KTRK-TV

KTRK-TV is the ABC owned-and-operated television station in Houston, Texas. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 13 from a transmitter in unincorporated northeastern Fort Bend County (near Missouri City). Owned by The Walt Disney Company subsidiary ABC Owned Television Stations (part of Disney-ABC Television Group), KTRK maintains studios in Houston's Upper Kirby district. KTRK is also available in the Bryan-College Station market via cable.

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 also bought the studio facilities of the defunct KNUZ-TV (channel 39), a DuMont affiliate which had gone dark. As the Chronicle was the largest shareholder in the company, the station went on the air on November 20, 1954 as KTRK-TV, derived from the Chronicle's radio station, KTRH. The station has been aligned with ABC since it signed on, originally serving as an affiliate of the network; during the late 1950s, the station also had a brief affiliation with the NTA Film Network. The station's original studio facilities were located at 4513 Cullen Blvd (at the defunct Texas Television Center district in the University of Houston campus); this studio later housed KHTV (now KIAH, the present channel 39) and PBS member station KUHT (channel 8).

In 1955, the Chronicle bought out its partners. Although this theoretically left the paper free to change its callsign to "KTRH-TV" to match its radio sister, it opted not to do so. However, for years it called itself "The Houston Chronicle Station." Soon afterward, the station moved to its current Bissonnet Street location. The studio was the first domed structure in town, preceding the better-known Astrodome by ten 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.

Early programs involved a heavy emphasis on local flavor and reflected themes of the day. Some of the more popular local shows included:
 * Kitirik: a children's oriented program, hosted by an actress in a cat costume.
 * Cadet Don: A Space-themed adventure program for children, focusing on the exploits of an interstellar adventurer and the locations he visited. His alien puppet friend Seymour was from the planet Katark
 * 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.

In 1967, the Chronicle sold KTRK to Capital Cities Broadcasting (later to become Capital Cities Communications). Capital Cities bought ABC in 1986, making KTRK an ABC owned-and-operated station. With that distinction, KTRK would become the first network-owned station in the state of Texas. After 1991, the station's only preemption was the first half-hour of The Home Show, an arrangement which continued when the show morphed into Mike and Maty.

Capital Cities/ABC was sold to The Walt Disney Company in early 1996. Not long after, the new Disney-led ownership directed KTRK-TV to clear the entire ABC schedule, though there have been times when local special events are aired in place of network programming (the annual running of the Chevron Houston Marathon is one notable example of this, when the Sunday edition of Good Morning America is pre-empted for live race coverage, anchored by the station's news team).

On April 30, 2000, a dispute between Disney and Time Warner Cable forced KTRK off TWC's systems within the Houston market for over 24 hours. Other ABC stations in markets served by Time Warner Cable, such as New York City, Los Angeles, and Raleigh-Durham, were also affected by the outage as well before the FCC forced TWC to restore service to those areas on May 2 (Time Warner traded the Houston franchise to Comcast in exchange for the latter's Dallas-Fort Worth system in 2007).

Digital television
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Analog-to-digital conversion
On June 12, 2009, the federally-mandated date for American television stations to cease analog transmissions across the country, KTRK-TV ceased broadcasting programming on analog VHF channel 13. As with most of ABC's owned-and-operated stations, KTRK's digital channel allocation was relocated from its pre-transition digital channel (UHF channel 32) to a channel matching its former analog channel following the transition.

Network and syndicated programming
Under Capital Cities ownership, KTRK pre-empted some ABC programming, though not nearly as much as other ABC affiliates, such as Philadelphia sister station WPVI-TV. The programs which channel 13 declined to run 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 1990s, before the newscast was moved back to a pre-7 a.m. start time. Despite these pre-emptions, ABC was more than satisfied with KTRK, one of its strongest affiliates.

Channel 13 also differs from many ABC-owned stations in that it has never aired the syndicated versions of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. Those programs have aired on CBS affiliate KHOU-TV since 1986, while they have been mainstays on most of ABC's owned-and-operated stations for years. Another such program, The Oprah Winfrey Show, was carried over KHOU for its entire 25-year run. In fact, at one point during the late 1980s to early 1990s, Donahue was the only daytime syndicated program on KTRK's lineup. This was largely due to its hour-long 6 p.m. newscast (which debuted in 1982) as well as its popular movie showcases and local programming at the time, including Good Morning Houston.

Since the 2001 debut of the 4 p.m. newscast, Channel 13 no longer has enough syndicated daytime hours of programming to back up its strong news programming outside of network programming. Thus the remaining three hours are filled by these syndicated programs during weekdays: Live! with Kelly and Michael, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Katie (all of which are distributed by corporate cousin Disney-ABC Domestic Television) and Inside Edition.

Sports coverage
KTRK-TV was the original television home of the Houston Astros, from the team's inaugural season in 1962 until 1971; however the station only televised Sunday afternoon road games.

Channel 13 has been the official television home of the Houston Texans since its first year of play in 2002. The station has televised all of the Texans' preseason games not carried on national networks since the team's inception. On Sundays during the Texans' season, the station televises a post-game show, Houston Texans Inside the Game at 10:35 p.m. hosted by Greg Bailey (originally hosted by Bob Allen from 2002 to 2013) and Spencer Tillman, following its Sunday newscast. On Mondays during the regular season, KTRK airs Look Back with Kubiak, in which sports director Greg Bailey looks over the previous Sunday's game with Texans head coach Gary Kubiak, during its 6 p.m. newscasts. On Saturdays, its Extra Points sports show is converted to a special edition entitled Extra Points: Houston Texans Edition at 6:30 p.m.

As ABC lost NFL rights at the end of the 2005 NFL season and with the Texans' regular season games broadcast on KHOU-TV (through CBS), and sometimes KRIV (through Fox Sports and occasionally the NFL Network and ESPN) and KPRC-TV (through NBC Sports), the preseason games will be the only games broadcast on KTRK for the foreseeable future.

News programming
KTRK presently broadcasts about 52½ hours of local newscasts each week (with six hours on weekdays and 2½ hours each on Saturdays and four hours on Sundays). Channel 13 is widely noted for having the most experienced news team in the Greater Houston market. Many of the station's anchors and reporters have been at the station for at least 20 years, some even dating back to the station's days under Capital Cities ownership. Dave Ward has been the station's main anchor since 1965, the longest tenure of anyone in Houston television history. Two other notable long-time personalities were sports director Bob Allen, who had served in that position from 1974 to 2013, longer than any other major-market sports director, and investigative reporter Wayne Dolcefino, who had worked for KTRK from 1985 to 2012 and had won many awards for a number of high-profile civic and consumer investigations with his 13 Undercover franchise.

KTRK also became known for its legendary consumer and investigative reporter, Marvin Zindler, whose week-long 1973 reports on a brothel in La Grange, Texas led to the closing of the Chicken Ranch, a bordello that was later immortalized in the musical and film, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and ZZ Top's hit song "La Grange." Zindler was also widely noted in Houston for his Friday night Rat and Roach Report on Houston restaurants that failed health inspections, which ended with his trademark line "Slime in the Ice Machine". Zindler signed a lifetime contract with KTRK in 1988, making him the first person ever offered such a contract by then-owner Capital Cities, which had a reputation for being a financially frugal company. Zindler continued to work for the station until his death from pancreatic cancer in 2007, even filing reports from his hospital bed during treatment. Since his death, Zindler's former producer, Lori Reingold has picked up where he left off. She was instrumental in helping found "Marvin's Angels", wrote much of his copy and will be continuing under the segment name, "Action's Angels".

In the 1970s and 1980s, Ward, along with Allen, Zindler and weatherman Ed Brandon, led Houston's top-rated news team at 6 and 10 p.m. The lineup was later revised to include a female anchor, Shara Fryer in the 1990s, followed by current chief meteorologist Tim Heller in lieu of Brandon at 10 p.m. in 2002, and the replacement of Fryer with Gina Gaston the following year. In 2007, Brandon retired from the station after a 35-year career, but has occasionally filled in. On September 4, 2012, The lineup was revised to include sports director Bob Allen, followed by current sports director Greg Bailey in lieu of Allen at 10 p.m. On January 17, 2013, Allen retired from the station after a 39-year career.

The station's newscasts, currently known as 13 Eyewitness News, has been #1 in the Houston market for much of the last 30 years, and are also one of the highest-rated newscasts in the country. However in recent years, KTRK has faced strong challenges from rival CBS affiliate KHOU, often battling with channel 11 for the #1 ratings spot during evening timeslots. In 2005, KHOU stepped up its news operations, and overtook KTRK during evening newscasts and at one point ousted KTRK's longtime #1 position in the mornings. KHOU-TV's victory in the ratings was mainly credited to its transition to a hard news format, its switch to HD, and its dedicated news team with main anchors Greg Hurst and Lisa Foronda. KTRK-TV eventually took the lead again in the mornings, as well as at midday and at 5 p.m. 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. KTRK-TV has always led in household ratings, something it continues to do.

On August 12, 2007, KTRK became the second Houston station (after KHOU) to broadcast its newscasts in high definition (the station had an HD helicopter and tower cam since 2006), and making KTRK the seventh ABC owned-and-operated station to make the transition, although technically, KTRK had the first HD images broadcast during its newscasts (helicopter and weather camera) before any other station in Houston.

KHOU's victory over KTRK ended in 2007, as the former's ratings slipped to #2, and even #3 in some timeslots. Since November 5, 2007, KTRK has reclaimed its spot as Houston's most-watched station from sign-on to sign-off. However, KTRK's 11 a.m. newscast remained behind KHOU's noon newscast among midday newscasts (KTRK was #1 in the 11 a.m. timeslot though) until 2009, when it took the #1 spot for that period from channel 11 before losing the #1 spot at midday to KHOU for the November 2009 sweeps period. KTRK continues to dominate its competition in all other dayparts, except midday. In addition, KTRK ranks #1 among various demographics such as young women (25-35), African Americans and suburban audiences. On August 17, 2009, KTRK expanded its morning newscast to 4:30 a.m., becoming the market's first station to do so (beating KPRC by one week and KHOU by three).

Skyeye 13 HD
The station's helicopter, Skyeye HD, is owned by Helicopters Inc. and leased to Metro Networks/Westwood One. On October 13, 2008, Skyeye HD crashed in W.G. Jones State Forest in southern Montgomery County. The aircraft, operated by a contractor, was en route to a breaking news story on a reported shooting when it crashed. Pilot John Downhower and photographer/reporter Dave Garrett were killed in the accident. Hooks Airport, the closest airport to the crash site, confirmed that no distress call was heard prior to the crash. The last images fed to KTRK before the crash showed the landing skid as the helicopter banked hard to the right. An investigation by the NTSB concluded the loss of power came from an undetermined source. An accident reconstructionist pointed that a device did not function properly that would have prevented an emergency landing. The malfunctioning part was not mentioned in the final report without an explanation.

Newscast titles

 * KTRK Television Newsreel (1954–1962)
 * The Texas News (1962–1964)
 * Channel 13 Information Center (1964-1965)
 * Channel 13 News (1965–1971)
 * (Channel) 13 Eyewitness News (1971–present)
 * 13 Eyewitness News HD (2007–present)

Station slogans

 * "The Houston Chronicle Station" (1954–1971)
 * "Houston's Choice for News" (1971–1984; news slogan)
 * "Houston's Great!" (1985–1987; used during period station used Frank Gari's "Turn To News")
 * "Together We Care" (1987–1992; primarily for PSAs)
 * "Caring Makes The Difference" (1989–1992)
 * "13 Cares About Texas" (1992–present; often read as "We Care About Texas", still used for PSAs)
 * "Share the Experience" (1993–1994)
 * "Houston's News Leader" (1995–present)

Current on-air staff
Anchors


 * Tom Abrahams - weekend evenings; also weekday reporter
 * Erik Barajas - weekdays at 4 p.m.; also weeknight reporter
 * Ilona Carson - weekdays at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.; also reporter for 10 p.m. segment Trending Now
 * Gina Gaston - weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.
 * Tom Koch - weekday mornings (4:30-7 a.m.)
 * Melanie Lawson - weekdays at 11 a.m. and weeknights at 5 p.m.
 * Katie McCall - weekend mornings; also weekday morning reporter
 * Sharron Melton - weekday mornings (4:30-7 a.m.)
 * Art Rascon - weeknights at 5 p.m.
 * Elissa Rivas - weekend mornings; also weekday morning reporter
 * Adela Uchida - weekend evenings; also weekday reporter
 * Dave Ward - weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.

13 Eyewitness Weather
 * Tim Heller (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
 * Casey Curry - meteorologist; weekday mornings (4:30-7 a.m.)
 * Travis Herzog (member, AMS; member, NWA) - meteorologist; weekdays at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.
 * David Tillman (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - meteorologist; weekend mornings and evenings

Sports team
 * Greg Bailey - sports director; weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.
 * Tim Melton - sports anchor; weekend evenings
 * Bob Slovak - sports reporter; also fill-in sports anchor
 * David Nuno - sports reporter; also fill-in sports anchor

Reporters


 * Sonia Azad - general assignment reporter
 * Christine Dobbyn - general assignment reporter
 * Jeff Ehling - consumer reporter
 * Demond Fernandez - general assignment reporter
 * Simon Gutierrez - freelance general assignment reporter
 * Samica Knight - general assignment reporter
 * Pooja Lodhia - general assignment reporter
 * Patricia Lopez - consumer reporter
 * Christi Myers - health reporter
 * Don Nelson - weekday morning traffic and entertainment reporter
 * Ted Oberg - "InFocus" feature reporter
 * Kevin Quinn - general assignment reporter
 * Miya Shay - general assignment reporter
 * Jessica Willey - general assignment reporter
 * Deborah Wrigley - general assignment reporter

Notable former on-air staff

 * Bob Allen - sports director (1974–2013; now retired)
 * Bob Boudreaux - weekend news anchor
 * Ed Brandon - chief meteorologist (1972-2002); 6 p.m. meteorologist (2002-2007; retired)
 * Doug Brown - meteorologist (1976–2008; deceased in 2013)
 * Wayne Dolcefino - investigative reporter (1985–2012)
 * Troy Dungan - meteorologist (?–1976; hosted Dialing for Dollars and Turn On on KTRK; later at WFAA-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth; retired)
 * Sylvan Rodriguez - anchor (1977–1987; later at KHOU-TV, deceased in 2000)
 * Marvin Zindler - consumer anchor (1973–2007; died in 2007)

Logos
KTRK's "Circle 13" logo is loosely patterned after the Circle 7 logo long used by ABC stations and affiliates. It is similar to that of former sister station WTVG in Toledo, Ohio, only that KTRK calls itself ABC 13 while WTVG is known as 13 ABC (also WTVG's version of the logo does not include a design of the Texas state flag).

Its previous logo, which ran from 1971 until 1995, 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 (similar also to the way the stem of the number 7 terminates at the bottom of the Circle 7 logo). In 1986 because of the Capital Cities/ABC merger, the trailing portion was "trimmed" as the logo was turned slightly horizontal in a similar fashion to today's version. Since July 3, 1992, both logos have been superimposed over a stylized version of the Texas state flag.