Tele-Views - Houston - June 1951

 

The publication known today as TV Guide was being published in a few markets in the northeast by this time, but it would be another two years before it went national.  There were other similar publications around the country.  This one was localized for Houston and published locally with both local and national articles and local names on the masthead.

Back cover.  The street address for Central Television Service is the same address given on the masthead (page 4) for the publisher of this guide.  Dick Gottlieb in his column (on page 5) mentions TET.

Note all the names on the Masthead, top left.  Vol.2 Number 7 indicates the guide has been published since Channel 2 went on the air as KLEE-TV.  A very young Dick Gottlieb, pictured upper right column, notes he is starting his second year as columnist, indicating he took over (or started) the column when the Hobby family purchased the station and flipped it to KPRC-TV.  

Sunday night programming - note Wild Bill Hickok and Hopalong Cassidy as the Western was already asserting itself as popular TV fare.  Toast of the Town with no mention of Ed Sullivan?? and Dave Garroway as a Sunday evening (perhaps not being presented live (entertainment show host.

Monday programming:  12:15 pm - Music Hall with Paul - I wonder if that's Paul Schmidt and the Tuneschmidts? (Hope I've spelled the name right - I'll try to look it up). 1 pm - TV Kitchen with Jane Christopher and Bob Dundas, Jr. - 45 minutes live television from the KPRC studios, 5 days a week!  Christopher became hugely popular; Dundas was the son of the head of Foley's Department Store and also a booth announcer on Channel 2.  I started watching as soon as we got a set and still am a fan of cooking shows.

4 pm - Matinee with Dick Gottlieb - another live, 45 minute show every weekday.  I was a regular viewer.

6:55 pm Weathercast with John Wissinger, Houston's first TV weatherman.  7 pm - the Cisco Kid - another Western.  Probably considered politically incorrect now but Cisco was one of my favorites as a kid.  El Real, the Mexican restaurant that operated out of the Tower Theater on Westheimer in Montrose for some years, occasionally showed re-runs (sans audio) on the big wall where the screen used to be.

There are many programs with 'big name stars' of the day; if you weren't around then you probably don't remember them (and I don't recognize many). There are other local shows listed that I do not recall.

Tuesday programming:  more of the same.  8 pm - Fashions in Motion with Joy Mladenka.  I have seen this programming listed on KXYZ-AM in the 1940s; it was a women's fashion show - on the radio!  On channel 2 the show was narrated by Dick Gottlieb, broadcast live from the Battelstein's store on Shepherd Drive on the edge of River Oaks.  The models wearing fashions (all available for sale at Battelstein's, of course) glided down a circular staircase in the lobby of the store while Gottlieb read a prepared script describing the garments.  From this nine-year old (at the time), a review:  Absolutely dreadful television! 

This is all the files I have received at this time.  My thanks to Patrick Grant for making these available (and apologies for taking so long to get them posted). 

Comments are welcome on any of the shows, personalities, etc.

Archived Photos of KPRC-TV (Post Oak Road Studios)

These photos (published in the Chronicle) show the facility on Post Oak Rd., about where the Williams Waterwall is now, when the building was new.  One shot of the radio studio is included.  Though the photos are dated 1954 the station moved into the facility in March, 1953, and the open house was held that month.

The feature was occasioned by an article showing an artists rendering of the newest facility, being built in the parking lot of the present building at 8181 Southwest Freeway.

An earlier KPRC-TV gallery on this blog.

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.

Larry Kane on the Bayou City History Blog

By far the most read post on this blog on a continuing, daily, weekly and monthly basis, is this post on the Larry Kane Show.  It has accumulated almost 2 and a half times more viewings than any other post and also has accumulated the most comments.

Perhaps because of the recent passing of Dick Clark, to whom Kane was often compared, J. R. Gonzales'  has posted this week about Kane in his Bayou City History blog in the Chronicle with a couple of pictures from the Chronicle files and some excerpts from interviews.  Of course, of great interest will be all the comments.

It should be noted the station in El Campo that Kane started out at was KULP.

For everything on this blog about Kane, click on the label below.

Photos of KPRC-TV on Post Oak Road

J.R. Gonzales' blog, Bayou City History, has just published a series of photos from the Post archives of the KPRC-TV studio facility on Post Oak Road, which they occupied from 1953 to 1972. More are to come.

Enjoy.

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.

KPRC-TV Memories

I found this video clip on HAIF of a recent Channel 2 reunion. Never having worked at 2 nor in television anywhere in Houston, I recognize only a few of the former air personnel but some of the stories are interesting.

UPDATE 1/20: AS EXPLAINED ON THE LINK, THE VIDEO WAS TAKEN DOWN BY YOUTUBE DUE TO A COPYRIGHT COMPLAINT.

A Day in the Life.....

....of a Houston viewer, Friday, August 4, 1961.



Published in the Houston Now section of the Houston Post, Sunday, July 30, 1961.

A KPRC-TV Gallery

Correspondent Andrew Brown has come through again with a great picture of the KPRC radio and TV complex on Post Oak about where the Williams Tower now stands which the station occupied from 1953 to 1972.

I passed through those doors a number of times as a young kid. My Mother wanted to be on TV and appeared on several audience participation shows in the early days of TV including Darts for Dough, a game show hosted by Dick Gottlieb. This was my earliest exposure to broadcasting.


The book The Fault Does Not Lie With Your Set, written by Jack Harris, Paul Huhndorff and Jack McGrew, has many pictures in the back of the book including people, equipment and facilities. Here is a scan of one page with two shots of the building.


The bottom photo shows the scene on opening day when thousands of Houstonians turned up for a tour and open house. According to the book, operations began from the new facility on March 20, 1953, but other sources give the date as March 29. The new, state-of-the-art facility used a converted quonset hut to house the studios, as had been the case at the original KLEE-TV site, just a half mile south on Post Oak Rd.

KGUL-TV signed on in Galveston on Channel 11 on March 22 and for the first time KPRC-TV had competition for viewers.

An ad from Broadcasting Yearbook, 1960.

There are many pictures of KPRC-TV in the Bob Bailey Collection at the University of Texas, listed in the Off Site Galleries on the sidebar. I have only been able to find the following few using their search feature which requires that you know the way the picture was tagged:

This shot shows the KPRC staff assembled in the courtyard of the new building.

This shot dated 1960 shows the staff assembled in a studio. My guess is the gentleman in the dark suit at the front is Jack Harris, General Manager of KPRC Radio and Television. UPDATE: The correct date for this picture is 6/15/1950 - see the comment below by Bill Bremer.

This shot shows Director Alfred Hitchcock and actress Anne Baxter appearing as guests on a program. Athough the show is not identified, my guess would be this was Matinee, a daily afternoon variety/talk show that came on at 4 pm hosted by Dick Gottlieb, who appears on the right in the picture. I don't remember that set from Matinee, however. From the date, this must have been in the old building.

Here's another shot of the same set-up. Note the picture on the wall which is probably Buff Stadium. Baxter was starring in the Hitchcock film I Confess which was released on March 22 so they were probably in town to promote the movie. For Anne Baxter fans there are several more pictures in the collection of her at the time of this visit. There is one more picture of the studio setting but it shows nothing different.

Newsman Lee Tucker.

There is a photo of Ron Stone somewhere in the collection but it is mislabeled and I can't remember what name was on the picture so I can't find it.

A Facebook page devoted to the history of Channel 2 with some pictures also of KPRC radio.

As mentioned in this recent post, the feature on Post Cards from Texas on Channel 55 included many photos of the early days KLEE-TV/KPRC-TV. That post also included a link to a Chronicle feature with a couple of pictures.

While Bill Calder was a disc jockey on KPRC-AM in the 1960s he had a late night talk/variety show on Channel 2 that followed the Tonight Show. The Bill Calder website, maintained by his son Alex, includes 8 pictures of the show (plus photos of Calder during his days at KXYZ and KPRC radio in Houston).

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.

Other Broadcasting related discussions online

EDITED 4/13/2014

In addition to the articles sometimes published in the Bayou City Houston blog in the Chronicle relating to broadcasting, there have been many discussions on HAIF, the Houston Architectural Information Forum, about radio, TV, and personalities. There's a link to the Historic Houston forum on the sidebar but some of the discussions have also taken place in the Houston and the Media Forum. Here are some of the threads. In some cases relatives of the personalities or participants in the shows discussed have contributed information but mostly it's memories (and sometimes, a few facts).

Radio related threads

KIKK

Tim and Bob, KPRC morning team

Alvin Van Black, KPRC and KTRH talk show host and KTRK-TV reporter

Paul Berlin, other KNUZ jocks, and the Larry Kane show on Channel 13

A KRBE Promo Stunt from the 1970s

Houston Radio, 1986, from an Astros Media Guide


TV Related Threads

A Thread on Houston TV Talk Shows over the Years

Larry Kane and Other TV Dance Shows

A Larry Kane Show clip

Don Mahoney and Jenna Clare, children's show hosts

More on Jenna Clare

Walter Cronkite

Kitirik

A Kitirik clip

Past TV Anchors

Ray Miller's Passing

TV Reporters

More on Past TV Personalities

KVVV-TV, Channel 16

Vintage Houston TV Commercials

A thread about Houston TV station sign-offs

Texas - the NBC soap, 1980s

Houston College Bowl TV show


In addition to these threads which have a historical connection, there are many threads on HAIF on the Houston and the Media board about broadcasting today, format changes, personality comings and goings, and other matters.


Some Threads on Music, Artists, Venues and Concerts

Liberty Hall

Bands and Orchestras from years gone by

Don Robey's Peacock Records

Rock Concerts of the 60s, 70s, 80s

Utah Carl

The Catacombs

P. J. Proby's early career in Houston

Famous Locations that no longer exist (mostly country nite clubs)

Magnolia Gardens, on the San Jacinto River

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.

The Making of TV News, 1965

I found this on a discussion board today; it's a documentary on YouTube about KPRC-TV in 1965, with a young Steve Smith and Ray Miller.

The link takes you to the discussion board where you can access the videos and follow the discussion if you wish.

A Day in the Life -

...of a Houston TV viewer.

Friday June 25, 1954, the last day for KNUZ-TV, Channel 39.

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.