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. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside KTES-LD (channel 40), broadcasting the diginet Roar, and KTXE-LD (channel 38), which rebroadcasts KTXS-TV in the San Angelo area. The stations share studios on North Clack Street in Abilene; KTXS-TV's transmitter is located near Trent, Texas, and KTXE-LD is broadcast from a site on West 26th Street in San Angelo.

Channel 12 began broadcasting on January 30, 1956, as KPAR-TV, which was owned by and rebroadcast most of the programming of KDUB-TV, the CBS affiliate in Lubbock. Texas Key Broadcasting assumed operational control in 1960; the station added ABC affiliation and broke away from the Lubbock station, and the station moved its transmitter to Trent to increase coverage.

Grayson Enterprises bought KPAR-TV in 1966 and immediately changed the call sign to KTXS-TV. It built the present Abilene-area studios, which replaced facilities in Sweetwater and led to fines and a hearing by the Federal Communications Commission; the station also built the San Angelo translator at this time. As a result of multiple indiscretions, Grayson divested itself of KTXS-TV and other stations in "distress sales" to minority-controlled broadcasters in 1980. KTXS had four owners in a six-year period, all of whom tried to raise the station from a distant last place in news ratings.

Lamco Communications purchased KTXS in 1986 and raised its news department to a more competitive second place in the Abilene market. KTXS provided the local outlet of Telemundo from 2000 to 2010 and added The CW in 2006. It was purchased by Sinclair as part of its 2017 acquisition of Bonten Media Group.

Texas Telecasting, Inc., the owner of KDUB-TV in Lubbock, filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on June 29, 1953, to build a new TV station on channel 12 in Sweetwater as well as a station at Big Spring. The FCC approved the Sweetwater application on August 26, and Texas Telecasting revealed its plans for the station, which would mostly rebroadcast KDUB-TV and its CBS programs.

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. The tower was erected in January 1956, and KPAR-TV began broadcasting on January 30, 1956, with a three-hour dedication broadcast from its studio in Sweetwater. The station also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network, which began in September 1956. In 1958, the station opened a second studio in downtown Abilene.

In 1960, Texas Telecasting filed to lease KPAR-TV to Texas Key Broadcasting in a 10-year, nearly $800,000 agreement. Texas Key was owned by residents of Abilene including the station's general manager, James M. Isaacs. 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. 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.

The new transmitter and 568-foot (173 m) tower at Trent were activated on February 1, 1962, by which time the station had added ABC programs to its schedule. Texas Key sued the Lubbock TV station, which had become KLBK-TV, and its new corporate parent Grayson Enterprises in 1964 for failing to maintain the microwave transmission system that brought CBS programs from Lubbock to KPAR-TV, forcing channel 12 to contract for its own network feed from CBS.