{"id":762080,"date":"2026-04-29T20:04:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T20:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/762080\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T20:04:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T20:04:15","slug":"fcc-orders-abc-stations-including-houstons-ktrk-to-re-apply-for-broadcast-license-amid-political-squabble-houston-public-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/762080\/","title":{"rendered":"FCC orders ABC stations, including Houston\u2019s KTRK, to re-apply for broadcast license amid political squabble \u2013 Houston Public Media"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-550473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Image-96-1000x750.jpg\" alt=\"KTRK ABC 13\" width=\"1000\" height=\"750\"   data-eio=\"p\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Michael Adkison\/Houston Public Media<\/p>\n<p>The offices of Houston\u2019s ABC affiliate, KTRK, pictured on Apr. 29, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ordered several television stations owned by Disney to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/npr\/2026\/04\/28\/nx-s1-5802997\/fcc-orders-early-license-renewal-for-abc-stations-following-kimmels-first-lady-joke\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">re-file for their broadcasting licenses<\/a> within 30 days, amidst a squabble over ABC content. That includes Houston-based KTRK.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, the FCC issued an order saying Disney may have violated the Communications Act of 1934 and FCC rules, &#8220;including the agency&#8217;s prohibition on unlawful discrimination.&#8221; As part of the order, eight television stations, including KTRK, must file for their license renewal by May 28.<\/p>\n<p>The order comes amid a political fight over a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/npr\/2026\/04\/27\/nx-s1-5801448\/melania-trump-wants-abc-to-take-a-stand-against-jimmy-kimmel-after-hateful-joke\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">joke made by Jimmy Kimmel<\/a>, a late-night comedian whose show airs on ABC, which is owned by Disney. Kimmel referred to First Lady Melania Trump as looking like an &#8220;expectant widow.\u201d President Donald Trump called for Kimmel to be fired for the joke. <\/p>\n<p>Sign up for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/hellohouston\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Hello, Houston!<\/a> daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n<p>A representative for KTRK, which is also referred to as ABC 13, declined to comment for the station. A spokesperson for Disney, speaking on behalf of all eight stations, said the company stood by its content.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are confident that the record demonstrates our continued qualifications as licensees under the Communications Act and the First Amendment and are prepared to show that through the appropriate legal channels,&#8221; the spokesperson said in a statement. &#8220;Our focus remains, as always, on serving viewers in the local communities where our stations operate.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>The broadcast licenses for each of the stations were originally scheduled for renewal between 2028 and 2031.<\/p>\n<p>The FCC and its chair, Brendan Carr, had previously been at odds with Disney after Kimmel made a joke about the assassination of Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk in September. Kimmel was briefly suspended from his role by Disney, after Carr called for reining in broadcasters while speaking on a podcast.<\/p>\n<p>The FCC also made headlines in Texas when Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico was set to appear on CBS&#8217;s late-night program <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/articles\/news\/politics\/2026\/02\/17\/543654\/talarico-cbs-colbert-late-show-democratic-primary-election\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">hosted by Stephen Colbert<\/a>. Carr had called for ending an exception for talk shows to provide equal time commitments to candidates in a political race. Citing that guideline, which was not official policy, CBS allegedly blocked Colbert from airing the interview on the network.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Adkison\/Houston Public Media The offices of Houston\u2019s ABC affiliate, KTRK, pictured on Apr. 29, 2026. The Federal&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":762081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5130],"tags":[11045,3852,36397,18320,4345,11171,191124,425,938,50,80,313240,358,173,3187],"class_list":["post-762080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-abc-13","tag-broadcast","tag-fcc","tag-federal-communications-commission","tag-houston","tag-jimmy-kimmel","tag-ktrk","tag-local","tag-network","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-stephen-carr","tag-texas","tag-tv","tag-tx"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116489792094739854","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=762080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/762081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}