KTRK-TV - News Programming

News Programming

KTRK is widely noted for having the most experienced news team in Greater Houston, the tenth-largest media market in the United States. Many of the station's anchors and reporters have been at the station for at least 20 years, some even dating back to the station's days under Capital Cities ownership. Dave Ward has been the station's main anchor since 1965, longer than anyone in Houston television history. Two other notable long-time personalities are sports director Bob Allen, who has served in that position since 1974, longer than any other major-market sports director, and investigative reporter Wayne Dolcefino, who had worked for KTRK from 1985 until 2012 and had won many awards for a number of high-profile civic and consumer investigations with his 13 Undercover franchise.

KTRK also became known for its legendary consumer and investigative reporter, Marvin Zindler, whose week-long 1973 reports on a brothel in La Grange, Texas led to the closing of the Chicken Ranch, a bordello that was later immortalized in the musical and film, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and ZZ Top's hit song "La Grange." Zindler was also widely noted in Houston for his Friday night Rat and Roach Report on Houston restaurants that failed health inspections, which ended with his trademark line "Slime in the Ice Machine". Zindler signed a lifetime contract with KTRK in 1988, making him the first person ever offered such a contract by then-owner Capital Cities, which was known as a financially frugal company. Zindler continued to work for the station until his death in 2007 from pancreatic cancer, even filing reports from his hospital bed during treatment. Since his death, Zindler's former producer, Lori Reingold has picked up where he left off. She was instrumental in helping find "Marvin's Angels", wrote much of his copy and will be continuing under the segment name, "Action's Angels".

In the 1970s and 1980s, Ward, along with Allen, Zindler, and weatherman Ed Brandon, led Houston's top-rated news team at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. The lineup was later revised to include a female anchor, Shara Fryer in the 1990s, followed by current chief meteorologist Tim Heller in lieu of Brandon at 10 p.m. in 2002, and the replacement of Fryer with Gina Gaston the following year. In 2007, Brandon retired from the station after a 35-year career, but has occasionally filled in. On September 4, 2012, The lineup was revised to include a sports director Bob Allen, followed by current sports director Greg Bailey in lieu of Allen at 10 p.m.

The station's newscast, 13 Eyewitness News, has been number one in the Houston market for most of the last 30 years. It is also one of the highest-rated newscasts in the country. In recent years, however, KTRK has faced strong challenges from rival CBS affiliate KHOU-TV, often battling with KHOU for number one during its evening newscasts. In the beginning of 2005, CBS affiliate KHOU-TV stepped up its news operations, and overtook KTRK during evening newscasts and at one time ousted KTRK's longtime No. 1 position in the mornings. KHOU-TV's victory in the ratings was mainly credited to the turn to hard news, the switch to HD, and its dedicated news team with Greg Hurst and Lisa Foronda at the helm of channel 11. KTRK-TV recently took the lead again in the mornings, as well as at midday, and 5 p.m. The rivalry is so intense that KTRK has even gone as far as advertising its newscasts as the most watched in Houston in terms of total households for all of its newscasts. KTRK-TV has always led in household ratings, something it continues to do. It broadcasts more hours of local news than any other Houston television station with six hours on weekdays, two and a half hours on Saturday and four hours on Sunday.

On August 12, 2007, KTRK began fully producing Eyewitness News in HD (HD helicopter and HD tower cam since mid-2006), making KTRK the second Houston station after KHOU and the seventh ABC owned-and-operated station after KABC in Los Angeles, WPVI in Philadelphia, WABC in New York City, WLS in Chicago, KGO in San Francisco and KFSN in Fresno to make the transition, although technically, KTRK had the first HD images broadcast during its newscasts (helicopter and weather camera) before any other station in Houston.

The victory for Channel 11 ended in 2007, as it slipped into the #2, and even #3 in some time slots. Since November 5, 2007, KTRK has reclaimed its victory as Houston's most watched station from sign-on to sign-off. Station promos state based on Nielsen's October 2007 ratings, 13 Eyewitness News is Houston's #1 newscast in Eyewitness News This Morning (5:00–7:00 am), Eyewitness News at 4 (4:00–5:00 pm), Live at Five (5:00–5:30 pm), Eyewitness News at 6 (6:00–7:00 pm) and Eyewitness News Tonight (10:00–10:35 pm). However KTRK wasn't able to recover from its 11am newscast, which came in second to KHOU's noon newscast (channel 13 was #1 at 11am though; but not for the entire midday block) until 2009, when it took the midday time slot from channel 11 which runs a noon newscast. The station also had major victories for 2008 election night and 2009 inauguration day, all the victories were won by a wide margin. This widens channel 13's lead over all other stations in the market, marking 30+ years that KTRK has remained number 1 in Houston. In the November 2009 sweeps period, Channel 11 regained the midday news lead. ABC 13 continues to dominate its competition in every other dayparts, except midday. In addition, KTRK ranks #1 among various demographics such as young women (25-35), African Americans, and suburban audiences.

On August 17, 2009, it was the first station in the market to begin airing a 4:30 AM newscast, beating KPRC by one week and KHOU by three.