KOSA-TV

KOSA-TV
Odessa–Midland, Texas
United States
City Odessa, Texas
Branding CBS 7
MyTV 16 (on DT2)
Slogan The Breaking News and Weather Authority
Channels Digital: 7 (VHF)
Virtual: 7 (PSIP)
Subchannels 7.1 CBS
7.2 MyNetworkTV
7.3 H&I
Owner Gray Television
(Gray Television Licensee, LLC)
First air date January 1, 1956 (1956-01-01)
Call letters' meaning OdesSA
Sister station(s) KWTX-TV (Waco)
KBTX-TV (Bryan/College Station)
KXII (Sherman, TX/Ada, OK)
KGNS-TV (Laredo)
Former channel number(s) Analog:
7 (VHF, 1956–2009)
Digital:
31 (UHF, until 2009)
Former affiliations Both secondary:
The WB (1999–2005)
UPN (2005–2006)
Transmitter power 48 kW
Height 226 m (741 ft)
Facility ID 6865
Transmitter coordinates 31°51′50.8″N 102°34′42.5″W / 31.864111°N 102.578472°W / 31.864111; -102.578472
Licensing authority FCC
Public license information: Profile
CDBS
Website www.cbs7.com

KOSA-TV, virtual and VHF digital channel 7, is a CBS-affiliated television station licensed to Odessa, Texas, United States and serving the Permian Basin area. The station is owned by Gray Television. KOSA's studios are located inside the Music City Mall on East 42nd Street in Odessa, with a secondary studio and news bureau in downtown Midland; its transmitter is located on FM 866 west of Odessa. The station is relayed on low-power translator K31KJ-D in Big Spring. On cable, KOSA is carried on Reach Broadband channel 4, and on channel 7 on other cable systems in the market.

KOSA also operates a MyNetworkTV affiliate on its second digital subchannel, known as MyTV 16, after its position on most area cable systems.

History

KOSA signed on the air on January 1, 1956, and has been a CBS affiliate since its debut. It originally operated from studios located on North Whitaker Street in Odessa. KOSA is the only Big Three station in the Permian Basin to have never changed affiliation. Trigg-Vaughn sold both KOSA along with KDBC-TV in El Paso, Texas to Doubleday Broadcasting in 1967.

From 1956 to 1964, the first KOSA sports anchor was Jim Reese, who was elected mayor of Odessa in 1968 and served until 1974. Doubleday sold the station to Forward Communications in 1973. Reese is now the owner of Penatek Industries of Odessa and has been involved in Republican political activities, particularly between 1964 and 1982.

On November 26, 1983, a chartered twin-engine Beechcraft B100 King Air turboprop was flying from Fort Worth back to Odessa[1] when it fell nose first, crashed and burned on impact. It killed all eight on board, instantly, some burned beyond recognition. Six of the victims were KOSA station employees who had been away filming high school football playoffs. The plane burned for about four hours before firemen could extinguish the blaze. A charred and twisted heap of metal was all that remained.

The victims were eventually identified as assistant news director Gary Hopper, 32, of Midland; sports director Jeff Shull, 25, of Odessa; chief engineer Bobby Stephens, 47, of Odessa; assistant chief engineer Edward Monette, 26, of Odessa; production assistants Bruce Dyer, 26, of Midland and Brent Roach, 24, of Odessa; pilot Keith Elkin, 29, of Midland; and Jay Alva Price, 37, of Midland, a helper for the station at football games and Hopper's brother-in-law.

Local real estate company Investment Corporation of America (ICA) purchased the station from Benedek Broadcasting in 2000. On May 20, 2015, Gray Television announced that it would acquire KOSA-TV from ICA for $33.6 million;[2] the sale was completed on July 1.[3] The deal reunited KOSA with several of its former Benedek sister stations, as Gray acquired most of Benedek's stations following the latter's bankruptcy in 2002.

By fall 2017, the over-the-air digital signal of KOSA-DT2 had been upgraded into 720p 16:9 high definition, thus giving viewers in the Odessa–Midland market over-the-air access to MyNetworkTV's high definition feed for the first time.[4]

In 2018, KOSA's parent, Gray Television, announced it would acquire Raycom Media, owner of competing NBC affiliate KWES-TV and its satellite KWAB. Because of FCC rules disallowing owning two stations ranked in the top 4 in audience measurements, Gray will divest KWES-TV. However, they will retain KWES-TV's long-time satellite KWAB and convert KWAB to a satellite of KOSA.[5]

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[6]
7.11080i16:9KOSA-HDMain KOSA-TV programming / CBS
7.2720pMyTV-HDKOSA-DT2 / MyNetworkTV
7.3480iHNI-SDHeroes & Icons

Analog-to-digital conversion

KOSA-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 7, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 31 to VHF channel 7 for post-transition operations.[7]

Making News: Texas Style

KOSA was the setting for a TV Guide Network reality series called Making News: Texas Style, which revolved around the inner workings, staff, and personalities of the station's news department.[8][9][10] The show aired Mondays from June 11, 2007 to September 23, 2007.

Sports programming

KOSA has been an affiliate for Big 12 Network basketball since 2008. That same year they entered into a contract with TXA 21 to carry select Dallas Mavericks basketball games. The Mavericks games aired in Odessa–Midland on MyTV 16 in 2008–2009 and 2010–2011. In 2009, KOSA entered into a contract to air the locally televised Texas Rangers baseball games. The games took place on various nights in 2009 as they were programmed by KDFI. From 2010 to the present the Rangers games aired on Friday nights as part of the Friday Night Baseball on TXA 21 package. In 2012, KOSA entered into a contract to air SEC Network football games. In all these cases, the sports contracts place the games on MyTV 16 as CBS primetime and CBS Sports programming usually airs during this time on KOSA. All these contracts have now expired. However, in 2016, KOSA became the television home of UTPB Falcons football. All home games are aired Tuesday nights via tape delay on MyTV 16.

See also

References

  1. ↑ NTSB accident synopsis for B100 N1910L retrieved 2009-11-27
  2. ↑ "Gray Buying KOSA Odessa For $33.6 Million". TVNewsCheck. May 20, 2015. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Gray In 4 New Deals, Closes 3 Earlier Ones". TVNewsCheck. July 1, 2015. Retrieved July 2, 2015.
  4. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for KOSA
  5. ↑ "FCC Filing: Gray Purchase of Raycom Comprehensive Exhibit".
  6. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for KOSA
  7. ↑ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-08-29. Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  8. ↑ TV Guide channels 'News' - Entertainment News, TV News, Media - Variety
  9. ↑
  10. ↑ dBusinessNews :: Daily Business News Delivered to Your Desktop
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.