KWWF, virtual and

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 ...

digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Technology and computing Hardware *Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals **Digital camera, which captures and stores digital i ...

channel 22, was an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

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 A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

Waterloo, Iowa Waterloo is a city in and the county seat of Black Hawk County, Iowa, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census the population was 67,314, making it the eighth-largest city in the state. The city is part of the Waterloo – Cedar Falls ...

, United States, which served the Eastern Iowa

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 ...

(

Cedar Rapids Cedar Rapids () is the second-largest city in Iowa, United States and is the county seat of Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River, north of Iowa City and northeast of Des Moines, the state's capital and largest city. ...

–Waterloo–

Iowa City Iowa City, offically the City of Iowa City is a city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States. It is the home of the University of Iowa and county seat of Johnson County, at the center of the Iowa City Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the time ...

–

Dubuque Dubuque (, ) is the county seat of Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, located along the Mississippi River. At the time of the 2020 census, the population of Dubuque was 59,667. The city lies at the junction of Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin, a r ...

). The station was owned by Stratus Media Holdings. KWWF's transmitter was located near

Walker, Iowa Walker is a city in Linn County, Iowa. The population was 688 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Cedar Rapids, Iowa metropolitan area. History Walker began as an outgrowth of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern Railway. It was named in ...

History

KWWF opened on December 1, 2002, with a format of

infomercial An infomercial is a form of television commercial that resembles regular TV programming yet is intended to promote or sell a product, service or idea. It generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of dire ...

home shopping Home shopping is the electronic retailing and home shopping channels industry, which includes such billion dollar television-based and e-commerce companies as Shop LC, HSN, Gemporia, TJC, QVC, eBay, ShopHQ, Buy.com and Amazon.com, as well as tradit ...

and

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

rerun A rerun or repeat is a rebroadcast of an episode of a radio or television program. There are two types of reruns – those that occur during a hiatus, and those that occur when a program is syndicated. Variations In the United Kingdom, the word ...

s. Later, the station began airing religious programs from

LeSEA Broadcasting Family Broadcasting Corporation, formerly known as LeSEA Broadcasting, is an American Christian television network. Founded by Lester Sumrall in 1972, Family Broadcasting Corporation is headquartered in South Bend, Indiana, and broadcasts Chris ...

Equity Broadcasting Equity Media Holdings Corporation was a broadcasting company based in Little Rock, Arkansas that owned and operated television stations across the United States. Prior to March 30, 2007, the company was known as Equity Broadcasting, a name later ...

bought the station in 2004, and quickly made it a general entertainment station. KWWF affiliated with

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 ...

on September 13, 2004, and the station soon gained carriage on cable systems throughout the market. Under Equity ownership, the station's

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 ...

, located in

Little Rock, Arkansas (The Little Rock, The "Little Rock") , government_type = council-manager government, Council-manager , leader_title = List of mayors of Little Rock, Arkansas, Mayor , leader_name = Frank Scott Jr. , leader_ ...

, relayed its signal via the Galaxy 18 satellite to the transmitter and area cable systems. In 2006, Equity outright refused to affiliate their stations 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 ...

, the merger of UPN and

The WB The WB Television Network (for Warner Bros., or the "Frog Network", for its former mascot, Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network launched on broadcast television on January 11, 1995, as a joint venture between the Warner Bros. ...

, with

KWKB KWKB (channel 20) is a religious television station licensed to Iowa City, Iowa, United States, serving the Eastern Iowa and Quad Cities television markets as an owned-and-operated station of Tri-State Christian Television (TCT). The station's ...

taking both that affiliation and second replacement network

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 ...

. This left Equity to have KWWF become an affiliate of Equity Broadcasting's own

Retro Television Network Retro TV (stylized as retrotv), formerly known as Retro Television Network, is an American broadcast television network owned by Get After It Media. The network mainly airs classic television sitcoms and drama series from the 1950s through th ...

to fill the gaps left by the end of UPN programming. In 2008, most RTN programming was removed from KWWF and moved to a digital subchannel of KWWL. KWWF then became an independent station, carrying various syndicated programs, as well as a handful of Equity-produced live shows, which were also aired on many RTN stations. KWWF was sold to Valley Bank at auction on April 16, 2009, as a part of Equity's bankruptcy. Valley Bank, in turn, filed to sell KWWF to an ownership group connected to Fusion Communications in August. 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

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) finalized the DTV allotment plan on April 21, 1997, the station did not receive a companion channel for a digital

. Instead, at the end of the digital TV conversion period for full-service stations, KWWF 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 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 ...

(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 ...

"). , this station was scheduled to go

dark Darkness, the direct opposite of lightness, is defined as a lack of illumination, an absence of visible light, or a surface that absorbs light, such as black or brown. Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low lum ...

in 2009. According to the station's DTV status report, "On December 8, 2008, the licensee's parent corporation filed a petition for bankruptcy relief under

Chapter 11 Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wheth ...

of the federal bankruptcy code... This station must obtain post-petition financing and court approval before digital facilities may be constructed. The station will cease analog broadcasting on February 17, 2009, regardless of whether digital facilities are operational by that date. The station will file authority to remain silent if so required by the FCC." While the

DTV Delay Act The digital transition in the United States was the switchover from Analog TV, analog to exclusively Digital television, digital broadcasting of terrestrial television programming. According to David Rehr, then president and CEO of the National ...

extended this deadline to June 12, 2009, Equity applied for an extension of the digital

, in order to retain the

broadcast license A broadcast license is a type of spectrum license granting the licensee permission to use a portion of the radio frequency spectrum in a given geographical area for broadcasting purposes. The licenses generally include restrictions, which vary ...

in case the station went dark. Fusion Communications was able to build a temporary digital site near Walker to meet the deadline. At the end of analog broadcasting on June 12, 2009, KWWF transitioned from the old Equity facility to Fusion's Iowa master control facility and continued to provide a signal to cable systems. Thereafter, KWWF was affiliated with Untamed Sports TV. KWWF's satellite feed was still available on Anik F3 C-Band as of November 2010. Although the station transmitted in

720p 720p (1280×720 px; also called HD ready, standard HD or just HD) is a progressive HDTV signal format with 720 horizontal lines/1280 columns and an aspect ratio (AR) of 16:9, normally known as widescreen HDTV (1.78:1). All major HDTV broadcast ...

, Untamed Sports never maintained a high definition programming feed and all programming on the station was carried in standard definition. In 2012, Fusion Communications was acquired by Stratus Media Holdings. KWWF ceased broadcasting on August 2, 2013, due to financial difficulties. On August 8, 2013, the station's owners filed a Notification of Suspension of Operations / Request for Silent STA with the FCC.Federal Communications Commission: Notification of Suspension of Operations / Request for Silent STA for KWWF, August 8. 2013.
/ref> On March 14, 2014, Stratus surrendered KWWF's license to the Federal Communications Commission, which canceled the license a week later.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kwwf WWF Equity Media Holdings Waterloo, Iowa Television channels and stations established in 2002 2002 establishments in Iowa Television channels and stations disestablished in 2013 2013 disestablishments in Iowa Defunct television stations in the United States Defunct mass media in Iowa