Subchannels (see article) | Affiliations ABC | |
Branding KVUE (general)
KVUE News (newscasts) Slogan Where Trust is Earned. (general)
Austin's News Station (newscasts) Channels Digital: 33 (UHF)
Virtual: 24 (PSIP) Owner Tegna Media
(KVUE Television, Inc.) | ||
KVUE, virtual channel 24 (UHF digital channel 33), is an ABC-affiliated television station located in Austin, Texas, United States. The station is owned by Tegna, Inc. KVUE maintains studios located on Steck Avenue (Loop 1) in northwest Austin, and its transmitter is located on the West Austin Antenna Farm just west of downtown Austin (which it shares with KEYE-TV).
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History
The station first signed on the air on September 12, 1971, and was originally operated by Center Broadcasting Co. of Center, Texas (owned by Tolbert Foster). The station was the market's first full-time ABC affiliate; prior to KVUE's sign-on, the network's programming had previously been limited to off-hours clearances on KTBC (channel 7), which carried the network through a secondary affiliation with the network (all three networks of the time – ABC, NBC and CBS – had their programming shoehorned onto KTBC's schedule), though most of the market could pick up San Antonio's KSAT-TV with a decent antenna. Unlike most affiliates with the network in then two-station markets, KHFI-TV (channel 36, now KXAN-TV) did not take on a secondary affiliation with ABC when that station signed on in February 1965.
Universal Communications, the broadcasting arm of The Detroit News, purchased KVUE from Center Broadcasting in 1978. The station was acquired by the Gannett Company in 1986 as part of its purchase of The Detroit News. In 1999, Gannett swapped KVUE to Belo Corporation in exchange for KXTV in Sacramento. Previously, Belo had established a Texas-based cable news channel, Texas Cable News (TXCN), a partnership amongst the company's Texas station properties, including KHOU-TV in Houston, WFAA-TV in Dallas and KENS-TV in San Antonio. 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, which once again put KVUE under Gannett ownership and reunited the station with several of its sister stations for the first time in 14 years, as well as becoming a sister station to KXTV in Sacramento for the first time.
In 2014 KVUE won a Peabody Award for a documentary entitled "The Cost of Troubled Minds", about Texas's underinvestment in addressing mental health care. Specifically honored were film-makers Andy Pierrotti, Derek Rasor, Matt Olsen, Patti C. Smith, Frank Volpicella and Michelle Chism.
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.
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's virtual channel as 24 on digital television receivers.
KVUE is the only former Belo-owned ABC affiliate to broadcast its over-the-air signal in 720p (ABC's default HD format).
Programming
Syndicated programming seen on KVUE includes Entertainment Tonight, Live! with Kelly, The Ellen DeGeneres Show and The Insider.
News operation
KVUE-TV presently broadcasts 31 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with five hours on weekdays and three hours each on Saturdays and Sundays).
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 format.