-By Katy Bachman

A growing, diverse market and international business center, Houston is also one of only two markets where both TV and radio audiences are electronically measured. Arbitron made Houston its first portable people meter radio market in July 2007. In October, Nielsen went live with local people meters.

In TV, KTRK, ABC’s owned-and-operated station, is the overall news leader, winning most newscasts, but KHOU, Belo’s CBS affiliate, isn’t far behind. Among adults 25-54, KTRK wins 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. but is in a dead tie with KHOU for late news. For the first time in May, mornings (5–9 a.m.) went to KRIV, Fox’s O&O, which has the only local newscast running 7 to 9 a.m. The station also recently added two half-hour early newscasts at 5 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. to offer a total of six hours of local news daily, more than any other station in the market.
Trying to get into the news game is Tribune’s CW affiliate, KHCW, which recently expanded its 9 p.m. newscast to an hour and changed its call letters to KIAH, the FAA’s designation for the Houston airport.

Univision dominates a crowded Hispanic TV market (one of the biggest in the country) with a Univision-Telefutura duopoly, KXLN and KFTH, and five radio stations. KXLN’s local news ratings are competitive with the Anglo stations, ranking No. 2 to KTRK in early and late news.

The radio market is buzzing about the future radio broadcasting rights for the Houston Astros. Currently held by KTRH-AM, owned by Clear Channel, the rights expire at the end of the 2008 season. Since PPM came to Houston, several stations have changed formats. Most recently, CBS dropped Smooth Jazz on KHJZ-FM for a Contemporary Hit Radio format “Hot 95.7, Houston’s Hot Hits.”

Clear Channel is the largest outdoor operator in the area with nearly 4,500 faces. CBS Outdoor also has a strong portfolio. JCDecaux has the advertising at George Bush Intercontinental Airport. Meanwhile, Hearst Corp.’s Houston Chronicle, the largest daily paper in Texas, is also the seventh largest daily paper in the U.S.

Vital Stats:

* TV DMA Rank: 10
* Population 2-plus: 5,646,048
* TV Households: 2,050,550
* TV Stations (Net/Ind/Public/Local Cable): 10/8/1/0
* Wired Cable Households: 1,066,960
* Radio Metro Rank: 6
* Population 6-plus: 5,163,700
* Radio Stations (rated): 42
* Newspapers (Daily/Weekly): 7/34

The Numbers:

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