KTBC (TV) facts for kids
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| Austin, Texas United States |
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| Channels | Digital: 7 (VHF) Virtual: 7 |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner | Fox Television Stations (NW Communications of Austin, Inc.) |
| History | |
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First air date
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November 27, 1952 |
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Former channel number(s)
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Former affiliations
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Call sign meaning
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Texas Broadcasting Company (former owners) |
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Licensing authority
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FCC |
| Facility ID | 35649 |
| ERP | 98.6 kW |
| HAAT | 383 m (1,257 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 30°18′35″N 97°47′34″W / 30.30972°N 97.79278°W |
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Public license information
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Profile LMS |
KTBC (channel 7) is a local television station in Austin, Texas. It is the Austin home for the Fox network. The station is owned by Fox Television Stations, which is part of the Fox network itself.
KTBC's main offices are located on East 10th Street in downtown Austin, close to the Texas State Capitol. Its broadcast tower, which sends out its signal, is on Mount Larson in West Austin.
Contents
History of KTBC-TV
How KTBC Started Broadcasting
KTBC-TV aired its very first TV show on Thursday, November 27, 1952. This made it the first TV station in Austin and the surrounding Central Texas area.
The station began in a small studio inside the Driskill Hotel. It was owned by the Texas Broadcasting Company. This company was also owned by Lyndon B. Johnson, who was a Senator at the time and later became a U.S. President. His wife, Lady Bird Johnson, used money from her family to buy KTBC-TV. She stayed involved with her radio station until she was in her eighties. This made her the first president's wife to become a millionaire on her own.
In its early days, KTBC-TV showed programs from all four major TV networks: ABC, CBS, NBC, and the DuMont Television Network, which no longer exists. Its main network was CBS.
Early Programs and Special Reports
In 1960, the people working at channel 7 made a film for the Texas Department of Public Safety. It was called Target Austin. This 20-minute film showed what might happen if a nuclear missile hit near Austin. It followed different characters from the moment they heard the emergency broadcast until it was safe to come out of their shelters. The film was shot in Austin and featured local actors and crew.
KTBC-TV had a special advantage because of how the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) planned TV stations. In the early days, there were 12 VHF channels and 69 UHF channels. VHF channels were better because their signals traveled farther.
Austin is located between several large cities like San Antonio, Houston, and Waco. This created a large area in Central Texas where only one VHF TV license could be given out. KTBC-TV got this license. This meant KTBC was the only TV station in Austin for many years.
KTBC-TV was the only station in Austin until KHFI-TV (channel 42, now KXAN-TV) started broadcasting in February 1965. KTBC-TV became a CBS-only station in September 1971. This happened when all ABC programs moved to KVUE (channel 24), which was a new station.
President Johnson's Influence and Station Sale
After Lyndon Johnson became President in 1963, special direct lines were set up between KTBC and other TV networks in cities like New York City and Dallas. This helped news reports get sent quickly when the President was in Austin or at his ranch. The Johnsons even had a special apartment on the fifth floor of the station, which had cameras and sound equipment.
One important event where these connections were used was on August 1, 1966. This was after the UT Tower sniper incident. A newsman named Neal Spelce gave a summary of the event that was shown live on all three major networks that evening.
In 1972, new FCC rules made the Johnsons sell KTBC-TV. They sold it to the Los Angeles-based Times Mirror Company. The Johnsons decided to keep their cable television company instead. They also kept their radio stations, which changed their names to KLBJ-AM and FM. In 1994, Times Mirror sold KTBC-TV to Argyle Television.
Becoming a Fox Station
In December 1993, the Fox network won the rights to broadcast National Football Conference (NFC) football games from the NFL. This was a big deal because Fox was growing and wanted more strong TV stations.
In 1994, a company called New World Communications made a deal with Fox. Many New World-owned stations, which used to be part of other networks like CBS, switched to Fox. KTBC was considered a very good choice for Fox because it was a VHF station, meaning its signal reached a wider area.
On July 1, 1995, channel 7 stopped being a CBS station after 43 years and became a Fox station. The CBS programs then moved to former Fox station KBVO-TV, which changed its name to KEYE-TV. As the new Fox station, KTBC continued to be the unofficial "home" for the Dallas Cowboys football team in Austin. This was because Fox had the rights to NFC games, and the Cowboys are an NFC team.
When KTBC first became a Fox station, it showed many talk shows during the day and old TV comedies at night. For a while, KTBC shared the Fox children's programming block, Fox Kids, with another local low-power station, K13VC. Eventually, K13VC took over all of the Fox Kids programming.
In 1996, Fox took full ownership of KTBC when New World merged with Fox Television Stations. This made KTBC the first station in Austin to be directly owned and operated by a major network.
KTBC News Programs
As of October 2021, KTBC broadcasts a lot of local news. It airs 53 hours of news each week. This includes nine hours on weekdays and four hours on both Saturdays and Sundays. This is the most news programming of any TV station in Austin. Sometimes, the Sunday 5:00 p.m. news might be delayed if Fox is showing sports games.
Like many stations that switched from other networks to Fox, KTBC kept a news schedule similar to what it had before. For example, it continued its 10 p.m. newscast. However, in 2000, the station moved its main evening newscast to 9 p.m. This was the first prime-time newscast in Austin.
For its first 40 years, KTBC was the most popular news station in Austin. This was partly because it was the only station in the area for 12 years. However, after it switched to Fox, its news ratings started to go down. By the late 1990s, another station, KXAN, became the top news station.
Past News Anchors
- Judd Hambrick (now retired)
- Alan Krashesky (retired; used to be an anchor at WLS-TV in Chicago)
Technical Information
Digital Subchannels
KTBC's digital signal broadcasts several channels at once. These are called subchannels:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
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| 7.1 | 720p | 16:9 | KTBC-HD | Main KTBC programming / Fox |
| 7.2 | 480i | KTBC-SD | Movies! | |
| 7.3 | 4:3 | Buzzr | Buzzr | |
| 7.4 | 16:9 | MeTV | MeTV | |
| 7.5 | Decades | Catchy Comedy | ||
| 7.6 | FoxWX | Fox Weather | ||
| 62.11 | UNIV | Univision in SD (KAKW-DT) |
Simulcast of subchannels of another station
Switch to Digital TV
KTBC stopped broadcasting its old-style analog signal on June 12, 2009. This was part of a rule from the FCC that required all full-power TV stations in the United States to switch to digital television. The station's digital signal then moved from its old channel 56 to its current channel 7.
