KRIV (TV)

For the air force reserve base with the same ICAO code, see March Air Reserve Base.

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KRIV, "WB26" is the Fox owned-and-operated affiliate in Houston, Texas, USA. It is co-owned with Univision affiliate KTXH. Both stations share the same studio complex on 4251 Southwest Freeway in Houston. KRIV operates on 5000 kilowatts of power from a 1,949-foot (594 meter) tower located in Missouri City, Texas.

History

KRIV signed on in August 15, 1971 under its original call letters of KVRL. It was the second UHF station in Houston, and the third in the market, to sign on the air. Several years after signing on, the call letters were changed to KDOG. The former GM of the station, the late Leroy Gloger, chose the letters. Another former General Manager, the late Jerry Marcus commented (upon his retirement) that he saw them appropriate during the station's formative years as, in his words, they were a "dogged station" ratings-wise. The station's motto was "Where Every Dog Has His Day." During this period, the station aired a wide variety of programs. During the day they ran English general entertainment programming such as old cartoons, sitcoms, and old movies. At night they ran Spanish programming such as Spanish-language telenovelas, Spanish language movies, Spanish serials.

In May 1978, Metromedia purchased the station and changed the station's call letters to KRIV. The new call letters were in honor of Albert Krivin, then a top Metromedia executive. The late Jerry Marcus, General Sales Manager of Metromedia's WTTG in Washington, DC, was brought to Houston to manage the station, where he remained until his retirement in December 1999. This influx of dollars caused the station to begin taking more risks by picking up higher profile syndicated programming and forming a news department, featuring the first major primetime newscast in the market. The station was running a general entertainment format complete with cartoons, sitcoms, movies, first run syndicated shows, locally produced talk shows, and the one of the few Spanish language forums on television at the time. Overall, the station ranked near KHTV, a more well-established outlet, over the years.

Six years later in 1986, Australian newspaper tycoon Rupert Murdoch purchased Metromedia television stations, including KRIV, which became a founding owned-and-operated station of his new Fox television network. The acquisition caused the station, along with a number of other former Metromedia outlets, to suddenly adopt a more sophisticated look for a network that at the time, didn't actually exist. A unified music and graphics packaged was featured on this station, as well as the original FOX O & Os, which is consistently noted for featuring graphics that were among the first of their kind for local television. Since 1986 KRIV 26 has been known as "FOX26".

In 1987, the station formed an investigative unit, and a program called "City Under Siege" which aired after the evening news. Originally hosted by anchors Jim Marsh & Fran Fawcett, the show was actually a predecessor to one of the FOX network's later standouts: COPS.

As a Fox O & O more first run programming was added. In 1993 KRIV Fox 26 joined 4 other O & O stations along with a growing number of affiliates launching a weekday morning newscast. The morning cartoons were dropped but they continued their afternoon kids block from Fox Kids until the end of 2001 when Fox ended the weekday kids' block nationwide. Today KRIV runs over 30 hours a week of local news along with off network sitcoms, sports, Fox first run shows, syndicated talk, court shows, reality shows and 4Kids TV.

KRIV moved to its current home studios in 1997, after 26 years at its original home on Westheimer Road. KRIV's current studios is where the syndicated television series Texas Justice, Christina's Court and Judge Alex have been produced.

On July 26, 2006, shortly after competitor KHOU-TV launched a new graphics package, KRIV also launched a new graphics and music package, which is being gradually rolled out to each of FOX's owned and operated stations. KRIV's slogan also changed from "News That Works For You" to "Your Gulf Coast Weather Authority". In addition, KRIV is soon to launch an early evening newscast that will air on KTXH.

In mid-August 2006, the station launched their version of Fox's MyFox O&O website initiative with MyFoxHouston.com. This technically marks the station's first venture onto the Internet, as the station's previous website was more of a placeholder, and had little information besides links to the Fox network's site and their program schedule.

On Friday, September 15, FOX 26 Morning News Anchor's Jan Jeffcoat and José Griñan both announced that KRIV will be revamping their newsroom to fit the best needs for its viewers. And on Monday, October 30 – FOX 26 News at Nine debuted the new set that has been in the works for over a month. The old set was used over nine years and has been donated back to the communication school at Texas Southern University.

Logo history

The KDOG logo featured the station's call letters, with the "g" resembling the profile of a dog's head. This coordinated with the motto, "Where Every Dog Has His Day."

The original logo of KVRL 26 was the letters "TV-26" in a stylized font.[1] After Metromedia purchased the station in 1978, the logo was changed to a more bold number which was diagonally oriented.[2]

In 1986, after becoming a Fox affiliate, the logo was changed to a new serif font similar to other Fox affiliates. One example of the logo just shows a bold "26" with the "KRIV" and "Houston" underneath[3], another shows the a horizontally oriented logo with a diagonal Fox logo on the left and the "KRIV 26" on the right[4]

In 1989, the logo was changed again, this time to a vertically oriented rectangle with the Fox searchlight above the number 26, with the call letters in a slightly diagonal line in the middle, and the word Houston in the border underneath. [5]

In 1994, the logo was changed to a bold "FOX 26" in a sans-serif font, with "KRIV" and "Houston" underneath in the old serif font.[6]

In 1997, after the station moved studios, the logo was changed again, along with most other Fox affiliates. This logo was a multi-paned rectangle with the word "FOX" in white letters on a blue background, a blue "26" on a white background, and the words "KRIV - HOUSTON" underneath on a black background with a red line underneath.[7] This logo was used until 2006, when the current logo was adopted.

Also in 2006, the KRIV website launched, and began using the "MyFox Houston" logo, a rounded rectangle consisting of a white lowercase "my" similar to the font used for MySpace (also owned by Fox), on a blue background, a white capital "FOX" on a red background, a "26" in a circle in the upper right corner, and the word "Houston" underneath.[8]

Newscast titles

• Channel 26 Metromedia News (1978-1986)
• FOX 26 News (1986-Present)

Newscasts

• FOX26 Morning News 5:00-9:00AM weekdays
• FOX26 News at Noon 12:00-12:30PM weekdays
• FOX26 News at 9 9:00-10:00PM (Every Night)

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Other Locally Produced Programming

• The Black Voice (José Griñan) 6:00-6:30AM (Saturdays)
• Hola Houston (Mike Barajas) 6:30-7:00AM (Saturdays)

Helicopter information

SkyFox II (Eurocopter AS350BA A-star)

Trivia

• To date, KRIV is the only original Fox O&O in Texas. KRIV is also the original Fox affiliate among the larger markets in the state based on the fact affiliation switches took place in Dallas, San Antonio and Austin.
• Usually, KRIV is the station that reports weather events in Houston for the The Weather Channel.
• KRIV for years has been the first Fox affiliate to launch newscasts in Texas. Other Fox affiliates in the state launched theirs later on in the 1990s.
• Upon KRIV being picked up by Fox, it was one of the first two network owned stations in Houston along with ABC's KTRK.

External links

• MyFoxHouston.com (official website)
• History of FOX 26

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