KIAH (TV)

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = KIAH
city =
station_
station_slogan =
station_branding = Channel 39 (general)
39 News (newscast)
analog = 39 (UHF)
digital = 38 (UHF)
other_chs =
affiliations = The CW
network =
founded =
airdate = January 6, 1967
location = Houston, Texas
callsign_meaning = KIAH =
Houston Intercontinental's ICAO airport code
former_callsigns = KHTV (1967-1999)
KHWB (1999-2006)
KHCW (2006-2008)
former_channel_numbers =
owner = Tribune Company
licensee = KIAH Inc.
sister_stations =
former_affiliations = Independent (1967-1995)
The WB (1995-2006)
The Tube (June 2006-October 2007, on -DT2)
effective_radiated_power = 5000 kW (analog)
1000 kW (digital)
HAAT = 594 m (analog)
582 m (digital)
class =
facility_id = 23394
coordinates = coord|29|34|6.5|N|95|29|58.4|W|type:landmark_scale:2000
homepage = [http://www.39online.com/ 39online.com]

KIAH is a television station operating on UHF channel 39 in Houston, Texas. KIAH is owned by the Tribune Company, and is affiliated with the CW Television Network. The station's studios are located in Houston, and its transmitter is based in Missouri City, Texas.

History

The station began broadcasting on January 61967 as KHTV (Houston TeleVision). The station took the place of the now-defunct KNUZ-TV, which was a DuMont affiliate during the middle 1950s. It was originally owned by the WKY Television System, a subsidiary of Oklahoma Publishing Company. After the company's namesake station in Oklahoma City was sold in 1974, the WKY Television System became Gaylord Broadcasting, named for the family which owned Oklahoma Publishing.

As Houston's first general-entertainment independent station, KHTV aired a schedule of programs including children's shows, syndicated programs, movies, religious shows, and some sports coverage. One of its best known locally produced programs was "Houston Wrestling", hosted by local promoter Paul Boesch. It aired Saturday evenings, having been taped the night before at the weekly live shows in the Sam Houston Coliseum. From 1983 to 1985, it was known as "KHTV 39 Gold". It was the leading independent station in Houston as competitors entered the market. During this time, KHTV was distributed to cable companies as a regional superstation of sorts, reaching systems as far east as Lafayette, Louisiana.

As a WB affiliate

At first, the new WB network (which launched in January 1995) refused to affiliate with KHTV, as fallout from Gaylord's refusal to affiliate its Fort Worth-Dallas and Tacoma-Seattle stations with the network (and instead affiliated them with CBS), along with keeping their Milwaukee station an independent. However, in the fall of 1995, the station was acquired by Tribune Broadcasting (which held a stake in the WB network). As a result, the station became a WB affiliate shortly after being acquired by Tribune and began to call itself Houston's WB39. In 1999, the station changed its call letters to KHWB in 1999 to reflect its affiliation. The KHTV call letters eventually ended up on a low power Inland Empire, California station carrying HSN.

The weekday Monday–Friday Kids' WB block was discontinued on December 302005.

From The WB to The CW

Following the 2006 closure of the WB and UPN networks and creation of The CW, KHWB became the CW's Houston affiliate; a few months later, the FCC approved a call-sign change from KHWB to KHCW (Houston's CW), which became official on April 272006. On September 132006, KHCW was rebranded as The CW39. The station celebrated its 40th anniversary on January 62007. KHCW stopped advertising as "The New CW39" at the end of The CW's first television season in June 2007.

The station also aired The Tube Music Network during this time on their -DT2 digital subchannel until the service was discontinued on October 1, 2007.

On July 15, 2008, channel 39 changed its call letters to KIAH as part of a branding campaign emphasizing the station's local orientation (KIAH is the ICAO airport code for George Bush Intercontinental Airport).cite news |first=David |last=Barron |title=One more time: Channel 39 decides to change call letters yet again |url=http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=2008_4590429 |work=Houston Chronicle |date=2008-06-26 |accessdate=2008-06-27 ] Due to sagging ratings for the CW, Tribune wanted its stations including KIAH to reimage themseleves and put less emphasis on station branding standards imposed by networks. Thus, "The CW 39" was no more as of August 29th, 2008; it is simply known now as "Channel 39."

Analog-to-digital conversion

After the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, which is tentatively scheduled to take place on February 17, 2009 http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf] , KIAH will continue digital broadcasts on its current pre-transition channel number, 38. [http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101231309&formid=387&fac_num=23394 CDBS Print ] ] However, through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers will display KIAH's virtual channel as 39.

News programming

Since the station signed on as an independent, KIAH (when it was KHTV) aired hourly news updates during commercial breaks between programming. In August 1990 the station began producing a 7 & 11PM newscast entitled Houston TV News, later simply called 39 News. The move was made to fill a gap that KRIV had left open as they had previously aired news at 7PM, but had moved it to 9 PM in 1989 as the Fox Network had developed a primetime schedule. The 11 PM Newscast was supposed to cater to people who had missed the traditional 10PM newscasts, though both proved unsuccessful and the news department was ultimately disbanded in May 1992.

KHTV did not attempt to go back into news programming until 1999, when Tribune Broadcasting decided to call for the introduction of news programming on all of its then-WB affiliated stations, which served as defacto owned-and-operated stations as Tribune owned a partial stake in The WB; Tribune's flagship station is Chicago superstation WGN-TV, which was Tribune's flagship WB affiliate is now also the company's flagship affiliate for the WB's partial successor, The CW (The CW was formed out of a merger between the WB and another network, UPN).

In 2000, KHTV, which became KHWB by this time, launched a half-hour newscast, WB 39 News at Nine (later renamed Houston's WB News at Nine) to compete with KRIV. For a brief time in 2006, it was also known as Channel 39 News due to the upcoming affliation change from the WB to the CW. The newscast changed its name to CW 39 News at Nine in 2006 to reflect KHCW's affiliation switch. The station's chief meteorologist, Keith Monahan, has won numerous awards for his weather reports, and was honored with a Lone Star Emmy in 2006 for the Best Weathercast in Texas. [ [http://lonestaremmy.org/_archives/2006_winners.php Lone Star Chapter of NATAS - Emmy Awards ] ]

The station permanently expanded the newscast to an hour on June 30, 2008 (previously it had been expanded to the full hour on breaking news occasions), and is contemplating launching a morning newscast in 2009, when the station will unveil a new set and begin to broadcast their news in high definition [ [http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/hoffman/5795096.html Hoffman: Channel 39 amps up its nightly news | Ken Hoffman | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle ] ] . Additionally on August 29th, 2008, the station rebranded the newscast to simply 39 News at Nine.

News Team

* Soofia Aleem, reporter
* Ray Fisher, Sports reporter
* Mia Gradney, weekday anchor
* Alan Hemberger, weekend anchor
* Elizabeth Lee, reporter
* Keith Monahan, chief meteorologist (AMS Certified/NWA Seal)
* Andrea Nguyen, reporter
* Casanova Nurse, weekend meteorologist (AMS Certified)
* Alex Radow, fill-in sports anchor
* Steve Simon, weekday anchor
* Dennis Spellman, reporter
* Jorge Vargas, sports director

Former on-air talent

1990-1992

* Alan Ashby: former sports director
* Jim Bergamo: reporter & weekend anchor
* Jan Glenn: reporter & host of Rodeo coverage
* Ken Jones, reporter
* Jim McKrell: station spokesman who later became an anchor and after the newscast had ended, he hosted station-produced specials
* David Scott: weekday anchor
* Lori Tucker: weekday anchor, now at WATE-TV, Knoxville, Tennessee
* Kathie Turner: weekday weather anchor

2000-present

* Donna Savarese, anchor/reporter
* Kristi Powers, meteorologist (now at KRIV)
* Jared Silverman, meteorologist (now at KENS-TV in San Antonio)
* Kris Sava, reporter (2002-2007)
* Sherry Williams, weekday anchor

Trivia

* At the end of every newscast, former weekday anchor Sherry Williams had closed the newscast with the words, "Good night, friends and neighbors", a portmanteau between the opening greetings of longtime KTRK anchor Dave Ward (who opens his newscasts with "Good evening, friends") and legendary former KPRC-TV anchor Ron Stone (who used "Good night, neighbors" to end his newscasts).

References

External links

* [http://www.39online.com/ KIAH Official Website]
* [http://video.khcw.com/global/video/flash/flashvideoplayer.asp?videoHeight=244&videoWidth=322&playerHeight=319&playerWidth=600&menuPosition=right&topVideoCatNo=135468 Channel 39 Archive]
*TVQ|KIAH
*BIA|KIAH|TV|TV