KLEW-TV (channel 3) is a

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...

licensed to

Lewiston, Idaho Lewiston is a city and the county seat of Nez Perce County, Idaho, United States, in the state's north central region. It is the second-largest city in the northern Idaho region, behind Coeur d'Alene, and ninth-largest in the state. Lewiston is ...

, United States, affiliated with

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

. The station serves the Lewis–Clark Valley and

Palouse The Palouse ( ) is a distinct geographic region of the northwestern United States, encompassing parts of north central Idaho, southeastern Washington, and, by some definitions, parts of northeast Oregon. It is a major agricultural area, primaril ...

regions of north-central

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

and southeastern

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, as well as

Wallowa County, Oregon Wallowa County () is the northeastern most county in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 7,391, making it Oregon's fifth-least populous county. Its county seat is Enterprise. According to '' Oregon Geographic Nam ...

. Owned by

Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, t ...

, KLEW-TV maintains studios on 17th Street in Lewiston, and its transmitter is located near

Clarkston, Washington Clarkston is a city in Asotin County, Washington, United States. It is part of the Lewiston, ID-WA metropolitan area, and is located west of Lewiston, Idaho, across the Snake River. The population of Clarkston was 7,229 at the 2010 census. Wal ...

. Though identifying as a station in its own right, KLEW-TV is considered a

semi-satellite A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tran ...

KIMA-TV KIMA-TV (channel 29) is a television station in Yakima, Washington, United States, affiliated with CBS and The CW Plus. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside low-power, Class A Univision affiliate KUNW-CD (channel 2). Both stations ...

(channel 29) in

Yakima Yakima ( or ) is a city in and the county seat of Yakima County, Washington, and the state's 11th-largest city by population. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 96,968 and a metropolitan population of 256,728. The uninco ...

, which operates another semi-satellite,

KEPR-TV KEPR-TV (channel 19) is a television station licensed to Pasco, Washington, United States, serving the Tri-Cities area as an affiliate of CBS and The CW Plus. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station maintains studios on West Lewis Street ( ...

(channel 19) in

Tri-Cities, Washington The Tri-Cities are three closely linked cities ( Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland) at the confluence of the Yakima, Snake, and Columbia Rivers in the Columbia Basin of Eastern Washington. The cities border one another, making the Tri-Cities se ...

. KLEW and KEPR

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultane ...

all network and syndicated programming as provided through KIMA, but air separate commercial inserts, legal identifications and weeknight newscasts, and have their own websites.

Master control Master control is the technical hub of a broadcast operation common among most over-the-air television stations and television networks. It is distinct from a production control room (PCR) in television studios where the activities such as switc ...

and some internal operations are based at KOMO Plaza (formerly Fisher Plaza) in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

. The area that KLEW-TV serves, including Lewiston, is part of the

Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Canada ...

television market A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television and radio station offerings, and may also incl ...

, and the station is one of two CBS affiliates in the market, along with

Tegna Inc. Tegna Inc. (stylized in all caps as TEGNA) is an American publicly traded broadcast, digital media and marketing services company headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into tw ...

-owned KREM (channel 2), which is licensed to Spokane and typically considered as the primary CBS affiliate for the market. Both stations are carried on

Dish Network DISH Network Corporation (DISH, an acronym for DIgital Sky Highway) is an American television provider and the owner of the direct-broadcast satellite provider Dish, commonly known as Dish Network, and the over-the-top IPTV service, Sling TV. A ...

and

DirecTV DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. It ...

throughout the market.

History

KLEW-TV signed on the air December 7, 1955 under the ownership of Cascade Broadcasting. It has always been a CBS affiliate; however, as a satellite of KIMA-TV, it also carried some programming from

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

and

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

in its early years. The station's original studio facilities were located on Idaho Street in Lewiston.

Filmways Filmways, Inc. (also known as Filmways Pictures and Filmways Television) was a television and film production company founded by American film executive Martin Ransohoff and Edwin Kasper in 1952. It is probably best remembered as the production c ...

agreed to purchase Cascade Broadcasting for $3 million in 1968; the sale was approved the following year. Filmways sold KLEW-TV, KIMA-TV, and KEPR-TV to NWG Broadcasting for $1 million in 1972. In 1977, KLEW moved from its original studios on Idaho Street to its current location on 17th Street.

Retlaw Enterprises Retlaw Enterprises, originally Walt Disney Miniature Railroad, then Walt Disney, Inc. (WDI), and then WED Enterprises (WED), was a privately held company owned by the heirs of entertainment mogul Walt Disney. Disney formed the company to control ...

acquired the NWG stations, including KLEW-TV, for $17 million in 1986; the stations were operated as part of the Retlaw Broadcasting division. Fisher Companies (later known as

Fisher Communications Fisher Communications was a media company in the United States. Based in Seattle, Washington, the company primarily owned a number of radio and television stations in the Western United States. It was the last company in the Seattle area to own ...

) agreed to purchase the Retlaw stations for $215 million on November 19, 1998, a deal that was completed in July 1999. On April 11, 2013, Fisher announced that it would sell its properties to the

; the deal was completed on August 8, 2013.

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is

multiplexed In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...

Translators

Newscasts

KLEW-TV airs local newscasts weeknights at 5:00, 6:00 and 11:00 p.m., local news cut-ins during the weekday edition of ''

CBS This Morning ''CBS This Morning'' (''CTM'') is an American morning television program that aired on CBS from November 30, 1987, to October 29, 1999, and again from January 9, 2012, to September 6, 2021. The program was aired from Monday through Saturday. ...

'' from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m., that includes a short 5-minute interview segment called ''Northwest Morning'', and simulcasts sister station

's 5:00 and 6:30 a.m. newscasts, as KLEW does not have morning, midday or weekend newscasts.

Notable former on-air staff

Nadine Woodward Nadine Woodward (born January 27, 1962) is an American politician serving as the mayor of Spokane, Washington. She succeeded David Condon in December 2019. Prior to her election, Woodward worked as a television presenter. Early life and educa ...

– weeknight news anchor (1985–1987). Currently mayor of

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Klew-Tv CBS network affiliates Charge! (TV network) affiliates Comet (TV network) affiliates Television stations in Idaho Sinclair Broadcast Group Television channels and stations established in 1955 1955 establishments in Idaho Low-power television stations in the United States Lewiston, Idaho