KLIF-TV in Dallas. Even though KELP was an English-language radio station, it was announced that the new TV station would broadcast entirely in Spanish, which would have made KELP-TV the first Spanish-language television station in the United States. The FCC awarded Trinity the construction permit on March 18, 1954. However, activity was slowed down when McLendon petitioned the FCC to switch his station to channel 7, which had been reserved for educational use, so as to gain a more competitive dial position; El Paso city schools and Texas Western College supported the proposal. This proposal was declined by the FCC in January 1955. Construction activity moved apace on the station, which changed call signs from KELP-TV to KOKE (in September 1954) and then KILT (in 1956), and KILT began broadcasting on September 1, 1956, as an English-language station. This made it the only television station built from the ground up by McLendon, whose only other startup venture was KLIF radio in Dallas. Two months passed before the station affiliated with ABC in early November. Harris–Alexander and Walton ownership In March 1957, McLendon sold KELP and KILT to KELP Television Corporation, whose owners—Joseph Harris and Norman Alexander—were the same as KXLY-AM-TV in Spokane, Washington, for $750,000. On May 1, the new owners restored the KELP-TV call sign to channel 13 as part of their takeover. (The KILT call letters were retained by McLendon and placed on a radio station in Houston that same month.) KELP Television moved the transmitter from its original in-town site, with the studios at 4530 Delta, to the Franklin Mountains in 1960. After six months of negotiations, Harris and Alexander announced the sale of KELP radio and television to John B. Walton in September 1965. Walton broke ground that May on a new studio complex in the Executive Park area for the KELP stations, which would contain new color equipment for the TV station. The new facilities, opened in April 1967, included an outdoor studio complete with a swimming pool and fountain. The facility was expanded again in 1973. During this time, Walton also expanded KELP-TV's reach. In 1966, he had bought KAVE-TV (channel 6) in Carlsbad, New Mexico, which he originally ran as a satellite station of his KVKM-TV in Monahans, Texas. Three years later, when Walton sold KVKM-TV, KAVE-TV was converted to relaying KELP-TV, which it would do for the next 24 years. Marsh Media