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KCOS (TV)

KCOS
El Paso, Texas
United States
Branding KCOS
Channels Digital: 13 (VHF)
Virtual: 13 ()
Subchannels 13.1 PBS
13.2 El Paso Community College TV
13.3 Create
13.4 PBS Kids
13.5 Local 15
Affiliations PBS
Owner El Paso Public Television Foundation
First air date August 18, 1978; 38 years ago (1978-08-18)
Call letters' meaning Trans-PeCOS (Coverage area)
Former channel number(s) Analog:
7 (VHF, 1978–1981)
13 (VHF, 1981–2009)
Digital:
30 (UHF, until 2009)
Transmitter power 27 kW
Height 259 m
Facility ID 19117
Transmitter coordinates 31°47′15″N 106°28′47″W / 31.78750°N 106.47972°W / 31.78750; -106.47972 (KCOS)
Licensing authority FCC
Public license information: Profile
CDBS
Website www.kcostv.org

KCOS, virtual and VHF digital channel 13, is a PBS member television station located in El Paso, Texas. The station is owned by nonprofit agency, the El Paso Public Television Foundation. KCOS maintains studio facilities located on Viscount Boulevard (northeast of I-10) in northwest El Paso, and its transmitter is located atop the Franklin Mountains on the El Paso city limits. On cable, the station is available on Charter Spectrum channel 12.

The station first signed on the air on August 18, 1978, originally broadcasting on VHF channel 7. It was the first English language television station to sign on since KVIA-TV (channel 7) debuted 22 years earlier in September 1956. Prior to KCOS's debut, El Paso was the largest city in the United States that did not have a PBS member station. Some viewers in the market were able to receive Las Cruces-based KRWG-TV (channel 22), however, that station was unreceiveable in most of the market due to the presence of the Franklin Mountains, which impaired KRWG's signal coverage deep into the market. PBS arranged for NBC affiliate KTSM-TV (channel 9) to carry Sesame Street in the market from the show's 1969 debut until KCOS's sign-on (this was a common practice in other markets throughout the country that similarly lacked access to public television). Until KCOS signed on in 1978, cable providers in the El Paso market carried KRWG and imported out-of-market PBS station KNME in Albuquerque.


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