KCWE

KCWE (channel 29) is a television station in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, affiliated with The CW. It is owned by Hearst Television alongside ABC affiliate KMBC-TV (channel 9). The two stations share studios on Winchester Avenue in the Ridge-Winchester section of Kansas City, Missouri; KCWE's transmitter is located in the city's Blue Valley section.

Originally proposed for channel 32, channel 29 went on the air in September 1996 as KCWB, Kansas City's first local affiliate of The WB. It was owned by a group of Kansas City and television investors, who subcontracted its operation to KMBC-TV under a local marketing agreement. KMBC and KCWB split over-the-air rights to Kansas City Royals baseball from 1996 to 2002. KCWB lost the WB affiliation in March 1998 after a group deal saw it move to KSMO-TV (channel 62). The station then picked up UPN, which had gone without local coverage for two months, and changed its call sign to KCWE.

In 2006, Hearst purchased KCWE outright, and the station became the local affiliate for The CW, formed when the UPN and WB networks merged.

History

KCWB: Construction and WB affiliation

What became KCWE first came into view in 1986 when applicants filed for channel 32. Thaddeus Bishop was the first to file on October 17, and by the deadline in December,[1] 15 groups had applied.[2] One of the applicants in the field was KZKC (channel 62), which filed to investigate the possibility of moving to a lower channel number.[3] KZKC was one of the fourteen applicants to be designated for comparative hearing by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in April 1987.[4]

FCC administrative law judge Joseph P. Gonzalez issued an initial decision among six remaining applicants in March 1990. He dismissed KZKC and another applicant, Mid-Continent Communications, over failure to provide significant coverage. Channel 32 Broadcasting Company and T.V. 32, Inc.—controlled by Robert P. Liepold—were the finalists. T.V. 32, Inc. won on the basis of its proposal to cover more people.[5] The FCC review board upheld the decision in December.[6]

Running out of money and time, Liepold put the permit on the market in 1995. After 50 potential investors turned down the prospect of financing the station's construction, the leading buyer was Quincy Jones Entertainment, a partnership with David Salzman that already owned WNOL-TV in New Orleans.[7] Most industry sources speculated that one of Kansas City's existing stations would program channel 32 under a local marketing agreement,[8] with Hearst Corporation–owned KMBC-TV (channel 9) particularly mentioned, and that it would affiliate with The WB, a new network whose programs were only seen on cable in the Kansas City market.[9] After changing from channel 32 to channel 29, the station signed on as KCWB on September 14, 1996. It originated from KMBC-TV's studios in the Lyric Theatre building at 11th Street and Central Avenue, and its program schedule consisted of WB network and syndicated shows.[10] A month after launching, KMBC and KCWB obtained rights to Kansas City Royals

Switch to UPN

KCWB had been on the air less than a year when Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of Kansas City UPN affiliate KSMO-TV (channel 62), signed a long-term affiliation agreement with Time Warner in July 1997, under which the group committed five of its UPN-affiliated stations to The WB in 1998, with a sixth independent station to join in 1999.[12] KSMO-TV was not among the defecting stations and was one of six Sinclair-controlled outlets that would remain with UPN; however, the high-profile move by Sinclair to move five stations from UPN to The WB, its direct competitor, led to a legal dispute between the companies. UPN sued Sinclair, alleging it had breached its affiliation contract by exiting it early.[13] At the end of December, Sinclair announced that KSMO would exit the network when its affiliation agreement ended on January 16, 1998;[14] even as reports surfaced of renewed talks between Sinclair and UPN, KSMO became independent.[15]

CW affiliation

On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced their merger into The CW, effective that September.[24][25] KCWE beat out KMCI and KSMO, the latter of which decided the new network would not fit its business plan, and agreed to affiliate with The CW in early March.[26][27]

In 2007, KMBC and KCWE moved from the downtown studios into a 53,000 sqft facility at the Winchester Business Center (located at 6455 Winchester Avenue, near Swope Park) in southeastern Kansas City, Missouri. The facility, five years in the planning[28] and under construction since 2005,[29]

callsign	KCWE
branding	KCWE
digital	31 (UHF)
virtual	29
affiliations	29.1: The CW for others, see
owner	Hearst Television
licensee	Hearst Stations Inc.
location	Kansas City, Missouri
country	United States
airdate	September 14, 1996
callsign meaning	Changed from KCWB when station lost WB affiliation in 1998
sister stations	KMBC-TV
former callsigns	KCWB (1996–1998)
former channel numbers	Analog: 29 (UHF, 1996–2008)
former affiliations	The WB (1996–March 1998) UPN (March 1998–2006)
erp	1,000 kW
haat	332 m
facility id	64444
coordinates	39.08361°N, -94.51611°W
licensing authority	FCC
website	http://www.kmbc.com/kcwetv

History

KCWB: Construction and WB affiliation

Switch to UPN

CW affiliation

Local programming

Newscasts

Sports programming

Technical information

Subchannels

Analog-to-digital conversion

External links

References