Remember Having Three TV Stations

[HoustonianInColorado]

I remember having a black-and-white TV with a broken knob, so you had to change channels with a set of pliers, and a tin-foil glob for an antenna.

We wuz po.

I thought we were the only ones with a pair of pliers sitting by the TV to change channels!

[ssullivan]

$499 - HOLLY CRAP!! That must be like paying $5000.00 for a flat screen plasma TV right now.

Yes, but back in the day, Curtis Mathes color console sets were considered the very best you could get. They were almost a status symbol in a way, kind of like the larger plasma flat screens might be right now.

We had a large Zenith console that my Dad won in a drawing once. It had to be repaired several times after lightning strikes but still managed to last from about 1979 to around 1990.

[westguy]

What was the first independent station in Houston? Did they have a flip in the early 90's when CBS was ailing and Fox started buying up as many stations as they could? In Dallas Channel 11 was independent, and we nearly lost CBS because Fox bought Channel 4. I don't think there are any independents left in that market.

[editor]

What was the first independent station in Houston? Did they have a flip in the early 90's when CBS was ailing and Fox started buying up as many stations as they could? In Dallas Channel 11 was independent, and we nearly lost CBS because Fox bought Channel 4. I don't think there are any independents left in that market.

Houston did not go through the Football Flip that many other markets did. KHOU has always been CBS.

There are a few independent stations left in Houston: KTBU springs to mind.

The first independent station in Houston I think was either KRIV or KHWB (then KHTV). Now they're part of Fox and WB.

[gnu]

The first independent station in Houston I think was either KRIV or KHWB (then KHTV). Now they're part of Fox and WB.

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

[TJones]

Was it like this?

I think the indian was a bit bigger, and right smack dab in the middle. That definately looks like the indian though.

[stan the man]

What was the first independent station in Houston? Did they have a flip in the early 90's when CBS was ailing and Fox started buying up as many stations as they could? In Dallas Channel 11 was independent, and we nearly lost CBS because Fox bought Channel 4. I don't think there are any independents left in that market.

DFW has not one...but two independent stations. After KDFW (Channel 4) became Fox 4, all that was left as far as independents went was KDFI (Channel 27)...

Over the next few years, there would be independent KXTX (Channel 39)...which is now Telemundo...KFWD (Channel 52) became independent after Telemundo moved to KXTX...and KSTR (Channel 49) became one of the few indies that Barry Diller ran...he also owned Channel 67 in Alvin...it is now Telefutura...

In 2006, KDFI is going to become My Network TV...and the new independent in town will be KTXA...the former UPN affiliate...it's now called TXA-21...joining KFWD 52 as the only independents.

BTW, I remember that when I stayed over in Arlington for a state Student Council convention (Dulles HS class of 2005), KFWD re-broadcast WFAA's 10pm late news at 11...

Edited August 13, 2006 by stan the man

[ricco67]

When I was kid, I had terrible cases of insomnia so I would TV until sign off. It was late at night (11pm?) when I saw the breaking news on that bottom scroll that John Wayne died.

What irritated me then was that they had no new news until the next day! Now, when something major breaks, they almost beat it to death.

For you old TV buffs.... here is something currently on ebay here in Houston.

[ChampionsAdam]

Please indulge me as I did not grow up in Houston but rather in Phoenix. For anyone here that may have lived in Phoenix in the 1970's they may remember this as well. Our CBS station (at the time) was channel 10 KOOL-TV (with Bill Close and Mary Jo West ) I remember watching 'All In The Family' at my grandparents house on their Zenith (we would watch the little color dot in the center of the screen disappear when you turned it off), I also recall and it was either at the end of the news broadcast or right before the image of the American flag blowing in the wind and a voice over saying "Blessed is the nation for God is the Lord" or something to the same effect, this would have been around 1976. I also remember my grandfather replacing the color tube in the back of the TV.

Edited August 13, 2006 by ChampionsAdam

[editor]

I know I'm replying to a year-old post, but I just noticed this:

5:00pm on KPRC: Divorce Court

I guess channel 2's programming wasn't better in the good old days after all.

BTW, I remember that when I stayed over in Arlington for a state Student Council convention (Dulles HS class of 2005), KFWD re-broadcast WFAA's 10pm late news at 11...

Not uncommon in most markets. In Cincinnati, WBQC (independent) rebroadcasts WCPO's (ABC) news while WSTR (independent) would rebroadcast WKRC's (CBS) news.

I think for a brief time KHOU's news was rebroadcast on KPXB, but I may be confusing Houston with another market.

The current trend is for your large stations to do separate newscasts for the smaller ones. Sometimes it's recycled material, talent, and reporters. Sometimes it's a whole extra dedicated staff with original content. It depends on the egos and the economics.

[bachanon]

i remember how long the watergate hearings seemed to me as a kid. all three stations, every night it seemed like. "roots" was huge. it was an event.

thank goodness for cable.

[Mark F. Barnes]

In Bryan, Texas you had one Channel (KBTX) you could get on rabbit ears or five if you had a tower and a way to rotate it.

But also, kids knew how to do yard work, you had to threaten them to make them come inside not go outside. Street violence wasn't much more than a fist fight, you could catch a movie for less than a buck, and you almost always heard "Yes Ma'am" and "No Ma'am" when you addressed a female. I was 8 years old before I ever saw a TV, and Uncle Bill had the first color I ever saw, and it wasn't anything but a B&W TV with a tri-colored film layed over the screen.

1963 Economy / Prices

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Economy

President: John F. Kennedy

Vice President: Lyndon B. Johnson

Population: 189,241,798

Life expectancy: 69.9 years

Dow-Jones

High: 767

Low: 646

Federal spending: $111.32 billion

Federal debt: $310.3 billion

Inflation: 1.7%

Consumer Price Index: 30.6

Unemployment: 5.5%

Prices

Cost of a new home: $19,300.00

Cost of a new car: $ 2800

Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.04 ($0.05 as of 1/7/63)

Cost of a gallon of regular gas: $0.30

Cost of a dozen eggs: $0.55

Cost of a gallon of Milk: $0.49

Life was pretty darn good back then

Edited August 13, 2006 by Mark F. Barnes

[FilioScotia]

I know I'm replying to a year-old post, but I just noticed this:

5:00pm on KPRC: Divorce Court

I guess channel 2's programming wasn't better in the good old days after all.

Not uncommon in most markets. In Cincinnati, WBQC (independent) rebroadcasts WCPO's (ABC) news while WSTR (independent) would rebroadcast WKRC's (CBS) news.

I think for a brief time KHOU's news was rebroadcast on KPXB, but I may be confusing Houston with another market.

The current trend is for your large stations to do separate newscasts for the smaller ones. Sometimes it's recycled material, talent, and reporters. Sometimes it's a whole extra dedicated staff with original content. It depends on the egos and the economics.

I'm fascinated by the thought of all those programs not getting on the air that weekend. The person who started this thread said it was from Saturday November 23, 1963. I remember being glued to my TV set that entire weekend, and every station was carrying running coverage of the Kennedy assassination and updates on the police investigation. I'm guessing that almost none of the programs on that schedule were seen that weekend.

I think you're right in saying KHOU's newscasts were at one time rebroadcast on the local Pax Network station KPXB, channel 49. Pax doesn't go by that that name anymore. It's now called "i".

Through the 1950s, KHOU's original call letters were KGUL, and it was licensed to Galveston, with studios at 11 Video Lane on the island. In the mid or late 50s, they built a studio in Houston and split the air time between the two studios because of license requirements. Then sometime around or just after 1960, they finally closed the Galveston studio, and changed the call letters to KHOU.

Edited August 14, 2006 by FilioScotia

[gonzo1976]

Haha!

"Bride of the Monster." I never figured Channel 13 (in any period) to show an Ed Wood film.

[editor]

Through the 1950s, KHOU's original call letters were KGUL, and it was licensed to Galveston, with studios at 11 Video Lane on the island. In the mid or late 50s, they built a studio in Houston and split the air time between the two studios because of license requirements. Then sometime around or just after 1960, they finally closed the Galveston studio, and changed the call letters to KHOU.

There's a marker on the wall near the front door of KHOU's studios on Allen Parkway that recall its KGUL past. I forget exactly what it says, though.

[FilioScotia]

Haha!

"Bride of the Monster." I never figured Channel 13 (in any period) to show an Ed Wood film.

What???? Are you suggesting that a film should be "good" to be shown on TV? What a concept!! In defense of the late Ed Wood, it's generally agreed that Bride of the Monster was one of his better films. Relatively speaking of course. A "good" Ed Wood film is still pretty bad, but that's never stopped local TV stations from loading up the weekend schedules with grade Z horror flicks like that one.

Check out Bride of the Monster on the IMDb. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047898/

It made for great late night fun on TV, but it probably wasn't shown that week because of the JFK assassination in Dallas just the day before.

Edited August 15, 2006 by FilioScotia

[ToolMan]

I remember when there weren

[940]

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?

[Mark F. Barnes]

Come on I know you remember "Clutch Cargo"? Very cheezy animation, had a real human mouth moving on an not so animated charactor.

Click HERE to see Clutch Cargo "Cliff Dwellers"

Edited September 3, 2006 by Mark F. Barnes

[Mark F. Barnes]

Clutch Cargo took the term limited animation literally. In fact, in a creative cost-cutting measure, there was almost no real animation at all. But it didn't matter to the viewers. This cleverly written, and beautifully drawn series is fondly remembered by many of it's original fans.

Clutch Cargo was produced by Dick Brown's Cambria Productions and first appeared in syndication in March, 1959. It was created by artist/writer Clark Haas, who had illustrated the newspaper comic strip Buzz Sawyer. The series was the first to utilize the patented Syncro-Vox system, which had been invented by cameraman Edwin "Ted" Gillette for "talking animal" commercials in the 1950's. Mr. Gillette passed away on September 30, 2003 at the age of 94. Ted was the inventor of the Syncro-Vox device used to produce those unique "talking lips" in the original Clutch Cargo cartoons. The effect is also used from time to time on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien." Mr. Gillette's Synchro-Vox system was used in Clutch Cargo to combine live-action human lips with animated drawings. To make the characters speak, the lips of a live human actor were filmed and then superimposed over the motionless drawings of the character's face. To further cut costs, action was simulated using clever wiggling of the camera or the drawing itself. Walking or running was accomplished by showing the character from the waist up, to eliminate complicated leg animation. The use of real live objects, again superimposed, also helped to keep costs down. Real smoke was used for explosions and an actual balloon substituted for a bubble-gum bubble.

The stories involved the adventures of Clutch Cargo, a writer and pilot with a muscular build, white hair and rugged good looks. He flew his plane around the world on assignments that took him to exotic locales where he usually faced impossible obstacles and deadly perils. He was accompanied by his young, freckle-faced ward, Spinner and his floppy-eared pet dachshund Paddlefoot. Richard Cotting provided the voice of Clutch, and Margaret Kerry was the voices of both Spinner and Paddlefoot. Hal Smith, who portrayed drunk Otis Campbell on The Andy Griffith Show. supplied the voice of Clutch's grizzly-bearded pal Swampy

There were 52 Clutch Cargo adventures. Serialized in five five-minute chapters, they made up 26 half hour shows. The first four chapters ended in cliff-hangers, with the fifth chapter wrapping up the adventure.

[940]

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.

[Mark F. Barnes]

Click here and ID this guy!