KTXS-TV (channel 12) is a television station licensed to Sweetwater, Texas, United States, serving the Abilene area as an affiliate of ABC and The CW Plus.

[4] The FCC approved the Sweetwater application on August 26,[3] and Texas Telecasting revealed its plans for the station, which would mostly rebroadcast KDUB-TV and its CBS programs.

[5] Construction on KPAR-TV began in September 1955, after KDUB-TV received new equipment; items previously used in Lubbock would be transferred to the new Sweetwater station.

[11] The new operators filed to move the station's transmitter to a site south of Trent in 1961; the higher elevation would improve coverage in the Abilene market.

[12] Texas Key bought the physical assets of KPAR-TV, as well as KDUB radio and television in Lubbock and KEDY-TV in Big Spring, in 1961.

[15] Grayson Enterprises agreed to buy KPAR-TV from Texas Key Telecasting in January 1966; part of the sale agreement stipulated the abandonment of the microwave system lawsuit.

[19] Two years later, on July 19, 1971, KTXS-TV installed translator K55AA in San Angelo, bringing that city the previously unseen ABC network; CBS programs were blacked out to protect KCTV there.

[20] In addition to providing ABC to San Angelo, the move derailed plans by SRC, Inc., to construct a new local station affiliated with the network.

[21] The operation of Grayson's Texas stations came into question by the FCC as early as 1971, when the commission fined KTXS-TV $5,000 for moving its studio from Sweetwater to Abilene.

Two of the charges specifically concerned channel 12: the commission sought to ascertain whether Grayson lacked candor in its communications about the Abilene studio move, and the FCC cited the station as having engaged in the practice of "clipping", or running local commercials over network material.

[23][24] Grayson got a new way out of the hearings after the commission introduced the "distress sale" policy, which permitted a station facing possible revocation of its broadcast license to be sold a group that was minority-controlled.

[32] In April 1979, Grayson agreed to sell KTXS-TV and KLBK-TV to Silver Star Communications, a majority-Black partnership soon renamed Prima Inc., for $15 million.

After a deal with Larry Wilson, a former Citadel Broadcasting executive, fell through,[51][52] the Lamco portfolio was sold to BlueStone Television, a company led by Sandy DiPasquale, in 2004.

After KTAB-TV signed on in 1979, it supplanted KRBC as the number-one station, but KTXS remained a distant third, with its evening newscasts drawing 12 to 15% of the Abilene-market audience.

[62] Catclaw had hired Len Johnson, a longtime radio newsman for KRBC, because owner S. M. Moore wanted to remedy the news image of having inexperienced reporters and anchor and bring in someone with "gray around the temples".

[67] KTAB quickly retook first place in those time periods, but KTXS had increased its margin on KRBC;[68] its newscasts continued to reach a younger audience desired by advertisers; and it led in the 6 a.m. and 5 p.m.