Early years On February 17, 1964, the Crest Broadcasting Company—headed by Leroy J. Gloger, a former owner of
country music radio station
KIKK—filed an application to build a new TV station on channel 29 in Houston. Crest proposed a station focusing on minority and specialist programming, with shows in Spanish and for Black viewers as well as a 9 p.m. local newscast. The
Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s UHF allotment overhaul of 1965 substituted channel 26 for 29. Crest was selected over a competing application from radio station
KXYZ, as it got the nod on diversification grounds and superior financial qualifications. One of the matters at hand was the participation of Houston mayor
Louie Welch in KXYZ-TV Inc. KXYZ appealed and asked to submit a revised financial statement, also claiming that Crest had made a misrepresentation as to one of its officers, Bernard Calkins. At the hearing, it was revealed that, after meeting with Welch in his office, the officers of Houston's Medical Center National Bank canceled a $250,000 loan to Calkins. FCC hearing examiner Chester F. Naumowicz denied the request and upheld the Crest grant, finding that Calkins was not aware of the bank officers' change of heart. Construction got underway for KVRL in late 1970, with a mast being erected atop
One Shell Plaza in downtown Houston and studios being built in the Schindler Center development at 3935 Westheimer Road in the
Highland Village section. The station began broadcasting on August 15, 1971. Programming mostly consisted of syndicated reruns,
Texas Rangers baseball, and an affiliation with the
Christian Broadcasting Network. Local output included a version of ''
Bozo's Big Top a nightly sports show called Sports Cavalcade
, a country music show, and the talk show Houston After Dark''. In 1975, Gloger, who had also taken over general manager duties, was having a conversation when someone remarked that channel 26 was an underdog. For Gloger, who had a penchant for memorable station brands (such as the moniker and call sign for KIKK), it was the spark of an idea. He checked with the FCC, found that the call letters KDOG were available, and then changed channel 26 to KDOG-TV on September 1. A series of program changes accompanied the new moniker; the station added 90 minutes a night of Spanish-language programming in prime time.
Acquisition by Metromedia Six years after going on the air, Crest Broadcasting announced the sale of KDOG-TV to
Metromedia for $11 million, including $6 million for the station itself and another $5 million in liabilities. The acquisition closed in April, and on April 17, 1978, the call letters were changed to the current KRIV, in honor of then-Metromedia executive Albert Krivin, who had convinced
John Kluge to take a chance on the Houston station. Jerry Marcus—general sales manager of Metromedia's Washington, D.C., station
WTTG—was hired to manage channel 26's operations, remaining there until his retirement in December 1999. Metromedia, among the top operators of independent stations, turned a station that was regarded as a "mangy mutt" and had turned a slight profit in just its last two years into a top-rated outlet that experienced a 400-percent increase in ratings between 1978 and 1980 and challenged the network affiliates in the early evening access hours. An additional investment in new programming was immediately apparent; in 1979, channel 26 became the new TV home of the
Houston Astros, and the cost of syndicated programming doubled or tripled as Metromedia spent what one broadcaster estimated was $10 million on programming in its first six months of owning KRIV. The Spanish-language entertainment programming, from the Spanish International Network (now known as
Univision), was moved out of prime time and reduced to make way for nightly movies and
The Merv Griffin Show; the studios were expanded, and a new transmitter facility was constructed in 1982. Local programming was also expanded, with several new public affairs programs. A local newscast at 7 p.m. was added in 1983.
As a Fox owned-and-operated station On May 6, 1985, Metromedia agreed to sell KRIV and the other five television stations in the Metromedia group to Australian newspaper tycoon
Rupert Murdoch, all of which became the founding owned-and-operated stations of his new television network, the
Fox Broadcasting Company. Despite being a member of the new network, KRIV's schedule did not change very much, as at that time, Fox only aired a late-night talk show upon the network's launch; even when prime time programming followed in 1987, the network initially aired the lineup on Saturdays and Sundays. The primary changes were in local programming—where the new owners cut channel 26's existing local public affairs show,
Houston Live, and a local children's program—and the move of KRIV's news to 9 p.m. to accommodate more Fox prime time programming. Ratings steadily increased, with total-day ratings tying NBC affiliate
KPRC-TV by 1993. After having operated from the same quarters on Westheimer since its establishment, KRIV acquired a tract of land near the
Southwest Freeway to build a new, facility that would provide sufficient space and parking for the expanding station. The $40 million facility went into full-time use at the end of 1997 and included new, digital equipment. This facility began housing KTXH in 2001 when Fox acquired the station in a trade with
Viacom after CBS acquired
UPN. The studios were also used for production of syndicated programming from
20th Television, including the
court shows
Texas Justice, ''
Cristina's Court, and Judge Alex''. It also featured a landing pad for the station's news helicopter; a helicopter leased to KRIV crashed in November 2000, killing the pilot. ==Programming==