KCOS (TV)
 | |
| El Paso, Texas | |
|---|---|
| Channels |
Digital: 13 (VHF) Virtual: 13 (PSIP) |
| Affiliations | PBS |
| Owner | El Paso Public Television Foundation |
| First air date | August 18, 1978 |
| Former channel number(s) |
Analog: 7 (VHF, 1978-1981) 13 (VHF, 1981-2009) Digital: 30 (UHF) |
| 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 |
| Website | www.kcostv.org |
- This article is about a PBS-member television station in El Paso, Texas.
- For the unrelated religious television station in Phoenix, Arizona, see KCOS-LP.
- "KCOS" is also the ICAO airport code for Colorado Springs Airport.
KCOS channel 13 is a PBS member station based in El Paso, Texas. It also operates on cable channel 12 and digital channel 13. The station is owned by El Paso Public Television Foundation, a non-profit agency.
History
KCOS began broadcasting on August 18, 1978 on channel 7. It swapped channels with KVIA-TV in July 1981, moving from channel 7 to channel 13.
Prior to KCOS's debut, El Paso was the largest city in the United States without a PBS member station. Some viewers did receive KRWG-TV in Las Cruces, New Mexico, but most of the market was unable to receive it due to the Franklin Mountains blocking the signal coverage. Thus, KTSM-TV aired Sesame Street to El Pasoans from the show's debut in 1969 until KCOS's launch in 1978 (this was a common practice in other markets throughout the country with a similar lack of public television access). Cable-viewers in El Paso did receive PBS coverage from both Las Cruces and from Albuquerque's KNME until 1978.
KCOS-LP channel 28 Phoenix, Arizona is unrelated to KCOS.
Digital television
Digital channel
Currently, the station's digital channel is not multiplexed:
| Channel | Video | Aspect | PSIP Short Name | Programming[1] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | KCOS-HDTV | PBS programming |
| 13.2 | 480i | 4:3 | EPCC-TV | El Paso Community College TV[2] |
| 13.3 | KCOS-Create | Create[3] |
Analog-to digital conversion
KCOS shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 13, at 11:30 p.m. on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 30 to its former analog VHF channel 13 for post-transition operations.[4]
External links
- KCOS Homepage
- Query the FCC's TV station database for KCOS
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KCOS-TV
References
- ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for KCOS
- ↑ "EPCC-TV". Retrieved November 14, 2013.
- ↑ "Create TV". Retrieved November 14, 2013.
- ↑ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-03-24.
| ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||