[4] The FCC granted the permit in June,[3] though before the station was built, 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, so that Carlsbad Broadcasting Corporation president Val Lawrence could dedicate himself to managing KROD-TV in El Paso.
This continued until 1969, when Walton sold the Monahans station and switched KAVE-TV's program source to another ABC affiliate he owned, El Paso's KELP-TV.
[16] Marsh invested significantly in the Carlsbad facility by increasing its effective radiated power to 100,000 watts in 1977, an improvement that had first been sought in 1965 but was later cut back.
In 1982, Marsh invested a reported $1 million to set up a local operation in Carlsbad to originate regional news coverage for southeastern New Mexico.
[18] However, Marsh admitted that it had overestimated the regional economy when it conducted a round of layoffs at KAVE-TV the next year, reducing its full-time staff from 22 to 16.
KOAT's general manager, Mary Lynn Roper, denied that it was responsible for the issue, noting that no complaints were lodged against reception of KASA-TV, whose signal was carried to the area on the same microwave path.
[29][30] As part of the SAFER Act, KOCT kept its analog signal on the air until July 12 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcements from the National Association of Broadcasters.
[32][33] The move was made to eliminate the need to maintain the KOCT and KOVT public files in their respective cities due to FCC regulations which went into effect on that date.
[34] The existing KOAT translator reusing the KOCT facility, K19JZ-D, occupied a channel that remained allocated for a potential full-service TV station at Carlsbad.