Early years
Channel 19 was originally assigned to Victoria in 1952. A. B. Alkek obtained the first construction permit but opted not to build it after instead constructing Tele-Tenna, the town's first cable system.[1] Some interest was shown again in 1957, but no station resulted.[2]
By late 1963, two applications had been received by the Federal Communications Commission, from Guadalupe Valley Telecasting Company—headed by Dwight Strahan—and the Frels family doing business as the Victoria Television Company.[3] A hearing examiner gave the nod to the Frels in June 1964,[4] but the ownership of the construction permit would completely turn over before KXIX broadcast a picture. The permit was assigned to a new Guadalupe Valley Telecasting Company, consisting of the Frels family and Strahan, in 1965.[5] Two years later, the Frels family sold their interests to McKinnon Broadcasting, owner of Corpus Christi ABC affiliate KIII.[6]
Now a joint venture of KIII and Dwight Strahan, KXIX signed on November 22, 1969, after beginning test broadcasts a day earlier.[7] It broadcast color and ABC network programming from KIII and also maintained a studio in Victoria for black-and-white program production.[8]
Victoria Communications Corporation
In June 1975, Victoria Communications Corporation, a consortium of local investors, reached a deal to buy KXIX from Guadalupe Valley for $225,000.[9] The new owners took over on March 17, 1976, and began operating the station independently, severing the link with KIII.[10]
Victoria gained a second station when KAVU-TV channel 25 went on the air in July 1982. Broadcasting, as it had from the start, with an effective radiated power of 14,800 watts,[11] it was far weaker than KAVU. In February 1984, the station increased its effective radiated power to 154,000 watts, increasing its signal area by some 50 percent,[12] and changed its call sign to the present KVCT. The new transmitter posed problems for the station, which had to buy replacement parts; claiming manufacturer Harris Corporation misrepresented its features, Victoria Communications sued Harris.
The Christian era
By the late 1980s, Victoria's two television stations were both facing their own difficulties, and they were connected by one party. In 1989, the First Victoria National Bank acquired KAVU-TV as part of a settlement in a case involving representations to investors in that station. As KAVU's former general manager warned, the bank then foreclosed on KVCT and, in a move that turned Victoria into a market with one commercial television station, consolidated its commercial operation with KAVU-TV at that station's facilities.[14]
KAVU-TV and the station's real estate assets sold to Withers Broadcasting for approximately $1.52 million, while KVCT sold for $1.5 million.[15] Approval of the transactions was delayed, as Withers could not retain both licenses and needed to find a buyer for KVCT; the deal was approved after striking a deal with Jerianne Medley of Friendswood in March 1990.[16]
The Withers purchase and KVCT divestiture were completed in early July 1990; on July 5, all of KVCT's sales staff and most of its news team reported to work at KAVU,[17]
Fox 19
The fall of 1994 brought KVCT its eventual savior—the same group that had merged its commercial assets with KAVU-TV four years prior. Under a lease agreement with Withers Broadcasting, KVCT returned to the air on September 11 as the market's first Fox affiliate; previously, viewers depended on Foxnet to see the network's programs.[23][24] The station license was transferred to VictoriaVision, Inc., controlled by prior acting general manager Proctor. A local newscast was briefly produced by KAVU-TV as well, ending in 1999 when it was replaced with The News of Texas.[25]
Saga Communications acquired KAVU-TV from Withers in 1998.[26] That year, control of VictoriaVision passed to Dana R. Withers; the next year, the station was sold outright to Surtsey Productions of Grosse Pointe, Michigan.[27]
