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KTRK-TV
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KTRK-TV is the ABC owned and operated station in Houston, Texas. Its studio is located off Bissonnet Street in the Upper Kirby district of southwest Houston, and its transmitter is located in Missouri City.
Contents
- 1 History
- 2 Texans Preseason Football
- 3 Newscasts
- 3.1 Newscast lineup
- 3.2 Newscast titles
- 3.3 Current personalities
- 3.4 Past personalities
- 4 Logos
- 5 See also
- 6 Trivia
- 7 External links
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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 (ch 39), a DuMont UHF affiliate which had gone dark. The original studio facilities were located at 4513 Cullen Blvd (in the University of Houston complex; this studio later housed KHTV [now KHCW) and KUHT.
Originally launched as KXYZ in 1954, the call letters were changed to KTRK in 1955 after the
Chronicle bought out its partners. The calls were derived from
KTRH-AM 740, which the
Chronicle then owned. For many years, it called itself "The Houston Chronicle Station." Soon afterwards, the station moved to its current studios off Bissonnet Street. It 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. She had 2 sons, Gary and Lane. [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.
Former CBS anchor Dan Rather got his start in television as a reporter for KTRK in 1959.
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, like sister station,
WPVI-TV in
Philadelphia. The shows KTRK 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-90s, before the newscast was moved back to a pre-7:00am start time. After 1991, its only preemption was half of "The Home Show." KTRK only ran the first half-hour, an arrangement which continued when the show morphed into "Mike and Maty." When "
The View" premiered in the time-slot, KTRK began running the entire show. 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 & operated station. With that distinction, KTRK would become one of the two first network O&Os in Houston. That same year, NewsCorp's newly created Fox Television Network purchased KRIV-TV. Today, it runs the entire ABC schedule, though there are times when local special events are aired in place of network programming.
Capital Cities/ABC was sold to Disney at the end of 1995.
For many years, KTRK was also the original television home of the Houston Astros, however it only televised Sunday afternoon road games.
Texans Preseason Football
KTRK has been the preseason home of the Houston Texans since their expansion year in 2002. It will televise all 4 preseason Texans games. Also, on Sundays during the regular season, it will televise a post-game show, Inside the Game at 10:30 PM. On Mondays it will televise The Kubiak Recap, interviews with new Texans coach Gary Kubiak, at 6:30 PM. And on Saturdays, it will televise Extra Points - Houston Texans Edition, at 6:30 PM.
Newscasts
The station's newscast, 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, often battling with KHOU for number one during its evening newscasts. 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 its newscasts. 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.
Investigative reporter Marvin Zindler is the station's most notable personality. He has been at the station since 1973, and signed a lifetime contract with KTRK in 1988. Zindler was the first person ever offered such a contract by then-owner Capital Cities Communications, which was known as a financially frugal company. Zindler is most remembered as the reporter who caused the demise of the Chicken Ranch, a bordello immortalized by The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and ZZ Top's hit song "La Grange", and is the authority on "slime in the ice machines" in Houston's eateries.
Zindler is far from the only celebrity at KTRK. Many of channel 13's anchors and reporters have been at the station for 20 years or more. Dave Ward has been the station's main anchor since 1968, longer than anyone in Houston television history. Bob Allen has been sports director since 1974, longer than any other sports director at a top-15 market in the country. Investigative reporter Wayne Dolcefino has been at the station since 1985, and has won many awards for a number of civic investigations and consumer investigations.
Newscast lineup
Monday-Friday
- 13 Eyewitness News This Morning - 5:00am.-7:00am
- Tom Koch & Minerva Perez - Anchors
- Meteorologist Casey Curry - Weather
- Don Nelson - Traffic/Entertainment
- Felix Cortez - Audio Guru
- 13 Eyewitness News at 11 a.m. - 11:00am-Noon
- Melanie Lawson & Minerva Perez - Anchors
- Waether Anchor Doug Brown - Weather
- Don Nelson - Entertainment
- 13 Eyewitness News at Four - 4:00pm-5:00pm
- Illona Carson & Tom Koch - Anchors
- Cheif Meteorologist Tim Heller - Weather
- Action 13 Consumer Reporter Jeff Ehling
- 13 Eyewitness News Live at Five - 5:00pm-5:30pm
- Melanie Lawson & Art Rascon - Anchors
- Cheif Meteorologist Tim Heller - Weather
- 13 Health Check Reporter Christi Meyers
- 13 Eyewitness News at Six - 6:00pm-7:00pm
- Dave Ward & Gina Gaston - Anchors
- Weather Anchor Ed Brandon - Weather
- Sports Director Bob Allen - Sports
- Action 13 Reporter Marvin Zindler
- 13 Eyewitness News Tonight at Ten - 10:00pm to 10:35pm
- Dave Ward & Gina Gaston - Anchors
- Cheif Meteorologist Tim Heller - Weather
- Sports Director Bob Allen - Sports
Saturday
- 13 Eyewitness News Saturday - 5:30am-7:00am
- Mark Garay & Elissa Rivas - Anchors
- Meteorologist Travis Herzog - Weather
- 13 Eyewitness News at Six - 6:00pm-6:30pm
- Stephanie Guadian & Tom Abrahams - Anchors
- Meteorologist David Tillman - Weather
- Sports Anchor Tim Melton - Sports
- 13 Eyewitness News Tonight at Ten - 10:00pm-10:35pm
- Stephanie Guadian & Tom Abrahams - Anchors
- Meteorologist David Tillman - Weather
- Sports Anchor Tim Melton - Sports
Sunday
- 13 Eyewitness News Sunday - 6:00am-7:00am & 8:00am-10:00am
- Mark Garay & Elissa Rivas - Anchors
- Meteorologist Travis Herzog - Weather
- 13 Eyewitness News at 5:30 - 5:30pm-6:00pm
- Stephanie Guadian & Tom Abrahams - Anchors
- Meteorologist David Tillman - Weather
- Sports Anchor Tim Melton - Sports
- 13 Eyewitness News Tonight at Ten - 10:00pm-10:35pm
- Stephanie Guadian & Tom Abrahams - Anchors
- Meteorologist David Tillman - Weather
- Sports Anchor Tim Melton - Sports
Newscast titles
- The Texas News (1962-1965)
- Channel 13 News (1965-1/1/1973)
- 13 Eyewitness News (1/1/1973-present)
Current personalities
Anchors
- Tom Abrahams - Weekends
- Ilona Carson - 4 p.m.
- Mark Garay - Weekend Mornings
- Elissa Rivas - Weekend Mornings
- Gina Gaston - 6 p.m. and 10 p.m.
- Stephanie Guadian - Weekends
- Tom Koch - Weekday Mornings and 4 p.m.
- Melanie Lawson - 11 a.m. and 5 p.m.
- Minerva Perez - Weekday Mornings and 11 a.m.
- Art Rascon - 5 p.m.
- Dave Ward - 6 p.m. and 10 p.m.
- Marvin Zindler - Action 13
Meteorologists/Weather Anchors
- Tim Heller: 13 Eyewitness News at Four, Five and Ten Chief Meteorologist
- Ed Brandon: 13 Eyewitness News at Six Weather Anchor, On 3/26/2007, Ed Brandon announced he would be retiring- http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=stationinfo&id=5150617
- Doug Brown: 13 Eyewitness News at 11 a.m. Weather Anchor
- Casey Curry: 13 Eyewitness News This Morning
- David Tillman: 13 Eyewitness News Saturday/Sunday (Evening) Meteorologist
- Travis Herzog: 13 Eyewitness News Saturday/Sunday (Morning) Meteorologist
Sports
- Bob Allen - Sports Director (longest tenured sports director for any U.S. television station with 30+ years at the position)
- Tim Melton - Weekend Anchor
- Bob Slovak - Reporter
Special correspondents
- Wayne Dolcefino - Investigative Reporter
- Jeff Ehling - Consumer Reporter
- Christi Myers - Health
- Don Nelson - Entertainment/Traffic
- Ted Oberg - In Focus (political reports)
Experts
- Joel Androphy - legal analyst
- Dr. Richard Murray - political analyst
Other Reporters
- Gene Apodaca
- Elma Barrera
- Andy Cerota
- Cynthia Cisneros
- Christine Dobbyn
- Eric James
- Kevin Quinn
- Elissa Rivas
- Miya Shay
- Laura Whitley
- Jessica Willey
- Deborah Wrigley
Past personalities
- David Glodt (anchor/reporter)
- Shara Fryer (anchor/reporter)
- Charles Harrison (meteorologist/voice announcer)
- Vann Hackett (anchor/reporter)
- Chris Adams
- Vicente Arenas (currently with KHOU)
- Alvin Van Black - entertainment/nightlife reporter (died in 2001)
- Bob Boudreaux - weekend anchor
- Jan Carson (co-anchor with Dave Ward during the 6 and 10 p.m. newscast until 1980 - replaced by Shara Fryer. She left ABC13 for a CBS affiliate in San Francisco with Doug Murphy and returned to Houston in the late 1980s as the co-anchor for KPRC.)
- Mary Ellen Conway
- John Nigel Davenport (died in 1991)
- Joe Diaz (Weekend Meteorologist 1989-1997; currently Chief Meteorologist at KOAT in Albuquerque)
- Deborah Duncan (now at KHOU. Duncan also had a locally based talk show from this station 1998-2002; plans for ABC/Disney to pick it up fell through)
- Diana Fallis (ABC13's first African American female anchor - later served as a media relations liaison with Prairie View A & M University)
- Stephen S. Gauvain (died in 1996 when a Ford Explorer SUV flipped over during the coverage of the Hilton Crawford murder trial in Huntsville, TX. The cause of the accident, a defective Firestone tire, would later lead to an investigation exposed by rival KHOU that led to numerous lawsuits and a complete recall of the tires.)
- Roland Galvan (mid-1980s meteorologist; later moved to KTLA; died December 2005)
- Alan Hemberger (current anchor for KHCW News at Nine)
- Corin Hoggard (sub-anchor/reporter, currently reporter at KFSN)
- Cynthia Hunt
- Debbie Johnson
- Nydia Han (currently at ABC affiliate WPVI/Philadelphia)
- Heidi Jones (Current weekend meteorologist at WABC)
- Dan Lovett
- Meteorologist Frank Billingsley (currently with KPRC)
- Darren Lyn (left to become a Houston-based reporter for ABC's corporate cousin ESPN)
- Doug Murphy (sportscaster - replaced by Tim Melton) (Died in 2005; Moved to KPIX-TV in 1980 and reported for Eyewitness News from 1980-2005 before his death in December in a house fire in Lafayette, California)
- Dan Rather
- Gene Norman (weekend meteorologist, presently chief meteorologist at WGCL-TV)
- Sylvan Rodriguez (died in 2000; left ABC13 for ABC News in 1987, later returning to Houston with KHOU 11. Later married dermatologist Shelley A. Sekula (who later became a Houston City Councilmember since 2002), who later went by Shelley Sekula Rodriguez, c. 2000 - June 2002. Currently goes by Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, M.D.)
Logos
KTRK's "Circle 13" logo is the same as that for KTRK's Toledo sister station, WTVG, only that KTRK calls itself "ABC 13", while WTVG is known as "13 ABC".
Its previous logo, which ran from 1971 until the mid 1990s, 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.
For many years since the mid-1990s, both logos have been superimposed on an image of the Texas state flag.
Today, KTRK uses 2 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.)
Trivia
KTRK's old callsign KXYZ was, by coincidence, a western reflection of today's ABC affiliate WXYZ in Detroit based on the last few letters of the alphabet.
