A Remembrance of the Early Days of TV in Houston

Long-time Houston columnist (the Post and the Chronicle) Leon Hale published this account of his early experiences with television several years ago. 

It was like this for many of us who saw television in the early days -- you stared at the test pattern a lot.  I first saw a television set in late 1949 or early 1950, when Channel 2 was still KLEE-TV.  At an uncle's house in the Heights we sat and watched; nothing was scheduled for hours but he kept getting up to adjust the set when the test pattern appeared to flicker or move.  My family didn't have a set for at least a year after that.

Another Historical Site of Interest

I always assume that many of the readers of this site are interested in the history of Houston beyond just the history of radio and television, hence the section on the sidebar devoted to History Links. Here's another site I just learned about, a personal reminiscence of growing up in Houston, primarily in the 50s and 60s. It's a great collection of photos and facts drawn from many different sources and tied together with a narrative. I particularly appreciate the fact that the sources are always documented; too many people assume anything they find on the web they can use as though it was their own without crediting or asking permission. (Yes, there is some material from this site on there).

For those just interested in broadcast history, there's material related to radio on the page entitled The End of the Journey. Material concerning Houston TV in that era is on the page entitled More Life in Houston. And some of Marving Zindler's career is detailed on the page entitled More Memories.

A Feature on the Early Days at KLEE-TV/KPRC-TV

I just recently discovered Postcards from Texas, a great program on Houston's 55, KTBU-TV, on Sunday afternoons. It's hosted by Mike Vance and takes a historical look at stories from Houston and South East Texas. I found out that back in May they did two segments on KLEE-TV, Houston's first television station, with interviews with some of the people who worked there in the early days, a couple of engineers and a copy writer among them.

There are some factual errors, among them the claim that KLEE-TV was the 12th television station in the nation (one authoritative list counts 48), that after the change of ownership KPRC-TV had the market to itself for only a few months (it was almost 3 years), but all in all it's a great bit of reporting. Many of the remembrances actually apply to KPRC-TV after the change of ownership but that milestone is not mentioned until almost the end of Part 2. There is also a different account of how W. Albert Lee came to be involved in TV from that recounted by his biographer, Hilton Waldo Hearne.

With Mike Vance's help I was finally able to locate the video clips online, under the My Houston's 55 Community on the navbar on the station's website, so all can enjoy. (The program that included these two episodes will be rebroadcast on December 13).

Check out the videos. There are no video clips of the early days, of course, but there are lots of great still shots of the people and equipment.

Part 1

Part 2

Additionally, when the Chronicle's Bayou City History blogger, J. R. Gonzales, first touted the program back in May, he dug up a couple of stills of KPRC-TV from the Chronicle archives that are worth checking out.

Check out Postcards from Texas on 55, Sundays at 4pm, rebroadcast the following Friday at 1:30.

Solved Mysteries - The KLEE-TV Reception Hoax

Most people probably never would have heard of Houston's short-lived first television station were it not for a widespread story of its signal mysteriously being received in England, three years after it had ceased operations (call letters changed to KPRC-TV).

The hoax took years to unravel and not until after it had appeared in the pages of Reader's Digest and become widely known. Even today, long after it has been debunked, the story continues to raise its head from time to time.

Snopes has a full explanation.

Features on Broadcasters

J.R. Gonzales' Bayou City History Blog at the Chronicle continues to fascinate and every now and then he does a feature related to radio or television in Houston.


Check out his posts on the following:

Long-time Houston radio and TV personality and wrestling promoter Paul Boesch.

Cadet Don of KTRK-TV.

Kitirk, Channel 13's mascot.

Early Houston radio pioneer Will Horwitz of WEAY and XED.

JR touted a TV show that covered early TV in Houston. The show has come and gone but there are pictures in JR's article.

Early photos of KPRC-TV on Post Oak Road from the Houston Post archives.

The Marvin Zindler tapes - from when Marvin was a reporter for KATL.

More Marvin Zindler tapes.

A KILT Footrace.

W. Albert Lee - Houston Television Pioneer

The owner of Houston's first television station was born on a farm near Hallettsville in February, 1892. By the time he turned 13, boll weevils had devasted his father's cotton farm and the family moved to Houston where Albert worked hawking newspapers on a street corner and then for a railroad. As a young man he formed a produce company with his two brothers, one of whom owned a grocery store on McGowen, and went to the Rio Grande Valley to be the produce buyer. He also was a watermelon farmer near Sealy before settling back in Houston as a commercial real estate broker downtown, and, beginning in 1925, a hotelman. That year a hotel owner in failing health had listed his hotel with Lee's brokerage and when it didn't sell, implored him to take it off his hands. Lee purchased the hotel and refurbished and opened it as the Lee Hotel, at Polk and San Jacinto.

By 1950, Lee controlled nine hotel properties, including the Walee, Woodrow, Bell, Stratford, Milby and San Jacinto in downtown Houston and the Fort Mason Inn, a resort in the Hill Country. Lee had taken out a long term lease on the Milby in 1937 and in that property and the San Jacinto, Lee controlled two of the largest and most well known hotels in downtown Houston besides the Rice and the Lamar.

He was friends with Jesse Jones and Herbert Hoover and most of the big businessmen of Houston of the era. He was appointed to serve on the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles by Governor Coke Stevenson and was active in politics on the state and local level and even considered running for office himself.

He was one of the founders of the Houston Fat Stock Show in the 1930s and had been instrumental in convincing the organization to start presenting star performers in conjunction with the livestock exhibits in the early 1940s and had been personally involved in the negotiations with many of the performers; he counted show business personalities amongst his friends, too.

He decided to get into radio in early 1946. His partner was a friend and attorney Julian Weslow. He filed an application for a station to operate full-time on 610 kilocycles with 5000 watts, the second application for a permit on that frequency in Houston. Lee considered asking for the calls KWAL but opted instead to go with KLEE. His competition for the application was Robert T. Bartley, newphew of the powerful Speaker of the US House of Representatives Sam Rayburn, who had served as Director of the FM Department of the National Association of Broadcasters. Many assumed that Bartley's connections made him the favorite to win the permit but the FCC was not impressed with Bartley's investors nor his preparation for ownership. Bartley had never resided in Houston, indeed had only visited it twice, and all of his other investors lived in New England and none had ever been to Texas. The group did minimal research into the needs of the market. The permit was awarded to Lee in May, 1947.

Even while KLEE was being built, Lee visited New York to negotiate with talent to appear at the rodeo and was exposed to television for the first time. He came back to Houston determined to put a TV station on the air and filed an application for a station on channel 2 in the autumn of 1947, winning approval just 3 months later. It is believed the FCC expedited the approval process to be sure Houston had at least one TV permit before the freeze on new applications was put into effect. The FCC was favoring diversity of ownership in the awarding of TV permits and Lee got the nod also possibly because of his lack of other broadcasting or newspaper holdings.

Lee died the last week of November, 1951. He had sold his TV station a year and a half earlier. After his death, KLEE, 610, was sold to Gordon and B.R. McLendon's Trinity Broadcasting of Dallas who flipped the call letters to KLBS and affiliated it with their Liberty Broadcasting System, even announcing plans to move the headquarters of the network to Houston and use KLBS as the flagship.

So far as I know, all of Lee's hotel properties in Houston have been demolished but the Fort Mason Inn is still in operation the last time I checked.



The top picture shows W.A. Lee in 1938. The bottom picture, undated, shows Lee astride his horse at a surprise testimonial at the Rice Hotel attended by hundreds when he was presented with a silver-trimmed saddle by radio, recording and motion picture star Gene Autry.

The pictures and much of this information comes from Hilton Waldo Hearn, Jr.'s 1971 Masters Thesis at the University of Texas at Austin, W. Albert Lee, Pioneer of Houston Television. A copy of the thesis is available at the Metropolitan Research Center at the Houston Public Library.

KILT (KLEE, KLBS)

KILT, 610 AM

Original air date: January 31, 1948

Original owner: W. Albert Lee

Original Call letters: KLEE

Additional call letters used: KLBS (1952-1957), KILT (3/14/57)

Current owners: CBS

Website: SportsRadio 610

Photos at the Center for American History, the University of Texas at Austin, relating to KLEE. Note: the three images supposedly of the KLEE transmitter site on the Dallas Highway are actually of the KLEE-TV site on South Post Rd. The main north/south road is South Post Oak, the main east/west road is what is now called Westpark. In the view looking east, you can see the downtown Houston skyline in the upper left corner; the diagonal street on the right side of that picture is Bissonnet. There is a problem, however, with the date; the photos are dated December 1947 but the FCC didn't even approve the KLEE-TV application until January 30, 1948.

There are photos in the Bob Bailey Collection at the Center for American History, the University of Texas at Austin, relating to KLBS, but they have not been put online yet, apparently.

All posts on this blog labeled KILT (in reverse order as posted).

For additional mentions of these call letters on the blog, use the search feature.

KLEE-TV Becomes KPRC-TV

Seventeen months after putting Houston’s first television station on the air and with the TV freeze guaranteeing him a monopoly on TV viewers for some time to come, hotelier W. Alfred Lee sold KLEE-TV to the Houston Post/KPRC. Executives at KPRC and the Post and the Hobby family had become interested in making an offer for the station and had been assessing its value. They were concerned that FCC policies favoring diversity in media ownership might mean that both the Post and Chronicle would be left without TV licenses when the freeze was lifted or forced to compete against each other for a permit; they calculated Lee was losing $30,000 a month on his TV operation, which they did not believe he could not sustain for long. Then they learned Lee was looking to sell.

Hilton Waldo Hearn, Jr., in his 1971 Master’s Thesis at the University of Texas, W. Alfred Lee, Pioneer of Houston Television, says Lee had become convinced that when the freeze was lifted, he would be left running an independent television station since the TV networks had made it clear they wanted their TV affiliates to go to the companies they had been doing business with as radio affiliates and Lee did not have a radio network affiliation. Lee had little broadcast experience to draw on and the station was still on the air only 4 or 5 hours a day and was running on a minimum staff.

The asking price was reportedly $743,000. The Hobby’s were cautioned that was too much to pay for a money losing operation in the unproven medium of television but they felt they had no choice if they wanted to get into television. A deal was reached and approval sought from the FCC in the spring of 1950.

The other applicants for TV permits in Houston were dismayed, to say the least. KPRC and the Post had effectively executed an end run around the TV freeze and left the other applicants in the lurch. As it developed, they would have another 3 years to build the KPRC-TV brand without competition in Houston.

According to Hearn, the keys were handed to the Hobbys at 10:30am on May 31st, the change of ownership was announced in the Post on June 1, 1950. A month later, on July 3, the call letters were changed to KPRC-TV.

Faced with a small audience (there were an estimated 26,000 TV sets in the Houston area at the time), Lee had been selling TV time for less than radio. The KPRC radio sales staff was charged with turning this situation around and 4 months later, according to Jack Harris, the station was showing a profit. In addition to the $743,000 asking price it had been estimated another $250,000 in losses might be incurred before the station showed a profit but that reserve was never tapped into. By the end of the year, it was estimated the number of tv sets in use in Houston had more than doubled and it reached 100,000 by late 1951. The station changed its primary affiliation from CBS to NBC but still carried programs from all 4 networks.

The new owners drew upon their broadcast experience since 1925 in promoting and growing the station. They scheduled a big TV Fair for the July 4 weekend to introduce the new call letters and stir up more public interest; it was held at the Plantation Club at 9101 South Main and was attended by an estimated 50,000 people over three days. The Post published a special 40 page section on the change-over on Sunday, July 2.

TV dealers set up booths demonstrating their sets and live entertainment was provided on site and over the air including Red Ingles and his Natural Seven band, Carol Bruce, June Christy, the Mel Arvin Trio, Gypsy Edwards, Curly Fox and Miss Texas Ruby, and 11 year old Tommy Sands, who would become a teen idol before the decade was over.

The biggest attraction, however, proved to be the Fair-goers themselves, who got to see themselves on closed-circuit television.

The special section in the Post carried feature stories on station personnel, including station manager Jack Harris, assistant manager Jack McGrew, newsman Harry Arouh, News Director Pat Flaherty and his young assistant Ray Miller, Sports Director Bruce Layer, AM and TV Program Director Jack Edmunds, Chief Engineer Paul Huhndorf and KPRC Chief Engineer Harvey Wheeler, wrestling promoter and announcer Paul Boesch, country music stars Curly Fox and Miss Texas Ruby, and announcer Dick Gottlieb, who had been working in Houston radio for several years and would go on to be known as Mr. Television in Houston but had only been seen on camera recently. There were also stories about KPRC radio personnel and history and on-going KPRC radio programs such as Laugh with the Ladies, Darts for Dough, and Battelstein’s Fashions in Motion, some of which would become television staples in the early years, as well as new programs planned for TV. Thursday evenings would feature Phoenix Phil and his Pals, a puppet show by a local ventriloquist, Chester Leroy, and his cast of Phoenix Phil, Eddie the Cowboy, Miss Linda, Sandy McAndy and Cub Scout.

There were also stories in the section about many of the different TV sets from different makers that would be on display at the Fair.

Improvements were undertaken in the physical plant (KLEE-TV’s studios had not been air conditioned, for one thing) and the broadcast day was expanded. New programs from the networks also became available.

The schedule for Sunday, July 2, 1950, from the Houston Post, the last full day of KLEE-TV calls:

4:45pm - Test Pattern & Music
5pm - Hopalong Cassidy
6pm - Toast of the Town
7pm - TV Playhouse
8pm - Paul Whiteman
8:30pm - Morey Amsterdam
9pm - Baseball
10:30pm - Glamour Go-Round
10:35pm - News Bulletins
10:50pm - Coming Attractions
10:55pm - Sign off

The baseball game would have been the Houston Buffs, a St. Louis Cards farm team.

Monday, July 3, 1950, the call letters changed to KPRC-TV. The new calls were no secret, of course. The on-air unveiling was in the first segment of the 1st Annual TV Show in the 8pm hour. The schedule for the evening was:

12N-4:30pm - Test Pattern
4:45pm (sic) - Test Pattern and music
5:07pm (sic) - For Us the Living
5:30pm - Don Mahoney and His Sears Kiddie Troupers
6pm - Kukla, Fran and Ollie - N (i.e., NBC)
6:30pm - The Walking Machine
6:45pm - Musical Showroom
7pm - Chevrolet Teletheatre
7:30pm - This is Show Business
8pm - First Annual TV Show
8:30pm - Film Feature
9:30pm - First Annual TV Show
10:30pm - News Bulletins
10:35pm - Coming Attractions
10:40pm - Sign off

Some program notes for Monday evening were printed in the Monday paper:

5:07pm (sic) - For Us the Living - Documentary film on how the Food and Drug Act protects the public.

5:30pm - Don Mahoney and His Sears Kiddie Troupers
The easy talking cowboy brings his children's amateur hour to Kiddie Troupers from the Plantation.

6pm - Kukla, Fran and Ollie - N (i.e., NBC)
Popular puppet show led by lovely Fran Allison and unrehearsed.

6:30pm - The Walking Machine
Educational film about foot hygiene -- tells what feet can do for us and we for them.

6:45pm - Musical Showroom
Johnny Royal at the piano with guests.

7pm - Chevrolet Teletheatre
'The Way I Feel.' Story of adolescent love broken by death.

7:30pm - This is Show Business
Binnie Barnes and Abe Burrows join Producer Max Corbin, Radio Star Jane Pickens and Comedian Jan Murray on this intimate get-together hosted by Clifton Fadiman.

8:30pm - Film Feature
'Hollywood and Vine.' Jimmy Ellison stars in this one, which seesaws between laughter and romance.

9:30pm - First Annual TV Show
C.P.Simpson will award watches to the two top contributors to the television Cancer Crusade. Lynn Cole, romantic baritone and Capitol Recording Star, will sing.

10:00pm - (omitted from basic listings): Hands of Destiny - 'Too Old to Live.' This story is inspired by President Truman's recent speech on the difficulties encountered by old people looking for work.



More details on the founding of KLEE-TV and the changeover to KPRC-TV can be found in Jack Harris’ book The Fault Does Not Lie With Your Set and Richard Schroeder’s Texas Signs On. The latter mostly repeats information from the Harris book. There will also be another post on KLEE-TV’s founding here on the Houston Radio History blog.

The above account also draws on newspaper stories at the time in the Post, especially the special section of the Houston Post published Sunday July 2, 1950.

For more on Don Mahoney and Jeanna Clair, see this Historic Houston thread on HAIF which includes comments by kids who appeared on the show and Don Mahoney's son.

The Wikipedia article on Tommy Sands says he was born in 1937.

KLEE-TV

From the Houston Post, Jack Harris' book 'The Fault Does Not Lie with Your Set' and other sources.

Owner: W. Albert Lee, Houston hotelman and commercial real estate broker.

The first to apply for a permit in Houston on October 10, 1947, Lee had been on the Board of Directors of the Houston Fat Stock Show and Rodeo for years and had traveled to New York City to negotiate for a star entertainer to appear at the Rodeo when he first was exposed to television. He returned to Houston determined to put a TV station on the air. The FCC granted a permit on January 30, 1948, acting quickly, it has been suggested, because of the impending freeze and the Commission did not want to leave a city as large as Houston without TV for however long the permit process was going to be frozen.

First test pattern at full power: 12/20/48

Sign-on was set for 6pm on New Year's Day, January 1, 1949.

The schedule for the first night, after some opening remarks:

6pm - Test Pattern
6:15pm - Allen Dale Show - a musical variety show set in a record shop.
6:30pm - Lucky Pup (CBS) - children's puppet show about a little dog who inherited $5M and what he did with it.
6:45pm - Make Mine Music - Tony Mottola Trio - musical variety show; 'as most video shows are, it is held together with a plot and action.'
7pm - Newsreel
7:10pm - film short - music
7:15pm - Places Please (CBS) - a Barry Wood show which takes place behind the scenes of a Broadway theatre; different guest stars appear on the program.
7:30pm - To a Queen's Taste (CBS) - A French chef takes over to cook a special dish. Mrs. Dione Lucas, employee of the Cordon Bleu, gives out the recipe and shows how it's done. It takes her 30 minutes to demonstrate.
8pm - Winner Take All (CBS) - the audience gets to see the fantastic prizes given away on the Bud Collyer quiz program.
8:30pm - Fashions on Parade - New York and Paris fashions will be shown. A plot and entertainment make this more than a style show.
9pm - Kobb's Korner (CBS) - Spike Jones has competition when the Korn Kobblers make music from balloons, rubber tubes, auto horns, cowbells and washboards.
9:30pm - Doorway to Fame - Danton Walker has a professional talent show. Little known performers get a chance to be on a television show.
10pm - Swing into Sports - a sports lesson, currently golf; Dick Altman, KLEE-TV Sports Director.
10:30pm - Morey Amsterdam Show (CBS) - a variety comic show.
11pm - sign off

What actually happened:

Around 3:20pm, as the owner was showing some dignitaries around, a loud boom was heard and the transmitter shut down. A water line in the transmitter had burst. The GE transmitter used plastic tubing for the cooling system and none was to be found in Houston for repairs. Eventually, copper tubing was substituted and the station got on the air around 9:30pm. It was decided on the spur of the moment that the Chief Engineer, Paul Huhndorff, should go on first to explain what had happened as the station had been besieged with callers. Thus the Age of Television arrived in Houston with the words "There's been trouble...plenty of trouble."

As far as I know at this time, the entire schedule was aired and the station was on the air until about 2am.

In the first week, programs from CBS and DuMont were aired; later, the other networks also supplied programming. KLEE-TV was on the air 6-9pm, five nights a week only for several months, but by the end of the year was broadcasting 4 or 5 hours a night.


Note: I have published this material before in an on-line forum; it has been slightly reworked for this blog.

Houston Television Timeline

This timeline includes information drawn principally from newspaper reports in Houston and Galveston with some data from the FCC databases available online. It has been brought down to ca. 1985 with information known at this time but there are many gaps in the available data.


10/8/47 - Houston hotel man W. Albert Lee files for a permit to operate a TV station in Houston on Channel 2 as KLEE-TV. The nearest TV station on the air at that time was KSD-TV in St. Louis. Proposed studios will be in the Sterling Building.

1/5/48 - KTRH applies for a permit to operate KTRH-TV on Channel 13, the 1st of 5 or 6 applicants for that channel.

1/17/48 Post p.1 - Texas Television applies for a permit to operate KTHT-TV on Channel 7, at that time allocated to Houston. Texas Television is the TV branch of Roy Hofheinz’s Texas Star Broadcasting which also operates radio stations in Houston, San Antonio, and Harlingen and has applications for radio stations in Dallas and NOLA.

1/21/48 The Houston Post reports on p.1 that KPRC and the Post have applied for a permit to operate KPRC-TV on Channel 4, at that time allocated to Houston. The proposed transmitter will be on City National Bank where KPRC-FM is located with a total height of 415'.

1/30/48 - The FCC approves the application of W. Albert Lee for KLEE-TV.

The Houston Post reports Harris Co. Broadcasting’s application to operate KXYZ-TV on Channel 13. The story notes a sale is pending of Harris Co. Broadcasting’s KXYZ-AM and FM to oil man Glenn McCarthy’s Shamrock Broadcasting but no hearings have been scheduled by the FCC.

9/30/48 - FCC Freezes new TV applications. The freeze is intended to last only 6 months but the issues needing to be resolved prove to be thorny and the freeze stretches to 3 and a half years during which time no new TV stations are authorized.

12/20/48 - first telecast of a test pattern at full power on KLEE-TV, Channel 2

1/1/49 - First day of KLEE-TV, Channel 2

5/23/1950 - FCC approves sale of KLEE-TV to the Houston Post Co. for $740.000.

6/1/1950 - Houston Post assumes ownership of KLEE-TV, Channel 2

6/11/1950 - A man climbs into a roped off area at Buff Stadium that serves as the TV booth and sits down beside play-by-play announcer Dick Gottlieb and keeps interrupting him. Gottlieb repeatedly tries to quiet the man who eventually pulls a gun and shoots himself. The director, informed by a cameraman what has happened, asks to see it and the carnage is shown on screen for a few seconds. The man dies on the way to a hospital. Gottlieb is shaken but not hurt and the game and broadcast continue.

7/3/1950 - KLEE-TV call letters changed to KPRC-TV

11/2/50 - Press 3/33 - The Houston Press reports there may be 4 more TV stations in Houston; there are 4 applications for 3 UHF channels (23, 29, 39).

Fall 1951 - AT&T announces it has completed installation of coaxial cable from Houston to Dallas and will be ready to bring live network programming to Houston as soon as it gets to Dallas; in the meantime, the cable is carrying 600 phone circuits and Houstonians are watching TV shows as much as 6 weeks after they were originally broadcast by the networks. AT&T was under pressure from the 4 TV networks to get the whole nation connected to live TV in time for the national political conventions in the summer of 1952 and is working on a microwave link from Kansas City to Dallas.

4/14/52 - TV Freeze lifted

7/1/52 - Live TV network connection is completed for Houston. Work on the Kansas City to Dallas link has lagged and AT&T cobbles together a microwave-coax link from Jackson, Mississippi, to Dallas instead. The first network program seen live in Houston was the Today show with Dave Garroway who welcomes new viewers in Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, San Antonio and Tulsa with the words “We’re in New York. We’re real people - just like the ones in your town.”

8/20/52 - A construction permit is issued for KUHT-TV to operate on Channel 8.

3/22/1953 - Gulf Television Co. Inc., signs on KGUL-TV, Channel 11, with studios at 11 Video Lane in Galveston. In its story on the new station the Chronicle mentions that permits have been issued for 8, 39, and 23 but notes the permittee for channel 23 reports having trouble getting his hands on any equipment.

3/29/53 - KPRC-AM/FM/TV moves into new studios on Post Oak Rd.near the present day Williams Fountain and boosts power from 16,000 to 65,000 watts and will further increase power to 100,000 watts when a new tower completed.

5/25/53 - KUHT-TV Signs on. The station has an excellent history on its website to which I can add nothing.

Late August, 1953, Frank Stockton, enjoying a day on the links, overhears his caddy entertaining fellow caddies by singing to them. He gets the boy’s number and calls KPRC-TV.

9/2/53 - 13 year old John Nash, Jr., a student at Jack Yates Jr. High, makes his TV debut on Matinee on KPRC-TV as a special guest of Dick Gottlieb. Described as a ‘real gone singer’ by one newspaper writer, Johnny Nash quickly becomes a regular on the program.

9/10/53 - Roy Hofheinz announces the entire KTHT staff is taking TV courses at KUHT so as to be prepared when the application for KTHT-TV is approved; KXYZ-FM leaves the air for 8 years, Fred Nahas, President and GM, says the entire staff will be devoted to getting their UHF TV station (29) on the air in the first quarter of 1954

9/12/53 - installation of a second coaxial cable serving Houston-Galveston is completed and in service. Up until that time, channels 2 and 11 had been sharing one link and had to work out agreements between themselves as to who would be allowed to take a live network feed and who would have to air kinescopes, films or live, local programming.

10/8/53 - KGUL-TV airs a special experimental program demonstrating CBS’ Colortron tube, seen only in black and white in Houston since the coaxial cable could not transmit color.

10/18/53 - Fred Nahas claims plans are complete and a site is to be announced soon for Ch. 29; the construction deadline is Feb 1954. (When Glenn McCarthy took over Harris County Broadcasting he had decided to withdraw from the competition for Channel 13 and attempt to get another station on the air sooner by going for a UHF permit)..

Ch. 23 - Dallas applicant Max Jacobs UHF Television Co. of Dallas, has until 1/1/54 to start construction on Channel 23.

10/22/53 - Thursday, 7pm, KNUZ-TV, Channel 39 signs on; owned by Veterans Broadcasting with studios on Cullen @ Wheeler in a building leased by the University of Houston. The station carries programs of the Dumont Network and is on the air 8 hours a day from 3-11pm. After the first day’s broadcasts, the station is off the air for four days while engineers work to resolve technical problems.

1/8/54 - Jesse Jones announces that after intense negotiations which started in November, 1953, the rival applicants for Channel 13 have merged to form Houston Consolidated Television which will become the only applicant for Channel 13. Jones declares it the 'greatest civic achievement in Houston in many years.' It is estimated the merger would save 2 years in the process of competitive hearings that would eventually decide a licensee.

The merger consists of KTRH Broadcasting Co. which holds 32% and will operate the station; Houston Area TV Co, consisting of 17 shareholders, who hold 32%; Houston TV Co., consisting of 15 shareholders who hold 20%; and TV Broadcasting Co. Of Houston (Roy Hofheinz), who holds 16%. The station will be affiliated with the Chronicle and could be on the air in 100 days.

A 5th applicant for Channel 13, W. C. Lechner, a Dallas oilman, had dropped out of the competition

1/14/54 - KGUL announces a deal has been signed for Houston studios in the Prudential Building on Holcombe Blvd. at Fannin (the building is now part of the MD Anderson Center complex).

5/3/54 - Post - KPRC-TV - 1st Color TV show, the Voice of Firestone from the network It is estimated there are only 50 or 60 color sets in the area, all but 2 or 3 still in the hands of distributors and retailers, some of whom will have public showings while others with invite guests. Color set screens are about 12 and a half inches and the sets cost $1000.

6/25/54 - Last day of KNUZ-TV; KTRK may take over studios and equipment to get on the air quicker.

Sometime in 1954, Houston Consolidated Television filed a petition with the FCC to restrict the Houston activities of KGUL-TV

10/1/54 - KGUL responds to KTRK petition to restrict Houston activities

Late 1954 - hearings were conducted before the FCC on KTRK’s charges that KGUL-TV was trying to move to Houston.

12/8/54 - Paul Taft, President and General Manager of KGUL-TV, testifies in the FCC hearings that the KGUL-TV permanent studios at Galveston occupy 945 square feet while the branch studios and offices in the Prudential building on Holcombe occupy 4000 square feet.

11/5/54 - KGUL files to delay approval of Channel 13 until the hearing is resolved on KGUL’s new tower.

11/20/54 - KTRK-TV Sign on

7/11/56 - FCC approved sale of KGUL-TV, Channel 11, by Gulf Television Corporation from Paul E. Taft and Associates for $4.75 million. Gulf Television is Corinthian Broadcasting Corporation.

3/28/57 - FCC approves sale of KXYZ-TV, Channel 29 (since deleted) by Milton R. Underwood and Philip R. Neuhaus from Glenn McCarthy for $600k (with KXYZ-AM).

June 59 (per Wikipedia) KGUL-TV becomes KHOU-TV

10/21/59 - Channel 11 sold by Corinthian Broadcasting to Whitney Communications Corp, JH Whitney, US Ambassador to Great Britain.


April 24, 1960 - (per Wikipedia) - KHOU-TV begins broadcasting from new facilities at 1945 Allen Parkway, west of downtown Houston.  The station will operate from that facility for 57 years before deciding to move due to damage sustained during Hurricane Harvey in 2017.


10/13/1965 - FCC approves purchase of 80% of the Construction Permit for Channel 39 (KNUZ-TV) from Max Jacob and Irvin Schenker (40% each) and Dave Morris (20%) by WKY Television Systems, Inc., for $240K.

KHTV-TV - 1/6/67, Channel 39

6/16/67 - FCC approves sale of KTRK-TV, Channel 13, from Houston Consolidated Television to Capital Cities Communications for $21.3M.

Ann Hodges column in the Chronicle, 11/20/67, announces KVVV-TV, channnel 16, Alvin due to be on the air early in 1968.

Broadcasting Yearbook, 1968, reports KJDO-TV, Channel 45, Rosenberg, has a target date of Fall, 1968, licensed to D.H.Overmyer Co., with sale to US Communications Corporation pending FCC approval. The same source reports KVVV-TV, Channel 16, licensed to KTUE Associates, Inc., has an unknown target date and KUAB-TV, Channel 20, licensed to United Artists Television, Inc., has an unknown target date.

According to Broadcasting Yearbook, 1971, KVVV-TV, Channel 16, Galveston, was approved by the FCC on March 18, 1968, with 977 Kilowatts visual, 100 Kilowatts Aural. The mailing address is TVUE, 1217 Prairie, Houston, consisting of Roy O. Beach (16%), Harris Kempner Trust (11%), and others. Jeff Thompson is listed as News Director.

August 31, 1969 - KVVV-TV (channel 16) leaves the air after a brief life of just 18 months on the air. The equipment and tower used by KVVV were eventually sold to new PBS member station in Corpus Christi, KEDT, which signed on in 1972.

Broadcasting Yearbook, 1971, reports KJDO-TV, Rosenberg, Channel 45, has a target date of April, 1972, to operate with 1,410 KW visual, 282 KW aural. The address is given as 1529 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, % US Communications of Texas, US Communications Stations. The Chief Engineer is James Parker.

August 15, 1971 - KVRL-TV, Channel 26 signs on at 6pm; the station will operate weekdays starting at 4pm, Saturdays at 11:30am. The station became KDOG-TV sometime in the 1970s and as of May, 1978, when Metromedia purchased the station, KRIV-TV. The call letters were based on the initials of a company executive.

By publication deadline, the Broadcasting Yearbook, 1971, reported that KVRL-TV was not on the air and no target date had been set. It was licensed to Crest Broadcasting to operate with 1660 KW visual, 331 KW aural. Crest Broadcasting consists of Bernard Calkins, former head of the Houston City Bus Company, 25%, R. G. Schindler, 28%, and Leroy J. Gloger, owner of KIKK-AM/FM, 19%.

Broadcasting Yearbook, 1975, reports that Crest Broadcasting, 3935 Westheimer, licensee of KVRL-TV, consists of Raymond G. Schindler, 43%, Frank Head, 12%, and Leroy J. Gloger, 7%.

Broadcasting Yearbook, 1977, reports that Crest Broadcasting is the licensee of KDOG-TV, Channel 26. Leroy J. Gloger is President and General Manager, still owning only 7%. The same source reports an application for a subscription TV service to operate on Channel 20 by a company based in Austin.

April 6, 1978 - FCC approves sale of KDOG-TV, Channel 26, from Crest Broadcasting to Metromedia for $11 M. The call letters are switched to KRIV-TV.

Channel 20 was licensed to operate as KEON-TV as of 10/27/1980. As of 11/16/1981 the call letters were switched to KTXH-TV but the exact sign-on date is not clear. Broadcasting Yearbook for 1985 gives only the year 1982, licensed to Channel 20 Inc, 8950 Kirby Drive, with 5000 kw visual, 500 kw aural.

11/17/83 - The FCC approves transfer of Corinthian Broadcasting's KHOU-TV to Belo Broadcasting for $342 M, part of a $606 M deal involving several Corinthian stations. The licensee remains Gulf Television.

12/31/84 - The FCC approves transfer of KTXH-TV, Channel 20, to Houston GBS Corporation, part of the Gulf Broadcast Group, for $62.07 M plus a prorated bonus related to first year operating profit.

The 1985 edition of Broadcasting Yearbook reports KHBU-TV, Channel 14, is licensed to Educational TV of Houston at 7502 Fondren Rd. and has a target air date of 1985. It also reports KZEI-TV, Channel 67, Alvin has been authorized to operate with 3000 kw maximum, 1352 kw horizontal visual and 1352 kw aural, licensed to Four Star Broadcasting, not yet on air and target date unknown.

The 1985 Broadcasting Yearbook reports there are 3 pending applications for Channel 57, Baytown, 10 for Channel 45, 4 for Channel 49 and 6 for Channel 55, all Conroe, 1 for Channel 22 and 2 for Channel 48, both Galveston, 8 for Channel 61, Houston, and 3 for Channel 51, Katy.