The station signed on from an existing tower on a peak of the Franklin Mountains, located north of Comanche Peak (where KDBC-TV's transmitter is based) and Ranger Peak (where KTSM-TV (channel 9)'s transmitter is housed) that had been built in the early 1970s for a planned expansion of KELP-TV (channel 13, now KVIA-TV on channel 7) but had never been used. The site was located at the highest elevation in Texas at above sea level; a tramway had to be installed as there was no access to the transmitter by roadway. KELP-TV and the yet-not launched KCOS (channel 7, now on channel 13), as were some FM radio stations, were to use the new site. While no television stations used the site until KCIK signed on, the local two-way radio operation began to use the site for radio repeaters. KCIK-TV moved to the site in 1979 using a transmitter than had been used by a television station on channel 30 in Puerto Rico. The station initially broadcast its signal using a low-power transmitter, before it was upgraded to full-power later that year.