Branding CBS 7
MyTV 16 (DT2) | ||
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Slogan The Breaking News and Weather Authority. Channels Digital: 7 (VHF)
Virtual: 7 (PSIP) Subchannels 7.1 CBS
7.2 MyNetworkTV
7.3 Heroes & Icons Owner Gray Television
(Gray Television Licensee, LLC) First air date January 1, 1956; 61 years ago (1956-01-01) | ||
KOSA-TV, channel 7, is the CBS affiliate for the Permian Basin area of West Texas licensed to Odessa. KOSA's studios and transmitter are both located inside the Music City Mall on East 42nd Street in Odessa. A secondary studio and bureau are located in downtown Midland. The station is owned by Gray Television. KOSA also operates a MyNetworkTV affiliate on its second digital subchannel, known as MyTV 16, after its position on most area cable systems.
Contents
- History
- Digital channels
- Analog to digital conversion
- Making News Texas Style
- Sports Affiliations
- References
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. KOSA is the only Big Three station in the Permian Basin to have never changed affiliation.
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 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.
Local real estate company Investment Corporation of America (ICA) purchased the station from Benedek Broadcasting in 2000. On May 20, 2015, Gray Television announced that it would acquire KOSA-TV from ICA for $33.6 million; the sale was completed on July 1. The deal reunited KOSA with several of its former Benedek sister stations, as Gray acquired most of Benedek's stations following the latter's bankruptcy in 2002.
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.
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. 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.