KTBC-TV aired its first television broadcast on Thursday, November 27, 1952, becoming the first television station in Austin and Central Texas. Originally housed in a small studio in the Driskill Hotel, the station was originally owned by the Texas Broadcasting Company (from whom the call letters are taken), which was in turn owned by then-Senator and future U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife Lady Bird, alongside KTBC radio (590 AM and 93.7 FM, now KLBJradio). The channel was primarily affiliated with CBS when the station signed on but also had secondary affiliations with DuMont (until 1956), NBC (until 1966, when KHFI-TV (channel 42, now on channel 36 as KXAN-TV) switched to that network) and ABC (until 1971, when KVUE (channel 24) signed on). In 1972, KTBC was sold to the broadcasting division of the Times Mirror Company.
The "Star 7" logo was introduced in the fall of 1994 during KTBC’s last months as a CBS affiliate, carrying over into its first two years with Fox.
1994–July 1995[]
Station ID (1994–1995)
KTBC NewsCenter 7 at Noon open (1994–1995)
KTBC NewsCenter 7 at 6:00 open (1994–1995)
July–October 1995[]
On July 2, 1995, KTBC replaced KBVO-TV (channel 42) as Austin’s Fox affiliate, as a result of an affiliation agreement between Fox and New World Communications (also including a substantial investment and partial equity share from then-Fox owner News Corporation), which had purchased channel 7 from Argyle in a group deal just prior to the agreement's signing in May 1994. The CBS affiliation, which KTBC had held since its November 1952 sign-on, transferred to Granite Broadcasting-owned KBVO, which concurrently changed its callsign to KEYE-TV.
Nearly two years later in 1997, News Corporation would purchase the remaining interest in New World that it did not already own, resulting in KTBC becoming a Fox owned-and-operated station.
Station ID (1995)
KTBC NewsCenter 7 "News You Can Count On" promo (1995)
October 1995–1997[]
Vertical variant (1995–1997)
Vertical variant with city of license (1995–1997)
Station ID (1995–1996)
Fox 7 News "News You Can Count On" promo (1995)
Fox 7 News "On Your Side" promo (1996)
Fox 7 News open (1996–1997)
On-screen bug used for local/syndicated programming.
1997–present[]
1997–2008[]
"Fox 7 Weather" logo
"7 On Your Side" logo
2008–2020[]
This logo branding, first seen on sister station WTVT in Tampa, and is currently in use by most of the Fox O&Os as well as some Fox affiliates owned by different companies other than Fox, is based on the Fox News logo; with their website names ("myfox(city name).com") based off of the domain for the social network Myspace, which was briefly owned Fox's then-parent company News Corporation (then 21st Century Fox, now separately part of Fox Corporation).
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