KCWI-TV

**KCWI-TV** is a CW-affiliated television station serving Des Moines, Iowa, United States that is licensed to Ames. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 23 (also the station's virtual channel via PSIP) from a transmitter located in Alleman, Iowa. The station is owned by the Dorado Media Group, as part of a duopoly with Fox affiliate KDSM-TV (channel 17). The two stations share studio facilities on Fleur Drive (IA 5) in Des Moines. On cable, KCWI-TV is available on Mediacom channel 9 in standard definition and on digital channel 809 in high definition.

## History

### **As a WB affiliate**

Channel 23 first signed on the air on January 20, 2001 under the callsign **KPWB-TV** (the KPWB calls were originally used by KMAX-TV in Sacramento, California during that station's 1995 to 1998 tenure as a WB affiliate under Pappas Telecasting ownership, before later becoming a UPN owned-and-operated station and then joining The CW). The station originally maintained a primary affiliation with The WB and a secondary affiliation with UPN. KPWB dropped UPN programming in 2003, carrying the full WB primetime and Kids' WB lineups during the remainder of the station's tenure with the network. Prior to the station's launch, this area had been without programming from The WB; from 1995 to 1999, The WB programming was available on Des Moines-Ames cable systems via the former superstation feed of WGN-TV in Chicago.

### **As a CW affiliate**

On January 24, 2006, Time Warner and CBS Corporation announced the shutdowns of The WB and UPN effective that September. In place of these networks, both companies decided to form The CW, a new service that combined the most popular programming from both UPN and The WB with new series produced specifically for the network. Just over one month later on February 22, 2006, News Corporation announced that it would start up MyNetworkTV, a sister network to Fox, which would be operated as a joint venture between Fox Television Stations and Twentieth Television. MyNetworkTV was created in order to give UPN and WB-affiliated stations that were not selected to join The CW another option besides becoming an independent station.

It seemed very likely that KPWB would become The CW's Des Moines affiliate, as NBC affiliate WHO-TV (channel 13) had a secondary affiliation with UPN. On March 16, 2006, Pappas Telecasting signed an affiliation agreement to make KPWB the market's CW affiliate. A few months later, MyNetworkTV announced that it would affiliate with a new station also owned by Pappas, KDMI (then on channel 56), which began broadcasting that network on September 5, 2006. On September 18, 2006, the date that The CW officially launched, KPWB changed its call letters to **KCWI-TV** to reflect its new affiliation. In 2013, the station's logo switched from the generic version that The CW had used since its inception to a version utilizing the station's call letters (this version is also being used by The CW's San Francisco O&O, KBCW-TV).

After MyNetworkTV converted to a programming service in September 2009, KDMI dropped the affiliation in favor of joining This TV. *WWE SmackDown*, which aired on MyNetworkTV at the time, moved to KCWI airing in a Saturday primetime slot; the station stopped airing the show on September 11, 2010, three weeks before the agreement to carry the show ended with the October 2010 move of *SmackDown* to Syfy. As a result of KDMI dropping the MyNetworkTV affiliation, Des Moines was the largest Nielsen media market without an over-the-air affiliate of the service until KDMI rejoined MyNetworkTV on October 3, 2011, though that station began carrying the service's programming four hours later than most MyNetworkTV affiliates upon rejoining the service (Nexstar Broadcasting Group-owned WLMT in Memphis also aired *SmackDown* in a manner very similar to KCWI after MyNetworkTV's original Memphis affiliate WPXX-TV dropped the programming service; WLMT's second digital subchannel eventually affiliated with the service after *SmackDown* moved to Syfy).

On October 24, 2014, Pappas reached a deal to sell KCWI-TV to the Dorado Media Group for $3.5 million. The deal was approved by the FCC on December 19, 2014, but the completion of the deal was placed on hold due to the lawsuit. The sale was formally completed on March 14, 2016, with Dorado announcing shortly after that KCWI would leave its downtown Des Moines studios.

## Digital Television

### **Analog-to-digital conversion**

KCWI-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 23, on June 12, 2009, and "flash-cut" its digital signal into operation UHF channel 23. Due to this abnormality, the station's digital is carried as a subchannel of sister station KDMI. Because it was granted an original construction permit after the Federal Communications Commission finalized the DTV allotment plan on April 21, 1997. The station did not receive a companion channel for a digital television station.

## Programming

In addition to CW network programming, syndicated programs seen on KCWI include *The Middle*, *Family Guy*, *The King of Queens* and *Modern Family*. The station also airs select Chicago Cubs baseball games which were carried by WGN beginning in the 2016 season.

**CBS affiliates:** WRGB
**The CW affiliates:** **KCWI-TV** KDAF KFRE KIAH KNVA KPLR-TV KUCW KXTU-LD
WCCT-TV WCWN WDCW WKCF WLVI WNAB WNLO WQCW WSFL-TV WSWB WTVX WUCW WVTV WWMB
**Fox affiliates:** KAYU-TV KCIT KDSM-TV KFXA KLRT-TV KSWB-TV KWKT-TV WACH WDAF-TV WDKY-TV WMSN-TV
**MyNetworkTV affiliates:** KAIL KAME-TV KASY-TV KFVE KMYU KRON-TV WCTX WMYA-TV WNDY-TV WNYO WQMY WRDC WSTR-TV WTCN-CA WUXP-TV WXSP-CD
**NBC affiliates:** WJAR KMTR