KTRK-TV

KTRK-TV
Houston, Texas
Branding	ABC13 / 13 Eyewitness News
Slogan	Houston's News Leader
Analog channel	13 (VHF)
Digital channel	32 (UHF)
Affiliations	ABC
Owner	Disney/ABC
Founded	November 20, 1954
Call letters meaning
Former affiliations	None
Website	abclocal.go.com/ktrk

KTRK-TV, "ABC13" is a television station in Houston, Texas, affiliated with the American Broadcasting Company network and owned by The Walt Disney Company. Its studio is located in the Upper Kirby district of Houston, Texas, 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 decided to merge as Houston Consolidated Television. They bought the studio facilities (all DuMont manufactured gear) 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). When they moved to the new building on Bissonnet St, the old facility became home to KUHT-TV.

The call letters were changed to KTRK later on, and became the inspiration for a character on a kids show, "KITIRIK", by adding an "I" between the station's call letters. Since the channel was 13, she was a black cat, wore a cat suit complete with mink ears and tail, and drawn-on whiskers. Her real name was Bunny Orsak; see for her picture as KiTiRiK.

Early programs involved a heavy emphasis on local flavor and reflected themes of the day. The station, located off Bissonnet Street in Southwest Houston, became the first domed structure in town, preceding the Astrodome by just over ten years. Both projects used the same architect, Hermon Lloyd.

This station introduced local programs, including:

• 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.

Former CBS anchor Dan Rather also got his start in television as a reporter for KTRK in 1959.

Capital Cities Communications owned the station in the 60's through the mid 80's. KTRK preempted programming slightly though not as much so as some other ABC affiliates. The shows preempted were widely not run in many markets.

In 1986 Capital Cities would buy ABC making KTRK an ABC O & O. They continued an some moderate ammounts of preemptions until the mid 90's. SInce 1991 their only preemption was half "the Home Show". They would only run 30 minutes of this one hour show. When the show morphed into Mike & Maty they continued this arrangement. By the time "The View" was put on this time slot KTRK began running the entire show. Today though they run the entire ABC schedule. ABC/Cap Cities was sold to Disney at the end of 1995.

Newscast titles

• The Texas News (1962-1965)
• Channel 13 News (1965-1/1/1973)
• 13 Eyewitness News (1/1/1973-present)

Personality

Other Personalities

• Tom Abrahams
• Bob Allen
• Gene Apodaca
• Elma Barrera
• Ed Brandon
• Doug Brown
• Ilona Carson
• Andy Cerota
• Cynthia Cisneros
• Christine Dobbyn
• Wayne Dolcefino
• Jeff Ehling
• Shara Fryer
• Mark Garay
• Gina Gaston
• Stephanie Guadian
• Tim Heller
• Tom Koch
• Melanie Lawson
• Darren Lyn
• Tim Melton
• Christi Myers
• Don Nelson
• Ted Oberg
• Minerva Perez
• Kevin Quinn
• Art Rascon
• Elissa Rivas
• Miya Shay
• Bob Slovak
• David Tillman
• Dave Ward
• Laura Whitley
• Jessica Willey
• Deborah Wrigley
• Marvin Zindler

Newscasts

External link

• KTRK-TV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KTRK-TV