KCWI-TV
{{Infobox broadcast}} may refer to:
- Template:Infobox broadcasting network
- Template:Infobox television channel
- Template:Infobox television station
If an internal transclusion led you here, you may wish to change it to point directly to the intended page.
{{Template disambiguation}} should never be transcluded in the main namespace.
KCWI-TV is a television station that broadcasts on channel 23 in the Des Moines, Iowa, area. It is The CW affiliate for central Iowa. KCWI is licensed to Ames, but its studios are located in Ankeny while its transmitter is near Alleman.
KCWI signed on the air January 20, 2001, as a primary WB network/secondary UPN affiliate under the call sign KPWB-TV. (The KPWB call letters were originally used on channel 31 in Sacramento from 1995-1998 as a WB affiliate and a Pappas owned station, later becoming UPN O&O KMAX-TV, which also joined The CW.) KPWB carried the full WB and Kids WB lineups until the WB and UPN merged into the new CW Network in September 2006. KPWB dropped UPN in 2005.
Syndicated programs on KCWI include The Tyra Banks Show, Deal or No Deal, and reruns of Friends, Family Guy, King of Queens, and Scrubs.
From The WB to The CW
On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN networks announced that they would cease broadcasting and merge to create a new network. The new combined network would be called The CW, the letters representing the first initial of its corporate parents: CBS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner.
On February 22, 2006, News Corporation announced that they would start up another new network called MyNetworkTV. The new network, which would be sister to Fox, would be operated by Fox Television Stations, Inc. and its syndication division Twentieth Television. MyNetworkTV was created in order to give UPN and WB stations, not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates, another option besides becoming independent. It was also created to compete against The CW.
It seemed very likely that KPWB would become The CW's affiliate in Des Moines, as WHO-TV had a secondary affiliation with UPN. On March 16, 2006, it was confirmed that KPWB would become the CW affiliate in Des Moines. A few months later, MyNetworkTV announced that it would affiliate with a new station also owned by Pappas, KDMI, which began broadcasting that network on September 5, 2006. On September 18, 2006, the same day The CW launched, KPWB changed its call letters to KCWI to reflect its new affiliation.
After MyNetworkTV converted to a programming service in September 2009, KDMI dropped it in favor of This TV. One program from the service, WWE SmackDown, is now aired on KCWI on Saturday nights at 7 p.m., but neither station airs the remainder of MNTV's programming.
Digital television
Because it was granted an original construction permit after the FCC finalized the DTV allotment plan on April 21, 1997 [1], the station did not receive a companion channel for a digital television station. Instead, on or before June 12, 2009, which was the final day of the digital TV conversion period for full-service stations, KCWI-TV was required to turn off its analog signal and turn on its digital signal (called a "flash-cut").
Due to this abnormality, KCWI's digital signal is carried as a subchannel of KDMI.
Logos
-
Older KPWB logo -
New CW logo from September 2006 - present
External links
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state of Iowa | ||
|---|---|---|
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| MyNetworkTV | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Iowa PBS |
| |
| Other |
| |
| Defunct |
| |
