KVIA-TV

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KVIA-TV
El Paso, Texas
Branding	ABC 7
Slogan	Where News Comes First
Channels	7 (VHF) analog, 17 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	ABC Weather on DT3 The CW on DT4
Owner	News-Press & Gazette Company (NPG of Texas, LLC)
Founded	September 1, 1956 (On channel 13, Moved to channel 7 in 1981)
Call letters meaning	K with V-I-A derived from the Roman numeral for 7 which represented former sister station KVII’s channel number in Amarillo.
Former callsigns	KLIT (1956-60), KELP (1960-76)
Former affiliations	None
Website	www.kvia.com

KVIA-TV is an ABC affiliate in El Paso, Texas. It broadcasts its analog signal on VHF channel 7, and its digital signal on UHF channel 17. It is owned by and was the flaghip television station of the News-Press & Gazette Company of St. Joseph, Missouri before the company acquired KRDO-TV. Its transmitter is located in El Paso.

Contents 1 History 2 Personalities 2.1 Anchors 2.2 Reporters 2.3 ABC 7 Sports 2.4 StormTRACK Weather 2.5 Former Staff Members 3 Newscasts 3.1 Monday-Friday 3.2 Saturday 3.3 Sunday 4 Programming Notes 5 References 6 External links

[edit] History

The station signed on the air on September 1, 1956 on channel 13, originally as KILT, and was owned by famous television and radio personality Gordon McLendon. It later adopted the KELP-TV call sign in the 1960s, then the current KVIA-TV call sign after being bought by Stanley Marsh 3 in February 1976. The KVIA swapped channels with PBS member station KCOS on July 10, 1981, moving from channel 13 to channel 7. It is said that the move was made to compete better with KDBC and KTSM. In 1995, KVIA-TV was bought by its current owner, News-Press & Gazette.

KVIA also uses a red version of the "circle 7 logo" as opposed to the more widely-used blue version. The "red 7" is very similar to the logos from Boston, MA's NBC affiliate WHDH and Miami, FL's FOX affiliate WSVN. KVIA's current slogan is "Where News Comes First".

News anchor Gary Warner has been with KVIA since the mid-1970s, except for a few years when he was working for CNN in the late-1980s.

From 1966 until 1993, KVIA had a satellite station based in Carlsbad, New Mexico; KAVE-TV, Channel 6, which carried a circle 6 logo. That station is now a satellite affiliate of Albuquerque's KOAT-TV, Channel 7 and known today as KOCT.

The old KELP-TV Channel 13 was home to the popular dance show Crosno's Hop, hosted by the late El Paso radio DJ Steve Crosno in the 1960s.

KVIA is the first station in El Paso to introduce a computerized weather radar, implemented in 1979.

Since 1993, Gary Warner and Estela Casas have anchored the evening newscasts together, and dubbed as the longest running anchor team.

KELP-TV was the third station on in the growing El Paso area. ch4 KROD-TV signed on in late 1952 from a mountain top site (Comanche Peak), ch9 KTSM-TV had a tall tower at a low place in downtown El Paso (west of town and ch4). KELP signed on from 4530 Delta Drive (also home of 920 KELP (AM) in central El Paso. KELP had studios and transmitters of each station at the site, which was leased from the City of El paso. The site amounted to a landfill next to a sewer, so over the years the studio land subsided, and the floors became uneven (camers had to be chocked in place, and could come loose and run to end of cables or slam into walls, or trip over cables) and outside walls developed gaps through which studio light shone out, and landfill/sewer insects would fly in). Anchors needed to lean with the sets and cameras so that they looked upright on camera.

Power was 28,000 watts on a 350 foot tower (putting the antenna only up about 110 feet above average terrain).

The transmitter of ch 13 was moved to the south end of Comanche Peak just above Scenic Driven in 1961. The studios moved to the west side (off executive center) in 1968.

Before satellites, many smaller market network affiliates had to role their own network connections. KELP-TV leased mountain tops between Phoenix, AZ and El Paso. They picked up ch3 KTVK Phoenix and ch9 KGUN-TV Tucson off air and fed them over several hops of microwave and landed back at the mountain top transmitter of KELP-TV. For a time, this required the transmitter operator at the site to switch between the studio feed and that of the incoming network. Later the station added a backhaul link to get network back to the studios. This then allowed the studio operator to preview network shows befor putting them on air.

[edit] Personalities

[edit] Anchors

• Rachel Abell - ABC 7 at Noon
• Celina Avila - ABC 7 at 4
• Martin Bartlett - Good Morning El Paso Weekend
• Rick Cabrera - Good Morning El Paso & ABC 7 at Noon
• Estela Casas - ABC 7 at 5, 6, & 10
• Hillary Floren - Good Morning El Paso
• Bob Harp - ABC 7 Weekend at 5/6, & 10
• Lizette Luna - ABC 7 Weekend at 5/6, & 10
• Stephanie Valle - Good Morning El Paso Weekend
• Gary Warner - ABC 7 at 5, 6, & 10

[edit] Reporters

• Rachel Abell - General Assignment Reporting for Good Morning El Paso
• Celina Avila - General Assignment Reporting
• Troy Barrett - General Assignment Reporting
• Martin Bartlett - General Assignment Reporting
• Christina Boomer - General Assignment Reporting
• Maria Garcia - General Assignment Reporting
• Bob Harp - General Assignment Reporting
• Darren Hunt - General Assignment Reporting
• Veronique Masterson - General Assignment Reporting
• Ken Molestina - General Assignment Reporting
• Jayme Rubenstein - General Assignment Reporting for Las Cruces Bureau (The New Mexico Mobile Newsroom)

[edit] ABC 7 Sports

• Raul Martinez - Weekdays ABC 7 at 6 & 10
• Autumn Sam - Weekends ABC 7 at 5/6 & 10

[edit] StormTRACK Weather

• "Doppler" Dave Speelman - Chief Meteorologist Weekdays ABC 7 at 4, 5, 6, & 10
• Amber Sullins - Meteorologist Weekdays Good Morning El Paso & ABC 7 at Noon
• Troy Barrett - StormTRACKER Weekends Good Morning El Paso Weekend, ABC 7 at 5/6 & 10

[edit] Former Staff Members

• Fred Albers
• Robert Bettes
• Mike Borschow
• Stu Bowersox
• K.C. Counts
• Alex Delgado
• Rick De Reyes
• Rob Elgas
• Patricio Espinoza
• John Fausett
• Marce Galaviz
• Jim Gamble
• Robert Garcia
• David George
• Rick Glancey
• Monica Gomez
• Brian Heap
• Robert Holguin
• Julia Hilder
• Carolyn Hughes
• Al Hinojos
• Amy Jacobson
• Noreen Jaramillo
• David Johnston (Ono)
• Richard Jordan
• Jason Kadah
• Kim Lamb
• Lillian Maric
• Betsy McArthur
• Myrna Membrilla
• Raymond Mesa
• Suzanne Michaels
• Gary Munday
• Kathy Nemesh
• Robert Nitzburg
• Laura Palka
• Indra Peters
• Alexander Perez
• Rick Provencio
• John Purvis
• Shea Rial
• Sheyenne Rodriguez
• Lou Romano
• Rene Romo
• Kris Sanchez
• Ty Shesky
• Anne Semmer
• Jim Scott
• Larry Wolpe
• Bill Zortman

[edit] Newscasts

[edit] Monday-Friday

• Good Morning El Paso - 5 a.m. to 7 a.m.
• ABC 7 at Noon - 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.
• ABC 7 at Four - 4 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
• ABC 7 at Five - 5 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
• ABC 7 at Six - 6 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
• ABC 7 at Ten - 10 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

[edit] Saturday

• Good Morning El Paso Weekend - 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. & 8 a.m. to 9 a.m.
• ABC 7 at Five - 5 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
• ABC 7 at Six - 6 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
• ABC 7 at Ten - 10 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

[edit] Sunday

• Good Morning El Paso Weekend - 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. & 8 a.m. to 9 a.m.
• ABC 7 at Five - 5 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
• ABC 7 at Ten - 10 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

[edit] Programming Notes

KVIA clears ABC's entire schedule. However, KVIA airs the ABC daytime soap opera lineup out of pattern: KVIA airs General Hospital before One Life to Live. Traditionally, OLTL airs before GH.

[edit] References

• "A History of ABC 7", KVIA.com, January 20, 2006.

[edit] External links

• KVIA Website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KVIA-TV