KCOS (TV)

KCOS

El Paso, Texas United States
Channels	Digital: 13 (VHF) Virtual: 13
Branding	PBS El Paso Texas Tech Public Media
Programming
Affiliations	13.1: PBS for others, see § Subchannels
Ownership
Owner	Texas Tech University
History
First air date	August 18, 1978 (45 years ago) (1978-08-18)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 7 (VHF, 1978–1981), 13 (VHF, 1981–2009) Digital: 30 (UHF, until 2009)
Call sign meaning	"City of the Sun"[1]
Technical information[2]
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	19117
ERP	42 kW
HAAT	259 m (850 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	31°47′15″N 106°28′49″W / 31.78750°N 106.48028°W / 31.78750; -106.48028 (KCOS)
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	www.kcostv.org

KCOS (channel 13), branded on-air as PBS El Paso, is a PBS member television station in El Paso, Texas, United States, owned by Texas Tech University. The station's offices are located on Viscount Boulevard (northeast of I-10) in east El Paso, and its transmitter is located atop the Franklin Mountains on the El Paso city limits. Its nominal main studio is located at Texas Tech-owned KTTZ-TV in Lubbock.

Efforts to start a public television station in El Paso had flickered on and off in the 1960s but took shape in the early 1970s with the formation of the El Paso Public Television Foundation. A construction permit for the station was issued in 1975, and KCOS began broadcasting on August 18, 1978. It originally aired on channel 7 until a July 1981 channel swap with KVIA-TV, then on channel 13; the swap was part of an agreement by which KVIA-TV donated use of its transmitter facility to the public station. KCOS persevered despite several fiscal crises and low public support. In 2019, Texas Tech Public Media absorbed KCOS, continuing to operate it as an El Paso-focused public TV station.