KVIA-TV

KVIA-TV

El Paso, Texas Las Cruces, New Mexico United States
City	El Paso, Texas
Channels	Digital: 17 (UHF) Virtual: 7
Branding	7.1: ABC 7 7.2: El Paso–Las Cruces CW
Programming
Affiliations	7.1: ABC 7.2: The CW for others, see § Subchannels
Ownership
Owner	News-Press & Gazette Company (NPG of Texas, L.P.)
History
First air date	September 1, 1956 (68 years ago) (1956-09-01)
Former call signs	KILT (1956–1957) KELP-TV (1957–1976)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 13 (VHF, 1956–1981), 7 (VHF, 1981–2009) Digital: 17 (UHF, 2002–2009), 7 (VHF, 2009–2014)
Former affiliations	Independent (1956) Azteca América (DT4, 2008–2022)
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	49832
ERP	263 kW
HAAT	577 m (1,893 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	31°48′18.9″N 106°29′0.7″W / 31.805250°N 106.483528°W / 31.805250; -106.483528
Translator(s)	see § Translators
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	www.kvia.com

KVIA-TV (channel 7) is a television station in El Paso, Texas, United States, affiliated with ABC and The CW. Owned by the News-Press & Gazette Company, the station maintains studios on Rio Bravo Street in northwest El Paso and a transmitter atop the Franklin Mountains within the El Paso city limits.

After an earlier permittee opted not to build, El Paso's third commercial television station began in 1956 as KILT on channel 13, the only television station built from the ground up by Gordon McLendon. It was co-owned with radio station KELP (920 AM) and became known as KELP-TV in 1957 when McLendon sold his El Paso broadcast holdings. The call sign changed to KVIA-TV in 1976 when Marsh Media acquired the station. To improve ratings, Marsh opted to duplicate the successful formula of its KVII-TV in Amarillo; in 1981, the station moved from channel 13 to channel 7 in a switch with local public station KCOS. News-Press & Gazette Company acquired KVIA-TV in 1995, marking its return to the television stations business.