KCWH-LD

Translator of KSNB-TV

The original construction permit for a translator station on channel 18 in Lincoln was granted on January 4, 1988,[1] and issued the call sign K18CD.[2] It was one of two translators that had been issued for the rebroadcast of KSNB-TV, at the time one of the ABC affiliates in the Nebraska Television Network (NTV); the other was K22CX (channel 22).[3] K22CX began broadcasting in 1994.[4] This service fulfilled a longstanding ambition of the network to expand to Lincoln and Lancaster County, which had nearly twice as many TV households as the Tri-Cities area.[5] However, the Lincoln translator attracted little interest locally, and NTV was not added on cable there.[6]

After Pappas Telecasting took over the operations of NTV in 1996, it switched KSNB-TV from ABC to Fox in September, simulcasting with NTV-managed KTVG-TV in Grand Island.[7][8] KSNB-TV was never owned directly by Pappas; because its signal overlapped with Pappas-owned KPTM in Omaha, Pappas assigned the right to buy the station to Colins Broadcasting Company.[9][10] The sales of NTV to Pappas and KSNB to Colins were approved by the FCC on February 17, 1999, and completed on May 24.[11][12] In August 1999, Colins applied for a license to cover for the station, indicating it had started broadcasting.[13] By 2001, KSNB-TV was broadcast from channel 18 and from channel 22.[14]

Silence and sale to Gray

On June 12, 2009, Pappas converted KCWL-TV, an affiliate of The CW it managed in Lincoln, to Fox Nebraska as KFXL-TV,[15] which in turn was simulcast as a subchannel from the NTV stations.[16] This fulfilled an ambition of Pappas that dated to the late 1990s.[17] With Fox network coverage shifted to KFXL and the NTV transmitters, the operating agreements Pappas held to run KSNB-TV and KTVG-TV ended. The time brokerage agreement between Pappas Telecasting and Colins Broadcasting Corporation, expired on November 30, 2009; that station, along with the two translators in Lincoln owned by Colins, shut down on December 1. (KSNB-TV's Beatrice translator, K17CI, had already left the air on June 12, 2009.)[18] On December 19, 2011, the station converted to digital operations as K18CD-D.[2] By then, the Colins stations were broadcasting intermittently with programming from the Three Angels Broadcasting Network.[19]

Gray Television filed to buy KSNB-TV and its Lincoln translators from Colins Broadcasting in 2012. The Lincoln–Hastings–Kearney market has only five full-power stations (KOLN/KGIN and KHGI/KWNB are both counted as single stations for ratings and regulatory purposes), not enough to legally permit a duopoly. Colins and Gray sought a failing station waiver to allow the acquisition to move forward.[20] After the FCC granted the assignment of the license to Gray, the sale was officially completed on February 25, 2013.[22] KSNB-TV then became "10/11 Central Nebraska", a MyNetworkTV affiliate, in 2013.[23][24] KSNB-TV's programming changed again when Gray acquired the assets and NBC affiliation of KHAS-TV in Hastings in 2014; this programming moved to KSNB-TV.[25][26]

CW affiliate

On October 20, 2017, the 500 ft tower in Lincoln leased by K18CD-D and KFXL-TV collapsed, rendering the translator out of commission.[27] On May 18, 2018, the call letters were changed to KCWH-LD.[2] It returned to the air on September 26, 2018,[28] transmitting from the KOLN studios;[29] on October 1, Gray announced that KCWH-LD had become the market's CW affiliate and would be simulcast on subchannels of KNHL in Hastings and KIIT-CD in North Platte.[30][31] There had not been a CW affiliate broadcast in the market since KCWL-TV became KFXL-TV in 2009.[15]