The station first signed on the air on May 18, 1988 under the callsign KLTJ; it was founded by Eldred Thomas, who had earlier built radio station KVTT-FM and television station KLTJ in Dallas. The station originally operated from studios located in Pasadena and a tower in Anahuac, and initially aired religious programs from a variety of sources, including the PTL Satellite Network, Christian Television Network and the Three Angels Broadcasting Network. The low-power signal and distance from Houston led to reception issues in the northern and western portions of the city; as a result, on May 18, 1989, Thomas moved the KLTJ programming and call letters to channel 22 on a tower based in Alvin. With the move of the KLTJ calls to channel 22, channel 57 changed its callsign to KRTW. It later changed its call letters to KVVV in 1994, when it switched to home shopping programming from Valuevision; it then became a FamilyNet affiliate as KAZH in 2000. During its time as KAZH, the station was rebroadcast in Houston on translatorsKHMV-CA and KVVV-LP ; both of these translators were taken off the air in November 2007, due to owner Pappas Telecasting's ongoing financial problems.
In 2002, KAZH affiliated with Spanish-language network Azteca América. Early in 2007, then-owner Pappas Telecasting terminated KAZH's affiliation agreement with Azteca América, effective July 1. Azteca América programming moved to a low-powered station, KUVM-CA; and later, to another full-powered station, KYAZ on date to June 30, 2007. KAZH then joined Pappas' independent Spanish-language network, TuVisión. On May 10, 2008, thirteen of Pappas' stations, including KAZH, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Pappas cited "the extremely difficult business climate for television stations across the country" in papers filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware. Pappas was later ordered on September 10, 2008 to sell off the affected stations by February 15, 2009. In January 2009, the Pappas stations involved in the bankruptcy auction, including KAZH, were sold to New World TV Group, after the sale received bankruptcy court approval. On October 22, 2009, KAZH became the first affiliate of VasalloVision, a new network founded by Carlos Vasallo and Miguel Banojian; this followed the closure of TuVisión.
Citing a larger advertising market, the station changed to an English-language general entertainment independent format on September 27, 2010. The station's call sign changed to KUBE-TV on the same date. On January 18, 2013, NRJ TV announced that it would acquire KUBE-TV from New World TV Group for $19 million, as part of a two-station deal that also included San Franciscosister stationKTNC-TV.
Sale to RNN
On December 9, 2019, it was announced that WRNN-TV Associates, owner of New York City-based WRNN-TV, secured a deal to purchase seven full-power TV stations and one Class A station from NRJ. The sale was approved by the FCC on January 23, and was completed on February 4, 2020.
During the 2011 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, KUBE-TV added programming from PegasusTV on subchannel 57.4; this was replaced by MeTV in 2012. Cozi TV was added to 57.4 on May 28, 2018.
Analog-to-digital conversion
KUBE-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 57, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 41, using PSIP to display KUBE-TV's virtual channel as 57 on digital television receivers, which was among the high band UHF channels that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.
Programming
programming seen on KUBE-TV included The Doctors, The Middle, The King of Queens, Everybody Loves Raymond, Seinfeld, Cougar Town, Hot Bench, Lauren Lake's Paternity Court, Judge Faith, Forensic Files, Justice with Judge Mablean, Bridezillas, Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen, Community, Family Guy, and Bob's Burgers. As of the 2017 season, KUBE is the home of the MLS club Houston Dynamo. Until 2019, the station carried NCAAcollege football and men's basketball games from the Atlantic Coast Conference.
