Information: KRIV | Texas Trader RV

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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 (channel 20). Both stations share a studio complex on Southwest Freeway in Houston, and KRIV transmits from a tower located southwest of Houston in unincorporated northeastern Fort Bend County near Missouri City, Texas.

History

Channel 26 signed on for the first time on August 15, 1971 as KVRL. It was the second UHF station in Houston after KHTV (channel 39, later KHWB, then KHCW, now KIAH) to sign on the air. Four years after signing on, the call letters were changed to KDOG. The former GM of the station, Leroy Gloger, chose the letters. Another former general manager, Jerry Marcus commented (upon his retirement) that he saw them appropriate during the station's formative years as, in his words, it were a "dogged station" ratings-wise. The station's motto was "Where Every Dog Has His Day." During this period, the station aired a wide variety of programs. During the day it ran English general entertainment programming such as old cartoons, sitcoms, and old movies. At night the station ran Spanish programming such as Spanish-language telenovelas, Spanish language movies, and Spanish serials. Channel 26 was located at 3935 Westheimer. That building is no longer there.

As a Metromedia station

In May 1978, Metromedia purchased the station and changed the station's call letters to KRIV-TV. The new call letters were in honor of Albert Krivin, then a top Metromedia executive. Jerry Marcus, general sales manager of Metromedia's WTTG in Washington, D.C., was brought to Houston to manage the station, where he remained until his retirement in December 1999. This influx of dollars caused the station to begin taking more risks by picking up higher profile syndicated programming and forming a news department (this happened in 1983), featuring the first major primetime newscast in the market. The station was running a general entertainment format complete with cartoons, sitcoms, movies, first run syndicated shows, locally produced talk shows, and the one of the few Spanish language forums on television at the time. Overall, the station ranked near KHTV, a more well-established outlet, over the years.

As a Fox O&O

Six years later in 1986, Australian newspaper tycoon Rupert Murdoch purchased Metromedia television stations, including KRIV, which became one of six founding owned-and-operated stations of his new Fox television network. The acquisition caused the station, along with a number of other former Metromedia outlets, to suddenly adopt a more sophisticated look for a network that at the time, didn't actually exist. A unified music and graphics packaged was featured on this station, as well as the original Fox-owned stations, which is consistently noted for featuring graphics that were among the first of their kind for local television. Since 1986 KRIV has been known as "Fox 26".

As a Fox-owned station, KRIV added more first-run syndicated programming. In 1993, KRIV joined several other Fox-owned stations in launching a weekday morning newscast. The morning cartoons were dropped but it continued its afternoon kids block from Fox Kids until the end of 2001 when Fox ended the weekday kids' block nationwide.

A new era

In 1997, KRIV moved from its original studios on Westheimer Road in the Greenway Plaza area of Houston to a state-of-the-art digital facility and upgraded the look of its newscasts, debuting a brand new set, new graphics, and a new logo similar to other Fox O&O station logos implemented following the 1994 New World affiliation deal, in which Fox gained several VHF stations nationally, many of them former CBS affiliates in cities that are home to teams in the National Football Conference of the National Football League, after Fox gained broadcast rights to that conference from CBS.

With this upgraded presence in the Houston television market, Fox 26 went from outperforming former independents KTXH and KHWB (the former KHTV, now KIAH) to regularly challenging Houston's major-network stations, KPRC, KHOU, and KTRK-TV, in the ratings. During this time, KRIV's studios also became a studio site for various syndicated Fox programs, including the courtroom shows Texas Justice, Cristina's Court and Judge Alex.

On July 26, 2006, days after competitor KHOU launched a new graphics package, KRIV also launched a new graphics and music package, which is being gradually rolled out to each of Fox's owned and operated stations as a part of a new, unified look that is similar to the graphics used on Fox News Channel. In mid-August 2006, the station launched its version of Fox's MyFox O&O website initiative with MyFoxHouston.com, which technically marks the station's first venture onto the Internet in a number of years, as the station's previous 2001-era website was somewhat of a placeholder and contained little information. On October 30, 2006, KRIV debuted a new set for newscasts. The old set was donated to the communications school at Texas Southern University.

Logo history

The original logo of KVRL 26 was the letters "TV-26" in a stylized font.[1] After Metromedia purchased the station in 1978, the logo was changed to a more bold number which was diagonally oriented.[2]

The KDOG logo featured the station's call letters, with the "g" resembling the profile of a dog's head. This coordinated with the motto, "Where Every Dog Has His Day."

In 1986, after becoming a Fox affiliate, the logo was changed to a new serif font similar to the other O&O affiliates. One example of the logo just shows a bold "26" with the "KRIV" and "Houston" underneath[3], another shows the a horizontally oriented logo with a diagonal Fox logo on the left and the "KRIV 26" on the right[4]

In 1989, the logo was changed again, this time to a vertically oriented rectangle with the Fox searchlight above the number 26, with the call letters in a slightly diagonal line in the middle, and the word Houston in the border underneath. [5]

In 1994, the logo was changed to a bold "Fox 26" in a sans-serif font, with "KRIV" and "Houston" underneath in the old serif font.[6]

In 1997, after the station moved studios, the logo was changed again, along with most other Fox affiliates. This logo was a multi-paned rectangle with the word "Fox" in white letters on a blue background, a blue "26" on a white background, and the words "KRIV - HOUSTON" underneath on a black background with a red line underneath.[7] This logo was used until 2006, when the current logo was adopted.

Also in 2006, the KRIV website launched, and began using the "MyFox Houston" logo, a rounded rectangle consisting of a white lowercase "my" similar to the font used for MySpace (also owned by Fox), on a blue background, a white capital "Fox" on a red background, and the word "Houston" underneath.[8]

Digital television

The station's digital signal, UHF 26, is not multiplexed:

Subchannel	Programming
26.1	main KRIV/Fox programming

Analog-to-digital conversion

After the analog television shutdown occurred in June 2009 ^[1], KRIV returned to channel 26.^[2]

Programming

In addition to Fox primetime, Saturday late night and sports programming (as well as the Saturday morning Weekend Marketplace infomercial block and the Sunday morning political talk program Fox News Sunday), KRIV also broadcasts off-network sitcoms, syndicated talk and courtroom shows, and reality shows, as well as religious programming on weekends.

News operation

KRIV broadcasts a total of 35 hours of local news a week (6½ hours on weekdays, one hour on Saturdays and an hour-and-a-half on Sundays), more than any other station in the Houston market. KRIV is the only Fox O&O without a weekend early evening newscast. The station operates a Bell 407 helicopter called "SkyFox", to track severe weather and cover breaking news stories.^[9]

In 1987, the station formed an investigative unit, and a program called "City Under Siege" which aired after the evening news. Originally hosted by anchors Jim Marsh and Fran Fawcett, the show was actually a predecessor to one of the Fox network's later standouts: COPS.

The station launched an hour-long 5:00 p.m. newscast on August 18, 2008. On January 31, 2009, KRIV became the fourth station in Houston behind KHOU, KTRK-TV and KPRC-TV to launch local news in high definition. With the change to HD came new Fox O&O HD graphics currently used on sister stations WNYW, KTTV, KDFW and WTTG. On September 7, 2009, the station launched "Fox 26 Morning News Extra", which is a less formal, hour-long newscast which airs at 9 a.m. and effectively extended the entire morning news program to five hours. On March 29, 2010 a sixth hour of news was added with the introduction of Fox 26 News at 4 AM, allowing the station to compete with the 4:30 a.m. newscasts offered by KPRC, KTRK and KHOU.

Since February 2008, KRIV's 9 p.m. newscast has been simulcast on Fox affiliate KUQI (channel 38) in Corpus Christi, since that station does not have a news department of its own. On September 14, 2009, KUIL-LP in Beaumont, Texas also began simulcasting KRIV's 9 p.m. newscast (ironically, KUIL-LP lost its Fox affiliation nine months earlier to KBTV-TV (channel 4), rendering KUIL an independent). KRIV is the third station to have been owned by Fox to simulcast its newscasts on a station in a nearby market, as WJBK in Detroit simulcasted two hours of its weekday morning newscast on WFQX in Cadillac, Michigan, and then began simulcasting the second half of its weeknight 10 p.m. newscast from 2007 to 2008. Former Fox-owned station WDAF-TV in Kansas City also simulcast its morning and 9 p.m. newscasts on Fox affiliate KTMJ-CA in Topeka, Kansas during that same timeframe.

Ratings

KRIV has touted its newscasts as the fastest growing in the Houston area, and has outperformed KPRC's newscasts as of the February 2007 sweeps period. During morning anchor Jan Jeffcoat's November 2004 to June 2007 tenure, KRIV saw a major jump in ratings, passing KPRC in the mornings, still far away from KTRK and KHOU. The station's 9 p.m. newscast trails behind in ratings. The station still trails behind newscasts on CBS affiliate KHOU and ABC owned-and-operated KTRK, both of which battle for first place in Houston TV ratings books, with KTRK's dominance dating back to the 1970s.

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

TV-26 News (August 15, 1971-1975)
KDOG News (1975-1978)
Channel 26 Metromedia News (1978-1986)
Fox News (1986-2001)
Fox 26 News (1986-present)

Station slogans

Houston's Very Own, TV-26 (1971-1975)
KDOG, Where Every Dog Has His Day (1975-1978)
Channel 26, Your Metromedia Station (1978-1986)
News That Works For You (2001-2006)
Your Gulf Coast Weather Authority (2006-2010)
Connected to You (2010-present)

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Notable on-air staff

(Year personality joined KRIV in parentheses, if included)

Current on-air staff

(as of August 17, 2009)

Anchors

(In alphabetical order)

Ford Atkinson - weekends at 9 p.m.; also weekday reporter (1991)
Mike Barajas - weeknights at 5, 5:30 and 9 p.m. (1980s)
Ruben Dominguez - weekday mornings "Fox 26 Morning News Extra" (9-10 a.m.); also afternoon traffic reporter and assignments manager
José Griñan - weekday mornings "Fox 26 Morning News" (5-7 a.m.) and noon
Damali Keith - weekends at 9 p.m.; also weekday reporter
Melinda Spaulding - weekdays at 5, 5:30 and 9 p.m. (2007?)
Sibila Vargas - weekday mornings "Fox 26 Morning News" (7-9 a.m.) and "Fox 26 Morning News Extra" (9-10 a.m.) (2007?)
Melissa Wilson - weekday mornings "Fox 26 Morning News" (8-9 a.m.) and "Fox 26 Morning News Extra" (9-10 a.m.)
Tom Zizka - weekday mornings "Fox 26 Morning News" (7-9 a.m.)

FoxRAD Weather Team

(In order of rank)

Dr. Jim Siebert (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - Chief Meteorologist; weeknights at 5 and 9 p.m.
John Dawson - Meteorologist; weekends at 9 p.m.; also fill-in
Mike Iscovitz (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - Meteorologist; weekday mornings (4-8 a.m.)
Kristi Powers (AMS/NWA Seals of Approval) - Meteorologist; weekday mornings (8-10 a.m.) and noon

Sports team