KPRC-TV - History

History

The station first broadcast on January 1, 1949, as KLEE-TV, and was owned by hotelier W. Albert Lee. It was the first television station in Houston and the 12th in the United States. Lee never did reasonably well with his station, and on June 1, 1950, KLEE-TV was purchased by the Hobby family, owners of the Houston Post, who had signed on KPRC radio in 1925 as Houston's first radio station. The television station's call letters were changed to match its radio cousin on July 3, 1950.

KPRC-TV has been an NBC affiliate from the very first day since NBC Radio had good relations with its radio counterpart. Due to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) VHF freeze, KPRC, the only Houston television station for four more years, carried secondary affiliations with CBS, ABC and DuMont until KGUL-TV (now KHOU-TV) and KXYZ (now KTRK-TV) signed on and respectively took over CBS and ABC full time. The DuMont network went defunct in 1956, though it had carriage on UHF station KNUZ-TV (now KIAH's frequency) for a while. Because of its affiliation with NBC, KPRC was the first station in Houston to broadcast the first color program in Houston and was subsequently the first to broadcast in full color.

The station originated from studios on Post Oak Road near what would later become the Galleria shopping complex in Uptown Houston. KPRC was the first station in Houston with weather radar, videotape for field reporting, the first TV station with a fully staffed Austin news bureau, and the first TV station in Houston to hire female and African-American reporters.

From 1969 until 1998, KPRC produced the longest-running syndicated television program in Texas, The Eyes of Texas, which focused on lifestyle segments relating to Texas culture and life, which continues to air on KUHT. KPRC was also one of the first stations to air telethons, raising $28,000 for the American Cancer Society in 1950. It has carried the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon, sponsored by the Muscular Dystrophy Association, every Labor Day since 1970.

In March 1972, KPRC-TV moved into its state-of-the-art studios on the Southwest Freeway in Houston's Sharpstown neighborhood, where it remains to this day. The three studios located within the building are suspended from the ground to reduce vibration.

In 1983, the Houston Post was sold to MediaNews Group, while the Hobby's broadcast holdings were reorganized as H&C Communications, making KPRC the flagship television station of H&C. After 40 years of ownership by the Hobby family, KPRC was sold to the Washington Post in April 1994. The Houston Post was bought by Hearst and absorbed into its Houston Chronicle, with the last edition printed in April 1995. Since 2004, KPRC has been branded "Local 2."