KTXH
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| Houston, Texas | |
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| Branding | My20 |
| Slogan | Look At Us Now |
| Channels | Digital: 19 (UHF) Virtual: 20 (PSIP) |
| Affiliations | MyNetworkTV Movies! MundoFOX |
| Owner | Fox Television Stations (Fox Television Stations, Inc.) |
| First air date | November 7, 1982 |
| Call letters' meaning | TeXas Houston |
| Sister station(s) | KRIV Fox Sports Houston (2005–2012; now defunct) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 20 (UHF, 1981–2009) |
| Former affiliations | Independent (1981–1993) PTEN (1993–1995) UPN (1995–2006) |
| Transmitter power | 421 kW |
| Height | 596 m |
| Facility ID | 51569 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 29°33′45.1″N 95°30′35.8″W / 29.562528°N 95.509944°W |
| Website | www.my20houston.com |
KTXH is the MyNetworkTV owned-and-operated television station in Houston, Texas. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 26 from a transmitter in unincorporated northeastern Fort Bend County (near Missouri City). Owned by 21st Century Fox subsidiary Fox Television Stations, KTXH is sister to Fox owned-and-operated station KRIV and both stations share studios on Southwest Freeway in Houston (between the Uptown and Greenway Plaza districts).
Contents
History[edit]
Launch[edit]
KTXH began broadcasting on November 7, 1982, using the on-air branding tagline "20 Vision." Channel 20 became the third independent station in Houston, after KRIV (then owned by Metromedia), and Gaylord Broadcasting's KHTV (channel 39, now Tribune Broadcasting-owned KIAH). It was also the second station in Texas owned by a group headed by television station entrepreneur Milton Grant.
The group launched a similarly formatted station, KTXA in Fort Worth, in January 1981. It programmed a general entertainment format consisting of cartoons, vintage off-network sitcoms and dramas, old movies, westerns and sports events. The fledgling station was broadcasting from a tower under construction that collapsed in 1982, killing seven workers; it was eventually replaced by the Senior Road Tower.
Ownership changes, switch to UPN[edit]
Grant Broadcasting sold both KTXH and KTXA to Gulf Broadcasting in 1984. Several weeks later, Gulf sold its television broadcasting division to Taft Broadcasting. Even after going through three owners within the same year, the station did not change its programming format, aside from adding more programming owned by Taft and distributed by new sister company Worldvision Enterprises, such as Hanna-Barbera cartoons.
Taft sold its group of independent and Fox-affiliated stations, including KTXH and KTXA, to the TVX Broadcast Group in February 1987. Two years later, Paramount Pictures purchased a minority ownership in TVX, which suffered from financial problems after the Taft purchase. Paramount bought out the remainder of TVX's shares in 1991. Under Paramount, the station added several first-run syndicated shows in the mid-1990s and changed its on-air branding to "Paramount 20".
Viacom acquired ownership of KTXH, KTXA and their sister stations when the company purchased Paramount Pictures in 1994. Channel 20 became an owned-and-operated station of the United Paramount Network (co-owned by Viacom and Chris-Craft Industries) upon the network's January 16, 1995 launch.
Sale to Fox, switch to MyNetworkTV[edit]
KTXH was purchased by News Corporation's Fox Television Stations in 2001, as part of a station trade deal which saw Viacom swapping KTXH and WDCA-TV in Washington, D.C. in exchange for KBHK-TV (now KBCW-TV) in San Francisco, which Fox had bought as part of its purchase of Chris-Craft's broadcasting division. The transaction established the first television duopoly in Houston between KRIV and KTXH (Fox had also owned several of KTXH's former sister stations under Taft). Channel 20 also relocated its broadcasting facilities from the original studios on Kirby Drive, near present-day Reliant Park, to KRIV's studios.
On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Time Warner announced that they would shut down UPN and The WB and merge their programming onto a new network called The CW Television Network.[1] Through an affiliation agreement with Tribune Broadcasting, KHWB channel 39 (which changed its callsign to KHCW shortly before the network's launch) was announced as the Houston affiliate of The CW. Almost immediately, KTXH dropped all UPN network branding froms from its station branding, and revamped its logo to just feature the boxed "20", and also announced that they would no longer promote any UPN programming. Additionally, the station began referring to itself in promos as "Houston's 20". Similar changes were also made to Fox's other UPN affiliates, as the initial list of CW charter affiliates consisted of both stations owned by the Tribune Company and network co-parent CBS Corporation. News Corporation also chose not to affiliate stations with the CW in markets where neither Tribune nor CBS (excluding CBS owned-and-operated stations) owned a station.
In response to The CW's launch, News Corporation then announced the creation of their own secondary network, MyNetworkTV, on February 22, 2006 with KTXH and the other Fox-owned UPN affiliates signed on as a charter affiliates.[2] With the impending switch to MyNetworkTV, channel 20's on-air branding was changed to "My20" in June 2006. KTXH became a MyNetworkTV owned-and-operated station when the network began operations on September 5, 2006. Although UPN continued to broadcast its programming on stations across the United States until September 15, 2006 (with some stations airing the final two weeks of the network's programming outside their regular primetime slots), KTXH and its Fox-owned sister stations did not carry the final two weeks of UPN programming as the stations dropped UPN entirely on August 31, 2006.
On October 1, 2009, KTXH launched its new website at www.my20houston.com using the same platform as its sister station KRIV. Early content included a schedule for both local and national programming with links to weather, news, and traffic on www.myfoxhouston.com.
Digital television[edit]
| Channel | Video | Aspect | PSIP Short Name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20.1 | 720p | 16:9 | KTXHDT | Main KTXH programming / MyNetworkTV |
| 20.2 | 480i | Movies! (Starting May 27, 2013)[3] | ||
| 20.3 | 480i | MundoFX | Mundo Fox (SD) |
Analog-to-digital conversion[edit]
On June 12, 2009, the federally mandated date for American television stations to cease analog transmissions across the country, KTXH ceased broadcasting programming on analog UHF channel 20. Its digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 19.[4][5] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as "20.1" to correspond with its former analog channel.
Programming[edit]
Sports coverage[edit]
For many years, KTXH was the over-the-air broadcast rights holder for Houston Astros baseball and Houston Rockets basketball. Hannah Storm, later a noted national broadcast personality, anchored the station's coverage of the Rockets in the mid-1980s.
See also[edit]
- Fox Sports Houston (now defunct)
- KRIV
References[edit]
External links[edit]
- www.My20Houston.com – Official website
- MyNetworkTV official website
- Query the FCC's TV station database for KTXH
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KTXH-TV
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- MyNetworkTV affiliates
- Movies! affiliates
- Fox Television Stations
- Channel 20 virtual TV stations in the United States
- Channel 19 digital TV stations in the United States
- Television channels and stations established in 1982
- Major League Baseball over-the-air television broadcasters
- Television stations in Houston, Texas
- Television stations in Texas
- Taft Broadcasting
