KTBC-TV News

KTBC is Austin, Texas’ first television station, that signed on Thanksgiving Day 1953. The station was owned by Lady Bird Johnson, wife and future First Lady to President Lyndon Baines Johnson. Because they were the only game in town, the station, like most channels of that day, got to pick from a selction from all the major networks: NBC, CBS, and Dumont.

KTBC made local programmes like “The Uncle Jay Show,” a children’s variety and cartoon programme, and “The Darrell Royal Show,” a sports commentary programme hosted by a University of Texas football coach. When other channels began to appear in Austin, KTBC chose to align itself fully to the CBS network, and remained with that affiliation until 1995. In 1995, KTBC’s then-owner, New World Television, sold all of its assets to the Fox Television Stations Group. KTBC was now in the hands of the Fox Network, and obviously, the station’s affiliation would change accordingly.