[3] This group, the Rio Grande Council on Educational Television, began raising $500,000 in order to build a transmitter site on the Franklin Mountains.

The station would be located on the campus of the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP),[8] while fundraising and awareness-generating activities began in the community.

[10] In June 1972, the foundation unveiled a capital plan to raise $275,000 of community support, with the remainder of the $1 million cost coming from the federal government as well as the local and state boards of education.

[11] However, the sudden death of Thorne Shugart, vice president in charge of fundraising, caused efforts to stall.

[1] By 1974, it was hoped that the station would be on air that year if federal grant money from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) was received in time.

[19][20][21][a] Construction of KCOS also took other steps in late 1977 and early 1978, as senior management was hired; KDBC-TV donated two cameras;[23] and the station leased space at UTEP.

[24] An eight-hour telethon aired by KDBC-TV, previewing public TV programming and seeking donations to get KCOS started, helped bring the station closer to its fundraising goals.

[27][28] On El Paso's cable system, KCOS programming supplanted KNME-TV from Albuquerque when the station was on the air.

For much of its 41-year history under a community licensee, the station had to navigate persistent low rates of public support, accentuated by its location in a border city.

In 1981, the station faced a $25,000 budget deficit, and the chairman of the foundation asked general manager John Siqueiros to produce a five-year plan for KCOS.

[37] Finances improved, but a decision in the late 1980s to expand the station's local program production doubled the annual budget and ultimately led to a financial crisis in 1992, when Kasdan departed KCOS.

[41] KCOS was also one of the first 11 stations to participate in the pilot for PBS's Ready-to-Learn initiative, devoting its daytime schedule to children's programs aimed at preschoolers, in 1994.

[42] During Muñoz's tenure, KCOS also produced and distributed the docudrama Held in Trust: The Story of Lt. Henry Ossian Flipper, a first in station history.

KCOS had few options and needed to find space in an existing building that could provide services such as security and cleaning.

[53] On August 12, 2019, a purchase agreement was announced that would see KCOS sold to Texas Tech University for a token amount of $1,000.