KSCW-DT (channel 33) 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 ...
in
Wichita, Kansas
Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had ...
, United States, affiliated with
The CW
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
. It is owned by
Gray Television
Gray Television, Inc. is an American publicly traded television broadcasting company based in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1946 by James Harrison Gray as Gray Communications Systems, the company owns or operates 180 stations across the United St ...
alongside
Hutchinson-licensed
CBS affiliate
KWCH-DT
KWCH-DT (channel 12) is a television station licensed to Hutchinson, Kansas, United States, serving the Wichita area as an affiliate of CBS. It is owned by Gray Television alongside CW affiliate KSCW-DT (channel 33), and maintains studios on 3 ...
(channel 12). Both stations share studios on 37th Street in northeast Wichita, while KSCW-DT's
transmitter
In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which i ...
is located in rural northeastern
Reno County
Reno County (standard abbreviation: RN) is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Kansas. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 61,898. The largest city and county seat is Hutchinson, Kansas, ...
(east of Hutchinson).
KSCW-DT also operates a
digital replacement translator on
UHF
Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...
channel 33 (its previous analog signal allotment) from a transmitter in North Wichita, just north of the station's studio facility.
History
![KWCV 2003](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/KWCV_2003.jpg)
The station was first licensed on June 8, 1988, under permits from
LIN TV
LIN Media was an American holding company founded in 1994 that operated 43 television stations. All except one were affiliates of the television in the United States#Major broadcast networks, six major U.S. television networks. One of the re ...
filing an application with the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
(FCC), under the
call letters KWCV. It was temporarily licensed as DKWCV on November 5, 1998, but on February 11, 1999, it was changed back to KWCV.
The station first signed on the air on
August 5, 1999, along with LIN TV (which also briefly owned
KAKE
KAKE (channel 10) is a television station in Wichita, Kansas, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC and owned by Lockwood Broadcast Group. The station's studios are located on West Street in northwestern Wichita, and ...
and its satellites in 2000 before selling KAKE to
Benedek Broadcasting
Benedek Broadcasting was a television broadcasting company, who owned and operated 22 network-affiliated television stations throughout the United States, all affiliated with major television networks, serving mainly small and medium-size markets. ...
) forming and owning 50% of
Banks Broadcasting
Banks Broadcasting was a minority-owned broadcasting company which owned two television stations in the western United States. 50% of the company was owned by LIN TV, a large group broadcaster with clusters in the Northeast and Midwest and scatter ...
, which would become the station's owner. Originally operating as a
WB affiliate, it was branded on-air as "Kansas' WB". Prior to the station's launch, The WB's programming could only be viewed in the Wichita market through
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
-based cable
superstation
''Superstation'' (alternatively rendered as "super station" or informally as "SuperStation") is a term in North American broadcasting that has several meanings. Commonly, a "superstation" is a form of distant signal, a terrestrial television, br ...
WGN, which carried the network's programming nationwide from The WB's January 1995 launch until October 1999, or
Denver
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
's
KWGN-TV
KWGN-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Denver, Denver, Colorado, United States, airing programming from The CW. It is owned-and-operated station, owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside Fox Broadcasting ...
on cable or satellite. The station's original transmitter was located on a tower near
Colwich.
![Kansas CW](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/Kansas_CW.jpg)
On January 24, 2006, the
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Di ...
unit of
Time Warner
Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States.
It was originally established in 1972 by ...
and
CBS Corporation
The second incarnation of CBS Corporation (the first being a short-lived rename of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation) was an American multinational media conglomerate with interests primarily in commercial broadcasting, publishing, and t ...
announced that the two companies would shut down The WB and
UPN
The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that launched on January 16, 1995. It was originally owned by Chris-Craft Industries' United Television. Viacom (through its Paramount Television unit, which prod ...
and combine the networks' respective programming onto a newly created "fifth" network called
The CW
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
. One month later on February 22, 2006,
News Corporation
News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Ne ...
announced that it would launch another new network called
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV (unofficially abbreviated MyTV, MyNet, MNT or MNTV, and sometimes referred to as My Network) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its ...
. On March 21, not long after it was announced that the station would become the market's CW affiliate, KWCV received approval from the FCC to change its call letters to KSCW in order to reflect its upcoming affiliation change. On September 5, former UPN affiliate KMTW became Wichita's MyNetworkTV affiliate when that network launched. KSCW became the CW outlet for the market when that network launched on September 18; the station also changed its branding to "Kansas CW" on that date.
In March 2007, Banks Broadcasting announced that it would sell the station to
Schurz Communications
Schurz Communications is a South Bend, Indiana-based broadband media group and cloud services provider. It owned newspapers.
History
The company was founded in 1872 by Alfred B. Miller and Elmer Crockett with the creation of the ''South Bend ...
, owner of
CBS affiliate
KWCH
KWCH-DT (channel 12) is a television station licensed to Hutchinson, Kansas, United States, serving the Wichita area as an affiliate of CBS. It is owned by Gray Television alongside CW affiliate KSCW-DT (channel 33), and maintains studios on 3 ...
(channel 12). The sale closed on July 20, 2007, after which the FCC granted Schurz a "failing station" waiver to acquire KSCW. This was necessary because the Wichita designated market area has only seven "unique" full-power television stations. The full-power stations operating outside the immediate metropolitan area all operate as
satellites
A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotop ...
of each of Wichita's four major network affiliates (KWCH,
KSNW
KSNW (channel 3) is a television station in Wichita, Kansas, United States, affiliated with NBC and Telemundo. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group, and maintains studios on North Main Street in northwest Wichita (near downtown); its tran ...
(channel 3),
KAKE
KAKE (channel 10) is a television station in Wichita, Kansas, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC and owned by Lockwood Broadcast Group. The station's studios are located on West Street in northwestern Wichita, and ...
(channel 10) and
KSAS-TV
KSAS-TV (channel 24) is a television station in Wichita, Kansas, United States, affiliated with Fox and MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which provides certain services to Hutchinson-licensed Dabl affiliate KMTW (channel 3 ...
(channel 24)), and the FCC considers the parent and all of its satellites together as one station. That number of unique full-power stations is normally not enough to legally support a
duopoly
A duopoly (from Greek δύο, ''duo'' "two" and πωλεῖν, ''polein'' "to sell") is a type of oligopoly where two firms have dominant or exclusive control over a market. It is the most commonly studied form of oligopoly due to its simplicit ...
, because Banks Broadcasting tried and failed to find a buyer for KSCW that did not need the "failing station" waiver.
Several months after Schurz closed on its purchase of this station, it launched a new website powered by the Local Media Network division of WorldNow, replacing Broadcast Interactive Media as the operator of the site. Schurz began the process of transitioning the websites of its media properties to the
Tribune
Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs acted as a check on the ...
Interactive platform in Summer 2010 with KWCH and KSCW being the first two using the relaunched Tribune-run platform in late-June (as of 2013, the Schurz television station websites are now operated by
Internet Broadcasting
Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...
). In 2009, KSCW traded transmitter facilities, moving to KWCH's tower just east of
Hutchinson in
Reno County
Reno County (standard abbreviation: RN) is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Kansas. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 61,898. The largest city and county seat is Hutchinson, Kansas, ...
.
Schurz announced on September 14, 2015 that it would exit broadcasting and sell its television and radio stations, including KSCW-DT, KWCH-DT, and the JSA with KDCU-DT, to
Gray Television
Gray Television, Inc. is an American publicly traded television broadcasting company based in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1946 by James Harrison Gray as Gray Communications Systems, the company owns or operates 180 stations across the United St ...
for $442.5 million. Gray already owns KAKE in Wichita; however, it will sell that station and keep KSCW and KWCH.
The FCC approved the Schurz sale on February 12, 2016, and the sale was finalized on February 16.
Programming
KSCW carries the entire CW network schedule and airs it mostly in pattern.
Syndicated programming include ''
Divorce Court'', ''
Extra'', ''
The Goldbergs'', ''
Judge Judy
''Judge Judy'' is an American Court show#Arbitration-based reality court show, arbitration-based reality court show presided over by former Manhattan Family Court Judge Judy Sheindlin, Judith Sheindlin. The show featured Sheindlin as she adjudi ...
'', ''
The King of Queens
''The King of Queens'' is an American television sitcom that ran on CBS from September 21, 1998, to May 14, 2007, a total of nine seasons and 207 episodes. The series was created by Michael J. Weithorn and David Litt, who also served as the show ...
'', ''
Mom
]
A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given childbirth, birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the cas ...
'', ''
Monk (TV series), Monk'', and ''
PowerNation
PowerNation is an American automotive how-to enthusiast television program that began originally as ''PowerBlock''. The programming is produced by Gray Television, which purchased the assets of PowerNation's former owner Raycom Media in 2019. Pow ...
''.
Newscasts
KWCH presently produces 20½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week for sister station KSCW (with 3½ hours on weekdays and 1½ hours each on Saturdays and Sundays); in addition, the station airs the agricultural news program ''AG AM in Kansas'', which airs weekday mornings at 6:00 a.m.
In 2008, KWCH began producing a two-hour extension of its weekday morning newscast for KSCW, titled ''
Eyewitness News
''Eyewitness News'' is a style of television news presentation that emphasizes visual elements and action video, replacing the older "man-on-camera" newscast.
History Pioneered by Westinghouse
The earliest known use of the ''Eyewitness New ...
This Morning on KSCW''; the program competes against the national morning news programs seen on the
"Big Three" networks. In October 2008, KWCH became the first television station in the Wichita market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in
high definition
High definition or HD may refer to:
Visual technologies
*HD DVD, discontinued optical disc format
*HD Photo, former name for the JPEG XR image file format
*HDV, format for recording high-definition video onto magnetic tape
* HiDef, 24 frames-pe ...
; the KSCW broadcast was included in the upgrade. Although not initially included in the change, KWCH upgraded its weather forecast segments to HD in March 2009. In 2010, that station added a half-hour Sunday evening newscast at 7:00 p.m. to KSCW, titled ''Eyewitness News Weekend''.
On September 12, 2011, KWCH began producing half-hour newscasts at 4:00 p.m. weekdays and seven nights a week at 9:00 p.m. for KSCW; the latter production directly competed temporarily with another half-hour nightly newscast on
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
affiliate KSAS-TV that KWCH also produced since January 2004 through a separate news share agreement, which expired on December 31. In theory, KWCH could have simultaneously broadcast two 9:00 p.m. newscasts until the expiration of the agreement, because KSAS' newscast originated from a secondary set (designed by FX Group) at KWCH's studio facility; however on October 5, 2011, KSAS filed a lawsuit against KWCH in
Sedgwick County District Court claiming that in violation of the news share agreement, KWCH began taping the KSAS newscasts in advance, while KWCH produced its newscast for KSCW live; District Judge Jeff Goering signed an order requiring KWCH to restore the live newscast on KSAS while the suit was pending.
After KWCH's agreement with KSAS ended,
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 ...
affiliate KSNW took over the production of the KSAS newscasts (the station had previously produced a 9:00 p.m. newscast for KSAS from 1997 to 1999). The addition of the 4:00 p.m. newscast made KSCW one of the few CW affiliates not owned by
Tribune Broadcasting
Tribune Broadcasting Company, LLC was an American media company which operated as a subsidiary of Tribune Media, a media conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois. The group owned and operated television and radio stations throughout the United Sta ...
to carry a late afternoon newscast, and was the only newscast in that timeslot in the Wichita market from September 2011 to September 2013, after
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 ...
affiliate KAKE discontinued its own 4:00 p.m. newscast that same month. In September 2013, KSCW began airing a two-hour Sunday morning newscast, which airs on the station in lieu of KWCH (which carries a Saturday morning newscast).
Technical information
Subchannels
KSCW-TV provides four subchannels, which are carried in ATSC 1.0 format on the multiplexes of some of the other stations participating in the ATSC 3.0 arrangement.
On May 25, 2015, KSCW-DT began carrying the sitcom-oriented classic television network
Decades on a newly-created second subchannel at official launch date.
On January 16, 2017,
Tribune Media
Tribune Media Company, also known as Tribune Company, was an American multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
Through Tribune Broadcasting, Tribune Media was one of the largest television broadcasting companies, owning 39 ...
made an Agreement with Gray to Carry
Antenna TV on a new third subchannel for KSCW. The subchannel launched on March 1 the same year.
Analog-to-digital conversion
Because it was granted an original
construction permit
Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...
after the FCC finalized the
digital television
Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an innovative advanc ...
allotment plan on April 21, 1997, the station did not receive a companion channel for its
digital signal
A digital signal is a signal that represents data as a sequence of discrete values; at any given time it can only take on, at most, one of a finite number of values. This contrasts with an analog signal, which represents continuous values; at ...
. Instead, at the end of the digital conversion period for full-power television stations, KSCW was required to turn off its
analog signal
An analog signal or analogue signal (see spelling differences) is any continuous signal representing some other quantity, i.e., ''analogous'' to another quantity. For example, in an analog audio signal, the instantaneous signal voltage varies c ...
and turn on its digital signal (an action called a "
flash-cut
A flash cut, also called a flash cutover, is an immediate change in a complex system, with no phase-in period.
In the United States, some telephone area codes were split or overlaid immediately, rather than being phased in with a permissive dia ...
").
The station shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 33, on February 17 of that year, the original target date in which full-power television stations in the United States were federally mandated to
transition from analog to digital broadcasts (which was later pushed back to June 12).
Through the use of
PSIP
The Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) is the MPEG (a video and audio industry group) and privately defined program-specific information originally defined by General Instrument for the DigiCipher 2 system and later extended for the A ...
, digital television receivers display the station's
virtual channel
In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver's ...
as its former UHF analog channel 33.
References
External links
Main KSCW portion of KWCH websiteCW SpotlightKWCH 12 official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kscw
Television channels and stations established in 1999
The CW affiliates
Decades (TV network) affiliates
Antenna TV affiliates
Start TV affiliates
Gray Television
SCW-DT
Low-power television stations in the United States
1999 establishments in Kansas