KTMD

KTMD
Galveston/Houston, Texas
United States
City Galveston, Texas
Branding Telemundo Houston (general)
Noticiero Telemundo Houston (newscasts)
Channels Digital: 48 (UHF)
(to move to 22 (UHF))
Virtual: 47 (PSIP)
Subchannels
Affiliations Telemundo (O&O)
Owner NBCUniversal
(NBC Telemundo License LLC)
First air date December 7, 1987 (1987-12-07)
Call letters' meaning TeleMunDo
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog:
  • 48 (UHF, 1987–2002)
  • 47 (UHF, 2002–2009)
Transmitter power 1000 kW
592 kW (CP)
Height 597.1 m (1,959 ft)
597 m (1,959 ft) (CP)
Facility ID 64984
Transmitter coordinates 29°34′15.6″N 95°30′38.2″W / 29.571000°N 95.510611°W / 29.571000; -95.510611Coordinates: 29°34′15.6″N 95°30′38.2″W / 29.571000°N 95.510611°W / 29.571000; -95.510611
Licensing authority FCC
Public license information: Profile
CDBS
Website www.telemundohouston.com

KTMD, virtual channel 47 (UHF digital channel 48), is a Telemundo owned-and-operated television station serving Houston, Texas, United States that is licensed to Galveston. The station is owned by the NBC Owned Television Stations subsidiary of NBCUniversal (which itself is a subsidiary of Comcast). KTMD's studios are located on I-610 and Bevis Street on the northwest side of Houston. The transmitter is located near Missouri City, in unincorporated northeastern Fort Bend County.

History

KTMD's offices in Houston.

The station first signed on the air on December 7, 1987, broadcasting on UHF channel 48 from a transmitter located east of Farm to Market Road 528 south of Friendswood. It has been aligned with Telemundo since its sign-on, as the network began acquiring and affiliating with television stations in several key Spanish-language markets.

In 2002, KTMD was granted permission to move its analog signal to channel 47 in order to operate its digital signal on channel 48, which would operate from a transmitter located in Missouri City rather than Friendswood.[1] The station also cited interference from a station in Bryan for its reasoning to change its channel allocation. KTMD officially moved to channel 47 on November 9, 2002.[2]

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[3]
47.11080i16:9KTMD-HDMain KTMD programming / Telemundo
47.2480i4:3EXITOSTeleXitos

Analog-to-digital conversion

KTMD discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 47, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[4] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 48,[5][6] using PSIP to display KTMD's virtual channel as 47 on digital television receivers.

News operation

Telemundo Houston has served the local community for more than 25 years, broadcasting the market’s first-ever Spanish-language television newscast. As of November 3, 2014, the station produces and airs nine and half hours per week of local news and information programming, offering viewers the most up-to-date local news, weather, sports and entertainment headlines through a variety of platforms, including online at TelemundoHouston.com and via mobile and social media channels.

The station's news department was founded upon the station's 1987 sign-on, with newscasts branded under the title Noticiero 48. KTMD's newscasts were retitled as Noticentro 48 (using the Spanish titling of the NewsCenter brand popular with U.S. television stations during the 1970s and 1980s) the following year, only to revert to the original "Noticiero" title in 1991, with a slight alteration to Noticiero 47 in 2002 to reflect its new channel position on UHF 47. In 2001 The station debuted a morning newscast from 5 am to 6 am. It was the area's only morning newscast, and the station also hired a meteorologist for both the morning and evening newscasts. The station later hired Roberto Repreza and changed its news department.[7] After Tropical Storm Allison hit the area, KTMD and other stations lost revenue.[8] After the September 11th attacks, the station cancelled the morning newscasts and as a result, the station laid off 14 staffers and the anchor was moved to the evening newscasts. The reason for these layoffs was because of low ad revenue.[9]

Telemundo's parent company NBCUniversal moved the locally produced newscast operations to a new regional production center in Ft. Worth, Texas in 2006. However, by February 2010, production of KTMD's local newscasts returned to Houston in the station's northwest Houston studios. Then in 2011, KTMD debuted a local morning newscast, 5am-6am, and also aired morning updates during Un Nuevo Día. However, the station later cancelled the morning newscast in late 2012, electing to instead launch weekend editions resulting in afternoon and late night newscasts seven days a week. Furthermore, on November 3, 2014, KTMD added more local newscasts by launching weekday newscasts at 4:30 p.m.

The station considers Univision owned-and-operated station KXLN-DT and the English news stations to be its competitors in this sector.[10] The 5 p.m. weekend newscasts were later pushed to 4:30 p.m. following Telemundo selection to air movies in that timeslot. On September 18, 2014, Telemundo announced it was launching new 5:30 P.M./4:30 P.M. CT newscasts all of its owned-and-operated stations, including KTMD which will launch the new 4:30 P.M. newscast along all the other Telemundo O&Os starting November 3, 2014.

Notable on-air staff

Notable former on-air staff

References

  1. ↑ "Report and Order DA 02-2288". Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved August 20, 2010.
  2. ↑ McDaniel, Mike (November 8, 2002). "KTMD-TV to move to new channel, increase signal power". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved August 20, 2010.
  3. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for KTMD
  4. ↑ List of Digital Full-Power Stations Archived 2013-08-29 at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ↑ Consumer Watch: Stations have more DTV work to do, Houston Chronicle, February 6, 2009.
  6. ↑ CDBS Print
  7. ↑ http://www.chron.com/entertainment/article/Roberto-Repreza-to-take-on-new-challenge-at-2015716.php
  8. ↑ http://www.chron.com/entertainment/article/Stations-must-deal-with-lost-revenue-due-to-storm-2022673.php
  9. ↑ http://www.chron.com/business/article/Briefs-City-State-2021590.php
  10. ↑ Clotter, Haydee. "Peek Inside Telemundo's Houston Offices and Their Play for TV News." Houston Press. April 10, 2014. Retrieved on April 14, 2014.
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