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KVUE (channel 24) is a
television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the ea ...
in Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Tegna Inc. The station's studios are located on Steck Avenue just east of Loop 1 in northwest Austin, and its transmitter is located on the West Austin Antenna Farm northwest of downtown.
KVUE was the third television station established in Austin.
History
Pre-launch and construction
In the fall of 1961, the FCC began to receive applications for channel 24 in Austin. Applicants included Dalton Homer Cobb, a Midland oilman who owned that city's KDCD-TV (channel 18), and John R. Powley of Altoona, Pennsylvania (whose Texas Longhorn Broadcasting Company sought channel 67). They were soon followed by an Austin radio station in business for 15 years and also seeking channel 24: KVET (1300 AM), which filed on December 12, 1961, in anticipation of a future day when a UHF station could be viable. The Cobb and KVET bids were designated for hearing by theFederal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...
(FCC) in 1962, and KVET got the nod on March 13, 1963.
While KVET manager Willard Deason announced the station would be built at "deliberate speed" and be on the air by early 1965, Austinites would have to wait some time to see it. In 1965, KVET was sold to Butler Broadcasting, channel 24 construction permit included. Butler announced a start date in February or March 1966, then a fall 1967 launch was floated.
KVET filed to sell the construction permit in 1968 to McAlister Television Enterprises, owner of KSEL-TV in Lubbock, for $44,000. McAlister sold a majority stake to several other investors which included former governor Allan Shivers
Robert Allan Shivers (; October 5, 1907 – January 14, 1985) was an American politician who served as the 37th governor of Texas. Shivers was a leader of the Texas Democratic Party during the turbulent 1940s and 1950s and developed the lieutenan ...
, resulting in the creation of the Channel Twenty-Four Corporation as the assignee. The FCC approved in June 1970; the KVET-TV call letters were changed to KVUE, and a site in what was then far north Austin along Shoal Creek was selected for the studios,
The station signed on the air on September 12, 1971, after winds from Hurricane Fern delayed the intended start-up. KVUE was the market's first full-time ABC affiliate and finally gave the capital city the full program lineups from all three networks; prior to KVUE's sign-on, the network's programming had previously been limited to off-hours clearances on KTBC-TV and KHFI-TV.
Growth and ownership changes
In 1978, the Evening News Association, publisher of ''The Detroit News
''The Detroit News'' is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. The paper began in 1873, when it rented space in the rival ''Detroit Free Press'' building. ''The News'' absorbed the ''Detroit Tribune'' on Februar ...
'' and owner of several television stations, purchased KVUE; it was the last locally-owned TV station in the market to be sold. Under Evening News, the station added to its studio facility, doubling its size, in an expansion begun in 1985.
After a hostile takeover bid by Norman Lear
Norman Milton Lear (born July 27, 1922) is an American producer and screenwriter, who has produced, written, created, or developed over 100 shows. Lear is known for many popular 1970s sitcoms, including the multi-award winning '' All in the Fami ...
and Jerry Perenchio was rebuffed, ENA put itself up and sale and was purchased by the Gannett Company
Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. a transaction that closed in early 1986.
One of the state's most important owners of media properties was
KVUE was the first Austin-market television station to make a serious challenge in the local news race, which even after the introduction of two UHF competitors was dominated by KTBC. In May 1981, its ''Action News'' edged out KTBC at 6 and 10 p.m. The station remained a solid first place for the next several years, but a spirited competition emerged between channels 7 and 24 in the ratings for the rest of the decade, with KVUE and KTBC leading at different times. KVUE continued to dominate in the ratings after the 1995 switch of CBS and Fox affiliations, which caused KXAN to surge into second place and a slide for KTBC.
Under news director Carole Kneeland, who guided the KVUE newsroom from 1989 until her death from breast cancer in 1998, the station scaled back its crime coverage—which resulted in national attention and even a feature on ABC's ''
John Oliver Tricked Local News Shows Into Promoting a Bogus "Sexual Wellness Blanket" He Invented
, Retrieved May 24, 2021, "...Oliver tricked three local TV stations—KVUE in Austin, Texas, KMGH-TV (Denver7) in Denver, Colorado, and KTVX (ABC4), in Salt Lake City, Utah—into airing a promo for a completely worthless "sexual wellness blanket" ... all three stations will apparently ... hawk whatever kind of pseudoscience (if you) pay their extraordinarily low rates for sponsored content..."
Belo Corporation
Belo Corporation was a Dallas-based media company that owned 20 commercial broadcasting television stations and three regional 24-hour cable news television channels. The company was previously known as A. H. Belo Corporation after one of the ...
. It owned ''The Dallas Morning News
''The Dallas Morning News'' is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average print circulation of 65,369. It was founded on October 1, 1885 by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the ''Galvesto ...
'' and TV stations in most of the state's important cities: KHOU-TV in Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 ...
, WFAA-TV in Dallas
Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...
, and KENS-TV in San Antonio
("Cradle of Freedom")
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. However, it lacked an Austin property and coveted one, particularly given its impending launch of Texas Cable News
Texas Cable News (TXCN) was an American regional cable news television channel that was owned by the Gannett Company. The channel operated out of offices in Dallas, Texas, located on Young Street in the city's downtown district.
Background Beginn ...
(TXCN). In February 1999, Gannett agreed to a trade with Belo: Belo received KVUE, while Gannett received KXTV in Sacramento
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, and $55 million. With the addition of KVUE, TXCN could provide news and information from the four largest cities in Texas.
On June 13, 2013, Gannett announced that it would acquire Belo for $1.5 billion. The sale was completed on December 23.
On June 29, 2015, the Gannett Company split in two, with one side specializing in print media and the other side specializing in broadcast and digital media. KVUE was retained by the latter company, named Tegna.
Pending sale to Cox Media Group
On February 22, 2022, Tegna announced that it would be acquired by Standard General and Apollo Global Management for $5.4 billion. As a part of the deal, KVUE, along with its Dallas sister stations WFAA and KMPX, and Houston sister stations KHOU and KTBU would be resold to Cox Media Group.News operation
KVUE was the first Austin-market television station to make a serious challenge in the local news race, which even after the introduction of two UHF competitors was dominated by KTBC. In May 1981, its ''Action News'' edged out KTBC at 6 and 10 p.m. The station remained a solid first place for the next several years, but a spirited competition emerged between channels 7 and 24 in the ratings for the rest of the decade, with KVUE and KTBC leading at different times. KVUE continued to dominate in the ratings after the 1995 switch of CBS and Fox affiliations, which caused KXAN to surge into second place and a slide for KTBC.
Under news director Carole Kneeland, who guided the KVUE newsroom from 1989 until her death from breast cancer in 1998, the station scaled back its crime coverage—which resulted in national attention and even a feature on ABC's ''Nightline
''Nightline'' (or ''ABC News Nightline'') is ABC News' late-night television news program broadcast on ABC in the United States with a franchised formula to other networks and stations elsewhere in the world. Created by Roone Arledge, the prog ...
''—and introduced fact-checking of political advertising, a practice soon adopted by stations across the United States. However, by the last years of Gannett ownership, KXAN had started to edge ahead of KVUE, replacing KTBC as channel 24's main competition. The competition between channels 24 and 36 has generally defined Austin television news since; in May 2021, KVUE came second to KXAN in early and late evening news.
In 2014, KVUE won a Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...
for a documentary entitled ''The Cost of Troubled Minds'', about Texas' underinvestment in addressing mental health
Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing cognition, perception, and behavior. It likewise determines how an individual handles Stress (biology), stress, interpersonal relationships, and decision-maki ...
care; this was the first Peabody won by an Austin television station.
On June 1, 2008, KVUE began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. With the transition, KVUE became the first Austin area station to implement HD weather graphics and broadcast field reports in the 16:9 widescreen
Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratio (image), aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ...
format.
Sponsored content controversy
In 2021, the station was tricked into promoting a fake sexual wellness product, "invented" by a team working for late-night political commentary show ''Last Week Tonight
A last is a mechanical form shaped like a human foot. It is used by shoemakers and cordwainers in the manufacture and repair of shoes. Lasts typically come in pairs and have been made from various materials, including hardwoods, cast iron, an ...
'', called the "Venus Veil", which was actually just a blanket; the show's team paid KVUE $2,650 to feature the fake product and an interview with its "creator" as a way to illustrate how stations such as KVUE promote sponsored content without being upfront about the sponsorship, essentially passing off advertising as news.Matthew Dessem, May 24, 2021, Slate MagazineJohn Oliver Tricked Local News Shows Into Promoting a Bogus "Sexual Wellness Blanket" He Invented
, Retrieved May 24, 2021, "...Oliver tricked three local TV stations—KVUE in Austin, Texas, KMGH-TV (Denver7) in Denver, Colorado, and KTVX (ABC4), in Salt Lake City, Utah—into airing a promo for a completely worthless "sexual wellness blanket" ... all three stations will apparently ... hawk whatever kind of pseudoscience (if you) pay their extraordinarily low rates for sponsored content..."
Notable former on-air staff
* Arthel Neville – reporter (later CNN andFox News
The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is o ...
; most recently at KSWB-TV in San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...
)
* Fred Roggin – sports anchor (now at KNBC
KNBC (channel 4) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Corona- ...
in Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...
)
* Walt Maciborski — anchor
* Casey Stegall – anchor/reporter (2004-2005; now Los Angeles bureau correspondent at Fox News Channel
The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is ...
)
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:Analog-to-digital conversion
KVUE shut down its analog signal on February 17, 2009, as part of the FCC-mandated transition to digital television for full-power stations (which Congress had moved the previous month to June 12). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 33, using PSIP to display KVUE'svirtual channel
In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver's ...
as 24 on digital television receivers.
References
External links
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kvue VUE ABC network affiliates Estrella TV affiliates True Crime Network affiliates Quest (American TV network) affiliates Circle (TV network) affiliates Twist (TV network) affiliates Tegna Inc. Television channels and stations established in 1971 1971 establishments in Texas Former Gannett subsidiaries