KOZA (1230 AM) was a

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

broadcasting a

Tejano music Tejano music ( es, música tejana), also known as Tex-Mex music, is a popular music style fusing Mexican and US influences. Typically, Tejano combines Mexican Spanish vocal styles with dance rhythms from Czech and German genres – particular ...

format, licensed to

Odessa, Texas Odessa is a city in and the county seat of Ector County, Texas, United States. It is located primarily in Ector County, although a small section of the city extends into Midland County. Odessa's population was 114,428 at the 2020 census, mak ...

. The station was last owned by Stellar Media, Inc.

History

KOSA

KOSA went on the air at 7 am on January 19, 1947, as the CBS radio station for the Permian Basin. Operating on 1450 kHz, the new station was licensed to the Southwestern Broadcasting Corporation, owned by Dorrance D. Roderick. The Roderick stations—KOSA, El Paso's

KROD KROD (600 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in El Paso, Texas, United States. It airs a sports format and is owned and operated by Townsquare Media. The offices and studios are located on North Mesa Street (Texas State Highway 20) in N ...

and KSIL in

Silver City, New Mexico Silver City is a town in Grant County, New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat and the home of Western New Mexico University. As of the 2010 census the population was 10,315. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,704. History ...

, all CBS affiliates—formed a regional hookup known as the Southwest Network. The station relocated from 1450 to 1230 kHz on April 20, 1949, after emerging victorious from a hearing in which the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

denied competing proposals by a series of other stations to use the frequency. The station was sold to the Odessa Broadcasting Company in 1951, part of the Trigg-Vaughn Stations group, owned and operated by Cecil L. Trigg and Jack Vaughn. The company expanded to TV with

KOSA-TV KOSA-TV (channel 7) is a television station licensed to Odessa, Texas, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for the Permian Basin area. It is owned by Gray Television alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate KWWT (channel 30, also licensed to Ode ...

, which began telecasts on January 1, 1956, as a CBS affiliate. KOSA further increased its signal coverage with a daytime increase to 1,000 watts in 1964.FCC History Cards for KOZA
/ref>

KOZA

May 1, 1968, saw KOSA become KOZA as Trigg-Vaughn sold all of its other media holdings, including KOSA-TV, which kept the call letters. It retained the radio station another 11 years as its lone broadcasting property until KOZA was acquired by Kansas-based Harris Enterprises in 1979. Under Harris, KOZA responded to the decline of top 40 music on AM by moving to a format that targeted an over-35 audience. Harris only owned the station for three years until manager Bob Russell, operating as Capital Communications, bought it out in 1982.

Demise and rebirth as a Spanish-language station

In the mid-1980s, the Permian Basin economy suffered due to low oil prices. KOZA was affected by the regional slump and ceased broadcasting the weekend of May 17–18, 1986. The silence of KOZA enabled a local Christian FM station, KKKK, to temporarily relocate to KOZA's studios after losing theirs in a January 1987 fire. While KOZA was made available in an auction at the Odessa Hilton on May 12, 1987, it did not emerge until April 1989, when Mesa Entertainment bought the station and relaunched it with a Spanish-language music format. The station absorbed some talent and programming from KNDA when that station closed in 1991.
Continued
In 2004, Mesa Entertainment sold the station to Stellar Media, in a transaction between two members of the Velásquez family. KOZA was silent between November 24, 2014, and November 9, 2015, when the studio building was sold and the station was forced to relocate. Its license was not renewed and expired on August 1, 2021.Radio License Expirations
, fcc.gov. July 8, 2021. Retrieved August 4, 2021.

References

External links

FCC Station Search Details: DKOZA
(Facility ID: 41298)
FCC History Cards for KOZA
(covering 1945-1980 as KOSA / KOZA) {{coord, 31, 49, 50, N, 102, 22, 09, W, type:landmark_region:US-TX, display=title OZA OZA Radio stations established in 1947 Radio stations disestablished in 2021 1947 establishments in Texas 2021 disestablishments in Texas Defunct radio stations in the United States OZA