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KHOU Building Flooded


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I have a great idea that KHOU and KUSA can do to save satellite time. They can plug in a TVU or LiveU box to dedicated internet and transport the KUHT feed to KUSA. A LiveU can send 20Mbps signal.

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Is ABC's thing a telethon or is it just cutins? The things I've been reading haven't made it clear... sorry if I'm hijacking the thread btw.

Not sure, but (some of) the locals will have on-air phone banks.

 

WLS (Windy City Live talk show studio):

 

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That may be partially why, although for a different reason: WFAA cannot provide them CBS programming although it is a best friend for news coverage. They could have used KENS, KYTX or WWL in partnership though as well...

In fairness, KENS was itself too busy to assist, and who knows if either they or WWL had/have the capability WFAA and KUSA have?

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The only good thing is that this is in the dead of summer when only "Big Brother", "AGT" and "Zoo" fans will get mad at pre-emptions (along with the usual soap fanatics, but that's what text recaps are for).

 

or football fans who will watch any preseason game even if their favorite team isn't playing

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KHOU started playing out recorded packages from KUHT yesterday evening and today they are able to display slides on screen for V/Os and take some live shots without needing KUSA, so they seem to be making small steps toward being able to produce newscasts from KUHT.

 

To be fair they've had prerecorded content since they came back up using WFAA. It's impossible to tell who's actually playing them, unless you have some insider knowledge here.

 

I have a great idea that KHOU and KUSA can do to save satellite time. They can plug in a TVU or LiveU box to dedicated internet and transport the KUHT feed to KUSA. A LiveU can send 20Mbps signal.

 

Once the roads clear up it won't be that difficult to get them a proper satellite out to the transmitter or even a trailer out behind their flooded out building to run master control out of. If they had their rack room on the second floor, that equipment should just come right back on.

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At 3:55AM Houston time, KHOU's coverage briefly signed off to perform some technological changes. A report that ran right before hand said that the change involved changing satellites, which will allow CBS programming to be broadcast to Houston (they didn't say when CBS programming would resume on KHOU).

 

So it sounds like a master control facility has been established elsewhere in the Tegna chain? Maybe it's in Denver?

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Ahh, okay. KTRK looks like they tapped out for the 20/20 special - they hinted they would take that - but the others still seem to be going. KPRC is doing commercial breaks. Dunno what KHOU can do at the moment...

 

KHOU can't do anything revenue related until they rebuild their spot playback files...

 

Because we all know that TV stations keep backups of those offsite...just in case of a thousand year flood.

 

How many news packages have we all seen warning us to "backup your files...."

 

I'm sure i'm wrong, and KHOU had a briefcase stashed in OKC with all the sales contacts...and all the commercial videos.

 

The good news is those scuba divers can recover the hard drives from the servers...those could be saved.

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WFAA reporter Jason Whitely, who formerly worked at KHOU, posted photos of the food aftermath in the newsroom, control room, and studio.

 

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1688227987916480

 

It looks like they managed to rescue the news studio cameras before the water got in (in one of the Facebook Live videos during the move upstairs, techs were rescuing the cameras from the other studio), along with one of the big monitors on the weather set... Priorities!

 

They may have dogged a bullet, that one photo looking into the room that is just filled with construction debris was being remodeled. Whatever offices were there got relocated probably just a few days before the flood.

 

Assuming TOC was on the second floor, they should be able to recover master control and all their spot files fairly rapidly.

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Unless KHOU just can't afford it, the studios should be moved. .... It's dangerous to be separated from a large bayou by Allen Parkway.

 

They can rebuild at the same location as long as they keep all the critical stuff above the new "high tide' line. make the first few floors parking. Plenty of flood prone areas require more height as a rquirement when rebuilding.

 

Put the place on stilts.

They actually have a nice central location. How much land do they own?

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they should make their building like this.

 

have the first floor be nothing but Parking garage then have 2 other floors on top of that as the main KHOU Building. then have all of the windows and gates closed off like a mall. and if power ever goes out they use backup power and transmissions would be separate.

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they should make their building like this.

 

have the first floor be nothing but Parking garage then have 2 other floors on top of that as the main KHOU Building. then have all of the windows and gates closed off like a mall. and if power ever goes out they use backup power and transmissions would be separate.

 

The other, and most important thing: reinforce and strengthen their floodgates to the nth degree. KHOU simply was unprepared for what's being regarded as a 1,000 year flood.

 

And do what WVEC did, and have a backup facility... only I'd make it more of a regional facility that either KHOU, KCEN, WFAA, KYTX or KBMT could use in an emergency situation.

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The other, and most important thing: reinforce and strengthen their floodgates to the nth degree. KHOU simply was unprepared for what's being regarded as a 1,000 year flood.

 

And do what WVEC did, and have a backup facility... only I'd make it more of a regional facility that either KHOU, KCEN, WFAA, KYTX or KBMT could use in an emergency situation.

 

Now that there are more stations owned by Tegna in Texas, this needs to be seriously considered. Said facility should be inland somewhere in an area not known to flood extensively and with good road access.

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Now that there are more stations owned by Tegna in Texas, this needs to be seriously considered. Said facility should be inland somewhere in an area not known to flood extensively and with good road access.

 

Throw some money into WFAA and give them the infrastructural to be the KUSA of the south.

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Throw some money into WFAA and give them the infrastructural to be the KUSA of the south.

 

I always figured that to be WFAA's unofficial title...especially after the Kennedy assassination (although I wasn't around then). With them being Belo's flagship, it suited them...and even now being owned by Tegna, I can see them being the regional leader for Tegna. (More on that idea in a few)

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Throw some money into WFAA and give them the infrastructural to be the KUSA of the south.

 

They could easily do that in the former TXCN studios if they were willing to spend the money ...

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KHOU has been at their studios north of 50 years, right?

 

So they have to own the land and the building outright, right? They're not leasing?

 

That could honestly be much a factor in moving as anything else. It will of course depend on the insurance assessment, but a part of me thinks they'll try to salvage the building, especially if only the first floor flooded. It will be expensive--it may be foolish--but it may make more sense long-term than trying to lease a place in a new era where the value of flood-proof real estate is likely to go way up.

 

Side note: Remember when WWL was supposed to get a brand new facility in the mid-2000s? Then Katrina happened. They're still waiting.

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KHOU has been at their studios north of 50 years, right?

 

So they have to own the land and the building outright, right? They're not leasing?

 

That could honestly be much a factor in moving as anything else. It will of course depend on the insurance assessment, but a part of me thinks they'll try to salvage the building, especially if only the first floor flooded. It will be expensive--it may be foolish--but it may make more sense long-term than trying to lease a place in a new era where the value of flood-proof real estate is likely to go way up.

 

Side note: Remember when WWL was supposed to get a brand new facility in the mid-2000s? Then Katrina happened. They're still waiting.

KHOU moved in to the building in 1960..they have been there for more than 55 years. So yes, they do own the land and the building. In fact I think all of the Houston stations actually do own the land there stations are on.

 

The valuation of the land is $10.9M dollars from last years tax records and it rose from $8.9M in the 2015 tax roll.

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Now that there are more stations owned by Tegna in Texas, this needs to be seriously considered. Said facility should be inland somewhere in an area not known to flood extensively and with good road access.

 

Somewhere like Conroe would work well for that. Centrally located and usable by all their stations.

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KCEN's old building would have been a great centrally-located statewide backup facility but I drove past there a couple weeks ago en route to the eclipse and it looked like they had demolished everything but the transmitter equipment.

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Would Tegna be willing to do that? Also remember that Conroe also flooded in this as did a lot of other communities in surrounding counties. This is going to be depending on what TEGNA decides to do. As mentioned earlier, they are sitting on a near $11M piece of property in Downtown Houston. The earlier idea of making the first floor just parking and elevating the building like shown here with the COX Radio building in Hollywood, FL (Miami COX Radio Cluster) could work. We will see what happens.1273230405_coxradio.jpg.45501aa565ae63fbbfcb6875e585cf3c.jpg

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