Construction
Within days of KEPO's announcement, another El Paso radio station immediately announced its interest in joining the television fray. KELP (920 AM) announced on January 2, 1954, that they would apply for channel 13.[6] For the Trinity Broadcasting Corporation, a company owned by broadcaster Gordon McLendon, it was the company's second proposed station, as the firm held a construction permit for the never-built KLIF-TV in Dallas.[7] Even though KELP was an English-language radio station, it was announced that the new TV station would broadcast entirely in Spanish,[8] which would have made KELP-TV the first Spanish-language television station in the United States.[9]
The FCC awarded Trinity the construction permit on March 18, 1954.[10] However, activity was slowed down when McLendon petitioned the FCC to switch his station to channel 7, which had been reserved for educational use, so as to gain a more competitive dial position; El Paso city schools and Texas Western College supported the proposal.[11][12] This proposal was declined by the FCC in January 1955.[13]
Construction activity moved apace on the station, which changed call signs from KELP-TV to KOKE (in September 1954) and then KILT (in 1956), and KILT began broadcasting on September 1, 1956, as an English-language station. This made it the only television station built from the ground up by McLendon, whose only other startup venture was KLIF radio in Dallas.[14] Two months passed before the station affiliated with ABC in early November.[15]
Harris–Alexander and Walton ownership
In March 1957, McLendon sold KELP and KILT to KELP Television Corporation, whose owners—Joseph Harris and Norman Alexander—were the same as KXLY-AM-TV in Spokane, Washington, for $750,000.[16] On May 1, the new owners restored the KELP-TV call sign to channel 13 as part of their takeover.[17] (The KILT call letters were retained by McLendon and placed on a radio station in Houston that same month.[18]) KELP Television moved the transmitter from its original in-town site, with the studios at 4530 Delta, to the Franklin Mountains in 1960.[19]
After six months of negotiations, Harris and Alexander announced the sale of KELP radio and television to John B. Walton in September 1965.[20]
In March 1975, Marsh Media, a company owned by Stanley Marsh 3, sued Walton in Texas district court for breach of contract. In 1967, Walton had sold the Marsh family KVII-TV, the ABC affiliate in Amarillo, and the right of first refusal to purchase several other Walton stations. The Marsh family contended that, even though they had the right to be the lender of first choice, a transfer of stock to Helen B. Walton and the placement of Walton stock as collateral with a bank violated their contract.[26] In October, Marsh exercised its option to purchase KELP-TV and KAVE-TV from Walton for $3,075,000, separating KELP television from the radio station.[27][28] Marsh took control in April 1976, and a new KVIA-TV call sign was adopted on April 9.[29]
Walton and Marsh each supported efforts to establish a public television station in El Paso, KCOS, on the originally assigned educational channel 7.
NPG ownership
Marsh Media announced the sale of KVIA-TV to the News-Press & Gazette Company of St. Joseph, Missouri, in August 1994. For NPG, it marked a return to television; the company had previously owned and sold an eight-station group.[41][42] The $19.9 million transaction closed in January 1995.[43]
While KVIA briefly experienced personnel turmoil in 1999 upon the departure of general manager Art Olivas,[44][45] it rebounded under his replacement, Kevin Lovell, a former weekend sports anchor in the early 1980s who returned to KVIA in 1995 and remained with the station until his 2022 retirement.[46]
