KFTH-DT

KFTH-DT
CityAlvin, Texas
Channels
BrandingUniMás 67 Houston
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
KXLN-DT, KAMA-FM, KLTN, KOVE-FM, KESS
History
First air date
January 27, 1986 (1986-01-27)
Former call signs
  • KTHT (1986–1987)
  • KHSH (1987–1992)
  • KHSH-TV (1992–2002)
  • KFTH (2002–2003)
  • KFTH-TV (2004–2009)
Former channel number
  • Analog: 67 (UHF, 1986–2009)
Call sign meaning
Telefutura Houston
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID60537
ERP1,000 kW
HAAT579 m (1,900 ft)
Transmitter coordinates29°34′16″N 95°30′38″W / 29.57111°N 95.51056°W / 29.57111; -95.51056
Translator(s)KXLN-DT 45.2 Rosenberg
Links
Public license information
WebsiteUniMás

KFTH-DT (channel 67) is a television station licensed to Alvin, Texas, United States, serving as the Houston-area outlet for the Spanish-language network UniMás. It is owned and operated by TelevisaUnivision alongside Rosenberg-licensed Univision station KXLN-DT (channel 45). The two stations share studios near the Southwest Freeway (adjacent to the I-610/I-69 interchange) on Houston's southwest side; KFTH's transmitter is located near Missouri City, in unincorporated northeastern Fort Bend County. KFTH's main subchannel is also broadcast by KXLN-DT from its transmitter.

Channel 67 was put on the air by Four Star Broadcasting as KTHT, greater Houston's fourth independent station, on January 27, 1986. Its owners sold it to the Home Shopping Network later that year, and it broadcast home shopping programming from November 1986 to January 2002 as KHSH. Univision acquired the group of former HSN-owned stations, USA Broadcasting, and used it to launch Telefutura in January 2002.

History

In April 1982, the Federal Communications Commission assigned channel 67 to Alvin, Texas, at the petition of David Eugene Brown.[2] Four groups applied for the channel, with Four Star Broadcasting winning the construction permit in a settlement approved in November 1983.[3] The winning applicant was a consortium of state legislator Harold Dutton, Boston-based investor Don Moore, and Warburg Pincus[4]—and managed by Jack Moffitt, who arrived in Alvin from WUAB in Cleveland.[5]

KTHT (whose call sign had no meaning[6]) signed on the air on January 27, 1986.[7] Operating as the Houston market's fourth independent station, it had studios in Alvin and an advertising sales office near the Astrodome[4] and broadcast primarily older and cheaper syndicated programs and movies. The existing three independents in Houston—KTXH, KRIV, and KHTV—had bought up enough children's programs that no such shows appeared on channel 67's lineup.[8]

In September, less than nine months after starting up, Four Star agreed to sell KTHT to the Home Shopping Network (HSN) for $15 million as its seventh broadcast TV station.[9] The station began airing 24-hour home shopping programming on November 13[10] and changed its call sign to KHSH, incorporating an H and S for "home shopping", on January 23, 1987.[11]

Barry Diller acquired Silver King Broadcasting, HSN's stations division (later renamed USA Broadcasting), in 1995 with plans to eventually roll out a new format, "CityVision", on the stations in the portfolio. However, after the format failed to take off where it was introduced and the company registered operating losses of $62 million in 2000, Diller opted to sell the stations to Univision in 2001.[12] KHSH changed its call sign to KFTH on January 14, 2002, when it became part of Univision's new secondary network, Telefutura.[13] Telefutura rebranded as UniMás in 2013.[14]

Newscasts

On April 4, 2011, sister station KXLN debuted a weekday morning news program for KFTH, called Vive La Mañana. Like the newscasts on KXLN, it was broadcast in high definition, and was produced out of the station's current news set. Dallas–Fort Worth sister station KUVN-DT used the same brands for their newscasts that are simulcast on sister station KSTR-DT; Vive La Mañana featured a different graphics and music package that is shared by both stations. The program was canceled in March 2015.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of KFTH-DT[15]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
67.1 720p 16:9 KFTH-DT UniMás
67.2 480i 4:3 GetTV Get
67.3 16:9 GRIT Grit
67.4 HSN HSN
67.5 720p KXLN-HD Univision (KXLN-DT)
67.6 480i 4:3 BT2 Infomercials
20.3 480i 16:9 QVC-2 QVC2 (KTXH)
  Simulcast of subchannels of another station
  Broadcast on behalf of another station
  Subchannel broadcast with MPEG-4 video

Analog-to-digital conversion

KFTH-TV ended regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 67, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 36, using virtual channel 67.[16][17]

References

  1. ^ "Facility Technical Data for KFTH-DT". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^ "Station break: FCC assigns Ch. 67 to Alvin". The Houston Post. Houston, Texas. April 3, 1982. p. 16C. Retrieved November 20, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ "For the Record: In Contest". Broadcasting. December 12, 1983. p. 120. ProQuest 1014700786.
  4. ^ a b Frank, Jay (January 4, 1986). "Halley's won't be the only 'Superstar' of '86". The Houston Post. Houston, Texas. p. 5D. Retrieved November 20, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ Watson, Keith (July 30, 1985). "Channel 67 aims for general TV audience". The Houston Post. Houston, Texas. p. 4D. Retrieved November 20, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ Hoffman, Ken (July 22, 1986). "What do those 4-letter words stand for?". The Houston Post. Houston, Texas. p. 4E. Retrieved November 15, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ Hoffman, Ken (January 27, 1986). "Channel 67 plans to make (air)waves today". The Houston Post. Houston, Texas. p. 8A. Retrieved November 15, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ Grace, Bob (January 26, 1986). "Ch. 67 hits airwaves this week". The Houston Chronicle. Houston, Texas. pp. TV Chronilog 6, 7. Retrieved November 20, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "Channel 67 deal is HSN's 7th TV station purchase". The Houston Chronicle. Houston, Texas. September 11, 1986. p. 3:2. Retrieved November 20, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ Freeman, Diane (November 14, 1986). "24-hour home shopping format Buyout of Channel 67 complete". The Houston Post. Houston, Texas. pp. 1C, 2C. Retrieved November 20, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ "KTHT call letters change". The Houston Chronicle. Houston, Texas. January 14, 1987. p. 3:2. Retrieved November 20, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ McClellan, Steve (December 11, 2000). "Univision speaks Barry's lingo: $1.1B" (PDF). Broadcasting & Cable. pp. 18–19. ProQuest 225325811. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
  13. ^ McDaniel, Mike (January 10, 2002). "New Spanish network goes on air Monday". The Houston Chronicle. Houston, Texas. pp. 1D, 4D. Retrieved November 20, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ Malone, Michael (May 7, 2019). "UniMas Rebranding to Live Entertainment Destination". Broadcasting & Cable. Archived from the original on May 7, 2019. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
  15. ^ "TV Query for KFTH". RabbitEars. Archived from the original on January 4, 2014. Retrieved January 4, 2014.
  16. ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. May 23, 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
  17. ^ "Consumer Watch: Stations have more DTV work to do". Houston Chronicle. February 6, 2009. Archived from the original on June 4, 2011.
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