KCWI-TV

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"KPWB-TV" redirects here. For the television station in Sacramento, California, that formerly used these call letters, see KMAX-TV.
KCWI-TV
kW
  • 1,000 kW (application)
    • HAAT610 m (2,001 ft)
    Transmitter coordinates41°49′48″N 93°36′54.6″W / 41.83000°N 93.615167°W / 41.83000; -93.615167
    Links
    Public license information
    Websitewww.weareiowa.com

    KCWI-TV (channel 23) is a

    West Des Moines; KCWI-TV's transmitter is located in Alleman, Iowa
    .

    History

    As a WB affiliate

    Channel 23 first signed on the air on January 20, 2001, under the callsign KPWB-TV. The station originally maintained a primary affiliation with The WB and a secondary affiliation with UPN, and was owned by Pappas Telecasting. (This was the second Pappas-owned WB affiliate to use the KPWB-TV call sign; the company previously owned what is now KMAX-TV in Sacramento, California, from 1995 to 1998.) KPWB dropped UPN programming in 2003. Prior to the station's launch, this area had been without programming from The WB; from 1995 to 1999, The WB programming was available on Des Moines–Ames cable systems via the former superstation feed of WGN-TV in Chicago,[3][4][5][6] and from 1999 to 2001, via

    Iowa City affiliated KWKB. During its time as KPWB, the station carried St. Louis Cardinals baseball games syndicated from KPLR-TV. It also aired select Chicago Cubs baseball games which were carried by WGN beginning in the 2016 season
    .

    Older KPWB logo, used from 2001 to 2006.

    As a CW affiliate

    On January 24, 2006,

    Twentieth Television. MyNetworkTV was created in order to give UPN and WB-affiliated stations that were not selected to join The CW another option besides becoming an independent station.[8]

    It seemed very likely that KPWB would become The CW's Des Moines affiliate, as NBC affiliate

    WHO-TV (channel 13) had a secondary affiliation with UPN. On March 16, 2006, Pappas Telecasting signed an affiliation agreement to make KPWB the market's CW affiliate. A few months later, MyNetworkTV announced that it would affiliate with a new station also owned by Pappas, KDMI
    (then on channel 56), which began broadcasting that network on September 5, 2006. On September 18, 2006, the date that The CW officially launched, KPWB changed its call letters to KCWI-TV to reflect its new affiliation.

    After MyNetworkTV converted to a programming service in September 2009, KDMI dropped the affiliation in favor of joining

    Nexstar Broadcasting Group–owned WLMT in Memphis also aired SmackDown in a manner very similar to KCWI after MyNetworkTV's original Memphis affiliate WPXX-TV
    dropped the programming service; WLMT's second digital subchannel eventually affiliated with the service after SmackDown moved to Syfy).

    On October 24, 2014, Pappas reached a deal to sell KCWI-TV to Nexstar Broadcasting Group for $3.5 million. The deal separated the station from KDMI, but created a new duopoly with ABC affiliate WOI-DT (channel 5), by coincidence also licensed to Ames.[9] Shortly after the sale was announced, Harry and Stella Pappas sued to block the deal, arguing that the price undervalued KCWI.[10] The deal was approved by the FCC on December 19, 2014, but the completion of the deal was placed on hold due to the lawsuit. The sale was formally completed on March 14, 2016,[11] with Nexstar announcing shortly after that KCWI would leave its downtown Des Moines studios and consolidate operations with WOI at that station's West Des Moines facilities as of April 1.[12]

    Nexstar purchased Tribune Media, then the owner of WHO-DT, for $6.4 billion in cash and debt on December 3, 2018.[13][14] Prohibited from owning all three station, Nexstar opted to retain WHO and sold KCWI and WOI to Tegna Inc. as part of an 11-station, $740-million divestiture package.[15]

    Newscasts

    Further information: WOI-DT § News operation

    KCWI presently broadcasts a total of 18+1⁄2 hours of local newscasts each week (a three-hour local weekday morning newscast from 7 to 10 a.m. and a nightly half hour newscast at 9 p.m.). KCWI did not broadcast any news programming until April 2012, when the station debuted a three-hour morning news and interview show called Great Day on KCWI, now airing four hours each weekday from 6 to 10 a.m. since September 2013. In addition to news, weather, sports and traffic reports, Great Day features guest interviews, animal segments, comedians, music and various videos. The station did not previously offer a prime time newscast following CW network programming, with syndicated sitcom reruns airing instead during the 9 p.m. timeslot. When Nexstar completed its sale of the station, the show's name was changed to The KCWI23-HD Morning Show.

    On April 11, 2016, KCWI's morning show was changed once again, this time to CW Iowa Live airing from 7 to 10 a.m. with the 6 a.m. hour now being occupied by infomercials to avoid competition with WOI-DT's morning show. The newly revamped show retained Michelle Brown and Lou Sipolt, but meteorologist Jason Parkin was let go as a result of the changes made; the show also retains the variety show feel of Great Day with some local segments by WOI's news team. The following week, on April 18, KCWI began airing a nightly half-hour 9 p.m. newscast also produced by WOI and also competes against the WHO-DT produced newscast on Fox affiliate KDSM-TV and KCCI's half-hour newscast that it airs on its MeTV subchannel.

    Technical information

    Subchannels

    The station's signal is

    multiplexed
    :

    Subchannels of KCWI-TV[16]
    Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
    23.1 720p
    16:9
    		 KCWI-HD The CW
    23.2 480i HSN HSN
    23.3 Bounce Bounce TV
    23.4 Quest Quest
    23.5
    4:3
    		 GetTV Get
    23.6 16:9 ShopLC Shop LC
    5.05 720p WOI-HD ABC (WOI-DT)
    5.10 480i DABL Dabl
      Simulcast of subchannels of another station

    In February 2020, a fifth subchannel of KCWI-TV was launched as a UHF simulcast of WOI-DT in order to alleviate reception issues with WOI's channel 5

    VHF
    signal.

    Analog-to-digital conversion

    KCWI-TV shut down its analog signal, over

    construction permit after the Federal Communications Commission finalized the DTV allotment plan on April 21, 1997, the station did not receive a companion channel for a digital television station
    . Due to this abnormality, the station's digital signal was carried as a subchannel of now former sister station KDMI.

    References

    1. ^ "Nexstar Selling 19 TVs In 15 Markets For .32B". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheckMedia. March 20, 2019. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
    2. ^ "Facility Technical Data for KCWI-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
    3. ^ Time Warner Takes Crucial Step Toward New Network Television: A pact with superstation WGN-TV gives it access to 73% of homes. Analysts say that will still leave gaps., Los Angeles Times, December 4, 1993. Retrieved December 10, 2010.
    4. ^ Moss, Linda (September 20, 1999). "WGN Drops WB, Adds Movies, Sitcoms". Multichannel News. Cahners Business Information. Archived from the original on March 28, 2015. Retrieved June 22, 2013.
    5. The Charleston Gazette. The Daily Gazette Company. Archived from the original
      on March 28, 2015. Retrieved June 22, 2013.
    6. ^ Rutenberg, Jim (May 17, 2000). "TV NOTES; A Mix for WB". The New York Times. Retrieved December 10, 2010.
    7. ^ UPN and WB to Combine, Forming New TV Network, The New York Times, January 24, 2006.
    8. ^ Fox to Launch My Network TV, News Corporation, February 22, 2006.
    9. ^ "Application For Consent To Assignment Of Broadcast Station Construction Permit Or License". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. November 3, 2014. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
    10. ^ Malone, Michael (November 19, 2014). "Pappas Files Suit to Block KCWI Des Moines Sale". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved November 21, 2014.
    11. ^ Consummation Notice, CDBS Public Access, Federal Communications Commission, March 16, 2016, Retrieved March 16, 2016.
    12. ^ Meinch, Timothy (March 21, 2016). "KCWI-TV has new owner, morning show changes planned". The Des Moines Register. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
    13. ^ "Acquisition of Tribune Media Company" (PDF). Nexstar Media Group. December 3, 2018. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 3, 2018. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
    14. ^ Miller, Mark K. (December 3, 2018). "Nexstar Buying Tribune Media For $6.4 Billion". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheck Media.
    15. ^ "Nexstar Selling 19 TVs In 15 Markets For 1.32B". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheckMedia. March 20, 2019. Archived from the original on March 20, 2019. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
    16. ^ RabbitEars TV Query for KCWI
    17. ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
    18. ^ Final Digital TV (DTV) Channel Plan from FCC97-115

    External links

    Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=KCWI-TV&oldid=1220763176"