Editing KPRC-TV (section)

==History==
The station first [[sign-on|signed on]] the air on January 1, 1949, as KLEE-TV.<ref>{{cite news |last=Bland |first=Kathleen |title=TV To Go On the Air Tonight: Estimated 2000 Sets Awaiting Inauguration |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-houston-post-tv-to-go-on-the-air-ton/173155462/ |access-date=May 26, 2025 |newspaper=The Houston Post |date=January 1, 1949 |location=Houston, Texas |pages=1, [https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-houston-post-tv-starts-here-today/173155500/ 3] |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> It was Houston's first television station and the second one to sign on in Texas, three months behind [[Fort Worth]] station WBAP-TV (now [[KXAS-TV]]) and over eight months ahead of [[Dallas]] station KBTV (now [[WFAA]]). It was originally owned by hotelier W. Albert Lee and carried programming from all four networks of the day—NBC, [[CBS]], [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]], and [[DuMont Television Network|DuMont]]. After a year of difficulty, Lee sold the station to the Hobby family, owners of the ''[[Houston Post]]'' and Houston's oldest radio station, [[KPRC (AM)|KPRC]] (950 AM) and KPRC-FM (99.7, now [[KODA]] at 99.1). The Hobby Family took control on June 1, 1950, and changed the television station's [[call signs in North America|call sign]] to match its radio stations on July 3.<ref>{{Cite web |title=FCC History Cards for KPRC-TV |url=https://cdbs.recnet.com/corres/?doc=85313 |access-date=November 3, 2024 |publisher=[[Federal Communications Commission]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Westheimer |first=David |title=The Post Takes Over KLEE-TV Operation |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-houston-post-the-post-takes-over-kle/173378343/ |access-date=May 29, 2025 |newspaper=The Houston Post |date=June 1, 1950 |location=Houston, Texas |pages=1, [https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-houston-post-tv-station-plans-told/173378388/ 6] |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Although it appears that the call letters stand for "[[Houston Post-Dispatch|Post-Dispatch]] Radio Company", they actually stand for "K(C)otton Port Rail Center", a nod to Houston's role in the cotton trade.

After the Hobbys took over, channel 2 became a primary NBC affiliate due to KPRC radio's longstanding affiliation with the [[NBC Red Network]]. Due to the [[Federal Communications Commission]] (FCC)-imposed [[Federal Communications Commission#Freeze of 1948|freeze on new station licenses]], channel 2 remained the only television station in Houston for four more years.{{r|earlytelevision}} CBS moved its affiliation to KGUL-TV (channel 11, now [[KHOU]]) in 1953 and [[KTRK-TV]] (channel 13) took over the ABC affiliation when it signed on one year later. DuMont ceased operations in 1956, though it was briefly affiliated with now-defunct [[KNUZ-TV]] (channel 39, frequency now occupied by [[KIAH]]). Because of its affiliation with NBC, KPRC-TV was the first station in Houston to broadcast a program in [[color television|color]] and was subsequently the first to broadcast its entire schedule in color.

In March 1953, the station operated its first permanent studio located on 3014 Post Oak Road, which later became the [[Lakes on Post Oak]] near the [[Houston Galleria|Galleria]] shopping complex in [[Uptown Houston]]. The studio building was along the street frontage, while the KPRC radio [[transmitter]] site was in the rear of the lot. The station became the source of controversy after some television viewers in the United Kingdom claimed to receive its signal on September 14, 1953, three years after the original signal was transmitted. However, this was actually a [[hoax]].<ref>{{cite web |date=March 8, 2000 |title=The Mysterious Legend of KLEE-TV |url=http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/klee.htm |access-date=November 3, 2024 |website=Snopes.com}}</ref> Over the years, the Hobby family bought several other television stations, including [[KVOA-TV]] in [[Tucson]], [[KCCI]] in [[Des Moines]], [[WTVF]] in [[Nashville]], [[WESH]] in [[Orlando, Florida|Orlando]], and [[KSAT-TV]] in [[San Antonio]].

In March 1972, KPRC-TV moved into a new state-of-the-art studio facility in the Sharpstown area (then part of unincorporated [[Harris County, Texas|Harris County]]) where it operated from for 45 years. Built on property originally lent to [[Houston Baptist University]], KPRC-TV chose the site to build its new facilities in large part due to its location on the feeder road of the [[Southwest Freeway (Houston)|Southwest Freeway]]. The building housed three studios which were suspended from the ground to reduce vibration, and when viewed from space via satellite map, the building resembled a [[film camera]].

In 1983, the Hobbys sold the ''Houston Post'' to [[MediaNews Group]], while the family's broadcast holdings were reorganized as [[H&C Communications]], with KPRC-AM-TV remaining as the [[flagship (broadcasting)|flagship]] stations. (KPRC-FM was sold in 1958.) After 40 years under Hobby family ownership, KPRC-TV was sold to [[The Washington Post Company]] on April 22, 1994; an attempt to sell the station to [[Young Broadcasting]] in 1992 was unsuccessful.<ref>{{cite web |title=SEC Filing |url=http://www.ghco.com/node/13671/html |access-date=November 3, 2024 |publisher=Graham Holdings Company |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=May 20, 1992|title=Hobby family sells most of media empire|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/05/20/Hobby-family-sells-most-of-media-empire/9383706334400/|access-date=August 6, 2021|website=UPI|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Burnett|first=Richard|date=February 19, 1993|title=PULITZER PUBLISHING PLANS TO BUY WESH-CHANNEL 2|url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1993-02-19-9302191225-story.html|access-date=August 6, 2021|website=Orlando Sentinel|language=en-US}}</ref> (The ''Houston Post'' was then bought by the [[Hearst Corporation]] and absorbed into its ''[[Houston Chronicle]]'', with the last edition printed on April 18, 1995.) In 2004, KPRC-TV was rebranded "Local 2". In January 2015, KPRC-TV dropped the "Local" and began simply calling itself "Channel 2".
[[Image:OldKPRC.PNG|100px|thumb|KPRC-TV's original "[[Flag of Texas|Lone Star]] 2" logo, used from late 1994 to 2004: The current logo (shown in the infobox) is very similar to the original, but is enhanced for HD.]]
In December 2015, KPRC-TV broke ground on a new studio, behind the old studio in the employee parking lot, on the same Sharpstown site. While the old studio was {{convert|90000|sqft|m2|0}}, the new studio would have only {{convert|65000|sqft|m2|0}}.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.click2houston.com/news/kprc2-debuts-new-broadcast-center-in-sw-houston|title=KPRC2 debuts new broadcast center in SW Houston|date=April 7, 2017}}</ref> The new studios were dedicated in April 2016, and the previous 45-year-old studios were demolished.

Since October 1994, KPRC-TV has used the familiar "[[Flag of Texas|Lone Star]] 2" logo, which was modified in 2004 for [[high-definition television|HD]]. The "two" in KPRC-TV's current logo is vertically parallelogrammed and similar to former logos used by [[KCBS-TV]] in Los Angeles (1994) and [[WMAR-TV]] in [[Baltimore]] (1998) but with the CBS and ABC logos (respectively) in place of the NBC one; neither logo uses the Texas star.

The film and video archives of KPRC have been partially digitized by the [[Texas Archive of the Moving Image]] and approximately 250 clips can be viewed on their website.