KVUE

About KVUE

KVUE, known on the air simply by its call letters, is the ABC-affiliated television station serving Austin, Texas. Broadcasting on channel 24, the station is owned by Tegna and has been Austin's full-time ABC affiliate since it signed on in September 1971, making it one of the few major-market stations in America to have kept the same network affiliation for its entire existence. With the slogan "Austin's News Station," KVUE is one of Central Texas's leading news operations, known for its investigative journalism, award-winning documentaries, and deep coverage of the capital city. Its call letters, pronounced "view," are among the most distinctive in Texas broadcasting.

The Long Road to Sign-On

KVUE's journey to the air was one of the longest in Austin broadcast history. In the fall of 1961, the Federal Communications Commission began receiving applications for channel 24 in Austin. Among the applicants was KVET, the Austin radio station on 1300 AM, which filed on December 12, 1961, anticipating a future day when a UHF station could be viable. After comparative hearings, KVET won the construction permit on March 13, 1963. But the station would not sign on for another eight years. KVET was sold to Butler Broadcasting in 1965, and the construction permit was later sold to McAlister Television Enterprises in 1968, with a majority stake going to investors including former Texas governor Allan Shivers, creating the Channel Twenty-Four Corporation. The FCC approved the transfer in June 1970, the KVET-TV call letters were changed to KVUE, and a studio site along Shoal Creek in what was then far north Austin was selected. The station finally signed on the air on September 12, 1971, after winds from Hurricane Fern delayed the intended launch.

Austin's First Full-Time ABC Affiliate

KVUE's debut filled a longstanding gap in Austin television. Before channel 24 signed on, ABC programming in the market had been limited to off-hours clearances on KTBC-TV and KHFI-TV, meaning Austinites often missed the network's prime-time lineup or watched it at odd hours. KVUE was the market's first full-time ABC affiliate, finally giving the capital city the complete program schedules of all three major networks. The "VUE" in the call letters, pronounced "view," gave the station a memorable identity from day one. The station was originally operated by Center Broadcasting Company of Center, Texas, owned by Tolbert Foster. Notably, KVUE and NBC affiliate KXAN are the only two Austin stations to have kept the same network affiliations through the market's affiliation upheavals of 1995 and 2006, a testament to the stability of the station's network relationship.

Ownership: From Center Broadcasting to Tegna

Universal Communications, the broadcasting arm of The Detroit News, purchased KVUE from Center Broadcasting in 1978. In 1986, the Gannett Company acquired the station as part of its purchase of The Detroit News, bringing KVUE into one of America's largest newspaper-broadcast combinations. In 1999, Gannett traded KVUE to the Belo Corporation in exchange for KXTV in Sacramento, California, plus $55 million, a deal that gave the Dallas-based Belo a station in the capital city and coverage of two-thirds of Texas television households. Gannett and Belo merged in 2013 in a $1.5 billion deal, returning KVUE to Gannett ownership and reuniting it with former sister stations. In 2015, Gannett split its publishing and broadcasting businesses, and the broadcast company took the name Tegna, which owns KVUE today. Through every transition, the station's ABC affiliation and Austin identity remained unchanged.

KVUE News and Investigative Journalism

KVUE brands its newscasts as KVUE News and calls itself "Austin's News Station," a claim backed by one of the largest television newsrooms in Central Texas. The station produces local newscasts throughout the day, from early-morning shows through midday, evening, and late-night broadcasts. Its journalists cover Austin's city government, Travis County, the Texas Legislature and state government, the technology sector, education, and growth and development. The station's investigative unit has produced some of the most honored accountability journalism in Texas, and its "Defenders" franchise has a long history of consumer and government investigations. The newsroom's enterprise reporting on state politics carries particular weight given the station's location in the capital city, where its coverage of the Legislature reaches a statewide audience.

Peabody Award and Documentary Work

In 2014, KVUE won a Peabody Award, one of the highest honors in broadcast journalism, for "The Cost of Troubled Minds," a documentary examining Texas's underinvestment in mental health care. The film represented the station's commitment to long-form journalism on issues of profound public importance, and the Peabody recognized the work of the station's filmmakers and producers. The documentary tradition at KVUE reflects a newsroom culture that values depth alongside daily news coverage. The station has continued to produce in-depth special reports and documentaries on topics ranging from criminal justice to public health, earning recognition from journalism organizations and distinguishing its news brand in a competitive market.

Weather Coverage in Central Texas

Central Texas weather is among the most volatile in America, and KVUE's meteorologists are essential viewing. The station provides wall-to-wall coverage of flash floods, which kill more Texans than any other weather hazard, along with tornadoes, hailstorms, severe thunderstorms, and extreme heat. Austin's position on the edge of the Hill Country makes it vulnerable to sudden, violent flooding when tropical moisture meets the region's rocky terrain, and the station's weather team tracks these events with radar and on-the-ground reporting. During hurricane season, the station covers tropical systems threatening the Texas coast and their inland effects. The station's weather apps and alert systems push warnings directly to viewers' phones, and its meteorologists are fixtures of morning and evening newscasts.

Sports Coverage

KVUE's sports department covers the University of Texas Longhorns with the thoroughness the program's national prominence demands, reporting on football, basketball, baseball, and Olympic sports year-round. The station also covers Austin FC of Major League Soccer, whose arrival gave the city its first major professional sports franchise, along with the market's minor-league baseball and the deep tradition of Central Texas high school football. As an ABC affiliate, the station carries the network's national sports programming, including high-profile college football broadcasts, NBA games, and championship events. Friday night high school football coverage each fall is a staple, with the station's cameras fanning out across the region's stadiums. The intersection of Longhorns passion and ABC's sports rights makes athletics a cornerstone of the channel 24 schedule.

Studios, Transmitter, and Technical Details

KVUE's studios are located in North Austin, near the Shoal Creek site selected before the station's 1971 sign-on, in what has grown from far north Austin into the heart of the city's technology corridor. The station's transmitter is located in Westlake Hills, just west of downtown Austin, broadcasting across the metropolitan area and the surrounding Hill Country. The station transmits digitally on UHF channel 33 while displaying as virtual channel 24, preserving the channel number it has used since its debut. KVUE completed the transition from analog to digital broadcasting in 2009, ending 38 years of analog transmission on UHF channel 24. Its digital subchannels include Estrella TV on 24.2, the True Crime Network on 24.3, Quest on 24.4, and additional multicast services, giving antenna viewers a wide range of free programming.

Digital and Streaming Presence

KVUE operates kvue.com as its digital news platform, one of the most-visited local news websites in Texas, publishing breaking news, investigations, weather, and sports coverage with video from its newscasts. The station offers mobile apps for news and weather with live streaming and push alerts, along with connected-TV apps for Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, and Android TV. Its newscasts stream live through the station's website and app and are available through virtual pay-TV services including YouTube TV, Hulu with Live TV, and Fubo in the Austin market. On social media, KVUE maintains large followings on Facebook, X, Instagram, and YouTube, where breaking news, Legislature coverage, and severe weather updates drive engagement. Under Tegna ownership, the station benefits from the company's national digital infrastructure, including its streaming platforms and verified-journalism initiatives, while the Austin newsroom produces the local reporting at the site's core.

Legacy in the Capital City

For more than five decades, KVUE has been Austin's ABC station, the station that finally gave the capital city full network television in 1971 and the station that has kept the same affiliation ever since. Its history mirrors Austin's own transformation from a sleepy college and government town into a technology capital and one of America's fastest-growing metropolitan areas. The station's Peabody Award, its investigative tradition, and its "Austin's News Station" identity reflect a newsroom that takes its capital-city responsibilities seriously. Through Center Broadcasting, the Detroit News, Gannett, Belo, and Tegna ownership, through hurricanes and Legislature sessions, floods and football seasons, channel 24 has remained a constant in the lives of Central Texans, and its "view" of Austin continues to define local television news in the region.