Back When Houston Had Just One TV Station

[brucesw]

Deepwater had a train station - according to this entry in the online Handbook of Texas

http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online...s/DD/hrdwr.html

I think the tracks used to run along 225 in that section of the highway (like they do east of Deer Park) but were realligned at some point to go up closer to the ship channel. So, since the station was at the townsite, then it should have been right there somewhere.

An engineer has confirmed that the KXYZ plant sits on the site of the original KTRH transmitter. The site has also been used by KRCT/KIKK when it moved to Pasadena from Baytown.

The current structure looks nothing like the 1930s building.

Thanks again for your help.

[Highrise Tower]

On 1/4/2006 at 8:34 AM, Watchful said:

From Wikipedia...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KPRC

KPRC is a television station based in Houston, Texas, but broadcasts from a transmitter located in Missouri City, Texas. The station operates on analog channel 2 and digital channel 31. KPRC is affiliated with the NBC television network.

History

The station first broadcast on January 1, 1949, as KLEE-TV (KPRC has repeatedly said that the callsign has no meaning and came from nowhere when being thought up). It was the first television station in Houston and the 12th in the United States. It was owned by the Hobby family, owners of the Houston Post, who had signed on KPRC radio in 1925 as Houston's first radio station. The television station changed its calls to match its radio cousin in 1950

Did KLEE-TV have a studio situated a long South Main Street? Presumably in the 6300 South Main block range? This would have been in the 1950s or 1960s.

Noticed a billboard sign with KLEE written on it. I'm thinking this was a randomly placed advertising sign and not the actual business location?

[brucesw]

No.  That's probably a sign for the radio station, actually.  KLEE (610 AM) was owned by W. Albert Lee and broadcast from his Milby Hotel downtown.  Lee owned a number of hotels but the Milby was the biggest.  The first TV broadcasts may have been from the hotel, I'm not sure.  Once the quonset hut studios on S. Post Oak near the old Pin Oak Stables was completed, the broadcast operations moved out there, then in 1953, a half mile or so up S. Post Oak to where the water wall is now.

KLEE AM was sold by the Lee estate, aiir, circa 1951 or 52 to Gordon McLendon of Dallas who flipped the calls to KLBS which stood for Liberty Broadcasting System, McLendon's network that relied on wire service feeds to re-create MLB games with only a slight delay as a live broadcast.  McLendon adlibbed all the calls and had a 'color' announcer who had to fill  in with totally made up stuff between innings, etc.  McLendon had stated he was going to bring the headquarters of LBS to Houston and relocate here but a court ruling put a stop to his baseball recreations and the network fell apart.  One of the Cullens, I forget which one, really liked McLendon's programming other than the baseball - it tended to be a very conservative voice - and gave McLendon $1M to keep it going for a while.  

McLendon went back to Dallas and a local operation took over KLBS.  In 1957, McLendon, expanding his radio empire, purchased KLBS again, flipped it to KILT and moved the studios out on Lovett Blvd.

Anyway, the KLEE calls were gone by 1952 so that helps to date the picture.  They were in use on radio from 1948-1952, the TV calls lasted a lot shorter time.

Great find for the pic, though.  Thanks.