The Cosmos Papers span a period from the first air date of WIS radio in 1930 to the merging of Orion Broadcasting in the early 1980's. The collection consists mainly of correspondence of corporate officers such as G. Richard Shafto, Charles A. Batson, W. Frank Hipp, Francis M. Hipp, Dixon Lovvorn, and Macon G. Patton, as well as station managers, stockholders and law firms. This record group also contains legal files dealing with Cosmos' relations with the Federal Communications Commission, including several volumes of testimony by Cosmos officials in 1962 concerning the possible deintermixture of UHF and VHF television signals. In addition, the collection holds numerous FCC regulations for the cable television industry.

The establishment and early history of WIS is well documented, including a manuscript history of the station, "So Rich a Heritage," written by Miss Louis Lang in the 1960's. Many publications of Cosmos and its predecessors are found in the collection, such as COSMOS-politan, the corporate newsletter, and annual reports to stockholders.