KTBC (TV)

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KTBC (FOX 7) is the FOX owned-and-operated television station in Austin, Texas. Its transmitter is located in Austin.

History and Network Affilations

KTBC signed on the air on November 27, 1952. It was originally owned by the Texas Broadcasting Company (hence the call letters) which was in turn owned by then-Senator Lyndon Johnson and his wife Lady Bird, alongside radio station KTBC-AM (now KLBJ-AM). As the city's first television station, it carried all four major networks at the time: ABC, CBS, NBC and the now-defunct DuMont Network. Due to the fact that the station was owned by the Johnsons, their political and financial clout allowed station programmers to pick and choose from the best programs available on all affilated networks, and to tape delay others for later rebroadcast without contractual interference or penalty. KTBC was primarily a CBS affiliate until 1995, with roughly 65% of its programming being carried by the station in its early history. NBC and ABC roughly split the remaining coverage in half. When more stations signed on the air in Austin, KTBC lost the NBC affiliation to KHFI (now-KXAN) in 1965 first, then finally lost the ABC affiliation to KVUE in 1971.

The shared affiliation between all three networks had unforseen benefits with regards to news and events. After Lyndon Johnson became President following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, the networks established direct feed lines between KTBC and affiliates in New York, Dallas and Chicago to facilitate news report relaying while the President was either in Austin or at his ranch in Johnson City. The Johnsons maintained a penthouse apartment on the fifth floor of the station, which was wired for camera and sound equipment, and used on occasion for local programming on occasions when the Johnsons were away.

This multi-network capability was first demonstrated live on August 1, 1966, following the UT Tower sniper incident. After Charles Whitman's sniper rampage had been stopped, the primary newsman on the scene, Neal Spelce, presented a concise, complete wrap-up of the event that was carried on all three networks live later that evening. Although the connections were later replaced by satellite uplink technology, the lines were maintained for contingency usage for several years.

The Johnsons sold KTBC to Times Mirror in 1973, making it a sister station to KDFW in Dallas. Times Mirror dropped the direct-feed facility in 1992 as a cost-cutting measure. In 1994, Times Mirror sold KTBC to Argyle.

In 1994, New World Communications signed a long-term affiliation deal with Fox, which was establishing itself as a major network and was looking for more VHF stations. In late 1994, most New World-owned stations (except for two) dropped their longtime "Big Three" affiliations and switched to Fox. The year after, New World merged with Argyle, owners of KTBC. As a result, KTBC dropped CBS on July 1, 1995 and switched affiliations to the FOX network, while CBS moved to former Fox affiliate KEYE (which changed calls from KBVO that same day). As the new Fox affiliate, KTBC was able to continue as Austin's unofficial "home" of the Dallas Cowboys, since Fox had won the rights to the National Football Conference a few months earlier. KTBC had carried most Cowboys games since the team's inception in 1960 by virtue of CBS winning television rights to the NFL in 1956. For many years, it also carried Cowboys preseason games, though as of 2006 these have moved to KEYE. FOX7 also carries Big 12 Conference college sports games in the fall. The station became the first network O&O in the market when New World merged with Fox Television Stations Group in 1996. Distinctively, Austin (along with Evansville, Indiana) has the rare distinction of having Fox on VHF and the other "Big Three" affiliations all on the UHF dial.

Currently, KTBC is one of two network-owned stations in the Austin DMA. However, with CBS-owned KEYE being divested to Cerberus Capital Management, KTBC will once again become the only network O&O in the market upon that sale's closing and regulatory approvals.

Oddly, although KTBC is on channel 7, the cable channel number in most areas of Austin is 2. This is due to the fact that when the first cable system in Austin was being established, interference from the strong KTBC broadcast signal overpowered the signal carried on the analog cable channel 7.

In September 2006, KTBC launched MyFoxAustin.com, a website that is part of a reimaging campaign currently conducted by Fox owned and operated stations nationwide.

The Johnson Ownership Controversy

There has been some debate over the years as to whether the Johnsons used their political influence to keep KTBC as Austin's only VHF TV station. However, according to industry historians it is unlikely that any other VHF stations would have been allocated to Austin, given its close proximity to San Antonio. Nonetheless, being the only VHF station in town enabled channel 7 to gain a tremendous advantage in latter years over KXAN and KVUE, whose signals were usually marginal in some areas of the Hill Country. In the 1970s and 1980s, before cable coverage came, many viewers in those areas tuned instead to VHF ABC and NBC outlets in San Antonio or Waco/Killeen.

Children's Programming

For the first two decades of its existence, KTBC was a leader in children's programming, most notably with the long-running Uncle Jay Show. Starting in 1953, host Jay Hodgson entertained local children each weekday afternoon with the assistance of the "crusty, hunnert-year-old trader" known as Packer Jack Wallace, and both were later joined by Francis "Piper" Dyer in 1961 as the show's organist. The show also featured an on-screen studio audience of local children, ranging from 30 to 50 in number depending on the set design at the time.

The Uncle Jay Show featured the typical fare of cartoons, including many of the classic Warner Brothers cartoons as distributed by Associated Artists Productions or AAP. During 1965, the show also hosted the King Features Syndicate series of cartoon shorts featuring Beetle Bailey, Snuffy Smith and Krazy Kat, and in 1967 expanded to an hour-long show to facilitate airing of Gerry Anderson's Supercar, which had just been syndicated to US markets. Both Hodgson and Wallace provided humor in the form of skits and jokes, as well as minor educational material such as guest appearances by local naturalists, botanists and even movie stars and sports figures. Children in the audience were called on to participate in games, and received prizes for successful participation. Among the show's primary sponsors whose products were promoted live on-air by either Hodgson or Wallace, were the legendary Villa Capri restaurant, local shoe emporium Kara-Vel Shoes, Mrs. Johnson's Bakery, and Superior Dairies products. The latter of these was promoted by Wallace in a very fondly remembered commercial where Wallace extolls the benefits of authentic wild west cooking out on the range, where the deer and the antelope play, and the secret ingredient being Superior Dairies Chocolate Milk.

Hodgson, who was the voice of KTBC from the station's original broadcast, was with the show throughout its run. Wallace, a local morning air personality who appeared with Richard "Cactus" Pryor as part of the Cack and Jack Morning Show on KTBC-AM during the 60's and 70's, co-hosted the show with Hodgson until Wallace's death from cardiopulminary failure in late 1973, while Dyer left the show the following year to pursue other interests. Hodgson continued the show as solo host until the show's cancellation in the fall of 1977. By then, the decline in the live children's show was in full effect, and the show was moved from a weekly afternoon schedule to a Saturday morning time slot in the fall of 1975. Dropping all cartoon programming, the show concentrated more on local informational and educational issues that would be of interest to children. Gone also was the "live" element of the show; while groups of children were still part of the on-screen, shows were taped during the week for later broadcast on Saturdays. By the fall of 1977 ratings had dropped to the point where it was decided to put the show to rest once and for all.

Hodgson continued to work for KTBC as a public affairs journalist after The Uncle Jay Show was cancelled, appearing in such shows as The Eyes of Central Texas, and This Is Central Texas. The latter was his final show, and was retired after Hodgson himself retired in 1991. The final episode was an hour-long tribute to the long-time host, with testimonials by many of Austin's media personalities, including former KTBC and then-current KVUE news anchor Dick Ellis, who'd barely made it to the show on time and appeared dressed in hunting gear, having only heard about the show a few hours earlier while on a dove hunting trip. Hodgson is still retired with his current wife, but still dabbles in promotional and broadcast work on occasion.

In the early years as a Fox station, rather than carry Fox Kids programming, of which KVC would air instead, KTBC filled the daytime lineup with more talk shows and the nighttime lineup with off-network sitcoms such as The Simpsons, Seinfeld and King of the Hill. However as of late, the station's daytime lineup leaned away from talk show format and added more courtroom dramas such as Judge Judy, Judge Joe Brown, and the syndicated Fox produced shows notably such as Judge Alex and Divorce Court.

Today, in the case of Austin area cable subscribers, the station is seen on cable channel 2, the same channel it has been assigned to since the Johnson family established Austin's first cable service in 1962.

KVC 13

KVC 13 (officially K13VC) was an independent low-powered television station co-owned alongside KTBC which was on the air until March of 2003. Like most independents, KVC ran sitcoms, dramas, cartoons and several shows shared with KTBC. Upon KTBC's network switch to Fox, Fox Kids, which originally aired on then-KBVO, did not air on KTBC (like most New World stations then), with the exception of the Saturday morning lineup that aired in simulcast on KVC and KTBC. (KTBC would later drop the Fox Kids Saturday lineup in 1997.) KVC aired the block on weekdays and Saturdays until Fox ended the weekday lineup in 2002. When KVC became a UPN affiliate, it also picked up the UPN Kids lineup which later rebranded to Disney's One Too. (At the present, 4Kids TV does not air at all in Austin.)

KVC inherited the UPN affiliation from LIN TV's Hill Country Paramount Network in 1998. That move saw the loss of UPN coverage in much of Central Texas outside the immediate Austin area for a short time because KVC was a low-powered station that could be barely picked up by antenna or not at all in those regional parts. But UPN saw increased viewership by way of Austin area cable systems. The station continued to air UPN programming until August of 2000, when new Fredricksburg station KCWX (then KBEJ) went on the air on channel 2. KVC remained on the air as an independent station, showing typical independent programming as well as University of Texas sports and other college sporting events.

KVC was forced off the air on March 29, 2003 [1] in order to make room for KAKW-DT, the digital signal of a Univision affiliate in Killeen (also serving Austin).

Former Anchors

• Joe Roddy (Deceased)
  
• Neil Spelce
  
• Richard Goodman (Deceased)
  
• Bob Richardson
  
• Dave Jarrett
  
• Nancy Rice
  
• Fred Rhodes
  
• Dick Ellis
  
• John Cones
  
• Phil Miller (Sports)
  
• Maclovio Perez (Weather)(Presently WOAI-TV)

KTBC Tower

The KTBC TV Tower is a 1,258 foot (383.7 m) high guyed mast for television transmission in Austin. It is currently the tallest tower on the area commonly referred to as Mount Bonnell, although the tower itself stands on Mount Larson, and is the only tower on that particular mount. The site is also distinguished by the largest private commercial satellite dish in Travis County, and was erected in 1972 in order to receive satellite feeds from CBS.

Newscasts

In the days as a CBS affiliate, KTBC had the highest ranking newscast in Austin consistently for years, backed up by the network's programming. Now as a Fox station, it has suffered a minor setback of rotating between third and fourth place with KEYE since the mid-1990's after the "Big Switch," even ranking behind UHF stations KXAN (at #1) and KVUE (at #2). [2]

Even after KTBC joined the Fox network, it continued its 10 p.m. newscast, with the 9 p.m. hour time slot filled by syndicated programming, unusual for that network's affiliates. This changed in 2000 when the station launched a 9 p.m. newscast which is Austin's first primetime newscast; channel 7 then discontinued the 10 p.m. news.

Weekdays

• FOX7 News Edge in the Morning - 5 to 9 a.m.
• FOX7 News Edge at Noon - noon to 12:30 p.m.
• FOX7 News Edge at Five - 5 to 6 p.m.
• FOX7 News Edge at Nine - 9 to 10 p.m.

Saturdays

• FOX7 News Edge at Six - 6 to 6:30 p.m.
• FOX7 News Edge at Nine - 9 to 10 p.m.

Sundays

• FOX7 News Edge at Five - 5 to 5:30 p.m.
• FOX7 News Edge at Nine - 9 to 10 p.m.

Station Logos

• Station logo, June 1974.
  Station logo, June 1974.

External links

• MyFox Austin
• Template:TVQ
• AustinTVNews.com :: KTBC
• sktscraperpage.com: KTBC Tower