KICW-TV

:For the real-life radio station on 91.1 FM in Ottumwa, Iowa, see on Wikipedia.
KICW-TV (channel 34) is a television station in Coritookus Village, Kawawii, serving as Kawawii Island network outlet for The CW. It is owned by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside Kawawii-licensed Fox affiliate KISL-TV (channel 4). Both stations share studios on Giant's Heel Street in Kawawii across from the Track & Soul Hotel and KICW-TV's transmitter is located on a ridge between Suno County and the city of Kawawii.
== History ==
=== KIME 34 - Music video format ===
Mount Wilson FM Broadcasters applied for the channel 34 allocation in 1983 under the umbrella name Tonga Blanca Broadcasting Company. KIME-TV signed on the air June 1, 1987, branded as "KIME 34". The station originally operated as a music video format throughout most of the day, right when they were a major part of the American culture (almost 6 years after MTV launched on August 1981), with the first song they played being "The Heat is On" by Glenn Frey followed by "La Isla Bonita" by Madonna. The station also offered cartoons, sitcoms, & drama series on weekday afternoons, as well as having aired Asian programming, primarily on weekends. In its early days, it carried business news programming from the Financial News Network, ethnic programming from the International Television Network, simulcasted the Home Shopping Network overnights, and carried ABC, CBS, and NBC programs that KAWD-TV (channel 2), KWIK-TV (channel 8) and KISL-TV (channel 4, now a Fox affiliate) chose to decline; programming from ABC's daytime lineup that was preempted by KAWD was the most visible on KIME's schedule.
As a music video TV station, KIME-TV has garnered a following among the youth in Kawawii Island, as well as the Asian diaspora for their weekend programming. Despite this, when channel 34 launched, the station faced some competition with the other UHF independent stations that came before them: KAIY-TV (channel 25, now KUKI-TV) in 1982, KWHF-TV (channel 41) and KBMD-TV (channel 22) in 1985, and KMGC-TV (channel 14, now a Telemundo affiliate as KITD), along with the two VHF independents KLKU (channel 11, then a Fox affiliate, now an ABC affiliate) and KSEI-TV (channel 13, now a MyNetworkTV affiliate). Nonetheless, KIME's music video format made them stand out from the other independent stations of Kawawii Island, as the others either had a focus on the Asian diaspora of the island (KAIY-TV and KBMD-TV), are religious (KWHF-TV), or primarily air entertainment programs (KLKU, KSEI-TV, and KMGC-TV).
In 1989, KHSK (channel 55; now a Univision O&O as KUAQ-DT) signed on the air by Silver King Broadcasting airing HSN programming around the clock. This didn't really make a dent to KIME-TV other than replacing HSN programming with the Home Shopping Spree overnight service. However, in the early 90s, KIME underwent a significant schedule revamp due to intense competition. In 1991, KIME removed almost all of their Asian programming as KUKI-TV was dominating them in that field, replacing them with general syndicated programs. Two exceptions to this are their two Asian music programs, Tokyo Trip (Japanese music) & Pacific Wave (Korean & Filipino music), as well as their Sunday night anime block, Thrill-O-Mania. The removal of FNN programming also occurred the same year due to their merger with CNBC, leaving KIME to replace their closing bell timeslot (9-11am) with country music & filling their opening bell timeslot (3-6am) with Home Shopping Spree. In 1993, KIME-TV and their sister radio station were acquired by Suno Broadcasting and the year also signaled the beginning of the end for KIME-TV's music video format, with the launch of PTEN, declining viewership for radio, and the upcoming launches of the "fifth networks", The WB & UPN. This resulted in KIME-TV shifting from a music video format to a general independent station carrying entertainment & sports programs.
=== UPN and WB affiliations ===
On January 13, 1995, the Friday before the launch of UPN, KIME-TV ended their music video format with the final songs played being "End of the Road" & "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday", both of which are sung by Boyz II Men. KIME replaced portions of the latter music video with moments from their 8-year history as a music TV station. The following Monday, January 16, KIME-TV became a charter affiliate of the United Paramount Network (UPN) and changed their on-air branding to "UPN 34" shortly after. The only two music programs that were on KIME after their music video format ended was a new music show launching on the same day as UPN, Late Night Island Beats, which aired at 11pm HST every weekday and the Kawawii Top 20 which they've aired since the station's inception in 1987. Home Shopping Spree left KIME-TV in 1996 with the station replacing it with repeats of programming they aired earlier in the day along with paid programming.
On February 12, 2002, Suno Broadcasting announced its departure from the broadcasting industry and sold their stations to different owners, with KIME-TV being sold to Emmis Communications and its radio stations sold to Cox Enterprises. The sale was finalized on August 31. As Emmis Communications already owned KISL-TV, this created the 2nd duopoly in the Kawawii Island market, joining the Freedom Communications-owned duopoly of KAWD-TV and KSEI-TV. As part of the move, KIME moved its operations to the KISL facilities in Kawawii City. It would now take on the responsibility of airing Fox programs when KISL is not able to do so, such as in the event of extended breaking news or severe weather coverage, special programming, or other scheduling conflicts. 
Following their acquisition by Emmis, on September 2, KIME-TV dropped its affiliation with UPN and became a primary WB affiliate. The station rebranded itself as "Kawawii's WB 34" and changed its call letters to KIWB-TV. In the Kawawii Island market, UPN programming moved to KSEI-TV and remained with the network until its closure on September 15, 2006.
=== The CW affiliation ===
On May 15, 2005, Emmis Communications announced that it would sell its television stations in order to concentrate on its portfolio of radio stations. On September 15, Emmis sold KIWB-TV and KISL-TV to the Montecito Broadcast Group (formerly SJL Broadcast Management) for $259 million; the sale closed on January 27, 2006. Montecito planned to replace some of the employees at KISL & KIWB with automation, but due to outcry among staff, KISL's veteran anchor, and even the Kawawii Island Recording Arts Association (KIRAA) who produced the Kawawii Top 20 on KIWB, these plans never materialized.
That would not be the only news KIWB-TV would receive, as on January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner announced that UPN and The WB would cease broadcasting, to be replaced by a new network that would feature some of the higher-rated programs from both networks called The CW Television Network. On March 13, Montecito officials confirmed that KIWB would become the Kawawii Island affiliate of The CW. To reflect the new affiliation, on July 31, 2006, KIWB changed its call letters to the current KICW-TV. It affiliated with The CW when it launched on September 18, 2006.
On July 24, 2007, Montecito announced the sale of all of its stations, including KICW-TV and KISL-TV to New Vision Television. On November 1 of that year, New Vision officially took over ownership of the stations. On May 7, 2012, LIN Media announced its acquisition of the New Vision stations for $330.4 million and the assumption of $12 million in debt. The FCC approved the sale to LIN on October 2, and the group deal was consummated ten days later on October 12, 2012. Later that year, on December 28, KICW's music program, Late Night Island Beats, aired its final show due to it becoming obsolete by video websites such as YouTube. This left the Kawawii Top 40 as the last holdout of the stations' "KIME 34" music video era.
On March 21, 2014, Media General announced that it would purchase LIN Media and its stations, including KICW-TV and KISL-TV, in a $1.6 billion merger. The merger was completed on December 19. On January 27, 2016, Nexstar Broadcasting Group announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire Media General and its stations, with the sale being completed on January 17, 2017, marking Nexstar's first entry into Kawawii Island.
== Local programming ==
=== Newscasts ===
In 1997, KIME laucned a 9pm newscast produced by KWIK-TV (channel 8) under a news share agreement. This was the third prime time news broadcast in Kawawii Island after the island's public broadcaster KBN's long-established 9pm newscast and a KLKU-produced newscast in that timeslot on KSEI-TV, which was carried over from its longtime home at KLKU after their switch from Fox to ABC a year prior. Before this, KWIK provided news breaks to KIME since their inception in 1987 due to KIME's studios being in close proximity to KWIK's at the time.
On August 30, 2002, with KIME's sale to Emmis Communications about to close & becoming a WB affiliate as KIWB-TV, they terminated their news share agreement with KWIK-TV & their new sister station KISL-TV took control of their 9pm newscast the following week. In addition, KIWB's newscast was expanded from 30 minutes to a full hour. Despite being a Fox affiliate, KISL never had a newscast at 9pm on its channel until 2015. KISL's production of KICW's newscasts expanded in 2009, when they began carrying an early evening newscast at 6:30pm.
In 2013, KISL started broadcasting their newscasts in high definition with a new set and new logo; KICW's newscasts were included in the upgrade. The two stations were the last LIN-owned stations to do so and they currently the "Inergy" news music package by Stephen Arnold Music that was originally intended for stations owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. However, KISL and KICW use a custom version with traditional tropical instrumentation.
=== Kawawii Top 20 ===
When KICW-TV launched in 1987 as KIME-TV, they also picked up the weekly music chart program, the Kawawii Top 20, from its longtime home on KWIK-TV, having aired the program since its premiere in 1959. Unlike most of the programs that aired during the KIME 34 era, the Kawawii Top 20 continues to air to this day, being the last remnant of their long gone music video era. The show is produced by the Kawawii Island Recording Arts Association (KIRAA) as a television spin-off to its radio chart program, the Kawawii Top 40. The program airs every Saturday at 10:00pm HST with a repeat on Monday 12:00am HST and is hosted by DJ Spacer since 2002.
KICW-TV also airs a end-of-year countdown, the Kawawii Top 100, which airs in the last two weekends of a year and the first weekend of the new year. The annual program airs on Saturday & Sunday at 10:00pm HST. Meanwhile, the Kawawii Top 20 gets moved to a different station, KWIK-TV from 1987 to 2002 & its sister station KISL-TV since 2002. During this time, the Kawawii Top 20 airs at 11:00pm HST after the station's 10pm newscast.
==News/Station Presentation==
===Newscast Titles===
*KWIK 8 News at 9 on UPN 34 (1997-2002)
*Channel 4 News on Kawawii's WB 34 (2002–2004)
*KISL 4 News on Kawawii's WB 34 (2004–2006)
*KISL 4 News on Kawawii's CW 34 (2006-2015)
*KISL 4 News on Kawawii's CW (2015-present)
====National Slogans====
*"You're Watching KIME 34. The New United Paramount Network." (January–March 1995; localized version of UPN ad campaign)
*"You're Watching UPN 34. The United Paramount Network." (March 1995 – 1998; localized version of UPN ad campaign)
*"UPN 34, Entertainment with More Fun." (1996-1997, localized version of UPN ad campaign)
*"UPN 34. We're the Network, Baby!" (1997-1998, localized version of UPN ad campaign)
*"You're Watching UPN 34." (1998-2000, localized version of UPN ad campaign)
*"This is UPN 34" (1999-2000, localized version of UPN ad campaign)
*"You're Watching.... U! P! N! UPN 34." (2000-2002, localized version of UPN ad campaign)
*"UPN 34, Extreme Television." (2001-2002, localized version of UPN ad campaign)
*Kawawii's WB 34 is Here for Laughs (2002-2003; localized version of The WB ad campaign)
*Kawawii's WB 34 is Always On (2003-2004; localized version of The WB ad campaign)
*Keep Us Laughing on Kawawii's WB 34 (2004-2005; localized version of The WB ad campaign)
*The Best Shows are on Kawawii's WB 34 (2005-2006; localized version of The WB ad campaign)
*Catch the Brightest Stars on Kawawii's WB 34 (2006; localized version of The WB ad campaign; the last slogan before switching to The CW in 2006)
*Free to Be Kawawii's CW 34 (2006-2007; localized version of The CW ad campaign)
*Kawawii's CW 34, Every Night is Good (2007-2008; localized version of The CW ad campaign)
*Kawawii's CW 34, TV to Talk About (2011-2013; localized version of The CW ad campaign)
*Kawawii's CW 34, TV Now (2013-2015; localized version of The CW ad campaign)
*Kawawii's CW, Dare to Defy. (2015–present; localized version of The CW ad campaign)
====Local Slogans====
*KIME 34, Kawawii Island's Hottest Hit TV Station (1987-1993)
*KIME 34, Kawawii Island's Music & Entertainment Station (1987-1995)
===News Themes===
*The One and Only - Gari Media Group (1997-2002)
*Newswire - 615 Music (2002-2004)
*Exploration/Dramatic Finish/Tonight's Top Stories - 615 Music (2004-2013)
*Inergy (KHON Version) - Stephen Arnold Music (2013–present)
*Horizon - Stephen Arnold Music (2013–present) (Mornings)
===Voice-over Announcers===
*Al Vanik (1997-2002)
*Bill Sage, IV (2002-2013)
*Jerry Thompson (2013–present)
==Gallery==
File:KIME-TV (KICW-TV) 34 1987.png|Logo (1987-1995)
File:KIME-TV (KICW-TV) 34 1995.png|Logo (1995-2002)
File:KIWB-TV (KICW-TV) 34 2002.png|Logo (2002-2006)
File:KICW-TV 34 2006.png|Logo (2006-2015)
Category:Kawawii Island
Category:Television channels and stations established in 1987
Category:Channel 34
Category:Former independent stations
Category:Former UPN affiliates
Category:Former WB affiliates
Category:CW network affiliates
Category:Nexstar Media Group