KPRC-TV is the
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
affiliated television station based in Houston,
TexasTexas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, and serving the
Greater HoustonHouston–Sugar Land–Baytown is a 10-county metropolitan area defined by the Office of Management and Budget. It is located along the Gulf Coast region in the U.S. state of Texas...
television market. It has studios located in the Sharpstown district on the Southwest portion of the city, and has a transmitter site in unincorporated Fort Bend County near
Missouri CityMissouri City is a city located in the U.S. state of Texas within the metropolitan area. The city is mostly in Fort Bend County with a small portion within Harris County. As of the 2000 U.S...
. The station is owned and operated by
Post-Newsweek StationsPost-Newsweek Stations is the official name of the broadcasting division of the Washington Post Company and is a self-contained corporation within that company...
, a subsidiary of the
Washington Post CompanyThe Washington Post Company is an American education and media company, best known for owning the newspaper for which it is named, The Washington Post. The Company also owns Kaplan, Inc., a leading international provider of educational and career services for individuals, schools and businesses...
.
The station operates on digital channel 35, but its PSIP virtual channel is 2. Prior to the digital transition, KPRC was the only Houston station on the VHF dial that did not air on a cable channel matching the over-the-air analog channel, due to interference from the low-band VHF terrestrial signal. It was placed on
ComcastComcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...
cable 12 instead.
http://www.comcast.com/Customers/Clu/ChannelLineup.ashx Non Comcast systems on the outer edges of the Houston media market had placed KPRC on cable channel 2.
History
The station first broadcast on January 1, 1949, as
KLEE-TV, and was owned by hotelier W. Albert Lee. It was the first television station in Houston and the 12th in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Lee never did reasonably well with his station, and on June 1, 1950, KLEE-TV was purchased by the Hobby family, owners of the
Houston PostThe Houston Post was a newspaper that had its headquarters in Houston, Texas, United States. In 1995, the newspaper was absorbed into the Houston Chronicle.-History:The newspaper was established on February 19, 1880, by Gail Borden Johnson...
, who had signed on
KPRCKPRC is a talk radio station in Houston, Texas, branded as "The 950 - Radio MOJO". Started in 1925, it is the oldest station in the market...
radio in 1925 as Houston's first radio station. The television station's call letters were changed to match its radio cousin on July 3, 1950.
KPRC-TV has been an NBC affiliate from the very first day since NBC Radio had good relations with its
radio counterpartKPRC is a talk radio station in Houston, Texas, branded as "The 950 - Radio MOJO". Started in 1925, it is the oldest station in the market...
. Due to the
Federal Communications CommissionThe Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC) VHF freeze, KPRC, the only Houston television station for four more years, carried secondary affiliations with
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
,
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
and
DuMontThe DuMont Television Network, also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont, Du Mont, or Dumont was one of the world's pioneer commercial television networks, rivalling NBC for the distinction of being first overall. It began operation in the United States in 1946. It was owned by DuMont...
until KGUL-TV (now
KHOU-TVKHOU is the CBS affiliate television station in Houston, Texas. Serving Greater Houston, it is owned by the Belo Corporation and broadcasts on digital and PSIP channel 11...
) and KXYZ (now
KTRK-TVKTRK-TV, channel 13, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, located in Houston, Texas...
) signed on and respectively took over CBS and ABC full time. The DuMont network went defunct in 1956, though it had carriage on UHF station KNUZ-TV (now KIAH's frequency) for a while. Because of its affiliation with NBC, KPRC was the first station in Houston to broadcast the first color program in Houston and was subsequently the first to broadcast in full color.
The station originated from studios on Post Oak Road near what would later become the
GalleriaThe Galleria, stylized theGalleria, is an upscale mixed-use urban development centrally located in the Uptown District of Houston, Texas, United States. The development consists of a retail complex, as well as the Galleria Office Towers complex, two Westin hotels, and a private health club...
shopping complex in
Uptown HoustonThe Uptown District of Houston is located 6.2 miles west of downtown and is centered along Post Oak Boulevard, Westheimer Road , and the Galleria...
. KPRC was the first station in Houston with weather radar, videotape for field reporting, the first TV station with a fully staffed Austin
news bureauA News bureau is an office for gathering or distributing news. Similar terms are used for specialized bureaus, often to indicate geographic location or scope of coverage: a ‘Tokyo bureau’ refers to a given news operation's office in Tokyo; foreign bureau is a generic term for a news office set up...
, and the first TV station in Houston to hire female and African-American reporters.
From 1969 until 1998, KPRC produced the longest-running syndicated television program in Texas,
The Eyes of TexasThe Eyes of Texas is a long-running regional television series which aired original episodes from 1969—1999. The program focused on unique people, events and places throughout the state of Texas. It was produced and syndicated by KPRC-TV & Stonefilms , both in Houston...
, which focused on lifestyle segments relating to Texas culture and life, which continues to air on
KUHT-Technical firsts:The station is also noted in Houston for many technical firsts at the local level. In 1981, KUHT became Houston's first closed captioned television station, and ten years later, in 1991, it became the first station in Houston to offer Descriptive Video Service , and other services...
. KPRC was also one of the first stations to air telethons, raising $28,000 for the
American Cancer SocietyThe American Cancer Society is the "nationwide community-based voluntary health organization" dedicated, in their own words, "to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives, and diminishing suffering from cancer, through research, education, advocacy, and...
in 1950. It has carried the
Jerry Lewis MDA TelethonThe MDA Labor Day Telethon is an annual telethon in the United States to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association . The first MDA telethon was during the Thanksgiving Day weekend of 1952 and titled Party for MDA. It has been held annually since 1966...
, sponsored by the
Muscular Dystrophy AssociationThe Muscular Dystrophy Association is an American organization which combats muscular dystrophy and diseases of the nervous system and muscular system in general by funding research, providing medical and community services, and educating health professionals and the general public...
, every
Labor DayLabor Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September that celebrates the economic and social contributions of workers.-History:...
since 1970.
In March 1972, KPRC-TV moved into its state-of-the-art studios on the
Southwest FreewayU.S. Route 59 is a north–south United States highway . A latecomer to the U.S. numbered route system, U.S. 59 is now a border-to-border route, Part of NAFTA Corridor Highway System. It parallels U.S. Route 75 for nearly its entire route, never much more than away, until it veers southwest...
in Houston's
SharpstownSharpstown is a master-planned community in Greater Sharpstown, Southwest Houston, Texas, United States. It was one of the first communities to be built as a master-planned, automobile centered community and the first in Houston. Frank Sharp, the developer of the subdivision, made provisions not...
neighborhood, where it remains to this day. The three studios located within the building are suspended from the ground to reduce vibration.
In 1983, the
Houston Post was sold to
MediaNews GroupMediaNews Group, based in Denver, Colorado, is one of the largest newspaper companies in the United States. It is privately owned and operates 56 daily newspapers in 12 states, with combined daily and Sunday circulation of approximately 2.4 million and 2.7 million, respectively...
, while the Hobby's broadcast holdings were reorganized as
H&C CommunicationsH&C Communications is a now defunct corporation that owned a number of media outlets throughout the United States.Originally known as Channel 2 Television Company, it was created in 1983 to unite the Hobby family's television & radio interests under one umbrella after the Houston Post, their...
, making KPRC the flagship television station of H&C. After 40 years of ownership by the Hobby family, KPRC was sold to the
Washington Post in April 1994. The
Houston Post was bought by
HearstHearst may refer to:People* Amanda Hearst* Garrison Hearst, NFL running back* George Hearst* George Randolph Hearst, Jr.* Hunter Hearst Helmsley, WWE professional wrestler* John Randolph Hearst* Lydia Hearst-Shaw* Michael Hearst* Millicent Hearst...
and absorbed into its
Houston ChronicleThe Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...
, with the last edition printed in April 1995. Since 2004, KPRC has been branded "Local 2."
Digital television
The station's digital signal, UHF 35, is multiplexed:
| Channel |
Programming |
| 2.1 |
main KPRC-TV/NBC programming |
| 2.2 |
This TVThis TV is a United States general entertainment television network, with a large emphasis in its programming on movies....
|
| 2.3 |
LATVLATV is a bilingual music and entertainment network. LATV has been on the air in the Los Angeles market as KJLA since 2001 and is distributed through mostly digital television subchannels throughout the United States and Puerto Rico....
|
Analog-to-digital conversion
KPRC-TV ended programming on its analog signal, on VHF channel 2, on June 12, 2009, as part of the
DTV transition in the United StatesThe DTV transition in the United States was the switchover from analog to exclusively digital broadcasting of free over-the-air television programming...
, and remained on its current pre-transition channel number, 35
PSIPThe Program and System Information Protocol is the protocol used in the ATSC digital television system for carrying metadata about each channel in the broadcast MPEG transport stream of a TV station and for publishing information about television programs so that viewers can select what to watch...
is used to display KPRC-TV's
virtual channelIn telecommunications, a logical channel number , also known as virtual channel, is a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel on which the signal travels....
as 2. Analog 2 was broadcasting instructions on how to obtain and set up a converter box until July 12, 2009. KPRC began construction of its DTV transmission facilities in 1997.
On June 12, 2009, the digital signal from KPRC Channel 35 was so strong that viewers in the
Alexandria, LouisianaAlexandria is a city in and the parish seat of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on the south bank of the Red River in almost the exact geographic center of the state. It is the principal city of the Alexandria metropolitan area which encompasses all of Rapides and Grant parishes....
area woke up to find Channel 2.1 in place of
KALB-TVKALB-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station for Central Louisiana licensed to Alexandria. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 35 from a transmitter in Forest Hill. The station can also be seen on Suddenlink channel 5 and in high definition on digital channel 730...
Channel 5.1 on digital converter boxes as both channels broadcast on digital channel 35. This was likely due to an atmospheric effect known as tropospheric ducting.
Houston Oilers
Beginning in 1965, the
American Football LeagueThe American Football League was a major American Professional Football league that operated from 1960 until 1969, when the established National Football League merged with it. The upstart AFL operated in direct competition with the more established NFL throughout its existence...
signed a broadcast deal with
NBCNFL on NBC is the brand given to NBC Sports coverage of National Football League games until 1998, when NBC lost the NFL American Football Conference rights to CBS...
for airing of the league's games. KPRC became the primary station for the Houston Oilers, one of the league's eight founding teams. This continued after the AFL became the
American Football ConferenceThe American Football Conference is one of the two conferences of the National Football League . This conference and its counterpart, the National Football Conference , currently contain 16 teams each, making up the 32 teams of the NFL....
of the
National Football LeagueThe National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
, but Oilers broadcasts ended after the 1996 season, as the team moved and eventually became the
Tennessee TitansThe Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. They are members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Previously known as the Houston Oilers, the team began play in 1960 as a charter...
. In the twilight years in Houston, the Oilers failed to sell out many home games, and were blacked out in Houston.
Preemptions
KPRC had been notorious in recent years for its share of preemptions. When the NBC soap opera
PassionsPassions is an American television soap opera which aired on NBC from July 5, 1999 to September 7, 2007 and on The 101 Network from September 17, 2007 to August 7, 2008....
debuted in 1999, KPRC—along with its sister station
WDIV-TVWDIV-TV, virtual channel 4, is an NBC-affiliated television station based in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is owned by Post-Newsweek Stations and is the flagship station and home base of the group with the offices of the group located alongside WDIV's studios; the "Local" branding now...
in Detroit until 2002—were the only NBC affiliates that preempted the show
http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/News/9907/05/showbuzz/#story2 http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117503689.html?categoryid=14&cs=1; both stations also had preempted the earlier soap opera
Sunset Beach- United States :* Sunset Beach , in Cape May, New Jersey* Sunset Beach , in Pupukea, Oahu, Hawaii* Sunset Beach State Recreation Site, in Oregon* Sunset State Beach, near Watsonville, California- Canada :* Sunset Beach, Alberta...
(though UPN stations in both cities carried
Sunset Beach). In its place was the
MauryMaury is a syndicated American tabloid talk show hosted by Maury Povich.When the series first aired in 1991, the show was called The Maury Povich Show and was produced by MoPo Productions in association with Paramount Domestic Television...
show which moved to KHWB when KPRC cleared the preempted soap opera in its normal network timeslot. Initially, it aired for a short time on KNWS-TV in 2001, and later moved to KPRC the next year with a 3 a.m. timeslot. While NBC has become more tolerant of preemptions than it has been in the past, it prefers that its affiliates clear the whole schedule if possible. As a result, on August 30, 2004, KPRC placed
Passions in its normal 2 p.m. timeslot. However, this matter became moot when NBC removed
Passions from its schedule on September 7, 2007.
Late Night with Conan O'BrienLate Night with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien that aired 2,725 episodes on NBC between 1993 and 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and musical and comedy performances. Late Night aired weeknights at 12:37 am...
did not air in Houston from 1994 to 1996. Those were Conan O'Brien's first years as the host. During that time, he generally received unfavorable reviews. KPRC instead opted to air reruns of
The Jenny Jones ShowThe Jenny Jones Show is an American syndicated daytime tabloid talk show that was hosted by comedian/actress/singer Jenny Jones. It was produced by Telepictures and was distributed by Warner Bros. Television Distribution...
in this time slot. However,
Late Night did return to KPRC in 1996 but on a delayed basis. In later years, it was delayed to air various programs such as
Ricki LakeRicki Pamela Lake is an American actress, producer, and television host. She is best known for her starring role as Tracy Turnblad in the original Hairspray, her ground-breaking documentary film The Business of Being Born, and her talk show which was broadcasted internationally from...
s talk show at 11:35 p.m., followed by Access HollywoodAccess Hollywood is a weekday television entertainment news program covering events and celebrities in the entertainment industry. It was created by former Entertainment Tonight executive producer Jim Van Messel, and is currently directed by Robert Silverstein. In previous years, Doug Dougherty and...
, a repeat of the 10:00 news, and Jenny Jones
, which delayed Late Night to 2:40 a.m. This was a fact not lost on O'Brien, who visited various parts of Houston including the main
bus terminalA bus station is a structure where city or intercity buses stop to pick up and drop off passengers. It is larger than a bus stop, which is usually simply a place on the roadside, where buses can stop...
to watch an episode of his own show with Houstonians in a classic and hilarious
skit. The station's mail servers were hit with several hundred and possibly more emails in response. KPRC moved the show to 12:35 a.m. later in 1998, and finally to his network slot in 2005, where he remained until his departure to host the Tonight Show
. Conan's replacement, Jimmy FallonJames Thomas "Jimmy" Fallon, Jr. is an American actor, comedian, singer, musician and television host. He currently hosts Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, a late-night talk show that airs Monday through Friday on NBC...
, currently airs in his network appointed 11:35 p.m.(CST) slot. However, the station still delays Last Call with Carson DalyLast Call with Carson Daly is an American late night talk show that is broadcast on NBC. The show is hosted by Carson Daly, the half-hour show featuring celebrity interviews, documentary-style coverage of a topic, and musical performances. Last Call airs weeknights at 1:35 a.m. Eastern / 12:35 a.m....
until 2:05, showing infomercials at 12:35 a.m. in the show's network timeslot. KPRC is also among a handful of NBC affiliates that does not air Poker After DarkPoker After Dark was an hour-long poker television program on NBC. The show made its debut on January 1, 2007, and was cancelled as another victim of the "Black Friday" criminal case due to the show's sponsorship by Full Tilt Poker, one of that case's defendants. on September 23, 2011 For its first...
. Likewise it did not carry the short primetime run of the poker series Face the AceFace the Ace is a poker-themed game show on the NBC television network first airing August 1, 2009. The show is hosted by Steve Schirripa and features the commentary of Ali Nejad, who also commentates for NBC’s Poker After Dark...
in August 2009 (along with WDIV and Milwaukee's
WTMJ-TVWTMJ-TV, digital channel 28 ; branded as "Today's TMJ4", is the NBC-affiliated television station located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the flagship station of the Journal Broadcast Group. Its signal covers most of southeastern Wisconsin and parts of northeastern Illinois, including Racine, Kenosha,...
), pre-empting both episodes with
St. Jude Children's Research HospitalSt. Jude Children's Research Hospital, founded in 1962, is a leading pediatric treatment and research facility focused on children's catastrophic diseases. It is located in Memphis, Tennessee. It is a nonprofit medical corporation chartered as a 501 tax-exempt organization under IRS regulations.In...
programming.
2001 NASCAR Pepsi 400 controversy
One of the most notorious pre-emptions occurred on July 7, 2001 when KPRC did not air
NBC SportsNBC Sports is the sports division of the NBC television network. Formerly "a service of NBC News," it broadcasts a diverse array of programs, including the Olympic Games, the NFL, the NHL, MLS, Notre Dame football, the PGA Tour, the Triple Crown, and the French Open, among others...
' live coverage of the
NASCARThe National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and -operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947–48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...
Nextel (then Winston) Cup SeriesThe NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing . The series was originally known as the Strictly Stock Series and Grand National Series . While leasing its naming rights to R. J...
Pepsi 400 from
Daytona International SpeedwayDaytona International Speedway is a race track in Daytona Beach, Florida, United States. Since opening in 1959, it has been the home of the Daytona 500, one of the most prestigious races in NASCAR. In addition to NASCAR, the track also hosts races of ARCA, AMA Superbike, Grand-Am and Motocross...
. KPRC, and then general manager, Steve Wasserman (now at WPTV in
West Palm Beach, FloridaWest Palm Beach, is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and is the most populous city in and county seat of Palm Beach County, the third most populous county in Florida with a 2010 population of 1,320,134. The city is also the oldest incorporated municipality in South Florida...
) had a contract to air the
Miss TexasThe Miss Texas competition was founded in 1936 as a scholarship contest for young women. The winner represents Texas in the Miss America pageant; three winners have gone on to be crowned Miss America ....
Scholarship Pageant live. However the agreement with the Miss Texas organization was made before NASCAR and NBC came to their agreement to carry races in 1999, and despite the wide breadth of time to reschedule, Miss Texas refused to renegotiate or renege on the agreement and allow KPRC to carry the pageant at a new time or on tape delay to accommodate one of NASCAR's tentpole events. This race was especially notable as the winner was
Dale Earnhardt, Jr.* NOTE: References to "Earnhardt", "he", and "him" refer to the subject of this article, unless otherwise specified. References to his father will include "Sr."...
, whose
fatherRalph Dale Earnhardt, Sr. was an American race car driver, best known for his involvement in stock car racing for NASCAR...
died at the same track in the final lap of the 2001
Daytona 500The Daytona 500 is a -long NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race held annually at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is one of four restrictor plate races on the Cup schedule....
only months before. Angry fans flooded KPRC's email system with a reported 4,000 e-mails. Wasserman also received several complaints in person at KPRC's studios. The race was aired on tape-delay later that night on independent station KNWS-TV, (with permission from NBC) following its scheduled live airing of a
Houston AstrosThe Houston Astros are a Major League Baseball team located in Houston, Texas. They are a member of the National League Central division. The Astros are expected to join the American League West division in 2013. Since , they have played their home games at Minute Maid Park, known as Enron Field...
game.
2007 NFL season opener
According to a user of the Daly Planet blog, the first 30 minutes of the 2007
NFL KickoffThe NFL Kickoff game, and related festivities, mark the start of the National Football League season. The first game of the season is currently scheduled for the Thursday following Labor Day. A single game is held, preceded by a concert and other ceremonies. Since the 2004 season, the defending...
game between the
New Orleans SaintsThe New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans, Louisiana. They are members of the South Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League ....
and the
Indianapolis ColtsThe Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. They are currently members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League ....
was shown with default audio in
SpanishSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
rather than
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
.
Scroll down to the "comments" section of the page KPRC inadvertenly aired the secondary audio program provided by
TelemundoTelemundo is an American television network that broadcasts in Spanish. The network is the second-largest Spanish-language content producer in the world, and the second-largest Spanish-language network in the United States, behind Univision....
(also owned by NBC's parent company,
NBC UniversalNBCUniversal Media, LLC is a media and entertainment company engaged in the production and marketing of entertainment, news, and information products and services to a global customer base...
).
Station notoriety
- As KLEE-TV, the station became the source of controversy thanks to some British TV viewers who claimed to receive the signal of KLEE-TV on September 14, 1953, three years after the original signal was transmitted. However, this was actually a hoax.http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/klee.htm
- During the 1980–1982 run of the NBC soap opera Texas, which used Houston as its primary setting, several mentions were made of TV station "KVIK", run by one of the characters on the show. In an opening title shown later in Texas run, a brief view of a TV station's exterior can be seen. Marked with a "KVIK" sign in front, the building is actually KPRC's studio and offices. In one scene during the series, two characters are conversing while walking down a second-floor hallway at "KVIK" that overlooks the first floor lobby. Again, KPRC's building was used for the interior scene.
Newscasts
In its early years under the direction news director
Ray MillerRay Elvin Miller was the creator and host of The Eyes of Texas , a television anthology series, syndicated through KPRC-TV, the NBC outlet in Houston. A native of Fort Worth, Miller began his career in radio there in 1938 and thereafter relocated to Houston...
the station was usually first in the ratings. In 1972, KPRC acquired two key KHOU personalities, anchorman
Ron StoneRon Stone was an American news anchor at KPRC-TV in Houston, Texas for 20 years from 1972 to 1992. He was called "the most popular and revered news anchor the city has ever known" by...
and sportscaster
Ron FranklinRon Franklin is an American sportscaster, most notably with ESPN, where he was employed from 1987-2011. He was fired by ESPN on January 4, 2011 after allegedly making sexist comments to and then berating a colleague.He is married with one child...
, for its evening newscasts.
From 1985 to 1992, the station used the newscast title "Channel Two News", and broadcast
round-the-clock updatesThe 24 Hour News Source brand was a common name used by American television stations starting in the early 1990s for brief hourly news updates, usually running 30 seconds to a minute in length. At its peak, dozens of stations across the U.S. were producing these brief news updates...
throughout the day, including during NBC primetime programming. For several years during the early 1990s, the updates were also aired during the overnight hours with producers and other newsroom personnel anchoring. With anchors such as Ron Stone, Bill Balleza, Jan Carson,
Linda LorelleLinda Lorelle is best known as an Emmy Award-winning journalist who anchored the evening news for nearly 17 years at Houston's NBC affiliate, KPRC-TV. From her most recent Emmy for "Beyond Brown vs...
, Dan O'Rourke, Bob Nicholas, weatherman Doug Johnson and sports anchors Ron Franklin and Craig Roberts, the station's newscasts, while usually in second place, often competed for and even placed first at times. In 1994, when Post-Newsweek Stations bought KPRC, the newscasts were rechristened "News 2 Houston". Three years later, KPRC culminated in the construction of a new set using the newsroom as a backdrop that was similar to the set at
WSVNWSVN, channel 7, is a television station located in Miami, Florida, USA. WSVN is owned by Sunbeam Television, and is an affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Company. The station has its studio facilities located in North Bay Village and transmitter based in north Miami-Dade County.WSVN operates a Key...
in Miami. This set was referred to as the "News Center" and was used on-air until 2006, though the physical newsroom still exists in the same area. After this point, KPRC won more awards and competed with KHOU and KTRK, even occasionally beating KTRK in the ratings at 10 p.m.
From there, the station saw its ratings slip dramatically. Its newscasts prior to the Post-Newsweek buyout were more traditional in comparison. The station's 5 p.m. newscast at one time even reported finishing in fifth place, behind rival news stations KHOU and
KTRK-TVKTRK-TV, channel 13, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, located in Houston, Texas...
, syndicated reruns of
The SimpsonsThe Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
on
KRIVKRIV, 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...
, and a Spanish-language newscast on KXLN. The station also saw ratings decline in the mornings and also at 4 p.m. and 10 p.m.
KPRC was also hit with a boycott by black civil rights activist
Quanell XQuanell X is the leader of the New Black Panther Party in Houston, Texas.-Early life:Quanell Ralph Evans was born in Los Angeles, California. Both parents were Nation of Islam converts...
and others after the demotion of two African-American anchors. During the controversy, KPRC hired longtime KHOU anchor Jerome Gray, who is African-American, and moved former anchor Khambrel Marshall to Executive Producer. In May 2008, KPRC announced Marshall would move back on air as Weekend Meteorologist.
Overall, as of early 2008, KPRC was third in the ratings behind KHOU and KTRK. KPRC's morning and late-night newscasts made the most gains in 2007, competing for second place. KPRC however consistently ranks number one in ratings among young men ages 25–35 in Houston, which is KPRC newscast's target audience.
The competitiveness is also magnified by Nielsen Media's Local People Meters (LPMs), which were introduced to the Houston market in the Summer 2007 to measure ratings. LPMs replace the old diary method of measuring ratings. Since LPMs went live in October 2007, the ratings picture has changed in Houston.
http://www.marketingymedios.com/marketingymedios/market_profile/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003677624 KPRC has seen gains in the morning and at night, while the competition has dropped.
On July 19, 2008 during its 6 p.m. newscast, KPRC debuted its newscast in
High DefinitionHigh-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
.
On August 24, 2009 KPRC-TV expanded their morning newscast to begin at 4:30 a.m. The 4:30 a.m. show is anchored by Owen Conflenti with meteorologist Anthony Yanez.
In 2010, the station changed its slogan from "Right Here, Right Now" to "News at the Speed of Life".
News/Station Presentation
- KPRC-TV News (?-1969)
- Big 2 News (1969-1980)
- 2 News (1980-1985)
- Channel Two News (1985-1992)
- Channel 2 News (1992-1995)
- News 2 Houston (1995-2004)
- Local 2 News (2004-present)
Current on-air staff
(
Year joined KPRC indicated through parenthesis)
Anchors
- Bill Balleza – weeknights at 5 and 10 p.m. (1980)
- Owen Conflenti – weekday mornings 4:30-7 a.m. and 11 a.m. (2006)
- Joel Eisenbaum – weekdays at 11 a.m.; also "Wheel of Justice" anchor (2006)
- Lauren Freeman – weekday mornings 5-7 a.m. and 11 a.m. (2006)
- Rachel McNeill – weekdays at 4 p.m. (2002)
- Iain Page – weekdays at 4 and 6 p.m. (2010)
- Jennifer Reyna - weekday mornings at 4:30 a.m.; also morning traffic reporter (2006)
- Dominique Sachse – weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m. (1993)
- Courtney Zavala – weekend mornings (2006)
- Irika Sargent - weekend nights 10 p.m. (2011)
Local 2 Severe Weather Team
- Frank Billingsley (AMS
The American Meteorological Society promotes the development and dissemination of information and education on the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences and the advancement of their professional applications. Founded in 1919, the American Meteorological Society has a membership...
/NWAThe National Weather Association is an American professional association with a mission to support and promote excellence in operational meteorology and related activities...
Seals of Approval) – Chief Meteorologist; weekdays at 4, and weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m. (1995)
- Mary Lee – Forecaster; Weekend Mornings 6 a.m. - 8 a.m. (2010)
- Khambrel Marshall – Forecaster; Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5 and weekends at 10 p.m. (2006)
- Anthony Yanez (AMS
The American Meteorological Society promotes the development and dissemination of information and education on the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences and the advancement of their professional applications. Founded in 1919, the American Meteorological Society has a membership...
/NWAThe National Weather Association is an American professional association with a mission to support and promote excellence in operational meteorology and related activities...
Seals of Approval) – Meteorologist; weekday mornings (4:30-7 a.m.) and 11 a.m. (2003-2005; 2007)
Sports team
- Adam Clanton – Sports Anchor/Reporter (2005)
- Winston Dutchin – Sports Anchor/Reporter, Executive Sports Producer) (2006)
- Randy McIlvoy – Sports Director; Sunday at 5, Monday-Thursdays at 6 and Sunday-Thursdays at 10 p.m. (2004)
Reporters
- Phil Archer – general assignment reporter (1995)
- Robert Arnold – investigative reporter (2005)
- Mary Benton – general assignment reporter (2004)
- Amy Davis – investigative reporter (2001)
- Stephen Dean – investigative reporter (2008)
- Courtney Gilmore – general assignment reporter (2007)
- Nefertiti Jáquez – general assignment reporter (2010)
- Ryan Korsgard – general assignment reporter (2009)
- Halie Richardson – traffic reporter; part-time producer (2001)
Notable former on-air staff
- Gayle Anderson
Gayle Anderson is a reporter for KTLA Morning News, whose participation in unique human interest stories has become a favorite among viewers....
– "2 On Your Side" reporter/midday anchor (1986–1991; now at KTLAKTLA, virtual channel 5, is a television station in Los Angeles, California, USA. Owned by the Tribune Company, KTLA is an affiliate of the CW Television Network. KTLA's studios are on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson...
in Los Angeles)
- Ron Franklin
Ron Franklin is an American sportscaster, most notably with ESPN, where he was employed from 1987-2011. He was fired by ESPN on January 4, 2011 after allegedly making sexist comments to and then berating a colleague.He is married with one child...
– sports director (1980–1987; formerly play-by-play announcer for ESPNEntertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
)
- Kay Bailey Hutchison
Kathryn Ann Bailey Hutchison, known as Kay Bailey Hutchison , is the senior United States Senator from Texas.She is a member of the Republican Party. In 2001, she was named one of the thirty most powerful women in America by Ladies Home Journal. The first woman to represent Texas in the U.S....
– known on-air as Kay Bailey, Channel 2's first female reporter (1967–1972; currently a RepublicanThe Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
United States Senator from Texas)
- Tom Jarriel
Thomas Edwin "Tom" Jarriel is an American television news reporter who has worked for the ABC network since the 1960s.Jarriel's parents were the late William Lester Jarriel, Sr., and Ella Ruth Jarriel . The Jarriels were living in LaGrange in Troup County in far western Georgia, where on May 17,...
– worked behind the scenes in the news department as a reporter for a number of years (formerly of ABC News)
- Linda Lorelle
Linda Lorelle is best known as an Emmy Award-winning journalist who anchored the evening news for nearly 17 years at Houston's NBC affiliate, KPRC-TV. From her most recent Emmy for "Beyond Brown vs...
– anchor (1989–2006, recently freelancing at KRIV, now working in Real Estate)
- Ray Miller
Ray Elvin Miller was the creator and host of The Eyes of Texas , a television anthology series, syndicated through KPRC-TV, the NBC outlet in Houston. A native of Fort Worth, Miller began his career in radio there in 1938 and thereafter relocated to Houston...
– news director (1950s–1979) and host of The Eyes of Texas during the early years of the program (died in 2008)
- Tony Kovaleski
Tony Kovaleski is an award-winning investigative reporter at KMGH-TV in Denver, Colorado where he has worked since 2001. Kovaleski was born in Iron River, Michigan and attended San Jose State University.-Professional Career:...
- Investigative Reporter (1997-2001) Currently working as an Investigative Reporter at KMGH-TV (ABC) in Denver Colorado and a 2010 Alfred I. duPont Columbia Silver Baton award winner.
- John Quiñones
Juan Manuel "John" Quiñones is an ABC News correspondent, and currently the host of Primetime: What Would You Do?.-Early life and education:John Quiñones was born in San Antonio, Texas on May 23, 1952...
– reporter/anchor (1975–1978; now a correspondent with ABC News)
- Jacque Reid
Jacque Reid is a television and radio personality. She was the lead news anchor of The BET Nightly News from 2001-2005.-Early career:...
– reporter/anchor (1997–2000, went on to anchor BET Nightly NewsBET Nightly News is the main newscast of the Black Entertainment Television network. The newscast covered national and international news stories from a black perspective.The program ran for four years, ending in July 2005...
)
- Janet Shamlian
Janet Shamlian is a national correspondent for NBC News and appears on The Today Show, NBC Nightly News, and MSNBC. She is a contributor to the prime time news magazine Dateline NBC and to CNBC, the business news channel owned and operated by NBC Universal....
– weekend anchor (1996–1997; currently a correspondent for NBC News)
- Spencer Tillman
Spencer Tillman is a former professional American football player who played running back for eight seasons for the Houston Oilers and San Francisco 49ers.-College Football:...
– sports reporter/anchor (1987–1997; first hired during the offseason period when he was playing with the Houston OilersThe Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. They are members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Previously known as the Houston Oilers, the team began play in 1960 as a charter...
, later moved to WABC-TVWABC-TV, channel 7, is the flagship station of the Disney-owned American Broadcasting Company located in New York City. The station's studios and offices are located on the Upper West Side section of Manhattan, adjacent to ABC's corporate headquarters, and its transmitter is atop the Empire State...
in New York and now at CBS SportsCBS Sports is a division of CBS Broadcasting which airs sporting events on the American television network. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on West 52nd Street in midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on West 57th Street.CBS...
)
- Chris Wragge
Christian P. "Chris" Wragge is an American news anchor. He is the co-anchor for New York's WCBS-TV News at 6 p.m. weeknights alongside Dana Tyler. He was previously in the station's 5 p.m. and 11 p.m...
– sports director (1998–2004; also covered sports for NBC and USAUSA Network is an American cable television channel launched in 1971. Once a minor player in basic cable, the network has steadily gained popularity because of breakout hits like Monk, Psych, Burn Notice, Royal Pains, Covert Affairs, White Collar, Monday Night RAW, Suits, and reruns of the various...
simultaneously, now anchor of CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
's The Early ShowThe Early Show is an American television morning news talk show broadcast by CBS from New York City. The program airs live from 7 to 9 a.m. Eastern Time Monday through Friday; most affiliates in the Central, Mountain, and Pacific time zones air the show on tape-delay from 7 to 9 a.m. local time. ...
)
- Paula Zahn – anchor (1981–1983, formerly with CNN)
- Marvin Zindler
Marvin Harold Zindler was a news reporter for television station KTRK-TV in Houston, Texas, United States. His investigative journalism, through which he mostly represented the city's elderly and working class, made him one of the city's most influential and well-known media personalities.-Early...
– reporter (1950–1954; later became investigative reporter for KTRK, deceased)
- Hasti Taghi – former multimedia journalist (2010–2011; now at WFAA-TV
WFAA, channel 8, is an ABC-affiliated television station serving the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex, one of the top ten media markets in North America. The station is the flagship of Belo Corporation and the largest ABC affiliate not owned and operated by the network...
in Dallas)
External links