On May 16, 1955, the station’s owners Carlsbad Broadcasting Corporation applied to the Federal Communications Commission for a construction permit to build a television station on channel 6 in Carlsbad.
[1] Carlsbad Broadcasting had been planning for three years to build a TV station and had purchased a site on "C" Mountain in 1950.
[2] Before construction for the TV station began, negotiations were concluded to sell KAVE radio and the television station permit to Voice of the Caverns, a company of the Battison family consisting of Nancy Hewitt and John Battison.
[3] Then sold to Ed Talbott, the chief engineer of KROD radio in El Paso and a minority stockholder in Voice of the Caverns.
[4] Sadly, Ed Talbot died in 1963, causing ownership changes once again when John Deme, a Connecticut radio station owner, purchased the KAVE stations from Talbott's widow[5] In 1966, Deme sold KAVE radio and television to separate, but related owners.