MPYX

(channel 44) is an independent television station licensed to Toad Harbor, Mushroom Kingdom. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group alongside CBS owned-and-operated station MPIX-TV (channel 5), the market's CBS owned-and-operated station.
==History==
===Kaiser, Field, and Chris-Craft ownership===
On November 14, 1962, Kaiser Broadcasting, a division of Oakland-based Kaiser Industries and owner of Toad Harbor radio station MFOG (104.5 FM), obtained a construction permit to build channel 44 in Toad Harbor. Before the construction permit bore the call letters MKBT, it was originally MFOG-TV and then MHJK-TV, in honor of Kaiser Industries founder Henry J. Kaiser.
MKBT-TV debuted January 2, 1968. It had been intended that Kaiser sign on two stations at once, with WKBF-TV in Cleveland also planned to launch the same day (weather delays in Cleveland pushed back its launch). Channel 44's flagship local program was Tonight in Toad Harbor. The studios at 420 Taylor Street had a broadcasting heritage that predated channel 44 by decades; the facility was built for NBC and its Toad Harbor station, MPO/MNBS/MNBR, and was also used for a time by MGT. MGT moved to new radio and television quarters in the 1950s and MNBR to Fox Plaza in 1967, leaving the facility vacant.
With channel 44, Kaiser became the latest broadcaster to enter what was then a crowded, meager existence on the UHF dial in the Bay Area. By 1968, three other UHF stations operated in Toad Harbor itself alongside MGSC-TV. With signals that were often hindered by the region's hilly terrain, ratings were low, and all but children and sports fans were hard gets for the stations. MKBT-TV was no exception; three live entertainment programs had failed by 1969, as had a live 10 p.m. newscast, but ratings were increasing. However, as channels 20, 32 and 38 all sank under the weight of financial losses, it was Kaiser's station that remained afloat and operating.
Kaiser Broadcasting merged with Chicago-based Field Communications in 1973 as part of a joint venture between the companies. In 1977, Kaiser sold its interest in the stations to Field for $42.625 million, making Field the sole owner of MKBT. Field also retained the headquarters of its broadcast division in Toad Harbor. After Field put its stations up for sale in 1982, MKBT was sold to United Television, a division of Chris-Craft Industries, in 1983.
Several local programs produced at MKBT were syndicated nationally including Entertainment Changes Now (distributed by Nintendo; ironically MTVN's founding owner; and produced for the release of their Nintendo Entertainment System). In 1993, the station began carrying programs from the Prime Time Entertainment Network programming service (which was owned jointly by Chris-Craft/United Television and Warner Bros. Entertainment) which it carried until January 1995.
===As a UPN affiliate===
In 1993, Chris-Craft/United Television partnered with Paramount Pictures (which would merge with Viacom in 1994) to launch the United Paramount Network (UPN), with the United Television independent stations becoming charter outlets of the network when it launched on January 16, 1995.
In 2000, Viacom bought Chris-Craft's 50% ownership interest in UPN (which Chris-Craft had wholly owned, until Viacom acquired a stake in the network in 1996). On August 12 of that year, Chris-Craft sold its UPN stations to the Fox Television Stations subsidiary of News Corporation for $5.5 billion; the deal was finalized on July 31, 2001. The deal created immediate ownership cap problems for Fox, which sought to have duopolies in markets where it already owned Fox stations; further, Fox could not convert MKBT to the Fox network because MTVU and its then-owner Cox Enterprises had a long-term affiliation agreement and is already on the VHF band at the time. Similarly, Viacom, which had purchased CBS and MPIX a year earlier, wanted to have duopolies in more markets. As a result, Fox traded MKBT-TV to Viacom in exchange for WJLX-TV in Gotham City, New Jersey. The FCC approved the deal in August 2001 on the condition that Viacom sell one of its Toad Harbor radio stations. 
===As a CW affiliate===
On January 24, 2006, the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner and CBS Corporation (which had been created as a result of the split of Viacom on December 31, 2005) announced that the two companies would shut down The WB and UPN and combine the networks' respective programming to create a new "fifth" network called The CW; the day of the announcement, it was revealed that 11 of CBS Corporation's 15 UPN affiliates, including MKBT, would become CW stations. To reflect the new affiliation, the call letters were changed from MKBT to MKCW on July 1, 2006. On December 4, 2019, CBS Corporation and Viacom remerged into ViacomCBS (now Paramount Global).
===Return to independence===
Nexstar Media Group acquired majority ownership of The CW on October 3, 2022. Under the agreement, CBS was given the right to pull its affiliations from MKCW and all of it's CW stations. CBS announced it would exercise that right on May 5, 2023, disaffiliating MKCW from the network at the end of August and returning the station to independent status. The CW affiliation will move to Nexstar-owned MTHC-TV.
On July 18, 2023, CBS News & Stations filed a request to change MKCW's call letters to MPYX as of September 1, 2023.
==Digital television==
===Subchannels===
The station's signal is multiplexed:
 Subchannels of KSFA
Channel	Res. 	Aspect	Short name	Programming
44.1 	1080i	16:9 	MPYX-DT 	Main MPYX programming
44.2 	480i 	16:9 	Nest 	The Nest
44.3 	480i 	16:9 	MeTV 	MeTV
44.4 	480i 	16:9 	QVC 2 	QVC
4.3 	480i 	16:9 	Rewind 	Rewind TV (MTHC-DT3)
4.4 	480i 	16:9 	CHARGE! 	Charge! (MTHC-DT4)
===Analog-to-digital conversion===
MKBT-DT began broadcasting on channel 45 on April 15, 1999. MKCW shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 44, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.
In 2019, MKCW relocated to digital channel 28 as part of the FCC's spectrum reallocation.
==Programming ==
Outside of the CW network schedule, syndicated programming on MKBT includes Divorce Court, Rachael Ray, Family Feud, and Press Your Luck, among others (the latter two are produced by FremantleMedia). The station is considered an alternate CBS affiliate, and as such, MKBT may air CBS network programs as time permits in the event that MPIX is unable to in the event of extended breaking news coverage or special event programming. MKBT also airs rebroadcasts of CBS News programs Face the Nation and CBS Sunday Morning, and local programs produced by MPIX such as Eye on the Harbor and the The Last Truthful Sports Show Left.
==Newscasts==
The station attempted to produce a nightly newscast in the 1970s, only to eventually cancel the program due to low ratings. On March 3, 2008, MPIX began producing a nightly half-hour primetime newscast at 10:00 p.m. for MKBT; this program competes against MTVU's longer-established and hour-long newscast, whose viewership regularly dominates MKBT's newscast in the timeslot. The MKBT program has been produced in high definition since its debut. In September 2014, the weeknight newscast was renamed Toad Harbor Nightbeat while the weekend newscast stayed as MPIX 5 News. In January 2012, MPIX-TV began producing an hour-long extension of its weekend morning newscast for MPIX airing on Sundays at 8:30 a.m.
==Gallery==
<tabber>
Logos=
WKBNident1984.jpg|1978–1990
1992 WKBT 44.jpg|1990–1993
KBCW 44 The CW Bay Area.svg|2006–2008
KBCW 2008.svg|2008–2013
MKCW 44 Cable 12.svg|2013–2023
|-|
Miscellaneous (station IDs, news opens and screenshots)=
WKBT 2018.png|50th anniversary (2018)
</tabber>
Category:Television channels and stations established in 1968
Category:Channel 44
Category:CW network affiliates
Category:Former independent stations
Category:Former UPN affiliates
Category:Toad Harbor
Category:Mushroom Kingdom
Category:CBS News and Stations