents, would eventually be constructed for the station at the Houston Public Media facilities.
Move to Westheimer studios
[
edit
]
On November 16, 2017, KHOU officially announced it would not return to the Allen Parkway facility;
[12]
the building would eventually be sold to an affiliate of
Service Corporation International
(whose headquarters are located in an office building adjacent to the former KHOU studios) and was eventually demolished the following May. In December 2017, KHOU announced that it would open a secondary street-side studio at the
George R. Brown Convention Center
along
Avenida Houston
.
[13]
The studio opened in the fall of 2018, and is primarily used for its weekday newscasts. This setup is similar to that of Dallas sister station WFAA's
Victory Park
studio, which opened a decade earlier in January 2007.
On March 29, 2018, KHOU announced that it had signed a lease for 43,000 square feet (3,995 m
2
) of space at 5718
Westheimer Road
near
Uptown Houston
(
Galleria
area). The station occupies three floors of the high-rise in facilities that include two studios, two control rooms, an open collaboration space for all content producing departments, technical operations, sales and executive offices. The station began its operations from its new facility on Sunday, February 17, 2019, during its 10 p.m. newscast.
[14]
On January 21, 2020, KHOU would gain a sister station when Tegna acquired
KTBU
(channel 55) from
Spanish Broadcasting System
which had been airing its
Mega TV
service over that station;
[15]
the sale was completed on March 24 with KTBU moving its operations three days later into KHOU's Westheimer facilities and dropping Mega TV in favor of Tegna's digital multicast network,
Quest
, which had previously been airing on KHOU's fourth digital subchannel. While KTBU may serve as an alternate CBS affiliate should KHOU need its main signal for long-form breaking news and severe weather coverage, its primary role has been to serve as a UHF rebroadcaster of KHOU's digital signal (which remains on VHF channel 11).
Canceled sale to Cox Media Group
[
edit
]
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, KHOU and KTBU, along with their Austin sister station
KVUE
and Dallas sister stations
WFAA
and
KMPX
, would be resold to
Cox Media Group
.
[16]
[17]
The sale was canceled on May 22, 2023.
[18]
Programming
[
edit
]
Since its inception, KHOU has been a CBS affiliate, and has largely cleared the entire CBS network lineup without interruption. In addition to its newscasts, KHOU also airs
Great Day Houston
, a local
talk show
hosted by Deborah Duncan with paid segments from local businesses in Houston, following
CBS Mornings
. The talk show, which has aired on the station since 2005, is taped at KHOU's studios on Westheimer Road west of the Galleria. KHOU also serves as the local television broadcaster of Houston's annual
Thanksgiving Day
parade, the
H-E-B
Holiday Parade
.
Despite being in a market with an ABC-owned station (KTRK-TV),
Jeopardy!
aired on KHOU from 1986 to 2015 and
Wheel of Fortune
has aired on that station since 1986 despite their presence on ABC's other network-owned stations along with another ABC O&O syndication staple,
The Oprah Winfrey Show
, which KHOU carried for its entire run from 1986 to 2011.
Jeopardy!
moved to KTRK on September 14, 2015, making it the last ABC-owned station to carry the quiz show. However, KHOU continues to carry
Wheel of Fortune
at 6:30 p.m., making Houston one of the few markets in the United States where both game shows air on separate stations; in most markets, both game shows are sold as a package, often airing next to one another on the same station in prime time access. Both shows rarely air next to each other in most markets in the Central and Mountain time zones, as most network affiliates often program a 6 p.m. newscast during the traditional
access hour
(7 p.m. ET/6 p.m. CT) before prime time, with KTRK itself having aired an hourlong 6 p.m. newscast in this hour since September 1982.
In 1987, KHOU refused to air
a television adaptation
of the then-popular
Garbage Pail Kids
trading card
series on Saturday mornings, owing to concerns regarding the show's ridicule of the disabled and its abundance of heavy violence; as a result of these decisions and concerns, CBS decided not to air it on their Saturday morning schedule for the 1987?88 television season, and the series, to date, has never been telecast in the United States.
[19]
Like most CBS affiliates prior to 1993, KHOU often carried syndicated programming (including
Entertainment Tonight
and reruns of
M*A*S*H
) in late night following its 10 p.m. newscast, as the network's late night offerings of the era were considered to be less lucrative compared to syndicated offerings. Beginning in 1993, KHOU (like most CBS affiliates) began carrying the
Late Show
(then hosted by
David Letterman
) at 11:05 p.m.
CT
, eventually moving it to immediately following its 10 p.m. newscast (at 10:35 p.m. CT) by 1995. However, the station had always aired
The Late Late Show
on a
30-minute delay
(beginning at 12:07 a.m. CT) since the show first premiered in 1995, fitting a syndicated sitcom, game show or tabloid news program between the two shows. Because the latter program's original host,
Tom Snyder
, had a simulcast with the
CBS Radio Network
(which aired locally on
KPRC-AM
) and took calls from viewers during his stint as host, KHOU asked via disclaimer for Houston area viewers to not call the toll-free call-in number due to the tape-delay. This practice would continue under later hosts
Craig Kilborn
and
Craig Ferguson
, as well as the first few months of
James Corden
's tenure as host.
On September 8, 2015, it began airing
The Late Late Show
at its network-approved time (11:37 p.m. CT) following
Stephen Colbert
's debut as host of
The Late Show
; leaving the station's only CBS preemption being that of the second half-hour of the
Sunday morning talk show
Face the Nation
, which had been tape-delayed to 2:30 a.m. the following Monday morning due to KHOU's longstanding broadcasts of
religious programs
from Houston-based
Lakewood Church
and
Second Baptist Church
, with the former also airing on Sunday night following its 10 p.m. newscast and
KHOU 11 Sports Extra
(see below). After Lakewood's broadcasts moved to KTRK in 2020 (only to return to KHOU at 11 p.m. only on Sunday nights the following year),
Face the Nation
began airing its full hour at 9:30 a.m., where the first half-hour had already been airing for years, with the religious broadcast from Second Baptist Church continuing to air at 10:30 a.m.
Sports programming
[
edit
]
In
2002
, the
Houston Texans
joined the NFL as the league's 32nd franchise, as part of the
American Football Conference
's newly formed
South Division
. Being part of the AFC, most Texans games?including all road games against
NFC
opponents?are aired on
CBS
(which has held the contract to carry AFC games since the 1998 season), and are therefore aired locally on KHOU. The station also served as the over-the-air outlet for all of the Texans' appearances on
Thursday Night Football
until 2018 (when Fox picked up the full rights to the Thursday night package that lasted until 2021, thus moving those telecasts locally to KRIV), and have aired simulcasts of ESPN's
Monday Night Football
in the past (due to ABC's live broadcast of
Dancing with the Stars
on KTRK conflicting with the games). The Texans are one of two teams never to have been
blacked out
at home, the other being the
Baltimore Ravens
; this stands in contrast to the city's previous NFL team, the
Houston Oilers
, who were often blacked out at home in their twilight years in Houston
before moving to Nashville in 1997
for reasons related to the team's controversial management under owner
Bud Adams
. Beginning in
2014
, with the institution of 'cross-flex' rules, games in which the Texans play an NFC opponent at home can be moved from Fox O&O
KRIV
(channel 26) to KHOU, with the same standard also applying for AFC road games at
NRG Stadium
being moved over to KRIV.
Other notable appearances by Houston sports teams on KHOU have included the
Houston Rockets
'
1981
and
1986
appearances in the
NBA Finals
(both losses to the Boston Celtics; all Rockets games broadcast through CBS' NBA broadcast contract were aired on KHOU from 1973 to 1990) and the
University of Houston men's basketball team's
two NCAA National Championship appearances in
1983
and
1984
?all via their national coverage by
CBS Sports
. KHOU also carried
Southwest Conference
football and men's basketball games (with an emphasis on games involving the
University of Houston
and
Rice University
) on Saturday afternoons before the conference folded in 1996, as well as CBS' broadcasts of the
2011
and the
2023 NCAA Final Fours
and Super Bowls
VIII
(1974) and
XXXVIII
(2004)?all of which took place in Houston. Presently, KHOU may also carry select games from the
National Women's Soccer League
's
Houston Dash
and select
SEC football games
involving
Texas A&M
and
LSU
(which have large fanbases in the Houston area) via their leagues' respective CBS Sports contracts.
News operation
[
edit
]
KHOU presently broadcasts 33 hours, 55 minutes of locally produced newscasts each week (with 5 hours, 35 minutes each weekday, three hours on Saturdays, and 2½ hours on Sundays). On weekdays, this includes a 2½-hour morning newscast from 4:30 a.m. to 7 a.m., a full hour at 4 p.m., and half-hours at noon, 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. Its weekend newscasts include a 1½-hour morning newscast on Saturday morning, hour-long newscasts at 10 p.m. on Saturday and on Sunday morning, and half-hours at 6 p.m. on Saturday and 5:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Sunday. The station also airs
KHOU 11 Sports Extra,
which features extensive Sunday night sports coverage and commentary, following its 10 p.m. newscast on Sunday night.
Throughout its existence, KHOU has been widely regarded as a stepping stone for many well-known television news personalities, as many of its reporters have gone on to work for national networks. KHOU's best known former on-air staffers include former
CBS Evening News
anchor
Dan Rather
,
NBC News
correspondent
Dennis Murphy
, newswomen
Linda Ellerbee
and
Jessica Savitch
, and sports anchors
Jim Nantz
(now the lead announcer for CBS Sports),
Harry Kalas
(later a legendary broadcaster for
Major League Baseball
and
NFL Films
) and
Ron Franklin
(later with
ESPN
). Outside of broadcasting, one of its former sports anchors,
Dan Patrick
, eventually became
Lieutenant Governor of Texas
.
KHOU also has gained a reputation for its investigative reporting staff (currently known as
KHOU 11 Investigates
), whose most notable stories include
its 2000 investigation into defective tire designs by
Firestone
? which 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 KTRK reporter Stephen Gauvain), a story in the early 2000s that led to the shutdown of the
Houston Police Department
's crime lab, and allegations of dropout rate fraud in the
Houston Independent School District
, which resulted in the dismissal of several HISD officials. All of these stories were initially reported by investigative reporter Anna Werner, who eventually went on to become the chief investigative reporter for
CBS News
.
History
[
edit
]
Despite not being historically associated with a major newspaper, and being based in Galveston for most of the 1950s, news has always played an integral role in the history of KHOU. The station gained notoriety in 1961 when then-anchor Dan Rather showed what was believed to be the first radar image of a hurricane broadcast on television during
Hurricane Carla
;
[20]
this report, which was credited for saving thousands of lives that otherwise would have been lost, would later become a catalyst in his eventual hiring by CBS News. In 1970, KHOU had boasted of the top-rated news team in Houston, led by anchorman
Ron Stone
(who had been discovered by Rather in 1961), weatherman Sid Lasher and sports director Ron Franklin.
The station entered a tumultuous period during the early 1970s, when Stone departed for a radio reporter role with NBC News in New York and Lasher died from a fatal heart attack in a station breakroom shortly after KHOU's 6 p.m. newscast concluded one night. Stone would eventually return to Houston in 1972 to become the lead anchor at KPRC-TV, and helped that station to overtake KHOU as the leading news station in Houston; both stations would eventually be overtaken by KTRK-TV, whose
Eyewitness News
came to dominate the Houston market for the next several decades and which had become one of ABC's strongest affiliates by the end of the decade, eventually becoming one of the network's
owned-and-operated stations
in 1986.
While the station did hire former KPRC-TV lead anchor Steve Smith away from
KDKA-TV
in Pittsburgh to become its lead anchor in 1975 (a role he maintained for the next 24 years at the station), KHOU continued to trail its rivals as the decade progressed. A string of notable departures also did not help the station's cause, including the 1976 departure of chief meteorologist Doug Brown (who himself succeeded Lasher) to KTRK where he became that station's longtime morning meteorologist, and the subsequent departures to KPRC of news anchors Bob Nicholas (one of Houston's first African-American news anchors) in 1979 and Bill Balleza in 1980, with the latter also joined that year by the aforementioned Ron Franklin, who moved to KHOU to fill the same role of sports director at KPRC.
[21]
As a result, channel 11 crashed to last place, and would largely remain entrenched in this position throughout the 1980s.
When Belo acquired KHOU in 1984, the station continued to trail behind dominant KTRK and NBC affiliate KPRC, which usually placed a strong second and would further benefit in the decade from NBC's strong prime time programming of the 1980s. Its newscasts fared even worse than CBS' own floundering network programming itself at the time, occasionally even placing behind syndicated reruns on independent stations in the Houston market. Having achieved considerable success with the news department of its flagship station in Dallas, WFAA, since the 1970s, Belo sought to seek similar results for KHOU, and beginning in the late 1980s hired several high-profile people to its news team. The most notable was former
National Hurricane Center
director Dr.
Neil Frank
, who was hired as the station's chief meteorologist in July 1987. In another key move, KHOU also hired former KTRK morning anchor Sylvan Rodriguez (then a correspondent with
ABC News
' West Coast bureau) to anchor the station's early evening newscasts.
During this time, KHOU also commissioned an image rebrand using the "Spirit of Texas" slogan and (initially)
TM Productions
' "Spirit" music package that originated at its Dallas sister station WFAA. In January 1989, KHOU revamped the appearance of its newscasts, with an image campaign that included full-page ads in the
Houston Chronicle
and
Post
, as well as an on-air promotional campaign that focused more on ordinary citizens throughout
Greater Houston
than on its news team. With a main team consisting of anchors Steve Smith and Marlene McClinton (who the station hired from
WMAQ-TV
in Chicago), chief meteorologist Dr. Neil Frank and sports director
Giff Nielsen
(a former
Houston Oilers
quarterback who became KHOU's lead sports anchor following his retirement from the NFL in 1984), along with a new set, graphics and theme music, KHOU began to mount a serious challenge to its longtime competitors, evolving into a competitive ratings race during the 1990s. Its resurgent newscasts, combined with a strong syndicated programming lineup, helped to sustain the station through what would be a turbulent ratings period for CBS, which
lost broadcast rights to NFL games
in addition to
several of its largest affiliates
(including its longtime affiliates in
Dallas
and
Austin
) during this time.
1999 proved to be a breakout year for KHOU, with its newscasts reaching #1 in viewership in several timeslots during the May sweeps period, unseating KTRK during the midday hours, and at 5 p.m. (it debuted in May 1974) and 6 p.m., which also coincided with CBS' resurgence to number one in prime time by that year. The station's ratings boost, aided by its continuously strong syndicated lineup and a series of high-profile investigative reports by the station, also included an exclusive interview with
Serbian
and
Yugoslavian
President
Slobodan Milosevic
during the
Kosovo War
, just a month before his indictment, that drew international news coverage.
This news came despite the station losing three of its core anchors key to the station's resurgence: longtime anchor Steve Smith, who retired from broadcasting in May 1999 to pursue other interests, his fellow anchor Marlene McClinton, who abruptly resigned during one of the station's newscasts in September 1999, and 6 p.m. anchor Sylvan Rodriguez, who had been diagnosed with
pancreatic cancer
and eventually succumbed to the disease in April 2000. Two former local newscasters in New York City, Greg Hurst of ABC flagship
WABC-TV
and Len Cannon of Fox flagship
WNYW
(the latter also a former NBC News correspondent and substitute anchor), would respectively join the station, with Hurst succeeding Smith as lead anchor in 1999 and Cannon joining the station in 2006 to replace longtime anchor Jerome Gray, who went to rival KPRC-TV. Cannon himself became lead anchor in 2017 after Hurst left the station (with Hurst eventually joining fellow CBS affiliate
WREG-TV
in
Memphis
).
On February 4, 2007, following CBS' coverage of
Super Bowl XLI
, KHOU began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition, becoming the first station in the market to do so. On September 7, 2009, KHOU-TV expanded its weekday morning newscast with the addition of the 4:30 a.m. program
First Look
; despite being the last station in the Houston market to launch a 4:30 a.m. newscast, KHOU was the only station in the market to announce its intentions to do so (three of Houston's major network affiliates ? KHOU, KTRK-TV and KPRC-TV ? launched 4:30 a.m. newscasts within three weeks of each other in the late summer of 2009 with little fanfare). On August 1, 2011, KHOU debuted a new half-hour newscast at 4 p.m. on weekdays to replace
The Oprah Winfrey Show
;
[22]
this would expand to a full hour in 2015 after losing the Houston rights to
Jeopardy!
to KTRK. Like many CBS and ABC stations in other markets, KHOU has also expanded its weekend 10 p.m. news broadcast to a full hour, including the aforementioned
KHOU 11 Sports Extra
on Sunday nights.
In 2018, the station rebranded its weekday morning newscasts as
HTownRush
, with a format emphasizing social media interaction including its own namesake hashtag, a summary of top stories during the first five minutes of each half-hour, and special segments including in-house features exclusive to Tegna stations such as
Deal Boss
, one-minute business/technology news briefs from
Cheddar
, and consumer reporter John Matarese's
Don't Waste Your Money
consumer segments (which usually air on stations owned by the
E. W. Scripps Company
). In June 2019, KHOU engaged in a similar rebranding process for its 4 p.m. newscast, rebranded as
The 411
, emphasizing a conceptual format and on-air graphics style similar to that of its morning newscast. KHOU has since dropped the
HTownRush
branding for its morning newscast as of 2022, instead rebranding as
KHOU 11 Morning News
.
Unlike most CBS affiliates, the station did not air a newscast until January 5, 2020, when it launched a new Sunday Morning newscast from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. prior to
CBS Sunday Morning
, with the hour instead being filled by one of CBS's
three hours
of
E/I
programming which KHOU preempted to carry a Saturday morning newscast in between the two hours of
CBS This Morning Saturday
. Following the launch of the Sunday morning newscast and subsequent changes in
federal regulations on children's television programming
, KHOU has since aired two of CBS's three hours of E/I programming from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. on Saturday morning, followed by the full broadcast of
CBS Saturday Morning
leading into KHOU's Saturday morning newscast from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
Notable former on-air staff
[
edit
]
Criticism
[
edit
]
On November 24, 2022, KHOU was criticized for interrupting a
Thanksgiving Day
game between the
Buffalo Bills
and the
Detroit Lions
for a tornado warning with 23 seconds left in the game, causing viewers to miss a last second game-winning field goal by the Bills. The station did not incorporate a picture?in?picture treatment or split?screen format for viewers in Houston to continue watching the game while the weather report was issued. KHOU made no public apology for the interruption incident.
[37]
Technical information
[
edit
]
Subchannels
[
edit
]
The station's signal is
multiplexed
:
Broadcast on behalf of another station
On September 26, 2011, KHOU began broadcasting Bounce TV on its second digital subchannel (which originally launched as a quasi-independent station) upon the network's launch.
[39]
The station had previously signed on to carry the
.2 Network
on one of its digital subchannels, although .2 Network never debuted. In 2015, the station began carrying programming from the Justice Network on its third digital subchannel. Quest was added to the fourth digital subchannel on January 16, 2018, and was changed to a
simulcast
of
sister station
KTBU after that station switched to the network on March 27, 2020; in February 2021, the fourth digital subchannel became an affiliate of
Twist
. The fifth digital subchannel,
Circle
, which is 50 percent owned by
Gray Television
with the other half owned by a subsidiary of
Ryman Hospitality Properties
'
Opry Entertainment Group
, debuted with the network on January 1, 2020. Bounce TV moved to
KPXB-DT2
in January 2022. Twist and Circle were both shut down on December 31, 2023; the latter network continues to broadcast as a
free ad-supported streaming television
(FAST) operation. The fourth digital subchannel became an affiliate of
Sinclair Broadcast Group
's
Comet
network in February 2024.
Analog-to-digital conversion
[
edit
]
KHOU discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over
VHF
channel 11, on the morning of June 12, 2009, as part of the
federally mandated transition from analog to digital television
.
[40]
The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition
UHF
channel 31 to VHF channel 11.
[41]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Facility Technical Data for KHOU"
.
Licensing and Management System
.
Federal Communications Commission
.
- ^
FCC History Cards for KHOU
.
Federal Communications Commission
.
- ^
"Looking back on 70 years of KHOU 11 serving the Houston community"
.
KHOU.com
. March 22, 2023.
- ^
taftbroadcastingllc.com
- ^
"Map of Neartown"
. Neartown Association. Archived from
the original
on October 5, 2018
. Retrieved
October 20,
2008
.
- ^
"Gannett to buy TV station owner Belo for $1.5B"
.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
.
Associated Press
. June 13, 2013
. Retrieved
June 13,
2013
.
- ^
Gannett Completes Its Acquisition of Belo
,
TVNewsCheck
, Retrieved December 23, 2013.
- ^
"Separation of Gannett into two public companies completed | TEGNA"
. Tegna. June 29, 2015
. Retrieved
June 29,
2015
.
- ^
"With main news set flooded, KHOU creates temporary sets"
. August 28, 2017.
- ^
Mcguff, Mike (September 4, 2017).
"KHOU begins studio rebuild process"
.
mikemcguff.com
.
- ^
"KHOU repurposes parts of its past for temporary set"
. September 6, 2017.
- ^
"It's official: KHOU not returning to Allen Parkway"
.
KHOU
. November 16, 2017. Archived from
the original
on January 21, 2018
. Retrieved
November 17,
2017
.
- ^
"KHOU plans first satellite studio of its kind along downtown's Avenida Houston"
.
Houston Chronicle
. Retrieved
December 16,
2017
.
- ^
"KHOU announces location of new station"
.
KHOU.com
. March 29, 2018
. Retrieved
March 29,
2018
.
- ^
"Application View ... Redirecting"
.
licensing.fcc.gov
. Retrieved
October 26,
2021
.
- ^
Szalai, Alex Weprin, Georg; 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
.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link
)
- ^
"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
.
- ^
Hall, Steve (September 16, 1987).
"
'Wise Guy' too much of a blast, while 'Oldest Rookie' likable"
.
The Indianapolis Star
. Retrieved
January 1,
2024
.
- ^
Dan Rather: My First Big Break
,
archived
from the original on December 13, 2021
, retrieved
October 26,
2021
- ^
"KTRK's Doug Brown dies at 79"
.
Houston Chronicle
. January 17, 2013
. Retrieved
June 17,
2022
.
- ^
KHOU adding a newscast to replace Oprah
,
Houston Chronicle
, July 13, 2011.
- ^
"Atrium Restaurant Photo Gallery"
. Archived from
the original
on November 29, 2011
. Retrieved
March 13,
2013
.
- ^
"Linda Ellerbee ? Television Journalist"
.
Paley Center for Media
. Archived from
the original
on November 4, 2013
. Retrieved
March 13,
2013
.
- ^
Barron, David (December 14, 2007).
"KHOU-TV's Neil Frank is hanging up his raincoat"
.
Houston Chronicle
. Retrieved
March 13,
2013
.
- ^
"Ron Franklin bio"
.
ESPN
. Archived from
the original
on July 22, 2009
. Retrieved
March 13,
2013
.
- ^
"KHOU-TV Film Box 7406, Reel 9"
. Archived from
the original
on March 13, 2016
. Retrieved
March 13,
2013
.
- ^
"Jim Nantz bio"
. ViacomCBS Press Express
. Retrieved
March 13,
2013
.
- ^
"Vietnamese-American reporters shine in the US"
. July 9, 2012
. Retrieved
March 13,
2013
.
- ^
"Giff Nielsen signs off after 25 years at Channel 11"
. August 15, 2009.
Archived
from the original on April 11, 2013
. Retrieved
March 13,
2013
.
- ^
Swartz, Mimi (January 2007).
"Here Comes Trouble"
.
Texas Monthly
. Retrieved
March 13,
2013
.
- ^
"Dan Rather Biography"
. Archived from
the original
on February 22, 2013
. Retrieved
March 13,
2013
.
- ^
McGuff, Mike (November 13, 2009).
"Former KHOU reporter let go from CNN newscast"
. Retrieved
March 13,
2013
.
- ^
Haller, Scot (November 7, 1983).
"The Two Faces of a Newswoman"
.
People Magazine
. Archived from
the original
on November 14, 2008
. Retrieved
March 13,
2013
.
- ^
"Janet Shamlian bio"
.
CBS News
. August 13, 2019
. Retrieved
December 11,
2021
.
- ^
Barron, David (May 13, 2008).
"Anchorman Ron Stone left deep imprint on local news"
.
Houston Chronicle
. Retrieved
March 13,
2013
.
- ^
"Houston TV Station Criticized for Interrupting End of Bills-Lions Game"
.
Sports Illustrated
. November 24, 2022
. Retrieved
May 2,
2023
.
- ^
RabbitEars TV Query for KHOU
- ^
"Bounce TV Sets Launch for Sept. 26"
. Retrieved
July 12,
2011
.
- ^
List of Digital Full-Power Stations
Archived
August 29, 2013, at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
CDBS Print
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
Full power
|
- KPRC-TV
(2.1
NBC
, 2.2
Start
, 2.3
H&I
, 2.4
Dabl
, 2.5
Get
)
- KUHT
(8.1
PBS
, 8.2
Create
, 8.3
Kids
, 8.4
NHK World
, 8.5 Sight into Sound)
- KHOU
(11.1
CBS
, 11.2
Shop LC
, 11.3
Crime
, 11.4
Comet
)
- KTRK-TV
(13.1
ABC
, 13.2
Localish
, 13.3
Charge!
, 13.4
QVC
)
- KETH-TV
(14.1
TBN
, 14.2
TBN Inspire
, 14.3
Enlace
, 14.4
Smile
)
- KTXH
(20.1
MNT
, 20.2
Movies!
, 20.3
Grio
, 20.4
Buzzr
)
- KLTJ
(22.1
Daystar
, 22.2
Daystar Espanol
, 22.3
Reflections
)
- KRIV
(26.1
Fox
, 26.2
Catchy
, 26.3
Fox WX
)
- KIAH
(39.1
CW
, 39.2
ANT
, 39.3
Comet
, 39.4
TBD
, 39.5
Court
)
- KXLN-DT
(45.1
UNI
,
45.2
UniMas
, 45.3
Mystery
, 45.5
Shop LC
)
- KTMD
(47.1
TMD
, 47.2
TXO
, 47.3
Lx
, 47.4
Cozi
, 47.5
Oxygen
)
- KPXB-TV
(49.1
Ion
, 49.2
Bounce
, 49.3
Laff
, 49.4
Defy
, 49.5
Scripps
, 49.6
JTV
, 49.7
Court
, 49.8
Grit
)
- KYAZ
(51.1
MeTV
, 51.2/51.3
MeTV+
, 51.4
Story
, 51.12 Infomercials)
- KTBU
(
11.11
CBS
, 55.1
Quest
, 55.3 Nacion)
- KUBE-TV
(57.1
Shop LC
, 57.2
Binge
, 57.3
SBN
, 57.4
Z Living
, 57.5/7 Infomercials, 57.6
Mi Raza
, 57.8
JTV
, 57.9
Vision Latina
, 57.10
Advenimiento TV
, 57.11
VIETV
)
- KZJL
(61.1
Estrella
, 61.2 Estrella News, 61.3
JTV
, 61.4
Shop LC
, 61.5
Positiv
)
- KFTH-DT
(67.1
UniMas
, 67.2
Get
, 67.3
Grit
, 67.4
HSN
,
67.5
UNI
)
|
---|
Low power
|
- KUVM-LD
(10.1
Timeless TV
, 10.2
SBN
, 10.3
The365
, 10.4
Outlaw
)
- KHLM-LD
(12.1
CTN
, 12.2
CTNi
)
- KVVV-LD
(15.1
NewsNet
, 15.2
SNH
, 15.3
ShopHQ
)
- KVQT-LD (21.1
Newsmax2
, 21.2
Retro
, 21.3
TV Elohim
, 21.4
Smart Money
, 21.5
Cristo TV
, 21.6
Heartland
, 21.7
NTD
, 21.8
STV
, 21.9 Biz TV, 21.10
NowMedia
, 21.11 Epic Fit Network, 21.12
ABTV
, 21.13
MBC
, 21.14
Televiva
, 21.15
Fun Roads
, 21.16
CCN
, 21.17
Action
, 21.18
INTV
, 21.19
Ace
)
- KCTL-LD (25.1
Dark
, 25.2 IBN)
- KQHO-LD (27.1
VietSky
, 27.2
WOL TV
, 27.4
VNBC TV
, 27.5
Vietmedia TV
, 27.6
LSTV
, 27.7
IBC TV
, 27.8
Global Mall
, 27.9
Afrocentrik
)
- KUGB-CD
(28.1
ULFN
, 28.2 Infomercials, 28.3
Shop LC
, 28.4
The365
, 28.5
Outlaw
, 28.6
Timeless TV
, 28.7 Dark)
- KEHO-LD
(32.1/2/4 Informercials, 32.5
Stadium
, 32.6
LC
, 32.7 Carz & Trax)
- KUVM-CD
(34.1
RVTV
, 34.2
Timeless TV
, 34.3
MTRSPT1
, 34.4 Infomercials, 34.5
The365
, 34.6
Outlaw
, 34.7
MMN
)
- KZHO-LD
(38.1/3 Vision Celestial, 38.2 Vida Vision, 38.4 TV Elohim, 38.5
Dark
, 38.6 Iglesia JEMIR, 38.7 Mana Musica, 38.8
Religious
, 38.9 Joe FM)
- KBMN-LD (40.1
BeIN Sports Xtra
, 40.2 BeIN Sports Xtra en Espanol, 40.3/4/5/6 Informercials)
- KBPX-LD
(46.1
VidaVision
, 46.2 WBN, 46.3
The NuDu
, 46.4
Real America's Voice
, 46.5
GEB
, 46.6
OAN Plus
)
- KLNK-LD (48.1 Punch TV)
- KDHU-LD
(50.1/3
Daystar
, 50.2 Daystar Espanol)
|
---|
ATSC 3.0
| |
---|
Cable
| |
---|
Streaming
| |
---|
Silent stations
| |
---|
Defunct
| |
---|
|
CBS
network affiliates licensed to and serving the state of
Texas
|
---|
|
|
|
---|
sorted by primary channel network affiliations
|
ABC
| | |
---|
CBS
| |
---|
The CW
| |
---|
Fox
| |
---|
MyNetworkTV
| |
---|
NBC
| |
---|
Other stations
| |
---|
Radio
| |
---|
TV networks
| |
---|
Defunct
| |
---|
Other asset
| |
---|
Acquisitions
| |
---|
- 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.
|