KBTX-TV

KBTX-TV
(semi-satellite of KWTX-TV,
Waco, Texas)

Bryan/College Station, Texas
Branding	News 3 CW Texas
Slogan	The People You Know. The News You Trust.
Channels	Digital: 50 (UHF) Virtual: 3 (PSIP)
Subchannels	3.1 CBS 3.2 The CW
Affiliations	CBS Television Network
Owner	Gray Television (Gray Television Licensee, Inc.)
First air date	May 22, 1957
Call letters' meaning	Bryan, TeXas
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 3 (VHF, 1957-2009)
Former affiliations	ABC (secondary, 1957-85) UPN (DT2, until 2006)
Transmitter power	1000 kW
Height	507.2 m (1,664.0 ft)
Facility ID	6669
Transmitter coordinates	30°33′16.5″N 96°1′52.4″W
Website	www.kbtx.com www.cwtexas.com

KBTX-TV 3 is the CBS television network affiliate located in Bryan/College Station, Texas. It airs on digital UHF Channel 50 and is owned by Gray Television. It is a sister station to KWTX-TV in Waco. Its transmitter is located in Carlos, Texas.

KBTX broadcasts on cable systems -- including on Suddenlink channel 5 -- and on DirecTV and Dish Network.

KBTX also offers The CW programming on its digital feed. Prior to the September 2006 merger of The WB and UPN, KBTX offered UPN programming on digital. The CW Texas is a joint effort between KBTX and KWTX.

KBTX-TV falls under the "KBTX Media" banner, which also includes CW Texas, KBTX.com and MobileKBTX.com.

History

KBTX was the first television station in the Brazos Valley. It has broadcasted from the same building on East 29th Street in Bryan since it went on the air on May 22, 1957, though that building has been added on to multiple times. Originally airing both CBS and ABC programming, KBTX became an exclusive CBS affiliate in 1984.

On October 14, 1983, KBTX flipped the switch on a new transmitter in the Grimes County community of Carlos. The 1,700-foot tower nearly doubled the number of homes the station reached.

Perhaps the most noteworthy coverage from KBTX was on November 18, 1999. Early that morning, the Aggie Bonfire stack collapsed, killing 12 and injuring 27. The station provided non-stop coverage of the event, and served as a major source of information locally and nationally in the hours that followed.

KBTX began celebrating its 50th anniversary in May 2007. Many former on-air staff returned for the celebration, including some who guest-anchored newscasts.

In accordance with the original February 2009 date mandated by the federal government, KBTX permanently shut down its analog signal effective January 20, 2009 as it made the transition to digital television.

On February 28, 2009, KBTX began broadcasting at full power digital from the enhanced Carlos tower, again expanding its signal dramatically. The station had been broadcasting on low power digital between its analog signal shutdown and the full power activation, in addition to being carried on cable systems and DirecTV.

KBTX and KWTX experimented with a jointly-run noon show in early 2009. News stories for both viewing areas were read from KWTX's Waco studios for the first half of the show, with KBTX running live weather and additional local content from its studios for the remainder of the show airing in the Brazos Valley. KWTX aired its own live weather and content in its part of the market during that time. However, in late March 2009, the two stations returned to running their own, separate shows, with KBTX citing "an overwhelming request from viewers for the show to be based out of the Twin Cities again."

In 2009, KBTX reached agreements with the nation's two major satellite providers. For years, Dish Network had refused to offer KBTX to the Bryan/College Station area, instead just carrying KWTX. However, in 2009, Dish relented, and on April 23 of that year, KBTX was made available in the Waco/Temple/Bryan market area. In May 2009, after years of carrying KBTX to the market, DirecTV announced it would be dropping KBTX from its service. In June 2009, an agreement was reached to keep the station available to customers of the satellite provider.

On September 12, 2011, KBTX launched a 4 p.m. newscast, titled First News at Four. It and Inside Edition at 4:30 replaced The Oprah Winfrey Show.

On October 10, 2011, KBTX began broadcasting its newscasts in high definition, making it the first live and local broadcaster in the Brazos Valley to have HD news.

Operations

Though identifying as a station in its own right, KBTX is technically considered a semi-satellite of KWTX. It has most of its internal operations run alongside KWTX, and clears all of KWTX's syndicated programming (although it has some shows not seen on KWTX).

It is the only station airing a full schedule of live, local news for the Bryan/College Station side of the Waco/Temple/Bryan market, airing five newscasts each weekday from its studios in Bryan, along with weekend newscasts.

Coverage area

KBTX serves Brazos, Burleson, Grimes, Leon, Madison, Milam, Montgomery, Robertson, Walker and Washington counties, some of which are also in the Houston market, but receive KBTX. Texas A&M University, Sam Houston State University and Blinn College are in its coverage area.

With its full power digital signal transmitting at the maximum power allowed by law as of early 2009, the KBTX signal also reaches Houston county in the Tyler/Longview market; Trinity, San Jacinto, Austin, Harris and Waller counties in the Houston market; and Lee County in the Austin market. The News 3 Weather team monitors those counties and provides forecasts and updates, including during severe weather events.

KBTX is part of a rare American television market, the Waco/Temple/Bryan Designated Market Area. Only a handful of DMAs in the country have multiple stations under the same network affiliation serving viewers (KBTX serving the Bryan/College Station area, KWTX serving the Waco/Temple/Killeen area), even though in this case, both stations are associated with each other.

On-air staff

Current on-air staff

Anchors

• Daniel Armbruster - "Weekends", weekday reporter
• Karla Castillo - First News at Four
• Steve Fullhart - First News at Four
• Crystal Galny - News 3 at Noon
• John Gilbert - News 3 at 6, 10 at Ten
• Michael Oder - Brazos Valley This Morning
• Barbara Smith - Brazos Valley This Morning
• Meredith Stancik - News 3 at 5, News 3 at 6 and 10 at Ten

Reporters

• Clay Falls
• Shane McAuliffe
• Nicole Morten
• Rashi Vats
• Alex Villarreal

Hosts

• Brenda Sims - Names and Faces segment
• Tom Turbiville - Voices of Veterans segment

Weather team

• Kailey Franz - Meteorologist, First News at Four
• Bob French - Chief Meteorologist, News 3 at 5, News 3 at 6 and 10 at Ten
• Shel Winkley - Meteorologist, Brazos Valley This Morning and News 3 at Noon

Sports team

• Darryl Bruffett - Sports Director, News 3 at 6 and 10 at Ten
• Cody Coil - Weekend Sports Anchor
• John Wilson - Sports Reporter

As of September 2011

More information

• Darryl Bruffett has been on the air at KBTX longer than any current host. He made his debut in 1987, and has been sports director since 1990.
• John Gilbert spent eight years as a main anchor at Waco-based KCEN -- which airs in Bryan/College Station -- before joining KBTX in the same capacity.
• Crystal Galny grew up in KBTX's viewing area. Galny is a Bryan native.
• 6 members of the News 3 team are listed as having attended Texas A&M University Kailey Franz', Bob French, Galny, Gilbert, Barbara Smith, Shel Winkley).
• Three other on-air staff are graduates of another area school, Sam Houston State University (Bruffett, Michael Oder, John Wilson)
• Of those who list the college they graduated from, only Karla Castillo and Steve Fullhart received degrees from outside of Texas. Castillo graduated from San Jose State University. Fullhart is an Indiana University alum.
• Shane McAuliffe and Meredith Stancik are married to each other.
• McAuliffe, Stancik, Wilson and Cody Coil worked at KRBC-TV in Abilene prior to arriving at KBTX.

From information at the station's website

Former on-air staff

• Ashley Batey - Now at WBTV, Charlotte, NC
• Jon Boaz - Former General Sales Manager and 5 PM, Morning Show Anchor; deceased
• Josh Byerly - Public Affairs Officer for NASA
• Jennifer Cavazos
• Aaron Drawhorn - KLAS, Las Vegas, NV
• Tamron Hall - MSNBC
• Rodney Harris - WGCL, Atlanta, GA
• Travis Herzog - KTRK, Houston, TX
• Conley Isom - KXXV/KRHD, Waco, TX
• Carly Kennelly - KOIN, Portland, OR
• John Oakey - KETV, Omaha, NE
• David Reed - KXII, Sherman, TX
• Mark Schnyder- KMOV, St. Louis (married to Teresa Woodard)
• Derek Shore - KFOX, El Paso, TX
• Sherry Williams - KHOU, Houston, TX
• Teresa Woodard- KTVI, St. Louis (married to Mark Schnyder)
• Charlie Haldeman - KPLC, Lake Charles, LA

Awards

KBTX earned 19 honors from Texas Associated Press Broadcasters in its 2009-2010 awards, as announced in March 2010.. Nine of those 19 were first place awards:

• News Anchor: Meredith Stancik
• Investigative Reporting: Ashlea Sigman, Lee Carpio & Andy Conner: "Broken Promises"
• Photojournalism - Station
• Photojournalism - Individual: Andy Conner
• Deadline Editing: Jordan Meserole, "Band Legend Remembered"
• Feature Editing: Steve Fullhart, "Olsen Trial Preview"
• Interview: Steve Fullhart & Barbara Smith, "Red Light Camera Forum"
• Online/Special Content: Steve Fullhart, "Olsen Trial Blog"
• Morning Newscast: Brazos Valley This Morning

Only two other stations in the state earned more honors in the 2009-2010 awards than KBTX. News 3 also finished third in the entire state in first place wins.

In the previous year's TAPB awards, KBTX won 13 honors (four First Places, three Second Places, six Honorable Mentions), as announced in February 2009. Again, News 3 was among the most honored stations in the state.

KBTX competes in Division 3, which includes the next biggest Texas markets after the four major metro areas (Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio and Austin).

KBTX also won an AP award for "Best Spot News Reporting" for its coverage of the Aggie Bonfire collapse in 1999.

"Aggie Game Day," News 3 Sports' pregame show before Texas A&M home football games, is a multi-time recipient of honors from the national Telly Awards for outstanding local programming.

Also awarded a Telly was News 3's special, All the Best: 10 Years of the George Bush Presidential Library, which aired the day before the grand reopening of the 41st president's library and museum on the Texas A&M campus. The main exhibit of the museum was closed for months during an $8.5 million renovation that coincided with the facility's anniversary.

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

• TX News (1957-1975; local news aired separately from KWTX, while sports, world news and weather aired on KBTX and KWTX)
• Dimension 3 News (1975-c. 1982)
• 3 News (1982-1992; also known as "Channel 3 News")
• NewsScene 3
• NewsStar 3 (1992-2004)
• News 3 (2004-present)

Station slogans

• Dimension 3 News: All the News in 3 Dimensions (1975-1982)
• Count on the Channel 3 News (mid 1980s)
• Your 24 Hour News Source (early 1990s)
• This is Your News (1996-2004)
• Live and Local (1996-2006)
• The News Leader (2006-2008)
• The People You Know. The News You Trust. (2008-present)

See also

• KWTX-TV

External links

• KBTX Web Channel
• CW Texas Website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KBTX
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KBTX-TV