KRIV

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KRIV

Houston, Texas
Branding	Fox 26 (general) Fox 26 News (newscasts)
Slogan	You Miss A Little, You Miss A Lot
Channels	Digital: 26 (UHF) Virtual: 26 (PSIP)
Affiliations	Fox
Owner	Fox Television Stations (Fox Television Stations, Inc.)
First air date	August 15, 1971
Call letters' meaning	Albert KRIVin (former top executive of Metromedia)
Sister station(s)	KTXH Fox Sports Houston (2005-2012; now defunct)
Former callsigns	KVRL (1971-1975) KDOG-TV (1975-1978)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 26 (UHF, 1971-2009) Digital: 27 (UHF, 2001-2009)
Former affiliations	Independent (1971-1986)
Transmitter power	1000 kW
Height	598 m
Facility ID	22204
Transmitter coordinates	29°34′28″N 95°29′37″W / 29.57444°N 95.49361°W / 29.57444; -95.49361
Website	MyFoxHouston.com

Studios for KRIV and KTXH.

KRIV is the Fox owned-and-operated television station in Houston, Texas. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 26 from a transmitter in unincorporated northeastern Fort Bend County (near Missouri City). Owned by News Corporation subsidiary Fox Television Stations, KRIV is sister to MyNetworkTV outlet KTXH and both stations share studios on Southwest Freeway in Houston (between the Uptown and Greenway Plaza districts).

History [edit]

Early history [edit]

Channel 26 signed on for the first time on August 15, 1971 under the callsign KVRL. It was the third UHF station in Houston after KHTV (channel 39, now KIAH) and KVVV-TV (channel 16, which lasted only for 18 months) to sign on the air. Four years after signing on, the station's call letters were changed to KDOG – a callsign chosen by former station general manager Leroy Gloger. 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, channel 26 was a "dogged station" ratings-wise. The station's slogan during this timeframe was "Where Every Dog Has His Day." During this period, the station aired English-language general entertainment programming such as old cartoons, sitcoms, and old movies during the daytime hours, along with Spanish-language programs including telenovelas, movies and serial drama series at night. For its first two decades on the air, channel 26 originally operated from studios located at 3935 Westheimer Road in Houston's Highland Village section.

Acquisition by Metromedia [edit]

In May 1978, Metromedia purchased the station and changed the station's call letters to the current KRIV, named in honor of then-Metromedia executive Albert Krivin. Jerry Marcus, general sales manager of Metromedia's WTTG in Washington, D.C., was hired to manage channel 26's operations, remaining until his retirement in December 1999. This influx of dollars from Metromedia's investment in the station resulted in KRIV acquiring higher-profile syndicated programs and by 1983, the establishment of its news department. The station ran a general entertainment format complete with cartoons, sitcoms, movies, first-run syndicated shows, locally-produced talk shows and one of the few Spanish language public affairs programs on television at the time. Overall, the station's viewership ranked near KHTV, a more well-established outlet, over the years.

As a Fox owned-and-operated station [edit]

In 1986, Australian newspaper tycoon Rupert Murdoch purchased KRIV and the other five television stations in the Metromedia group, all of which became the founding owned-and-operated stations of his new television network, the Fox Broadcasting Company. The acquisition resulted in channel 26 and the other former Metromedia stations to suddenly adopt a more sophisticated on-air appearance for a network, that at the time, did not exist. A unified music and graphics package was featured on all of the original Fox-owned stations, including KRIV, which was consistently noted for featuring graphics that were among the first of their kind for local television. The station changed its on-air branding to the current "Fox 26" upon Fox's 1986 launch.

As a Fox owned-and-operated station, KRIV acquired more first-run syndicated programming. In 1993, KRIV joined several other Fox owned stations in launching a weekday morning newscast, resulting in the removal of the station's morning cartoon block, although it continued to run afternoon children's programming from Fox Kids, until the network discontinued the weekday Fox Kids block nationwide in the fall of 2001.

Alternate logo.

In 1997, KRIV moved from its original studios on Westheimer Road to a state-of-the-art digital facility near the Southwest Freeway (the former studio facilities currently house a Central Market food store, owned by the grocery chain H-E-B). and upgraded the look of its newscasts with the debut of a brand new set, graphics, news theme ("The Edge" by VU Music, now Cue11) and a new multi-paned rectangle logo similar to those implemented by other Fox-owned stations following the network's 1994 affiliation agreement with New World Communications.

With this upgraded presence in the Houston television market, channel 26 went from outperforming former independents KTXH and KHWB (the former KHTV, now KIAH) to regularly challenging the Houston market's major network stations (KPRC-TV, KHOU and KTRK-TV) in the ratings. During this time KRIV's studios also became a taping location for various syndicated programs produced by 20th Television, including the court shows Texas Justice, Cristina's Court and Judge Alex. In mid-August 2006, channel 26's website adopted the MyFox website design originally designed by Fox Interactive Media, which technically marked the station's first online venture in a number of years, as the station's previous 2001-era website served as somewhat of a placeholder and contained little station information.

Digital television [edit]

Digital channel [edit]

Analog-to-digital conversion [edit]

On June 12, 2009, the federally-mandated date for American television stations to cease analog transmissions across the country, KRIV ceased broadcasting programming on analog UHF channel 26. Its digital signal was relocated from UHF channel 27 to its pre-transition UHF analog channel 26.^[1][2]

News operation [edit]

KRIV's former newscast title card.

KRIV presently broadcasts about 52½ hours of local newscasts each week (with 8½ hours on weekdays and five hours each on Saturdays and Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the second-highest local newscast output among the broadcast television stations in the Houston market. As is common with Fox stations that carry early evening newscasts on weekends, KRIV's Sunday 5 p.m. newscast is subject to preemption due to NFL football or NASCAR coverage and the Saturday 6 p.m. newscast is subject to delay due to Major League Baseball or college football coverage.

Since February 2008, KRIV's 9 p.m. newscast has been simulcast on Corpus Christi Fox affiliate KUQI (channel 38). A simulcast of that program was subsequently began airing on Beaumont affiliate KUIL-LD on September 14, 2009 (ironically, KUIL-LD lost its Fox affiliation nine months earlier to the market's former NBC affiliate KBTV-TV). KRIV is the third station to have been owned by Fox whose newscasts have been simulcast on stations in nearby markets (WJBK/Detroit ran a two-hour simulcast of its weekday morning newscast on WFQX/Cadillac, Michigan, and then began simulcasting the second half-hour of its weeknight 10 p.m. newscast from 2007 to 2008; former Fox-owned station WDAF-TV/Kansas City also simulcast its morning and 9 p.m. newscasts on Fox affiliate KTMJ-CD/Topeka during that same timeframe).

KRIV has touted its newscasts as the fastest growing in the Houston area ratings, and had outperformed KPRC's newscasts during the February 2007 sweeps period. During Jan Jeffcoat's tenure as morning anchor from 2004 to 2007, KRIV saw a major jump in ratings, surpassing KPRC in the mornings (though still behind ABC-owned KTRK-TV and CBS affiliate KHOU). The station's flagship 9 p.m. newscast often trails behind in the ratings, and KRIV's newscasts still trail in overall viewership behind KHOU and KTRK (both of which battle for first place in Houston TV ratings books, with KTRK's dominance dating back to the 1970s); however, channel 26's newscasts perform well among young women 25-35, and teenagers, which are both key audiences for KRIV.

Prior to the formation of KRIV's news department, the station ran hourly local news updates during programming from 1971 to 1983. Full-fledged newscasts on channel 26 began in 1983, with the debut of the flagship 9 p.m. newscast as the first major primetime news program in the market. In 1987, the station formed an investigative unit, and a program called City Under Siege, which aired after the late evening newscast. Originally hosted by anchors Jim Marsh and Fran Fawcett, the show was actually a predecessor to one of the Fox network's later standout hit series, COPS.

The station launched an hour-long 5 p.m. newscast on weekdays on August 18, 2008. This later expanded to weekends on July 7, 2012, with the debut of an hour-long 5 p.m. newscast on Saturday and Sunday evenings (prior to that newscast's expansion to weekend evenings, KRIV was one of only two Fox-owned stations – alongside Chicago sister station WFLD – that did not have an early evening newscast seven nights each week); that same date, KRIV debuted a three-hour newscast on Saturday and Sunday mornings.^[3]

On January 31, 2009, KRIV became the fourth television station in Houston behind KHOU, KTRK-TV and KPRC-TV to launch local news in high definition. With the transition came the adoption of a new high-definition version of the standardized graphics package used on Fox's owned-and-operated stations. On September 7, 2009, the station expanded its weekday morning newscast to five hours with the launch of Fox 26 Morning News Extra as a less formal, hour-long newscast at 9 a.m. On March 29, 2010, KRIV became the first station in Houston and the first Fox-owned station to start their morning newscasts at 4 a.m., with the addition of a sixth hour to its morning newscast.

News/station presentation [edit]

Newscast titles [edit]

• TV-26 News (1971–1975)
• KDOG News (1975–1978)
• Channel 26 Metromedia News (1978–1986)
• FOX News (1986–2001)
• FOX 26 News (1986–present)^[4]

Station slogans [edit]

• "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; still used for morning newscasts)
• "You Miss A Little, You Miss A Lot" (2012–present)

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News team [edit]

Current on-air news staff^[5] [edit]

Anchors

• Natalie Bomke - weekday mornings on Fox 26 Morning News (4-10 a.m.)
• Rita Garcia - weekends at 5 and 9 p.m.; also weekday reporter^[6]
• José Griñan - weekday mornings on Fox 26 Morning News (6-9 a.m.) and weekdays at noon
• Sally MacDonald - weekend mornings on Fox 26 Morning News (5-8 a.m.); also weekday morning reporter
• Melinda Spaulding - weeknights at 5 and 9 p.m.
• Chris Stipes - weekday mornings on Fox 26 Morning News (4-7 a.m.)
• Don Teague - weeknights at 5 and 9 p.m.
• Melissa Wilson - weekday mornings on Fox 26 Morning News (7-9 a.m.) and Fox 26 Morning News Extra (9-10 a.m.)
• TBD - weekend mornings on Fox 26 Morning News (5-8 a.m.); also weekday morning reporter

FOXRad Weather Team

• Dr. Jim Siebert (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5 and 9 p.m.
• John Dawson - meteorologist; weekends at 5 and 9 p.m., also fill-in
• Mike Iscovitz (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekday mornings on Fox 26 Morning News (4-8 a.m.); also 9-10 a.m. morning news anchor
• Caitilin Espinosa - meteorologist; weekend mornings on Fox 26 Morning News (5-8), Monday-Wednesday mornings (8-10 a.m.) and weekdays at noon

Sports team

• Mark Berman - sports director; weeknights at 5 and 9 p.m.
• TBD - sports anchor; weekends at 5 and 9 p.m.; also weeknight fill-in sports anchor

Reporters

Notable former on-air staff [edit]

• Anna Davlantes - anchor (now at WFLD in Chicago)^[8]
• Jan Jeffcoat - (2004-2007)^[9]
• Chau Nguyen - reporter (1998–2000)^[10]
• Hank Plante^[11]

References [edit]

External links [edit]

	Houston portal
	Television in the United States portal

• MyFoxHouston.com (KRIV's official website)
• MyFoxHouston.com mobile edition
• History of KRIV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KRIV
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KRIV-TV