KVKM-TV
Two groups competed for channel 9, which in west Texas was initially allocated to the community of Monahans, Texas, southwest of Odessa. In 1957, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) received two applications, which were placed in comparative hearing. The next year, the KMPS Broadcasting Company, associated with KMID-TV in Midland, withdrew its application, clearing the way for Tri-Cities Broadcasting Company to receive the construction permit. Tri-Cities Broadcasting consisted of John B. Walton and his wife Helen, as well as Ross Rucker, the general manager of Monahans radio station KVKM (1340 AM; now KCKM 1330).[1][2] While it was initially proposed to build the tower at Pyote, a site 6 mi north of Monahans was ultimately selected to house the transmitter facility for KVKM-TV.[3] By the time a contract had been awarded to construct the station in September, KVKM-TV had signed for an affiliation with ABC.[4]
KVKM-TV began broadcasting on December 1, 1958.[5] In addition to broadcasting to such cities as Midland, Fort Stockton, and Eunice, New Mexico, cable systems carried the new station's signal as far as Hobbs, New Mexico, and Alpine, Texas. Among the station's first local programs was a Friday night dance party show.[6] From 1961 to 1963, KVLF-TV (channel 12) in Alpine operated as an ABC affiliate; reckoned by national advertising publications as a satellite station of KVKM-TV,[7] it did not air all of the Monahans station's programming.[8][9]
In 1962, KVKM-TV applied for and was granted permission to move its transmitter to a new site 17 mi northeast of Kermit, Texas, atop the Caprock, which would be the highest transmitter site in the state east of El Paso. This site, activated the next year, improved the station's signal in the comparatively populous Odessa–Midland area.[10]
Walton acquired KAVE-TV, a television station in Carlsbad, New Mexico, in 1966. At the same time, Rucker, who was no longer a part-owner of KVKM-TV but continued to manage KVKM radio, purchased the associated KAVE radio station in Carlsbad.[11] By November, local programming had disappeared from KAVE-TV, which began to rebroadcast KVKM-TV.[12][13]
KMOM-TV
John B. Walton Jr. took over the family's broadcasting properties before his father's death in 1967.[14] KVKM radio was sold to Rucker, while a television station construction permit in Lubbock was also sold off.[15]
In 1968, Walton announced the sale of KVKM-TV to Grayson Enterprises, which already owned KWAB, a CBS affiliate in Big Spring, east of Odessa and Midland. The call letters were changed to KMOM-TV (Monahans–Odessa–Midland[16]) on March 15, 1969, and Grayson began an 11-year ownership tenure beset with problems. (Walton retained KAVE-TV, which switched to rebroadcasting another Walton-owned ABC affiliate, KELP-TV in El Paso.) In December 1969, citing economic issues, Grayson converted KWAB to rebroadcasting KMOM-TV; while this brought color advertising and an improved network signal to the Big Spring area, the move was unpopular with Big Spring business interests and violated commitments Grayson had made to the FCC at the time of the purchase.[17]
KTPX
The FCC approved the Permian Basin Television Corporation purchase of KMOM-TV and KWAB on March 28, 1980; when combined with another distress sale approved that same day, the number of Hispanic-owned TV stations in the United States went from one to four.[27] After the sale took effect on July 1, the new ownership set out to improve stations in dire need of aid.[28] The call letters on KMOM-TV changed on October 20, 1980, to KTPX, representing "Television for the Petroplex".[29] Further, Permian Basin Television successfully applied to move KTPX from Monahans to Odessa, relocating to studios near the airport. These improvements, however, were not enough to lift the station out of third place in market television ratings. In 1982, ABC moved its affiliation to KMID-TV, with KTPX assuming the NBC affiliation.[30][31] During this time, Brian Wilson, later of Fox News, was a reporter for the station.[32]
KWES-TV
In 1991, four years of receivership finally ended when Drewry Communications made a winning $4.8 million bid for KTPX. For Drewry, it was a return to the Permian Basin market, as company patriarch Ransom H. Drewry had been co-founder and majority owner of KMID-TV from 1953 until 1985.[35][36]
Drewry drew on its connections at KMID as it started to rebuild the station. It lured general manager John Foster, a KMID employee of 32 years, to KTPX by offering him an equity position.[37] Over the next two years, the new ownership invested $1.35 million in capital improvements, including a satellite newsgathering truck and a new news set, and the title of the stations' newscasts was changed to NewsWest 9 in July 1992.[38] The call sign was changed to KWES-TV on August 16, 1993; by Ransom Drewry's death in January 1994, station personnel credited his ownership with revitalizing channel 9.[39]
