KWES-TV

KWES-TV

Odessa–Midland, Texas United States
City	Odessa, Texas
Channels	Digital: 9 (VHF) Virtual: 9
Branding	NewsWest 9
Programming
Affiliations	9.1: NBC for others, see § Subchannels
Ownership
Owner	Tegna Inc. (KWES Television, LLC)
History
First air date	December 1, 1958 (65 years ago) (1958-12-01)
Former call signs	KVKM-TV (1958–1969) KMOM-TV (1969–1980) KTPX (1980–1993)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 9 (VHF, 1958–2009) Digital: 13 (VHF, 2005–2009)
Former affiliations	ABC (1958–1982)
Call sign meaning	West Texas
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	42007
ERP	94.4 kW
HAAT	391.3 m (1,284 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	31°59′17″N 102°52′43″W / 31.98806°N 102.87861°W / 31.98806; -102.87861
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	www.newswest9.com

KWES-TV (channel 9) is a television station licensed to Odessa, Texas, United States, serving the Permian Basin area as an affiliate of NBC. The station is owned by Tegna Inc. and maintains studios on West County Road 127 near the Midland International Air and Space Port, between Odessa and Midland; its transmitter is located near Notrees, Texas.

Channel 9 in west Texas signed on as KVKM-TV from Monahans, Texas, in 1958. A small ABC affiliate, the station was a relatively minor player in the regional television market. The station was owned by Grayson Enterprises in the 1970s under the KMOM-TV call sign; allegations of falsified program logs and other violations, as well as the gutting of Grayson-owned KWAB (channel 4, now KCWO-TV) in Big Spring to rebroadcast KMOM-TV, led to license renewal hearings that culminated in a distress sale to a minority-owned company, Permian Basin Television Corporation.

The new owners relaunched the station as KTPX in 1980, but advertiser misgivings continued to weigh the station down. ABC upgraded its affiliation by switching to KMID-TV in 1982, leaving KTPX with the NBC affiliation in the area. Drewry Communications purchased KTPX in 1991, ending a four-year period of receivership. The call sign was changed to KWES-TV in 1993 as part of a major overhaul that made the station competitive in the market. Drewry sold its portfolio of stations in Texas and Oklahoma to Raycom Media in 2015. When Raycom merged with Gray Television in January 2019, Tegna acquired KWES-TV; in the process, Gray separated KWAB and The CW and Telemundo affiliations for the market and combined them with Gray-owned CBS affiliate KOSA-TV (channel 7).