KYAZ

KYAZ, virtual channel 51 (UHF digital channel 47), is an Azteca América owned-and-operated television station serving Houston, Texas, United States that is licensed to Katy. The station is owned by Una Vez Más Holdings, LLC. KYAZ maintains studio facilities located at One Arena Place on Bissonnet Street on Houston's southwest side, and its transmitter is located in unincorporated northeastern Fort Bend County (near Missouri City). The station is also available on Comcast Xfinity channel 2 and AT&T U-verse channel 51, and in high definition on Comcast Xfinity channel 616.

History

As an independent station

The station first signed on the air on November 3, 1993 as KNWS-TV, a 24-hour all-news station that was owned by Johnson Broadcasting. The all-news format featured special segments, and pre-recorded newscasts that were looped, then updated, throughout the day. Throughout 1995, the station simulcast live coverage of the OJ Simpson Trial from KTLA in Los Angeles.

KNWS began cutting back on its news programming in November 1996; following a canceled sale to home shopping operator Global Broadcasting Systems in 1997, the station abandoned its all-news format entirely on January 1, 1998 and became a traditional independent station, broadcasting syndicated classic television series and movies, as well as Houston Astros baseball games (many of the games were also simulcast on sister station KLDT in Lake Dallas, Texas). It also maintained local news updates, using the remains of the station's old newsroom. During this time, the station adopted the slogan "TV 51 Has The Shows You Know". By 2000, however, some of the programming had been dropped in favor of infomercials, a trend that would continue over the next decade. The Astros remained on KNWS until 2008, when the team's game telecasts moved to KTXH (channel 20).