KCWE
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| Kansas City, Missouri/Kansas | |
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| Branding | KCWE (general) KMBC 9 News (during KMBC-produced newscasts) This TV Kansas City (on DT2) |
| Slogan | Gotta Be KCWE (general) Local. Live. Coverage You Can Count On. (news) |
| Channels | Digital: 31 (UHF) Virtual: 29 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels | 29.1 The CW 29.2 This TV |
| Owner | Hearst Television (Hearst Stations Inc.) |
| First air date | September 14, 1996 |
| Call letters' meaning | Derived from KCWB or Kansas City's World of Entertainment |
| Sister station(s) | KMBC-TV |
| Former callsigns | KCWB (1996-1998) |
| Former channel number(s) | 29 (UHF analog, 1996-2008) |
| Former affiliations | The WB (1996-1998) UPN (1998-2006) |
| Transmitter power | 1,000 kW |
| Height | 332 m |
| Class | DT |
| Facility ID | 64444 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 39°5′2.8″N 94°30′56.9″W / 39.084111°N 94.515806°W |
| Website | kmbc.com/kcwe |
KCWE is the CW-affiliated television station for the Kansas City Metropolitan Area licensed to the Missouri side. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 31 (or virtual channel 29.1 via PSIP) from a transmitter at the East 23rd Street/Topping Avenue intersection in Kansas City, Missouri's Blue Valley section. Owned by Hearst Television, KCWE is sister to ABC affiliate KMBC-TV and the two outlets share studios on Winchester Avenue in the city's Swope Park Ridge-Winchester section along I-435.
The station can also be seen on Comcast channel 2, Time Warner Cable channel 7, and SureWest channel 16. There is a high definition feed provided on Comcast digital channel 236, SureWest digital channel 615, and Time Warner Cable digital channel 1431. Syndicated programming on the station includes The New Adventures of Old Christine, Extra, Maury, The Big Bang Theory, The Dr. Oz Show and 30 Rock among others.
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[edit] Digital programming
On KCWE-DT2, Comcast digital channel 235, and Time Warner Cable digital channel 975 is This TV. The service is not available on SureWest digital systems at the present time.
| Channels | Name | Video | Aspect | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29.1 | KCWE-DT | 1080i | 16:9 | Main KCWE programming / The CW |
| 29.2 | This-KC | 480i | 4:3 | "This TV Kansas City" |
KCWE ceased analog transmission on December 15, 2008 two months before the originally scheduled 2009 analog shutdown for full-service stations.[1][2] The UHF channel 29 allotment was subsequently taken over by the digital signal of sister station KMBC. On March 3, 2009, the station began airing This TV on a new second digital subchannel.[3]
[edit] History
The analog UHF channel 29 allotment was originally home to low-powered ValueVision affiliate K29CF. To make way for a new full-powered station, that station moved in the mid-1990s to channel 48, becoming K48FS. Today, that station (with the calls KUKC-LP) serves as the market's low-powered Univision affiliate.[4]
What is now KCWE signed-on September 14, 1996 as WB affiliate KCWB (Kansas City's WB). It was locally-owned but managed through a local marketing agreement (LMA) by Hearst Corporation (owner of KMBC). Initially the station ran a mix of cartoons, recent off network sitcoms, talk shows, court shows, and movies. Operation of KCWB was taken over by Hearst-Argyle Television (now Hearst Television) in 1997, after the merger of Hearst Corporation's broadcasting division with Argyle Television Holdings II.
In January 1998, KSMO, previously a UPN affiliate, joined The WB after its owner, Sinclair Broadcast Group, cut an affiliation deal with the network. KCWB subsequently joined UPN, but still offered Kids' WB (now Toonzai) until June of that year because KSMO still held a contract to air Fox Kids (which was not shown on the area's Fox station, WDAF-TV); at that time, Fox Kids moved to KCWB as well. Channel 29 would change its calls to the current KCWE on August 24, 1998. Hearst bought the station outright in 2001; however, Hearst-Argyle continued to consider KCWE to be managed rather than owned by the company for several years thereafter, as the station was officially owned by an indirect subsidiary of Hearst Corporation as opposed to Hearst-Argyle (then a publicly-traded company controlled by Hearst).
For most of its tenure as a WB affiliate, KCWB's "WB29" logo was similar to the "WB32" logo used on sister station WWWB-TV in Tampa Bay, Florida. Following the switch to UPN, KCWE briefly used the branding "KC29," ultimately becoming "More TV 29" for several years to once again match its Tampa Bay sister, by then WMOR-TV. KCWE would drop the "More TV" moniker by 2005 (in favor of using its call letters and the slogan "Kansas City's UPN"), but would retain the logo style for most of the remainder of UPN's existence. KMBC would bring back the branding (as "MOREtv Kansas City") on September 14, 2010 when it began airing general entertainment programming on weeknights from 6 until 11 on its second digital subchannel that was otherwise affiliated with The Local AccuWeather Channel.[5] KCWE dropped Fox Kids in the Fall of 1999 for more talk and reality programming; Fox Kids programming then moved to KMCI-TV. Channel 29 ceased carrying children's programming on weekdays altogether when UPN ended its daily morning national children's programming block.
On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced the two networks would end broadcasting and merge to form The CW. On March 7, The CW and Hearst announced KCWE would become Kansas City's CW affiliate.[6] As the station already had "CW" in its call letters, station management said it would take advantage of this and leave them unchanged.[7] The old logo was dispensed altogether in August 2006 when KCWE's new logo reflecting the CW affiliation was released. The new network began broadcasting on September 18.
In late-March 2009, Hearst applied to transfer KCWE's license from its indirect subsidiary (doing business as "KCWE-TV Company") directly to the larger Hearst Television subsidiary with the transfer being completed on May 1. As it operates in the KMBC duopoly, the station might take on responsibility to run ABC programming in the event of news emergencies (such as severe weather), sporting events, and/or the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon when KMBC cannot do so. Since the tiny St. Joseph, Missouri market has a cable-only CW station, KCWE unofficially serves as that area's off-air affiliate. In 2010, it aired all Kansas City Wizards MLS games except those already under a national broadcast agreement.[8]
[edit] Newscasts
For many years, KCWB/KCWE aired no local newscasts despite being operated by KMBC. Station management cited a fear of "cannibalizing" KMBC's audience as a reason for not expanding news offerings to channel 29. This policy was abandoned on March 3, 2008, when KMBC added a two-hour extension of its weekday morning newscast. Known as KMBC 9 FirstNews on KCWE, the broadcast can be seen from 7 to 9 a.m., while KMBC airs Good Morning America. KCWE's weekday morning program competes with an in-house morning newscast on WDAF-TV and an hour-long newscast on KSMO that is produced by its sister station KCTV.
On September 14, 2010, KMBC added a third option for primetime news to the Kansas City airways. Known as KMBC 9 News at 9 on KCWE, the half-hour weeknight-only program also airs against a half-hour nightly local newscast seen on KSMO (launched in the fall of 2005 and also produced by KCTV) and a nightly in-house 9 p.m. newscast that WDAF has aired since it affiliated with Fox in September 1994.[5] The weeknight newscast on KCWE airs commercial-free for the first nine minutes (a play on its sister station's on-air branding) featuring the day's top headlines and an updated weather forecast segment within that time. As is the case on KMBC, all local newscasts seen on KCWE is aired in high definition.
[edit] News team
Anchors
- Kelly Eckerman - weekends at 9 p.m.; also weeknight reporter
- Kris Ketz - weekday mornings (7-9 a.m.); also reporter
- Larry Moore - weeknights at 9 p.m.
- Lara Moritz - weeknights at 9 p.m.
- Donna Pitman - weekday mornings (7-9 a.m.)
First Alert Weather
- Bryan Busby (AMS Seal of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 9 p.m., also heard on KPRS-FM
- Joel Nichols - weather anchor; weekday mornings, also heard on KMBZ-AM-FM
- Erin Little (member, AMS) - meteorologist; weekends at 9 p.m.
- Lisa Teachman (AMS Seal of Approval; member, NWA) - meteorologist; fill-in
Sports team
- Len Dawson - sports director emeritus; also sports reporter and fill-in sports anchor
- Nick Griffith - sports anchor; weeknights at 9 p.m., also sports reporter and producer
- Karen Kornacki - sports anchor; weekends at 9 p.m., also sports reporter
Reporters
- Maria Antonia - also fill-in anchor
- Martin Augustine
- Peggy Breit
- Bev Chapman
- Diane Cho
- Jana Corrie - weekday morning reporter
- Cliff Judy
- Micheal Mahoney
- Marcus Moore
- Justin Robinson - weekday morning reporter
- Johnny Rowlands - helicopter pilot and weekday morning traffic
- Kerri Stowell - weekday morning traffic and fill-in news anchor
- Brenda Washington
Hearst Washington Bureau
- Kate Amara - weekday morning Washington Bureau reporter
- Sally Kidd - Washington Bureau reporter
- Nikole Killion - Washington Bureau reporter
[edit] References
- ^ "KCWE To Switch To DTV Dec. 15". KMBC.com. November 14, 2008. http://www.kmbc.com/entertainment/17982532/detail.html. Retrieved November 15, 2008.
- ^ KCWE to Make Early Switch to DTV, TVNEWSDAY, Dec 3 2008
- ^ http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/2009/02/kcwe-went-multi.html
- ^ Call Sign History
- ^ a b http://www.tvbarn.com/tv-barn/kcwe-adds-9-p-m-news-kctvs-super-early-starts-913/
- ^ http://www.thefutoncritic.com/cgi/pr.cgi?id=20060307cw01
- ^ http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/business/14042769.htm
- ^ http://www.downthebyline.com/2010/02/wizards-on-kcwe-this-season.html
[edit] External links
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