| Houston, Texas | |
|---|---|
| Branding | My20 |
| Slogan | Look At Us Now |
| Channels | Digital: 19 (UHF) Virtual: 20 (PSIP) |
| Affiliations | MyNetworkTV |
| Owner | Fox Television Stations (Fox Television Stations, Inc.) |
| First air date | November 7, 1982 |
| Call letters' meaning | TeXas Houston |
| Sister station(s) | KRIV Fox Sports Houston |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 20 (UHF, 1982-2009) |
| Former affiliations | Independent (1982-1993) PTEN (1993-1995) UPN (1995-2006) |
| Transmitter power | 421 kW |
| Height | 596 m |
| Facility ID | 51569 |
| Website | www.my20houston.com |
KTXH, digital channel 19 (virtual channel 20), is a MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station in Houston, Texas. It is owned by the Fox Television Stations, a division of the News Corporation, and is one-half of a duopoly with Fox network station KRIV (channel 26).
Along with programming from MyNetworkTV, the station also airs cartoons, sitcoms, first run syndicated talk/reality shows, and some paid programming. Although the station does not carry a regular newscast, it will pre-empt its programming for news coverage from either KRIV or the Fox News Channel (both owned by Fox) when situations warrant.
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KTXH began broadcasting on November 7, 1982, using the on-air branding tagline "20 Vision." Channel 20 became the third independent station in Houston, after KRIV (then owned by Metromedia), and Gaylord Broadcasting's KHTV (channel 39, later KHWB and KHCW and now KIAH). It was also the second station in Texas owned by a group headed by television station entrepreneur Milton Grant.
The group launched a similarly-formatted station, KTXA in Fort Worth, in January 1981. It programmed a general entertainment format consisting of cartoons, vintage off-network sitcoms and dramas, old movies, westerns, and sports.
The fledgling station was broadcasting from a tower under construction that collapsed in 1982, killing seven workers. It was eventually replaced by the Senior Road Tower.
Grant Broadcasting sold both KTXH and KTXA to Gulf Broadcasting in 1984. Several weeks later, Gulf sold its television broadcasting division to Taft Broadcasting. Even after going through three owners within the same year, the station did not change its programming format, aside from adding more programming owned by Taft and distributed by new sister company Worldvision Enterprises, such as Hanna-Barbera cartoons.
Taft sold its group of independent and Fox-affiliated stations, including KTXH and KTXA, to the TVX Broadcast Group in February 1987. Two years later, Paramount Pictures purchased a minority ownership in TVX, which suffered from financial problems after the Taft purchase. Paramount bought out the remainder of TVX's shares in 1991. Under Paramount, the station added several first run syndicated shows in the mid-1990s and rebranded to Paramount 20.
Viacom acquired ownership of KTXH, KTXA, and their sister stations when they purchased Paramount in 1994. The station became an owned and operated station of the United Paramount Network (co-owned by Viacom and Chris-Craft Industries) at the network's launch on 16 January 1995.
KTXH was purchased by Fox Television Stations in 2001, as part of a station trade which saw Viacom exchanging KTXH and WDCA-TV in Washington, D.C. in exchange for KBHK-TV (now KBCW-TV) in San Francisco, which Fox had bought as part of its purchase of Chris-Craft's broadcasting division. The transaction established the first television duopoly in Houston with KRIV and KTXH (Fox had also owned several of KTXH's former sister stations under Taft). Channel 20 also relocated its broadcasting facilities from the original studios on Kirby Drive near present-day Reliant Park to KRIV's studios.
On January 24, 2006, the UPN and WB networks announced that they would merge into a new network called the CW. KHCW, owned by Tribune Broadcasting, was announced as the CW's Houston station. Almost immediately, KTXH dropped the UPN branding from its station branding, and revamped its logo to just feature the boxed "20", and also announced that they would no longer promote any UPN programming.
Additionally, the station began referring to itself in promos as "Houston's 20". Similar changes were also made to Fox's other UPN affiliates, as the CW network list consisted of both stations owned by Tribune and stations owned by CBS. News Corporation also chose not to affiliate stations with the CW in markets where neither Tribune nor CBS (excluding CBS owned-and-operated stations) owned a station.
In June 2006, Channel 20 began the transition to its new network by rebranding as My20. The transition was complete when MyNetworkTV began operations on September 5, 2006. KTXH and its sister stations did not carry the final two weeks of UPN programming, which explained UPN's low-key sign-off. Occasionally as time permits, KTXH may now air Fox network programming whenever KRIV cannot in the event of an emergency.
On October 1, 2009, KTXH launched its new website at www.my20houston.com using the same platform as its sister station KRIV. Early content included a schedule for both local and national programming with links to weather, news, and traffic on www.myfoxhouston.com.
For many years, KTXH was the over-the-air broadcast rights holder for both the Houston Astros baseball team and the NBA's Houston Rockets. Hannah Storm, later a noted national broadcast personality, anchored the station's coverage of the Rockets in the mid-1980s. In 2008, KTXH has once again acquired the rights to air Houston Astros games. They broadcast 20 games in the 2008 season but only five games are scheduled to be shown on the station in 2009.
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