KASW

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KASW is a television station licensed to Phoenix, Arizona. KASW uses channel 61 for analog service, channel 49 for digital television under a special temporary authority, cable channel 6 on major Phoenix cable systems (which is used for station branding given the relatively high analog channel number), and several translators in northern and eastern Arizona. KASW's channel 61 signal broadcasts with 2,510 kW, the second-highest of any Phoenix station. The station's transmitter is located on South Mountain in Phoenix. Currently, KASW broadcasts The CW and is the second-largest CW affiliate (after Boston's WLVI) in terms of market size that is not owned by CBS Corporation or Tribune Broadcasting, both of which contributed stations at the merger announcement (previously, these stations were UPN or The WB stations, respectively). KASW is owned by Belo Corporation, in a duopoly with KTVK.

History

Prior to the sign on of KASW on September 22, 1995, K61CA, a low-power, locally programmed music video channel, operated on the frequency through 1983-1984.

By 1991, preparations had been made to sign on another Phoenix independent station, KAIK. The station bore these calls into 1994 until KAIK was bought by the Brooks family in 1995 and became KASW.

When KASW signed on in its current form, a local marketing agreement was reached with MAC America Communications, the then-owner of KTVK. This agreement allowed KTVK, which had an overflowing program inventory, to move some of its programming to KASW. The programming included classic cartoons, classic TV sitcoms, old movies, a few recent sitcoms, The WB affiliation, and the Kids WB cartoons. At the beginning of 1996, KTVK had also moved Fox Kids, the predecessor of 4Kids TV, and other syndicated programs to KASW. These changeovers allowed KTVK to return to broadcasting Saturday morning newscasts, while KASW started a 30-minute 9pm newscast produced by KTVK, which ended in 1997.

When Belo bought most of MAC America's properties in 1999, the local marketing agreement with KASW was included. This move further boosted its programming quality. After the FCC allowed duopolies in 2000 when Viacom (then-current owner of UPN) bought CBS, KASW was bought outright by Belo.

Due to changes in the industry, from about 1998 to about 2004, KASW began to gradually move away from classic TV sitcoms, old movies, and cartoons. They began to phase in more talk shows, reality shows, and court shows to its schedule. It finally dropped weekday cartoons at the start of 2006 when Kids WB discontinued providing that block to affiliates.

The station still runs The CW4Kids, the successor of Kids' WB, on Saturday mornings. It also aired 4Kids TV on Sunday mornings until its shutdown on December 27, 2008. (Therefore, both weekend mornings were essentially programmed by one company, 4Kids Entertainment, for seven months.) These properties, in one form or another, were on KTVK when it originally picked up The WB in 1995 and were moved in September 1995 and 1996, respectively. The same situation occurred on several duopolies, where stations like KFRE-TV and WBNX-TV picked up the 4Kids rights from a Fox affiliate (in KFRE's case, KMPH-TV) or due to rejection by stations that were inherited from New World Communications (WBNX is a good example).

Digital Television

The station's digital channel:

Digital channels

Channel	Format	Programming
61.1 / 49.1	1080i	Main KASW programming

Programming

Besides airing programming from The CW, KASW broadcasts syndicated content like Scrubs, The Simpsons, Friends, Home Improvement and South Park. KASW has the rights to a variety of other programming content, such as first-run reality shows, other TV series, and a morning news/music program entitled "News Mix 6" (renamed as SixFix since the switch to CW), which allows viewers to watch music videos as news reports scroll on a marquee on the bottom of the screen. KASW aired Phoenix Coyotes NHL hockey games from the time that the team moved to Phoenix until the 2006-2007 season, when the Coyotes announced a move to the AZ-TV regional network. KASW also aired 4Kids TV on Sunday mornings until 4Kids TV went off the air on December 27, 2008.

From The WB to The CW

In January 2006, it was announced that UPN and The WB would cease operations. The CW, a new television network created as joint venture between UPN parent CBS Corporation and WB majority owner Warner Bros. Entertainment, will replace them from the 2006-07 television season on. On March 8, it was announced that KASW will become the CW affiliate in Phoenix[1] [2], while KUTP, the market's UPN affiliate, became an owned-and-operated station of MyNetworkTV 13 days before the launch of the CW.

KASW is only tweaking its branding to reflect its new network, keeping the 6 that represents its position on the area's dominant cable system (satellite systems map KASW to channel 61). The station was also airing its own CW "man-on-the-street" promos before the switch. Quick6.com's images and links were revamped a week before the change and feature a new Quick6 logo.

Logos

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  The WB logo used by KASW when branded as "WB61": used from 1995 - 2000
• The KASW WB 61 logo from 2000 to 2003 featuring network mascot Michigan J. Frog: when it was WB 6/61, the same font was used, but a prominent 6 was in the place of the 61 and the 61 was small and in the upper right
  The KASW WB 61 logo from 2000 to 2003 featuring network mascot Michigan J. Frog: when it was WB 6/61, the same font was used, but a prominent 6 was in the place of the 61 and the 61 was small and in the upper right
• The WB logo used by KASW under the "WB6" name: used from 2003 - 2006
  The WB logo used by KASW under the "WB6" name: used from 2003 - 2006

Station names and slogans over the years

• WB61: We're just havin' fun! (1995-1997)
• WB61 (1997-2001)
• WB6 and 61 (2001-2003)
• WB6, More fun than [random facts and jokes inserted here] (2003-2006)
• Free To Be CW6 (2006-present)

Translators

• K41CV Duncan
• K34EF Kingman
• K21EA Lake Havasu City
• K34EE Prescott/Cottonwood
• K41JE Williams/Ash Fork

External links

• TV-61.com "dedicated to preserving the memory of, and the people behind, K61CA, Arizona's First Low Power Television Station." as mentioned in the History section above.
• CW6's social network: CWPhoenix.com
• Information and promotions: cw6phoenix.com
• Jim Carr (US), Director of Digital Media
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