KRIV
Encyclopedia : K : KR : KRI : KRIV
KRIV, "FOX26" is the Fox owned-and-operated affiliate in Houston, Texas, USA. It is co-owned with UPN affiliate KTXH. Both stations share the same studio complex on 4261 Southwest Freeway in Houston. KRIV operates on 5000 kilowatts of power from a 1,949-foot (594 meter) tower located in Missouri City, Texas.
History
KRIV signed on in August 15, 1971 under its original call letters of KVRL. It was the second UHF station in Houston to sign on the air. Several years after signing on, the call letters were changed to KDOG. The former GM of the station, the late Leroy Gloger, chose the letters, and saw them appropriate during the station's formative years as, in his words, they were a "dogged station" ratings-wise. 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 they ran Spanish programming such as spanish-language telenovelas, Spanish language movies, Spanish serials.In May 1978, Metromedia purchased the station and changed the station's call letters to KRIV. The new call letters were in honor of Albert Krivin, then a top Metromedia executive. The late Jerry Marcus, General Sales Manager of Metromedia's WTTG in Washington, DC, was brought to Houston to manage the station, where he remained until his retirement in the late 1990's. This influx of dollars caused the station to begin taking more risks by picking up higher profile syndicated programming and forming a news department, 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.
Six years later in 1986, Australian newspaper tycoon Rupert Murdoch purchased Metromedia television stations, including KRIV, which became a founding owned-and-operated station 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 O & Os, which is consistently noted for featuring graphics that were among the first of their kind for local television. Since 1986 KRIV 26 has been known as "FOX26".
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 & Fran Fawcett, the show was actually a predecessor to one of the FOX network's later standouts: COPS.
As a Fox O & O more first run programming was added. In 1993 KRIV Fox 26 joined 4 other O & O stations along with a growing number of affiliates 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. Today KRIV runs over 30 hours a week of local news along with off network sitcoms, sports, Fox first run shows, syndicated talk, court shows, reality shows and 4Kids TV.
KRIV moved to its current home studios in 1997, after 26 years at its original home on Westheimer Street. KRIV's current studios is where the syndicated television series Texas Justice and Judge Alex have been produced.
With the merger of UPN and the WB into The CW Television Network, KTXH will drop its UPN affiliation as KHCW (the former KHTV) will be Houston's CW affiliate, and even though KTXH Channel 20 operates on a lower channel number, KRIV Channel 26 will continue to retain affiliation with Fox since it is Fox owned and operated. And KTXH will become the new affiliate for a newly launched network called My Network TV, a joint venture of FOX and its parent, Newscorp.
Logos
Screenshots
Coming Soon
Coming Soon, FOX 26 News will have a new set, a new weather center, new logo, new music, and new graphics adopted by other FOX O&O's. Four of the original FOX O&O's that have so far adopted this new look are; WNYW in New York, WFLD in Chicago, WTTG in Washington D.C and KTTV in Los Angeles. The new set will be designed by Fox News Channel which was adopted already by five FOX O&O Stations with new sets and new logos. They could also have a 10pm Newscast in the near future, while their sister station WTVT in Tampa is testing a 11pm Newscast for Eastern and Pacific Time Zones of FOX O&O Stations. If Successful,all FOX O&O Stations will have 10pm and 11pm newscast in their areas of FOX O&O. The slogan may get change in the near future as "The Most Powerful Name in Local News."
Newscast titles
- Channel 26 Metromedia News (1978-1986)
- FOX Houston News (1986-1997)
- FOX 26 News (1997-present)
Newscasts
- FOX26 Morning News 5:00-9:00AM
- FOX26 News at Noon 12:00-12:30PM
- FOX26 News at 9 9:00-10:00PM (Everyday)
Helicopter information
SkyFox (Eurocopter AS350BA A-star)Trivia
To date, KRIV is the last and only original Fox affiliate of any major market in Texas.External link
| KPRC 2 (NBC) - KUHT 8 (PBS) - KHOU 11 (CBS) - KTRK 13 (ABC) - KETH 14 (TBN) - KTXH 20 (UPN - to be MNTV in 09/06) - KVQT 21 (Span. Rel.) - KLTJ 22 (DS) - KRIV 26 (Fox) - KCVH 30 (LAT TV) - KVIT 34 (Almavision) - KHCW 39 (The WB - to be The CW in 09/06) - KHLM 43 (Span. Ind.) - KXLN 45 (UNI) - KTMD 47 (TEL) - KPXB 49 / KBPX 33 (i) - KNWS 51 (Ind) - KTBU 55 (Ind) - KAZH 57 / KHMV 28 / KVVV 53 (AZA) - KZJL 61 (Ind) - KFTH 67 (TFU) |