KRIV (TV)

For the air reserve base in Riverside County, California assigned the ICAO code KRIV, see March Joint Air Reserve Base.

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Studios for KRIV and KTXH

KRIV, 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 (channel 20). Both stations share a studio complex on Southwest Freeway in Houston, and KRIV transmits from a tower located southwest of Houston in unincorporated northeastern Fort Bend County near Missouri City, Texas.

History

Channel 26 signed on for the first time on August 15, 1971 as KVRL. It was the second UHF station in Houston after KHTV (channel 39, later KHWB, then KHCW, now KIAH) to sign on the air. Four years after signing on, the call letters were changed to KDOG. The former GM of the station, Leroy Gloger, chose the letters. 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, they were a "dogged station" ratings-wise. The station's motto was "Where Every Dog Has His Day." During this period, the station aired a wide variety of programs. During the day they ran English general entertainment programming such as old cartoons, sitcoms, and old movies. At night the station ran Spanish programming such as Spanish-language telenovelas, Spanish language movies, and Spanish serials.

As a Metromedia station

In May 1978, Metromedia purchased the station and changed the station's call letters to KRIV-TV. The new call letters were in honor of Albert Krivin, then a top Metromedia executive. Jerry Marcus, general sales manager of Metromedia's WTTG in Washington, D.C., was brought to Houston to manage the station, where he remained until his retirement in December 1999. This influx of dollars caused the station to begin taking more risks by picking up higher profile syndicated programming and forming a news department (this happened in 1983), featuring the first major primetime newscast in the market. The station was running a general entertainment format complete with cartoons, sitcoms, movies, first run syndicated shows, locally produced talk shows, and the one of the few Spanish language forums on television at the time. Overall, the station ranked near KHTV, a more well-established outlet, over the years.

As a Fox O&O

Six years later in 1986, Australian newspaper tycoon Rupert Murdoch purchased Metromedia television stations, including KRIV, which became one of six founding owned-and-operated stations of his new Fox television network. The acquisition caused the station, along with a number of other former Metromedia outlets, to suddenly adopt a more sophisticated look for a network that at the time, didn't actually exist. A unified music and graphics packaged was featured on this station, as well as the original Fox-owned stations, which is consistently noted for featuring graphics that were among the first of their kind for local television. Since 1986 KRIV has been known as "Fox 26".

As a Fox-owned station, KRIV added more first-run syndicated programming. In 1993, KRIV joined several other Fox-owned stations in launching a weekday morning newscast. The morning cartoons were dropped but they continued their afternoon kids block from Fox Kids until the end of 2001 when Fox ended the weekday kids' block nationwide.

A new era

In 1997, KRIV moved from its original studios on Westheimer Road in the Greenway Plaza area of Houston to a state-of-the-art digital facility and upgraded the look of its newscasts, debuting a brand new set, new graphics, and a new logo similar to other Fox O&O station logos implemented following the 1994 New World affiliation deal, in which Fox gained several VHF stations nationally, many of them former CBS affiliates in cities that are home to teams in the National Football Conference of the National Football League, after Fox gained broadcast rights to that conference from CBS.

With this upgraded presence in the Houston television market, Fox 26 went from outperforming former independents KTXH and KHWB (the former KHTV, now KIAH) to regularly challenging Houston's major-network stations, KPRC, KHOU, and KTRK-TV, in the ratings. During this time, KRIV's studios also became a studio site for various syndicated Fox programs, including the courtroom shows Texas Justice, Cristina's Court and Judge Alex.

On July 26, 2006, days after competitor KHOU launched a new graphics package, KRIV also launched a new graphics and music package, which is being gradually rolled out to each of Fox's owned and operated stations as a part of a new, unified look that is similar to the graphics used on Fox News Channel. In mid-August 2006, the station launched their version of Fox's MyFox O&O website initiative with MyFoxHouston.com, which technically marks the station's first venture onto the Internet in a number of years, as the station's previous 2001-era website was somewhat of a placeholder and contained little information. On October 30, 2006, KRIV debuted a new set for newscasts. The old set was donated to the communications school at Texas Southern University.

Logo history

File:FOX263D.PNG

The original logo of KVRL 26 was the letters "TV-26" in a stylized font.[1] After Metromedia purchased the station in 1978, the logo was changed to a more bold number which was diagonally oriented.[2]

The KDOG logo featured the station's call letters, with the "g" resembling the profile of a dog's head. This coordinated with the motto, "Where Every Dog Has His Day."

In 1986, after becoming a Fox affiliate, the logo was changed to a new serif font similar to the other O&O affiliates. One example of the logo just shows a bold "26" with the "KRIV" and "Houston" underneath[3], another shows the a horizontally oriented logo with a diagonal Fox logo on the left and the "KRIV 26" on the right[4]

In 1989, the logo was changed again, this time to a vertically oriented rectangle with the Fox searchlight above the number 26, with the call letters in a slightly diagonal line in the middle, and the word Houston in the border underneath. [5]

In 1994, the logo was changed to a bold "Fox 26" in a sans-serif font, with "KRIV" and "Houston" underneath in the old serif font.[6]

In 1997, after the station moved studios, the logo was changed again, along with most other Fox affiliates. This logo was a multi-paned rectangle with the word "Fox" in white letters on a blue background, a blue "26" on a white background, and the words "KRIV - HOUSTON" underneath on a black background with a red line underneath.[7] This logo was used until 2006, when the current logo was adopted.

Also in 2006, the KRIV website launched, and began using the "MyFox Houston" logo, a rounded rectangle consisting of a white lowercase "my" similar to the font used for MySpace (also owned by Fox), on a blue background, a white capital "Fox" on a red background, and the word "Houston" underneath.[8]

Digital television

The station's digital signal, UHF 26, is not multiplexed:

Subchannel	Programming
26.1	main KRIV/Fox programming
26.2	Paramount Channel (coming soon)
26.3	Fox 26 Weather Network (coming in 2011)

Analog-to-digital conversion

After the analog television shutdown occurred in June 2009 , KRIV returned to channel 26.

Programming

In addition to Fox primetime and sports programming (as well as Fox News Sunday), KRIV also broadcasts off-network sitcoms, syndicated talk and courtroom shows, and reality shows, as well as religious programming on weekends.

News operation

KRIV broadcasts a total of 35 hours of local news a week (6½ hours on weekdays, one hour on Saturdays and an hour-and-a-half on Sundays), more than any other station in the Houston market. KRIV is the only Fox O&O without a weekend early evening newscast. The station operates a Bell 407 helicopter called "SkyFox", to track severe weather and cover breaking news stories.^[9]

In 1987, the station formed an investigative unit, and a program called "City Under Siege" which aired after the evening news. Originally hosted by anchors Jim Marsh and Fran Fawcett, the show was actually a predecessor to one of the Fox network's later standouts: COPS.

KRIV has touted its newscasts as the fastest growing in the Houston area, and has outperformed KPRC's newscasts as of the February 2007 sweeps period. During morning anchor Jan Jeffcoat's November 2004 to June 2007 tenure, Fox 26 saw a major jump in ratings, passing KPRC in the mornings, still far away from KTRK and KHOU. The station's 9 PM newscast trails behind in ratings. The station still trails behind newscasts on CBS affiliate KHOU and ABC owned-and-operated KTRK, both of which battle for first place in Houston TV ratings books, with KTRK's dominance dating back to the 1970s.

KRIV airs over 30 hours a week of local news, 20 hours of which are dedicated to the station's weekday morning newscasts, and launched an hour-long 5:00 p.m. newscast on August 18, 2008. Newscasts began airing in High-Definition on January 31, 2009. In 2009, KRIV will add a Sunday morning newscast from 7:00-8:00 a.m.

On Saturday, January 31, 2009, KRIV became the fourth station in Houston behind KHOU, KTRK-TV and KPRC-TV to launch local news in high definition. With the change to HD came new Fox O&O HD graphics currently used on sister stations WNYW, KTTV, KDFW and WTTG. On September 7, 2009, the station launched "Fox 26 Morning News Extra", which is a less formal, hour-long newscast which airs at 9 AM and effectively extended the entire morning news program to five hours. On March 29, 2010 a sixth hour of news was added with the introduction of Fox 26 News at 4 AM, allowing the station to compete with the 4:30 AM newscasts offered by KPRC, KTRK & KHOU.

Since February 2008, KRIV's 9PM newscast has been simulcast on Fox affiliate KUQI (channel 38) in Corpus Christi, since that station does not have a news department of its own. On September 14, 2009, KUIL-LP in Beaumont, Texas also began simulcasting KRIV's 9PM newscast (ironically, KUIL-LP lost its Fox affiliation nine months earlier to KBTV-TV (channel 4), rendering KUIL an independent). KRIV is the third station to have been owned by Fox to simulcast its newscasts on a station in a nearby market, as WJBK in Detroit simulcasted two hours of its weekday morning newscast on WFQX in Cadillac, Michigan, and then began simulcasting the second half of its weeknight 10PM newscast from 2007 to 2008. Former Fox-owned station WDAF-TV in Kansas City also simulcast its morning and 9PM newscasts on Fox affiliate KTMJ-CA in Topeka, Kansas during that same timeframe.

Notable Personalities

(Year personality joined KRIV in parentheses, if included)

Current on-air talent

(as of August 17, 2009)

Current anchors

(In alphabetical order)

• Ford Atkinson - weekends at 9PM and weekday reporter (1991)
• Mike Barajas - weeknights at 5 and 9PM (1980s)
• José Griñan - weekday mornings "Fox 26 Morning News" (5-7AM) and noon
• Damali Keith - weekends at 9PM and weekday reporter
• Melinda Spaulding - weekdays at 5PM (2007?)
• Sibila Vargas - weekday mornings "Fox 26 Morning News" (7-10AM) (2007?)
• Melissa Wilson - weeknights at 9PM
• Tom Zizka - weekday mornings "Fox 26 Morning News" (7-10AM)

Reporters

(In alphabetical order)

• Emily Akin - "Take it to Akin" consumer reporter
• Erin Anthony - traffic reporter; weekday mornings "Fox 26 Morning News"
• Don Armstrong - SkyFox traffic reporter; weekday mornings "Fox 26 Morning News"
• Isiah Carey - general assignment reporter
• Doug Delony - "My Tech Guy" technology reporter
• Ruben Dominguez - traffic reporter; weekday afternoons; co-host of "Fox 26 Morning News Extra" and assignments manager
• John Donnelly - general assignment reporter
• Kristine Galvan - general assignment reporter
• Duarte Geraldino - general assignment reporter
• Greg Groogan - special assignment reporter
• Ned Hibberd - general assignment reporter
• Sally MacDonald - general assignment reporter
• Pattie Shieh - general assignment reporter
• Randy Wallace - investigative reporter
• Andrea Watkins - morning reporter

FoxRAD Weather Team

(In order of rank)

• Dr. Jim Siebert (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - Chief Meteorologist; weeknights at 5 and 9PM
• John Dawson - Meteorologist; weekends at 9PM (also fill-in)
• Mike Iscovitz (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - Meteorologist; weekdays at noon and fill-in meteorologist
• Kristi Powers (AMS/NWA Seals of Approval) - Meteorologist; weekday mornings (5-10AM)

Sports Team

(In order of rank)

• Mark Berman - Sports Director; weeknights at 9PM
• Keith Calkins - Sports Anchor; weekends at 9PM and "Fox 26 Sports Xtra" host (1992)

Former on-air talent

Name:	Before KRIV:	Presition(s) Held:	Span:	Now At:
Taslin Alfonzo		morning anchor	???? - 2007
Andy Andersen		meteorologist		KCEN-TV
Carolyn Canville		investigative reporter
Ginger Casey		anchor
John Davenport		fill-in anchor / "J.D.'s Journal" reporter		now deceased
Anna Davlantes		anchor		WFLD-TV
Dave Dickson	KPRC-TV	weather anchor
Todd Duplantis		reporter
Olga Campos		reporter
Fran Fawcett		anchor
Tanja Greene		reporter
Lanny Griffith		traffic reporter, later morning feature reporter	???? - 2009
Linda Cheek-Heinrich		morning / midday anchor
Jan Jeffcoat		morning anchor	2004 - 2007	WFLD
Jocelyn Lane		weekend anchor / reporter / managing editor
Matt Lavine		meteorologist	1990 - 2006	later freelanced before moving to Seattle
Mike Lyons		meteorologist
Steve Mark		sports anchor / reporter
Monique Nation		reporter		now deceased
Mike Pass		meteorologist	2000s
Chuck Perrodin	KATC, WAFB	Sports Anchor, reporter; Host of Houston Live, Sports Extra"	1983-1985	State of Louisiana, Disaster Recovery Unit
Shaun Rabb		weather anchor		Now reporter at KDFW
Matt Sampsell		sports anchor/reporter
Cecilia Sinclair		chief meteorologist	2000 - 2007
Robert Smith		chief meteorologist	1989 - 2000	now deceased
Sue Speck		reporter
ReShonda Tate		reporter
Richard Varr		reporter / fill-in anchor
Darian Ward		anchor
Craig Weber		meteorologist
Sherry Williams		anchor / reporter		KHOU

Roger Gray

anchor / first News Director

KETK-TV Tyler]

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

• TV-26 News (August 15, 1971-1975)
• KDOG News (1975-1978)
• Channel 26 Metromedia News (1978-1986)
• Fox News (1986-2001)
• Fox 26 News (1986-present)

Station slogans

• 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; still heard on news opens except the morning newscast)
• Connected to You (2010-present)

External links

• MyFoxHouston.com (KRIV's official website)
• History of KRIV
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