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 Missouri City, Texas.
History
The station grew out of the VHF "freeze", when three entities vying for the channel 13 assignment, including the Houston Chronicle, 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 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 (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. For many years, the station ran a children's show featuring a black cat, "Kitirik", by adding an "I" between the station's call letters. She wore a cat suit complete with mink ears and tail, and drawn-on whiskers. Her real name was Bunny Orsak. [1]
Early programs involved a heavy emphasis on local flavor and reflected themes of the day. Some of the more popular local shows included:
- Cadet Don: A Space-themed adventure program for children, focusing on the exploits of an interstellar adventurer and the locations he visited.
- Dialing for Dollars: 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 Communications. Under CapCities' ownership, KTRK preempted some ABC programming, though not nearly as much as other ABC affiliates, such as sister station WPVI-TV 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.
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 The Mike and Maty Show.
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. 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-TV (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 '90s, 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 Regis and Kelly, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (both of which are distributed by corporate cousin Disney-ABC Domestic Television), and Inside Edition.
Digital television
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
| Subchannel |
Programming |
| 13.1 / 32.1 |
main KTRK-TV/ABC programming |
| 13.2 / 32.2 |
ABC 13 Plus |
| 13.3 / 32.3 |
ABC 13 Weather Now |
Analog-to-digital conversion
After the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, which is tentatively scheduled to take place on February 17, 2009 [1], KTRK-TV will move its digital broadcasts back to its present analog channel number, 13. [2]
Sports coverage
KTRK-TV was the original television home of the Houston Astros, 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. 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.
News programming
2007 promo featuring KTRK's morning news team. Left to Right: Don Nelson, Sharron Melton, Tom Koch, and Casey Curry. The cast, as of Nielsen October 2007, forms the most often viewed/top rated weekday morning news in Houston
13 Eyewitness News at Six in 2006. From left to right: Bob Allen, Dave Ward, Gina Gaston, Marvin Zindler, and Tim Heller.
KTRK is widely noted for having the most experienced news team in Greater Houston, the tenth-largest media market in the United States as of 2006-07. 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 1968, 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.
On August 12, 2007, KTRK began fully producing Eyewitness News in High Definition, making KTRK the second Houston station after KHOU and the seventh Disney-owned station to make the transition.
Ratings
For almost 30 years, channel 13 has been the lead in Houston news ratings. KTRK-TV is one of ABC's O&O stations. In the beginning of 2005, KHOU-TV the CBS affilate, stepped up their news operations, and snatched the ratings crown from KTRK-TV in every time slot. KHOU-TV's victory in the ratings was mainly credited to the turn to hard-news, the switch to HD, and their dedicated news team with Greg Hurst and Lisa Foronda at the helm of channel 11. 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. Channel 13 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. KTRK-TV was a strong second from about 2005 until early 2007, when channel 13 began to gain some of their victory back, they had snatched the morning newscast back. Since the middle of 2007, KTRK-TV has lead in Houston ratings once again, dominating local TV in every timeslot, from sign on to sign off.
Current personalities
- Anchors
- Tom Abrahams - weekend evenings (also reporter)
- Erik Barajas - weekdays 4 PM (also reporter)
- Ilona Carson - weekdays 4 PM
- Gina Gaston - weeknights 6 & 10 PM
- Tom Koch - weekdays 5-7 AM
- Melanie Lawson - weekdays 11 AM & 5 PM
- Sharron Melton - weekdays 5-7 AM
- Art Rascon - weekdays 5 PM
- Elissa Rivas - weekend mornings (also reporter)
- Adela Uchida - weekend evenings (also reporter)
- Dave Ward - weeknights 6 & 10 PM
- Weather
- Casey Curry - weekdays 5-7 AM
- Tim Heller - chief meteorologist/weeknights
- Travis Herzog - weekdays 11 AM & 4 PM
- David Tillman - weekend evenings
- Sports
- Bob Allen - sports Director/weeknights
- Tim Melton - weekend anchor
- Bob Slovak - reporter/substitute anchor
- Reporters
- Gene Apodaca
- Andy Cerota
- Cynthia Cisneros
- Katishia Cosley
- Christine Dobbyn
- Wayne Dolcefino (investigative)
- Jeff Ehling ("Action 13")
- Eric James
- Patricia Lopez (consumer)
- Christi Myers (health and science)
- Don Nelson (entertainment/traffic)
- Ted Oberg ("In Focus")
- Kevin Quinn
- Lori Reingold (consumer advocate)
- Miya Shay (politics)
- Laura Whitley
- Jessica Willey
- Deborah Wrigley
Experts
- Richard Alderman: The People's Lawyer
- Joel Androphy: Legal Analyst
- Dr. Richard Murray: Political Analyst
Notable alumni
- Chris Adams
- Carlos Aguilar
- Larry Conners
- Vicente Arenas
- Elma Barrera
- Frank Billingsley
- Bob Boudreaux
- Ed Brandon
- Doug Brown
- Paul Bures
- Jan Carson
- Shern-Min Chow
- Ray Conaway
- Dave Davis
- Joe Diaz
- Thom Dickerson
- Deborah Duncan
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- Troy Dungan
- Tom Evans
- Diana Fallis
- Shara Fryer
- Stephen Gauvain
- Mark Garay
- Jan Glenn
- Stephanie Guadian
- David Glodt
- Van Hackett
- Charles Harrison
- Walter Hawver
- Alan Hemberger
- Heidi Jones
- Larry Kane
- Ron Kershaw
- Ed Kilgore
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- Don Kobos
- Dan Lovett
- Tim Malloy
- Bunny Orsak
- Minerva Perez
- Charlie Porter
- Dan Rather
- Sylvan Rodriguez
- Betty Rogers
- Dan Rosen
- Jim Rosenfield
- Tim Ryan
- Guy Savage
- Richard F Spinner
- Lisa Trapani
- Leonard Tritico
- Alvin Van Black
- Charles Webb
- Marvin Zindler
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News/station presentation
Newscast titles
- KTRK Television Newsreel (1954-1962)
- The Texas News (1962-1965)
- Channel 13 News (1965-1971)
- Eyewitness News (1971-present)
Station slogans
- Number One In Texas (1970s-1995)
- Houston's News Leader (1995-present)
Logos
13 Eyewitness News intro 2006-present
13 Eyewitness News Promo Logo - 2007
Official ABC 13 Logo - May 2007
13 Eyewitness News - New Logo (Only used during newscasts)
KTRK's "Circle 13" logo is the same as that for sister station WTVG in Toledo, Ohio, only that KTRK calls itself ABC 13 while WTVG is known as 13 ABC.
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, 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.
Today, KTRK uses two different logos. One is the logo shown above, and they have 2 other variations of that they also use. The other is the number 13 in a circle shown at an angle. This is only used during newscasts.
See also
Circle 7 logo (The Circle 13 is the derivative of the Circle 7.)
External links
References
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Television stations in Houston |
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| Houston |
KPRC 2 (NBC, WX+ on DT2, LATV on DT3) • KJIB-LP 5 (Ind) • KUHT 8 (PBS, HD on DT2, V-me on DT3) • KHOU 11 (CBS, Ind. on DT2, .2Net coming Mid-08) • KTRK 13 (ABC, News on DT2, AccuWX on DT3) • KETH 14 (TBN, on DT2 Church,JCTV on DT3, TBN Enlace on DT4, Smile on DT5) • KTXH 20 (MNTV) • KVQT 21 (Span/Rel.) • KLTJ 22 (Daystar) • KRIV 26 (Fox) • KCVH 30 (silent) • KUVM 34 (AZA) • KIAH 39 (CW) • KHLM 43 (Multi) • KXLN 45 (UNI) • KTMD 47 (TEL) • KPXB 49 / KBPX 33 (ION, qubo on DT2, Life on DT3, Worship on DT4) • KNWS 51 (Ind) • KTBU 55 (A1) • KAZH 57 / KHMV 28 / KVVV 53 (TuV) • KZJL 61 (Ind) • KFTH 67 (TFU)
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| Outlying areas |
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| Defunct stations |
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| Texas Broadcast television areas by city:
Abilene/Sweetwater • Amarillo (Texas Panhandle) • Austin • Beaumont/Port Arthur • Corpus Christi • Dallas-Fort Worth • Del Rio, TX • El Paso • Houston • Laredo • Lubbock • Odessa/Midland (Permian Basin) • Rio Grande Valley • San Angelo • San Antonio • Sherman/Ada, OK • Texarkana/Shreveport, LA • Tyler/Longview (East Texas) • Victoria • Waco/Bryan (Brazos Valley) • Wichita Falls/Lawton, OK
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