KOSA-TV

KOSA-TV

Odessa/Midland, Texas United States
Branding	CBS 7 MyTV 16
Slogan	Your Eye on West Texas
Channels	Digital: 7 (VHF) Virtual: 7 (PSIP)
Subchannels	7.1 CBS 7.2 MyNetworkTV
Affiliations	CBS
Owner	ICA Broadcasting I, Ltd.
First air date	January 1, 1956 (1956-01-01)
Call letters' meaning	OdesSA
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 7 (VHF, 1956-2009) Digital: 31 (UHF)
Former affiliations	Both secondary: WB (1999-2005) UPN (2005-2006)
Transmitter power	48 kW
Height	226 m
Facility ID	6865
Transmitter coordinates	31°51′50″N 102°34′41″W / 31.86389°N 102.57806°W / 31.86389; -102.57806
Licensing authority	FCC
Public license information:	Profile CDBS
Website	www.cbs7.com

KOSA Channel 7 in the Odessa/Midland television market is the CBS affiliate for the Permian Basin area of West Texas. KOSA and its transmitter are both located in Odessa with the station being housed inside the Music City Mall. A secondary studio and bureau are located in downtown Midland. ICA Broadcasting I Ltd locally owns KOSA. The station also owns and operate a MyNetworkTV affiliate, MyTV 16, under the fictitious call letters, NOSA. NOSA offers a wide selection of sports to watch. They are the Midessa home of Texas Rangers baseball games on TXA 21, the Midessa home of the Dallas Mavericks NBA games on TXA 21, and the Midessa home of men's basketball on the Big 12 Network. They also carry the NFL on CBS Pregame show Sunday mornings and any CBS Sports coverage from 11 AM- 12 PM while KOSA fulfills their obligation to air the First Baptist Church of Odessa meeting. It is available on cable channel 16 and 7-2 on the digital signal. KOSA was also the first station to bring HDTV and a digital signal to the Midland/Odessa Market. In June 2006, KOSA began to produce a nightly 9pm newscast for MyTV 16.

The station also operates a low-power translator, K10HH in Big Spring.

History

KOSA signed on the air January 1, 1956, and has been a CBS affiliate since its debut.

From 1956-1964, the first KOSA sports anchor was Jim Reese, who was elected mayor of Odessa in 1968 and served until 1974. Reese is now the owner of Penatek Industries of Odessa and has been involved in Republican political activities, particularly between 1964 and 1982.

On November 26, 1983, a chartered twin-engine Beechcraft B100 King Air turboprop was flying from Fort Worth back to Odessa^[1] when it fell nose first, crashed and burned on impact. It killed all eight on board, instantly, some burned beyond recognition. Six of the victims were KOSA station employees who had been away filming high school football playoffs. The plane burned for about four hours before firemen could extinguish the blaze. A charred and twisted heap of metal was all that remained.

The victims were eventually identified as assistant news director Gary Hopper, 32, of Midland; sports director Jeff Shull, 25, of Odessa; chief engineer Bobby Stephens, 47, of Odessa; assistant chief engineer Edward Monette, 26, of Odessa; production assistants Bruce Dyer, 26, of Midland and Brent Roach, 24, of Odessa; pilot Keith Elkin, 29, of Midland; and Jay Alva Price, 37, of Midland, a helper for the station at football games and Hopper's brother-in-law.

KOSA has always been a CBS affiliate, and is the only Permian Basin television station to never change its affiliation.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Analog-to-digital conversion

KOSA-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 7, 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 31 to VHF channel 7 for post-transition operations.^[3]

Making News: Texas Style

KOSA was the setting for a TV Guide Network reality series called Making News: Texas Style, which revolved around the inner workings, staff, and personalities of the station's news department.^[4][5][6] The show aired Mondays from June 11, 2007 to September 23, 2007.

Sports Affiliations

KOSA has been an affiliate for Big 12 Network basketball since 2008. That same year they entered into a contract with TXA 21 to carry select Dallas Mavericks basketball games. The Mavericks games in Odessa-Midland on MyTV 16 in 2008-2009 and 2010-2011. In 2009 KOSA entered into a contract to air the locally televised Texas Rangers baseball games. The games took place on various nights in 2009 as they were programmed by KDFI. From 2010-present the Rangers games all took place on Friday Night as part of the Friday Night baseball on TXA 21 package. In 2012 KOSA entered into a contract to air SEC Network football games. In all these cases, the sports contracts place the games on MyTV 16 as CBS primetime programming and CBS Sports usually air during this time on KOSA.

See also

• Channel 7 digital TV stations in the United States
• Channel 7 virtual TV stations in the United States
• Channel 16 branded TV stations in the United States

References

External links

• Official website - CBS 7
• Official website - MyTV16
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KOSA-TV
  • Query the FCC's TV station database for K10HH
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KOSA-TV