icao code kiah see george bush intercontinental airport . kiah houston texas united states branding cw 39 general newsfix newscasts slogan doing our own thing channels digital 38 uhf virtual 39 psip subchannels 39.1 the cw 39.2 antenna tv 39.3 comet tv affiliations the cw owner tribune broadcasting kiah llc first air date january 6 1967 call letters meaning kiah airport code for george bush intercontinental airport former callsigns khtv 1967 1999 khwb 1999 2006 khcw 2006 2008 former channel number s analog 39 uhf 1967 2009 former affiliations primary independent 1967 1995 the wb 1995 2006 dt2 the tube 2006 2007 transmitter power 1000 kw height 582 m facility id 23394 transmitter coordinates 29 34 6 n 95 29 57 w 29.56833 n 95.49917 w 29.56833 ; 95.49917 kiah licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website cw39.com kiah virtual channel 39 uhf digital channel 38 is a cw affiliated television station located in houston texas united states . the station is owned by the tribune broadcasting subsidiary of the tribune media company . kiah maintains studio facilities adjacent to the westpark tollway on the southwest side of houston and its transmitter is located in unincorporated fort bend county near missouri city . the station is also available on comcast xfinity and at & t u verse channel 5 and in high definition on comcast xfinity channel 605 and at & t u verse channel 1005 . contents 1 history 1.1 origins 1.2 as a wb affiliate 1.3 from the wb to the cw 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 4 news programming 4.1 newsfix and eye opener 4.2 on air staff 4.2.1 notable former on air staff 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit origins edit the station first signed on the air on january 6 1967 as an independent station under the callsign khtv standing for houston television . prior to its debut the channel 39 allocation in houston belonged to the now defunct dumont affiliate knuz tv which existed during the mid 1950s . channel 39 was originally owned by the wky television system a subsidiary of the oklahoma publishing company publishers of oklahoma city s major daily newspaper the daily oklahoman . after the company s namesake station wky tv was sold in 1976 the wky television system became gaylord broadcasting named for the family that owned oklahoma publishing . as houston s first general entertainment independent station khtv ran a schedule of programs including children s shows syndicated programs movies religious programs and some sporting events . one of its best known locally produced programs was houston wrestling hosted by local promoter paul boesch which aired on saturday evenings having been taped the night before at the weekly live shows in the sam houston coliseum . from 1983 to 1985 the station was branded on air as khtv 39 gold . it was the leading independent station in houston even as competitors entered the market including kvrl kdog channel 26 now kriv when it launched in 1971 . during this time khtv was distributed to cable providers as a regional superstation of sorts with carriage on systems as far east as baton rouge louisiana . as a wb affiliate edit channel 39 s studios . prior to its launch in january 1995 the wb agreed to affiliate with khtv and three of its sister stations ktvt in dallas fort worth wvtv in milwaukee and kstw in tacoma washington . however after cbs lost its affiliation with kdfw in dallas fort worth to fox as a result of that network s alliance with new world communications gaylord broadcasting chose to affiliate both ktvt and kstw with cbs . not pleased with gaylord s about face the wb voided its group affiliation contract with gaylord and later took the broadcast group to court for breach of contract . this left houston as the only top 10 television market without an affiliate of the new network for its first few months in existence ; this status came to an end in the fall of 1995 when khtv was acquired by tribune broadcasting which was an investor in the wb controlled by time warner . 1 channel 39 became a wb affiliate on september 20 1995 and began to call itself houston s wb39 . prior to that residents in houston were only able to receive wb network programming via chicago based superstation wgn exclusively on cable . in 1999 the station changed its call letters to khwb to reflect its affiliation . the station subsequently dropped references to its channel number in the early 2000s becoming known as houston s wb . from the wb to the cw edit original cw 39 logo used from 2006 to 2008 ; prior to july 15 2008 the logo featured the khcw call letters . kiah logo from 2008 to 2011 when it was branded as simply channel 39 . former kiah logo from march 28 to december 2011 . on january 24 2006 the warner bros. unit of time warner and cbs corporation which split from viacom in december 2005 announced that the two companies would shut down the wb and upn and combine the networks respective higher rated programs to create a new fifth network called the cw . 2 3 on that same date the cw reached an agreement with tribune broadcasting to have 15 of the group s 18 wb affiliated stations at the time become charter affiliates of the network through a ten year contractual agreement ; 4 5 as a result khwb became the cw s houston affiliate . a few months later the federal communications commission approved a callsign change from khwb to khcw standing for houston s cw which became official on april 27 2006 . on september 13 2006 khcw changed its on air branding from houston s wb to cw 39 restoring the channel number to its branding ; the cw officially launched on september 18 2006 . on july 15 2008 channel 39 changed its call letters to kiah as part of a branding campaign emphasizing the station s local orientation kiah also serves as the icao airport code for george bush intercontinental airport . 6 due to the cw s sagging ratings tribune wanted its cw affiliated stations including kiah to change their on air imaging and de emphasize the network s branding . the station changed to the simplified channel 39 branding on august 29 2008 although channel 39 the cw was used during network promotions . however it was simplified again to just 39 in january 2011 for regular programming and the cw 39 branding returned for use in network promotions though retaining the numeric 39 introduced with the 2008 rebranding ; the cw 39 branding returned full time on march 28 using the slogan real houston to continue to emphasize kiah s local orientation . 7 digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital channel is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 8 39.1 1080i 16 9 kiah dt main kiah programming the cw 39.2 480i 4 3 ant tv antenna tv 39.3 480i 4 3 comet comet kiah as khcw carried the tube music network on its second digital subchannel until the service was discontinued on october 1 2007 . analog to digital conversion edit kiah discontinued regular programming on its analog signal over uhf channel 39 on june 12 2009 as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television . 9 the station s digital signal remained on its pre transition uhf channel 38 10 11 using psip to display kiah s virtual channel as 39 on digital television receivers . programming edit syndicated programming seen on kiah includes crime watch daily the jerry springer show the steve wilkos show and maury . news programming edit when the current incarnation of channel 39 signed on as an independent station it aired hourly news updates between programs during commercial breaks . in august 1990 the station launched its first news department and began producing half hour newscasts at 7 and 11 p.m. a move that was made to fill a gap that kriv had left open following that station s 1989 decision to discontinue its 7 p.m. newscast and move it to 9 p.m. as the fox network had expanded its primetime schedule to additional nights . the 11 p.m. newscast was intended to cater to people that missed the traditional 10 p.m. newscasts though both proved unsuccessful and the news department was ultimately shut down in may 1992 . khtv later khwb did not carry any news programming from that point on until tribune broadcasting required its then wb affiliates that did not already produce their own newscasts to form news departments in 1999 ; the station launched a half hour 9 p.m. newscast in 2000 to compete with kriv s longer running and hour long late evening newscast in that timeslot . the station s then chief meteorologist keith monahan won numerous awards for his weather reports including several texas lone star awards and multiple first place finishes in texas ap judging and was honored with a lone star emmy in 2006 and a lone star emmy nomination in 2007 for the best weathercast in texas . 12 the station expanded its late evening newscast to one hour on june 30 2008 the program previously only expanded to a one hour broadcast due to significant breaking news events . plans originally called for the launch of a weekday morning newscast in 2010 which ultimately never launched along with plans to unveil a new set and the upgrade of its news broadcasts to high definition . 13 on september 28 2009 kiah launched an hour long early evening newscast at 5 p.m. the station then began broadcasting its newscasts in high definition on may 10 2010 with the debut of a new set becoming the last english language network station in the houston market to make the upgrade . however like most tribune owned stations with in house newscasts in hd the locally originated live field reports are also broadcast in the format . newsfix and eye opener edit on march 19 2011 delayed from an originally slated fall 2010 launch kiah relaunched its newscasts and became the pilot station for a new tribune developed news format newsfix . described by kiah general manager roger bare as a newsreel updated for the 21st century 14 the program de emphasizes the traditional use of anchors and reporters preferring instead to use footage featuring those involved in the story . houston radio personality greg onofrio provides continuity as the program s narrator and also appears on screen to provide a commentary segment at the end of the newscast . the plan was to roll out the format to certain other tribune owned stations if newsfix proved successful on kiah ; 15 16 15 dallas sister station kdaf reportedly plans to adopt the newsfix format in 2014 . 17 on may 9 2011 kiah became the test market for another tribune news concept eyeopener . airing weekday mornings from 5 8 a.m. the program is a local national hybrid show billed as a provocative and unpredictable combination of daily news lifestyle entertainment and opinion segments interspersed with half hourly local news weather and traffic inserts presented by a solo anchor from kiah s houston studios 18 with national content initially pre produced at tribune s chicago headquarters . 19 by the fall of 2011 production of eye opener s national segments relocated from chicago to the studios of kiah sister station and fellow cw affiliate kdaf in dallas 20 which began airing eye opener on october 31 of that year along with tribune stations in philadelphia miami and portland which unlike kdaf and kiah do not produce their own news programming . on air staff edit notable former