KPAR-TV: Early years
Texas Telecasting, Inc., the owner of KDUB-TV in Lubbock, filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on June 29, 1953, to build a new TV station on channel 12 in Sweetwater[1] as well as a station at Big Spring.[2] The FCC approved the Sweetwater application on August 26, and Texas Telecasting revealed its plans for the station, which would mostly rebroadcast KDUB-TV and its CBS programs.[3]
Construction on KPAR-TV began in September 1955, after KDUB-TV received new equipment; items previously used in Lubbock would be transferred to the new Sweetwater station.[4] The tower was erected in January 1956,[5] and KPAR-TV began broadcasting on January 30, 1956, with a three-hour dedication broadcast from its studio in Sweetwater.[6] The station also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network, which began in September 1956.[7] In 1958, the station opened a second studio in downtown Abilene.[8]
In 1960, Texas Telecasting filed to lease KPAR-TV to Texas Key Broadcasting in a 10-year, nearly $800,000 agreement. Texas Key was owned by residents of Abilene including the station's general manager, James M. Isaacs.[9] The new operators filed to move the station's transmitter to a site south of Trent in 1961; the higher elevation would improve coverage in the Abilene market.[10] Texas Key bought the physical assets of KPAR-TV, as well as KDUB radio and television in Lubbock and KEDY-TV in Big Spring, in 1961.[11]
The new transmitter and 568 ft tower at Trent were activated on February 1, 1962, by which time the station had added ABC programs to its schedule.[12] Texas Key sued the Lubbock TV station, which had become KLBK-TV, and its new corporate parent Grayson Enterprises in 1964 for failing to maintain the microwave transmission system that brought CBS programs from Lubbock to KPAR-TV, forcing channel 12 to contract for its own network feed from CBS.[13]
KTXS-TV: Grayson Enterprises ownership
Grayson Enterprises agreed to buy KPAR-TV from Texas Key Telecasting in January 1966; part of the sale agreement stipulated the abandonment of the microwave system lawsuit.[14] The $625,000 sale was completed on June 23, and on July 1, the station changed its call sign to KTXS-TV ("K-Texas TV"). Grayson promised to reactivate the Sweetwater studio, which had been previously shuttered, and add new video tape and color equipment.[15][16]
Grayson invested in two translators to expand KTXS-TV's reach. In 1969, it received approval to build a rebroadcaster at Brownwood.[17] Two years later, on July 19, 1971, KTXS-TV installed translator K55AA in San Angelo, bringing that city the previously unseen ABC network; CBS programs were blacked out to protect KCTV there.[18]
Carousel of owners
In April 1979, Grayson agreed to sell KTXS-TV and KLBK-TV to Silver Star Communications, a majority-Black partnership soon renamed Prima Inc., for $15 million.[32][33] The Black owners in Prima were Wayne Embry, a former professional basketball player; John Robert Lee, assistant athletic director at the University of Wisconsin; and Larry Reed, a basketball coach at the same university. Charles Woods later became an investor in the company. The sale process dragged out due to protests by another group, led by former congresswoman Barbara Jordan, that sought to purchase the stations and wanted clarity as to the then-new distress sale policy.[34] During this time, Grayson's principal creditor, the Mercantile National Bank of Dallas, threatened foreclosure.[35] The FCC rebuffed the objections in March and April 1980, upholding the distress sale to Prima.[36][37]
Lamco, Bluestone, Bonten and Sinclair ownership
SouthWest MultiMedia, just over a year after agreeing to purchase KTXS-TV, sold it to Lamco Communications of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, in 1986.[45] KTXS briefly aired Fox programs in late-night hours on Saturdays from September 1990 to February 1991, when a translator of San Angelo Fox affiliate KIDY opened in Abilene.[46][47]
In 2000, Lamco acquired the former K40DX, a low-power Telemundo station started by the network in 1995,[48] and renamed it KTES-LP, with Spanish-language local news briefs produced by the KTXS news department.[49]
