KAKN

KAKN (channel 64) is an independent station licensed to Conroe, Texas and serving the Houston metropolitan area. It is owned by BIG Media The station's programming is similar to that of WALL in that they mainly target one area of the market, this being the Northern portion of the Houston DMA.
==History==
Channel 64 first launched on July 29, 1981, as a religious independent. It mainly aired programming from televangelists like Jimmy Swaggart and Billy Graham, but they also aired locally produced programming and children's cartoons. KAKN's signal was terrible in central Houston, and they could not apply for must-carry status on cable as they had a shoestring budget. Owner Kyle Albert Kennedy Norville sold the station in 1988 after his church filed for bankruptcy.
KAKN was acquired by Universal Media (Not to be confused with the movie studio), who immediately removed all religious programming and replaced it with infomercials and home shopping programs. Over the next 9 years, the station slowly replaced the infomercials with various failed startup networks, fly-by-night shopping channels, syndication services, and international programs. 
One of these networks, Tv Mexico, was the brainchild of Joaquin L. Garcia, a man who had previously been to jail for arson charges. He had come up with the idea for a Spanish-language channel that had an emphasis on 18-36 year olds. The network lasted for 5 months in 1994 before Garcia was arrested again for wire fraud charges from a previous business venture. 
As the city of Conroe was growing, so was KAKN. Universal Media had plans to transform the station into a locally-focused independent station with an emphasis on news for north Houston. This never happened, as by that point Universal Media had defaulted on a loan and was forced to sell the station to Paxson Communications in 1996. KAKN became an affiliate of InTV. 
They were promptly sold a year later back to Universal Media, who had managed to affiliate the station with UPN. They believed the market of Houston could support 2 UPN stations. However, local cable channels chose established affiliate KUPH (now KMYX) over the struggling KAKN, who already had a pitiful reach on Houston cable channels. This could be seen in their low effort legal ID's, which were made on the cheap and/or were presumed to be stolen from other stations. 
As a result, UPN slowly backed out of KAKN, who began to replace UPN programming with programming from AIN and The Box. When UPN fully left in 2001, the station became an affiliate of an upstart network called "The Texas Channel", which was an attempt to affiliate a group of stations in Texas and start a seventh television network. The programming consisted of locally produced agricultural programs and syndicated western shows. The Texas Channel lasted 8 months before shutting down on New Year's Eve 2002.
In 2004, the station was sold to BIG Media, who had plans to emulate Universal Media's idea for an independent station serving northern Houston. BIG Media removed all of the syndication networks and introduced its own syndicated programming. They moved the station's operations from a dying strip center to a warehouse off of Interstate 45, which was retrofitted into operations. KAKN also launched a news department around this time, focusing on mainly Montgomery County, TX. They also built a new tower in the center of Conroe. It was also given a new logo and new idents, and new branding as "it's whats happening".
This was a success, and ratings for KAKN skyrocketed. it was also finally carried on many Houston-area Texas cable systems. in 2006 they acquired the rights to local high school sports, most importantly basketball and football. In 2007 they acquired a new digital transmitter, which had a farther reach than its analog one.
Their newscasts were upgraded to HD in 2010. They also upgraded their sports broadcasts to HD. in 2015 they expanded their newscasts to 52 hours a week. 
==Programming==
Syndicated programming includes House M.D., American Dad, COPS, Monk, Castle, AgDay, Judge Mathis, Paternity Court, Extra and more. They air local high school sports, including basketball and football, under the 64 Sports banner.
KAKN airs 48 hours of news a week. They introduced a primetime newscast from 7 PM to 10 PM in 2009, replacing a timeslot of syndicated programming. Because of that, Holo Sports Weekly was moved to Monday at 6 PM.
==Technical Information==
KAKN shut off its analog signal on May 8, 2009, as its analog transmitter was failing.
Category:Television channels and stations established in 1981
Category:Independent television stations
Category:Former UPN affiliates
Category:Former religious independent stations
Category:Houston
Category:Conroe, Texas
Category:Channel 64
Category:Texas
Category:Former inTV affiliates