940

New Northpark Stores Coming Soon:

Barneys New York-only flagship location in TX

Opening September 2006

CH Carolina Herrera-first boutique location is at Houston Galleria

Opening September 2006

Cold Stone Creamery

Opening September 2006

Intermix-first location in TX

Opening September 2006

Martin + Osa-first location in TX

Opening September 2006

Movado-first boutique location is at Houston Galleria

Opening September 2006

Na Hoku-first location in TX (15 locations in Hawaii..6 in CA..7 scattered in the US)

Opening September 2006

Paciugo Italian Gelato

Opening September 2006

The Art of Shaving-other TX locations are at Galleria Dallas and La Cantera San Antonio

Opening September 2006

Bottega Veneta-first location in TX

Opening October 2006

MNG by MANGO-first location in TX

Opening October 2006

Play@PlanetFunk

Opening October 2006

Salvatore Ferragamo-first boutique location is at Houston Galleria

Opening October 2006

CrepeMaker-first location in TX

Opening November 2006

Local Charm-first location in TX

Opening November 2006

The Original Soup Man-first location in TX..same NYC soup eatery that was showcased in a Seinfeld episode

Opening November 2006

La Duni Latin Cafe-Dallas area eatery..great Latin food..great chocolate tres leches cake

Opening December 2006

Oscar de la Renta-first boutique in TX

Opening December 2006

Robb & Stucky Interiors-2nd DFW/Texas location of high end furniture design store mainly located in FL and AZ

Opening December 2006

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I moved to Houston during it's hottest summer ever. I lived in Dallas my whole life before that, and that summer was particularly dry. I never really noticed the climate difference, because, according to my body, hot is just hot. It is green here - especially during summer when everything in DFW is burnt.

I live in the DFW area (2nd time in 20 years) and I'm not going to lie..this summer has been awful...very similar to the one back in 2000 that broke me in again after moving back down from NYC...dry heat or not...lol! If you don't have a sprinkler system, then you're dealing with a crispy brown landscape everywhere. We've had 43 days of over 100 this summer..that's not usual, considering a couple of years ago, we had two different summers where the temp only hit 100 once each time. It's hit or miss..and unfortunately, we got delicate flower slapped this summer. They are comparing it to the summer of 98 (which was even hotter) that dalparadise mentioned. My relatives in Houston would tell me how green it was there this summer and how much rain they received and I was green with envy. I wish it wasn't like Phoenix sometimes up here during the summer...but at least it's not every year like that as it is in Phoenix.

You know it's a bad summer when they tell you plenty of times on the news that you should have soaker hoses surrounding the foundation of your home b/c the clay soil could shift thus causing the foundation to do so also.

The tide is turning though, Thank God...and a bit early this year too. The temp is sitting at 78 now which I think has been the high today. Rain all around...60% chance tonight...50% tomorrow..lows between 60-65 most of the week depending on exactly where you live in the metro. Hopefully this will stay for a while until the first blue norther rolls through. Must admit that this area's weather is full of extremes, especially the last few years that I've been back to Texas. Threats of tornados scaring the crap out of me in April/May...a cold winter low of 7 a few years back at my home in a northern suburb..wtf?!!...snow and or ice every year I've been back at my home too..113 degrees one September back in 2000 a few months after a tornado caused havoc on downtown Ft Worth...drought conditions this year with area lakes very low...too much rain two years ago with area lakes flooding and the summer being green the entire time....it's definitely feast or famine up here.

Here's the latest Nielsen Television Rankings for 2006-2007. Some of the biggest changes involve Boston falling two places to #7 while New Orleans falls from #43 to #54.

Effective September 23, 2006

RANK Designated Market Area (DMA) TV Homes

1 New York 7,366,950

2 Los Angeles 5,611,110

3 Chicago 3,455,020

4 Philadelphia 2,941,450

5 San Francisco-Oak-San Jose 2,383,570

6 Dallas-Ft. Worth 2,378,660

7 Boston (Manchester) 2,372,030

8 Washington, DC (Hagrstwn) 2,272,120

9 Atlanta 2,205,510

10 Houston 1,982,120

11 Detroit 1,938,320

12 Tampa-St. Pete (Sarasota) 1,755,750

13 Phoenix (Prescott) 1,725,000

14 Seattle-Tacoma 1,724,450

15 Minneapolis-St. Paul 1,678,430

16 Miami-Ft. Lauderdale 1,538,620

17 Cleveland-Akron (Canton) 1,537,500

18 Denver 1,431,910

19 Orlando-Daytona Bch-Melbrn 1,395,830

20 Sacramnto-Stkton-Modesto 1,368,680

21 St. Louis 1,228,980

22 Pittsburgh 1,163,150

23 Portland, OR 1,117,990

24 Baltimore 1,097,290

25 Indianapolis 1,060,550

26 Charlotte 1,045,240

27 San Diego 1,030,020

28 Hartford & New Haven 1,014,630

29 Raleigh-Durham (Fayetvlle) 1,006,330

30 Nashville 944,100

31 Kansas City 913,280

32 Columbus, OH 898,030

33 Cincinnati 886,910

34 Milwaukee 882,990

35 Salt Lake City 839,170

36 Greenvll-Spart-Ashevll-And 826,290

37 San Antonio 774,470

38 West Palm Beach-Ft. Pierce 772,140

39 Grand Rapids-Kalmzoo-B.Crk 734,670

40 Birmingham (Ann, Tusc) 723,210

41 Harrisburg-Lncstr-Leb-York 713,960

42 Norfolk-Portsmth-Newpt Nws 712,790

43 Las Vegas 671,630

44 Memphis 664,290

45 Albuquerque-Santa Fe 662,380

45 Oklahoma City 662,380

47 Greensboro-H.Point-W.Salem 660,570

48 Louisville 648,190

49 Buffalo 639,990

50 Jacksonville 639,110

51 Providence-New Bedford 633,950

52 Austin 602,340

53 Wilkes Barre-Scranton 590,170

54 New Orleans 566,960

55 Fresno-Visalia 557,380

56 Albany-Schenectady-Troy 554,970

57 Little Rock-Pine Bluff 539,900

58 Dayton 531,120

59 Mobile-Pensacola (Ft Walt) 524,200

60 Knoxville 523,010

61 Richmond-Petersburg 517,800

62 Tulsa 513,090

63 Lexington 483,520

64 Ft. Myers-Naples 479,130

65 Charleston-Huntington 477,040

66 Flint-Saginaw-Bay City 474,430

67 Wichita-Hutchinson Plus 445,860

68 Roanoke-Lynchburg 445,840

69 Green Bay-Appleton 434,760

70 Tucson (Sierra Vista) 433,310

71 Toledo 425,820

72 Honolulu 419,160

73 Des Moines-Ames 417,900

74 Portland-Auburn 409,180

75 Omaha 403,560

76 Springfield, MO 402,310

77 Spokane 395,490

78 Rochester, NY 392,630

79 Syracuse 386,940

80 Paducah-Cape Girard-Harsbg 384,510

81 Shreveport 381,200

82 Champaign&Sprngfld-Decatur 378,150

83 Columbia, SC 377,940

84 Huntsville-Decatur (Flor) 375,270

85 Madison 369,220

86 Chattanooga 347,380

87 Jackson, MS 343,550

88 South Bend-Elkhart 334,370

89 Cedar Rapids-Wtrlo-IWC&Dub 333,270

90 Burlington-Plattsburgh 327,480

91 Harlingen-Wslco-Brnsvl-McA 327,070

92 Tri-Cities, TN-VA 326,560

93 Baton Rouge 322,540

94 Colorado Springs-Pueblo 316,630

95 Waco-Temple-Bryan 311,690

96 Davenport-R.Island-Moline 308,360

97 Savannah 298,130

98 Johnstown-Altoona 294,160

99 El Paso (Las Cruces) 293,700

100 Charleston, SC 290,110

Today, KHOU (Channel 11/CBS) launched its brand new look. The signs were evident as early as this morning. During 11 News This Morning, the old KHOU logo was carved out of the glass separating the anchor desk area from the monitors in the background, and also from other parts of the set, such as over the CBS eye and on the desk itself.

Then, I turned to the 6 p.m. news, and KHOU's new look was already in full force, complete with a new theme music that is the same or similar as what parent company Belo has over in Dallas at WFAA. This new package most likely may have debuted at 5 p.m.

Does anyone have a pic of the new logo? Does Ch 11 still use that old tag line that channel 8 in Dallas has used forever..."spirit of Texas"...or am I mistaken?

I totally remember Clutch Cargo...I actually thought of that when I was typing Speed Racer in my message.

That show freaked me out some when I was younger ..the mouths and lips were so freakin' strange! Thanks for the info on what the process was...I had no idea.

Almost all of the graphics for all of the local and national TV shows on all of the NBC owned and operated stations across the country are done by artists in Dallas. The producer in New York or LA or wherever gets on the phone or e-mails Dallas telling them what graphics they need, and the Dallas artist makes it for them.

Kind of like outsourcing to India. Except, to a much hotter, dirtier place... Dallas.

Ouch..it's not that dirty..but it has been hot...anyway...you're right about the graphics in the DFW market. KXAS 5 is an NBC owned and operated station which helped them to secure the graphics "contract" so to speak. CBS 11 here is also an owned and operated station and I read somewhere that they would like to have the same ability as NBC 5 but obviously do it for the CBS O&O's.

Yes Deborah Duncan's (or Debra as she was known then) show on ABC 13 was major, as Disney (ABC 13's owner) was testing the show in this market with plans to syndicate it nationally through its Buena Vista arm if it took off locally. However, while the ratings were okay here, Disney ultimately decided to go with other options (Tony Danza). Interesting sidenote: ABC 13 titled the show DEBRA Duncan instead of Deborah simply because it was easier to incorporate Debra into the logo designed for the show. I met Ms. Duncan backstage at the show during its first week and she is a perky and engaging presence...I don't think the full extent of her likability and talent was allowed to shine on the talk show, which I think was weighed down considerably by silly topics and lack of focus from the station.

The first time I saw Debbie Duncan on TV in Houston, I about flipped out. I remember her when she was playing the flute and performing in the marching band with me at John Marshall High in San Antonio. She was older though and graduated in 1980!

I think the original (or at least early 70's) call letters for Ch 26 (KRIV) were KDOG.

I remember this as a little kid growing up in the 70's. We were living in San Antonio then but drove to Houston to see relatives all the time. I used to love Ch 39 back then and always watched The Three Stooges every morning 7am. I also seem to remember Popeye and Speed Racer being on a lot then too.

And yea, the original Ch 26 call letters were KDOG. I always thought Houston TV was so cool back then b/c of those two independent channels. Living in San Antonio then, we had five channels alright...the 3 network affiliates, a crappy PBS station that we used to have to share with Austin so the signal sucked, and a spanish station...one of the very first in the US..back when Univision was known as SIN (Spanish Intl Network).

By the way, does anyone else remember Bonanza coming on Ch 13 at 10.30pm after the 10pm Eyewitness News just about every night years ago?

That map is interesting..found these other maps that are along the same lines of random fan base/support for major league franchises...

Warning..continued topic drift ahead!!

Second, i want to say i was in Dallas this past weekend from Saturday thru Monday and it rained the ENTIRE weekend, non-stop. Everyone always talks about Houston getting so much rain, Dallas isn't neccessarily paradise either. I talk to my cousin and my girlfriend everyday who both live in Houston and they both say that they can count on one hand the amount of times that its rained in Houston this entire Fall/Winter season. I asked them if there had been any days where it rained constantly just like my experience in Dallas and they both say that there weren't any days where it just rained all day long without a break. They said the closest it came to that was NBA All-Star Weekend. Not bad for rain prone Houston.

That rainy weekend was the most rain we had had in the DFW area in months and months. We received more rain that weekend than the last 225 days or so, according to the weather service. I may be one of the few on here that actually enjoys the cooler weather during the fall/winter/spring b/c the dry oven heat in July and August wears me out. I have many family members in the Houston area and when they call, they usually ask what the temperature is. It's always usually cooler here and they moan and groan b/c it's warm there or the air conditioning is back on, etc etc. while I'm in a sweatshirt. On the other hand, one buddy from Houston freezes every time he comes up, esp. if it's below 60. I'm in Denton County, in suburbia, which is about 35 miles north of downtown Dallas and about 25 miles north of DFW airport(almost equidistant between downtown and the OK state line!!) so it's always even colder out here compared to many other areas in the DFW metro. Although right now, after a terrific lightning show last night near Gainesville, it's sunny/dry and 90 degrees in Denton..and overcast and 80 degrees at Bush..

If anyone's interested, here's an interesting site for all kinds of Texas weather..radars, temps, forecasts, etc. Scroll down for Houston and SE Texas.

http://web2.iadfw.net/danb1/txweathe.htm

Okay..back to the HOB topic...

I am looking up some family info on the Bass hall in Ft.Worth I believe (I'm not related to the Bass family (even though their chunk of change is nice!!) but someone who once worked with the Bass Hall people.

Please help me find info on Bass hall if you can (I tried their website but I got confused)

Thanks y'all!!

Did you try googling Bass Hall Ft Worth and checking out each link that it gave you? Maybe you can find something from that instead of using the official Bass Hall website.

What I'm saying is that, for example, if Dallas had a House of Blues, and Houston didn't, I feel like that'd be one more reason why I'd want to visit Dallas. The restaurant will succeed in both cities, and the corporation just wants that green. But if you're an organization or company looking to host a convention, how difficult would it be to choose between the two if so many tourist attractions have similar names behind them? It's been a while since I've heard of any new developments that could be found in just one city in Texas, and I'm kinda hoping for more to start up in the future. I assumed at first that HOB would be that. I was wrong and naive.

Doesn't anyone here think it's wierd that both Houston and Dallas have a building with green lighting around it in the skyline, that Dallas and San Antonio both have rotating restaurants in the skyline, that the Houston area's starting to develop riverwalks like San Antonio's, that Houston and Dallas both have billion-dollar developments within a block away from their brand new downtown basketball arenas, that both.....

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002.

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

To imitate someone is to pay the person a genuine compliment

Hillwood Reels In House of Blues

By Connie Gore

Last updated: March 3, 2006 05:30pm

(For more retail coverage, click GlobeSt.com/RETAIL.)

DALLAS-After three years of trying to land the deal, Hillwood has secured a 60,000-sf, long-term lease with House of Blues. If the plan stays on track, the Los Angeles-based operator will open doors on its first music hall in Texas by the end of this year or early 2007 in the historic White Swan Building.

"We always wanted House of Blues to do a venue here," says Jonas Woods, president of Hillwood Capital. "But, it wasn't until they saw all the momentum at Victory that they were ready to make a commitment." Plans stalled to include House of Blues in Victory's West Plaza building, but talks picked up again about six months ago with HOB Entertainment Inc.

Woods says the White Swan Building at 2200 N. Lamar St. is now jointly owned by Hillwood and Tomlinson-Leis Corp. He tells GlobeSt.com that $25 million will be invested into an adaptive reuse of the building, which rose in stages between 1900 and 1924 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Woods says construction will begin by midyear. The fa

^^ Great map!! It's also interesting to note that Mexico was given the "X" call letter designator and Canada was given the "C"...

The PRC in KPRC stood for Post Radio Company according to an old book I have called "Ray Miller's Houston". Ray Miller hosted a local TV show called "The Eyes of Texas" which ran on channel 2 for many years.

In the book, "Texas Signs On", it mentions what the various old call letters stood for..and in fact, many of the original radio stations had requested call letters as they did stand for something, as brucesw mentions in his examples above..here are some more of some original stations' call letters and what they stood for originally.

KPRC Houston (Kotton Port Rail Center)

WCAR San Antonio (Alamo Radio) became KTSA San Antonio (Kome To San Antonio)

WOAI San Antonio (World Of Agriculture Information)

WBAP Fort Worth (future Pres. Herbert Hoover personally assigned the call letters..(We Bring A Program))

KFRO Fort Worth..later transferred to Longview (Keep Forever Rolling On)

WRR Dallas (Where Radio Radiates)...of note, this was licensed to the City of Dallas and was the first broadcasting station in the entire state of Texas and about the fifth or sixth in the US. July 1921

WFAA Dallas (Working For All Alike)

KFDM Beaumont (Kall For Dependable Magnolene)..magnolene being the trade name of the gasoline sold by the Magnolia Petroleum Company..eventually Mobil..

WQAC Amarillo (Where Quality Always Counts)

The first broadcasting station in Houston was WCAK licensed to an Alfred P. Daniel of 2504 Bagby Street in early 1922. KPRC began broadcasting in 1925.

Some of the info in my post above was from the Shroeder book; I see that I neglected to credit it. It's a much better book than the Harris - better researched and documented. There's an amazing amount of information in that little book, although he necessarily leaves out a lot of stuff in such a broad survey.

It is a great book and I just assumed that you probably had it as well b/c of all the good information you posted that I recognized. I've read it once all the way through but I find myself picking it up again and reading parts of it b/c it's so interesting and also b/c broadcast communications was my major at Trinity U.

Welcome to HAIF, 940.

Do you have a way of posting pictures on the internet, and linking them to this forum? Many of our members are interested in the history of Houston. Thanks for your recollections.

Thanks for the welcome! Most of those old pics of the house and us as kids in Houston are with my parents in San Antonio. I plan on making a visit to both Houston and San Antonio soon so I will rummage through the old albums and see what I can find. I did drive by there about 3-4 yrs ago and recognized a few of the old homes still around the neighborhood. One funny little thing that brought back many memories as I walked the old sidewalks was noticing that one area in particular of the sidewalk that was next to my grandmother's house. I remember when it was redone by the City of Houston and my grandmother's dog got out and walked through the fresh cement...the tracks were still there in that part of the sidewalk right off Van Buren..little paw prints and all...it may be gone now and sorry to sound so melancholy but it truly was a great area back then as a child. I'm not sure if that area was Hyde Park?? I know the street was nearby b/c I remember hearing that name along with Waugh Dr. and W. Gray. The house was so big to me..huge front porch with a swing..large sun room just inside..beautiful dining room that had a stained glass window above one of the fireplaces. I'm sure that the pics I have will be chock full of relatives and kids as I don't think there are many, if any, of just the house alone but I'll look and see and post anything good.

My grandparents had one of those huge old early 20th century homes at the corner of Fairview and Van Buren just down from Montrose. I remember going there to visit them as a very young boy in the late 60's and throughout the 70's until the house was torn down and those condos/townhomes were built there. (I'm not sure what they are as I don't go by the area much anymore but if anyone knows the corner, then you know what I'm talking about). I remember many old homes around there with elderly couples and with many hippies (my grandmother's term for them)...I also remember walking with her to the Weingarten's grocery store a few blocks away. Such wonderful memories of that area and great pics of the old house that I still have.

My source says that the "K" is standard because all stations west of the Mississippi begin with K. Those east of the river begin with a "W".

Thus, KPRC was K Port, Railroad, Cotton.

That's true now but in the beginning, that rule didn't apply which is why you have WOAI Channel 4 in San Antonio and WFAA Channel 8 in Dallas. For those interested, channel 2 was originally KLEE-TV named after owner W. Albert Lee. It was affiliated with CBS network first and began broadcasting on January 1, 1949. Bill Hobby from KPRC radio was interested in buying KLEE-TV with affiliation through the Houston Post. The newspaper assumed ownership on June 1, 1950. On July 3, the call letters were changed to KPRC-TV. The purchase price was $743,000. Television began in Texas on Sept. 27, 1948 when WBAP-TV channel 5 in Fort Worth televised the speech of President Harry S. Truman from downtown. It was the first television program in the South. On Sept. 15, however, WBAP broadcast a test pattern. It was a still picture with music, however, folks from Dallas, Denton, Waxahachie and McKinney called in to say they could see the picture. In fact, a town 87 miles away from Fort Worth was able to view the test pattern. This and other interesting information concerning radio and television beginnings in Texas can be found in a book entitled, "Texas Signs On" by Richard Schroeder. The book is full of interesting things including how radio and television began in the major cities of Texas. Lots of information on Houston as well including how channel 8 began, how channel 39 was originally KNUZ-TV, and that channel 11 was originally assigned to Galveston but they weren't allowed to move their broadcast tower much further north toward Houston because it was afraid that the signal would interfere with channel 11 in Fort Worth!

Carol Burnett is from San Antonio..as was Joan Crawford. Luke and Owen Wilson are from the Dallas area as is Jessica Simpson. "Trim Spa Baby" Anna Nicole Smith is from Mexia near Waco.