KSTW

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = KSTW
city = Tacoma, Washington
station_
station_slogan = Free to be You.
station_branding = CW 11
analog = 11 (VHF)
digital = 36 (UHF)
other_chs = (see article)
affiliations = The CW
network =
founded =
airdate = March 1, 1953
location = Seattle, Washington
callsign_meaning = Seattle
Tacoma
Washington
former_callsigns = KTNT-TV (1953-1974)
former_channel_numbers =
owner = CBS Corporation
licensee = The CW Television Stations, Inc.
sister_stations =
former_affiliations = Primary:
CBS (1953-1961)
independent (1961-1995)
CBS (1995-1997)
UPN (1997-2006)
Secondary:
DuMont (1953-1955)
effective_radiated_power = 316 kW (analog)
850 kW (digital)
HAAT = 275.7 m (both)
class =
facility_id = 23428
coordinates = coord|47|36|55.6|N|122|18|34|W|type:landmark_scale:2000
homepage = [http://www.kstw.com/ www.kstw.com]

KSTW is a television station serving the Seattle, Washington media market. It is owned by CBS Corporation, and is a part of the CW Television Network. It broadcasts its analog signal on VHF channel 11, and its digital signal on UHF channel 36. It is licensed to Tacoma, and its transmitter is located in Seattle. The station holds the distinction of being the only CBS-owned CW station on the VHF dial; the same was true for UPN.

History

Before sign-on

The construction permit for the station was issued by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on December 10, 1952. Chief Engineer Max Bice immediately ordered equipment through General Electric, and the equipment was delivered within 45 days. The antenna was in Milan, Italy and it was shipped by rail car to Tacoma.Fact|date=February 2008 The transmitter arrived in Tacoma from Syracuse, New York on February 9, 1953. It was installed on the next day, and work progressed rapidly.

The original studios and transmitter house were located at South 11th Street and Grant Avenue. The station tested with the original 30,000 watts and received reports of reception from up to 150 miles away. People from Vancouver, B.C. to Astoria, Oregon received the test pattern. Fact|date=February 2008

ign-on

The station began broadcasting March 1, 1953 out of Tacoma as KTNT-TV after its founder, the Tacoma News Tribune. At the time, it was a CBS affiliate. The newspaper had also owned radio stations KTNT-AM and FM since 1948.

On February 21, 1954, KTNT received permission from the FCC to raise the transmitter power to 316,000 watts, and to move the transmitter to a new 1,000 foot tower near View Park, Washington just south of Harper on the Fragaria Access Road. Later parts of the old transmitting equipment was loaned to KGW-TV in Portland, Oregon, due to the Columbus Day Storm damage of 1962.

In 1958, Seattle's KIRO-TV channel 7 took to the air, also as a CBS affiliate. Both KIRO and KTNT carried CBS programming as a legal battle ensued over market exclusivity. KIRO became the sole CBS station for Seattle-Tacoma in 1961, leaving KTNT as an independent station. During the late 1960s, the station also occasionally carried NBC primetime programs pre-empted by Seattle SuperSonics NBA basketball games on KING-TV. For one month (May 1967), the station was also an affiliate of the United Network (also known as the Overmyer Network), a short-lived attempt to create a fourth commercial TV network nationally. During the decade, KTNT also presented Nightmare Theater around 12am before sign off, airing old horror and science fiction movies from the 1930s to the 1960s.

New ownership

Due to the new cross ownership rules enacted by the FCC, KTNT was sold to Gaylord Entertainment Company in 1974. Gaylord changed its call letters to KSTW, for Seattle-Tacoma, Washington.

As an independent station, KSTW was known as KSTWashington and ran the traditional fare of cartoons, off-network sitcoms, westerns, old movies, and a local 10pm newscast. The station also carried many daytime CBS programs pre-empted by KIRO 7 (including game shows such as The Joker's Wild and The Price Is Right) during the 1970s. In 1993, KSTW agreed to become the WB affiliate for Seattle beginning in 1995, when the network was to begin operation.

However, in 1994, CBS found itself without an affiliate in Dallas-Fort Worth when its longtime affiliate there, KDFW, switched to Fox. CBS approached Gaylord for an affiliation with its Dallas station, KTVT. KSTW was included as part of the agreement, and as a result, CBS returned to KSTW on March 13, 1995. (Some CBS shows like The Bold and the Beautiful which were pre-empted by KIRO had already been shown on KSTW starting in the fall of 1994.)

Even as a CBS affiliate, KSTW still ran a number of off-network sitcoms, and only had half-hour newscasts in the early morning, at noon, 6pm and 11pm. In 1996, Gaylord announced the sale of KSTW to Cox Enterprises. KSTW's sale was finalized on May 30 1997. (Gaylord held on to KTVT until 1999, when it was sold to CBS outright.)

Cox had plans to expand the news department at KSTW and make it more competitive with the other stations in the market. However, the company found it to be a rather difficult task. At the same time, the "Paramount Stations Group" (a subsidiary of Viacom) was planning to buy KIRO-TV from Belo Corporation (which had acquired KING-TV in a merger with the Providence Journal) and convert it into a more traditional independent station; however, the group hesitated with the plan when it found out KIRO's news production was still doing very well in the ratings. As a result, a three-way swap was arranged, with KSTW going to Paramount/Viacom, KIRO going to Cox, and KMOV in St. Louis going from Paramount/Viacom (who was selling off all non-UPN stations) to Belo. The two Seattle stations retained their respective syndicated programming, but swapped network affiliations once again, with KSTW becoming a UPN O&O, and KIRO regaining its CBS affiliation.

The deal was finalized on June 2, 1997; Cox held KSTW for just three days prior to the trade. KSTW began to air UPN programming on June 30, 1997 along with sitcoms, movies, cartoons and a few first-run syndicated shows. The station brought back its 10pm newscast and dropped its news production at all other time slots. The station cancelled the 10pm newscast in December 1998.

Viacom (which had been Paramount's parent company since 1993) acquired CBS in 2000, bringing CBS and KSTW under common ownership, and making KSTW and the aforementioned KTVT sister stations once again. The cartoons on KSTW had disappeared (as a result of UPN ending the Disney Kids block on weekdays in fall 2003), and more first-run syndicated talk and reality shows moved to KSTW.

On January 24, 2006, the WB and UPN networks announced they would merge into The CW Television Network, and KSTW was announced as the Seattle station for the new network. The merger took effect on-the-air in September 2006. WB station KTWB (now KMYQ), owned by the Tribune Company, became an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. On August 11, 2006, at 5:00 p.m. PST, the new "CW 11" on-air logo debuted on the Seattle Mariners pre-game "Bullpen" show. KSTW added Kids WB onto its schedule on September 23, 2006.

Since September 18, 2006, Comcast has carried the high-definition simulcast of KSTW on channel 111.

Programming

News

KTNT offered local newscasts throughout most of its history, but did not have one at the time of its sale to Gaylord. Since 1976, KSTW had produced its own 10 p.m. newscast. Its news operation was shut down in December 1998, however, as a result of cost-cutting measures mandated by Viacom, its parent company. News returned to the station in March 2003, as it began to carry a 10 p.m. newscast produced by KIRO 7. The production of the newscast went on a seven-month hiatus from late 2003 until 2004, and was cancelled outright in June 2005.

ports

The station was the on-air home for the NBA's Seattle Supersonics in the early 1970s, and again from the early 1990s until 1998. The station also carried TVS' World Football League telecasts in 1974.

Children's programming

Through the 1960s and 1970s, KTNT's local children's programs featured a personable host named "Brakeman Bill" McLain. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the station carried "Ranger Charlie's Kids Club", the last children's show in the region to be filmed before a live audience. The show featured a forest ranger accompanied by a puppet raccoon named Rosco; the show won an Emmy Award [http://q13.trb.com/news/kcpq-bio-mjmcd,0,1135516.htmlstory?coll=kcpq-newsstaff-1] . "Looney Tunes" and "Woody Woodpecker" cartoons were incorporated into the show. The station also carried The Disney Afternoon cartoon lineup in the mid 1990s, and syndicated reruns of Scooby-Doo in the 1980s.

Analog-to-digital conversion

After the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, which is tentatively scheduled to take place on February 17, 2009 http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf] , KSTW will move its digital broadcasts back to its present analog channel number, 11. [http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101257506&formid=387&fac_num=23428 CDBS Print ] ]

Translators

KSTW is rebroadcast on the following translator station.
* [http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?call=K62FS K62FS] Channel 62 Port Townsend

Low power translators serving certain areas of Seattle have been discontinued.

News/Station Presentation

Newscast Titles

*"KTNT-TV News" (1953-1966)
*"11 Star News" (1966-1970)
*"Nightwatch News" (1970-1974)
*"Newscene 11: The Ten O'Clock Report" (1974-1978)
*"The Ten O'Clock News" (1978-1995)
*"11 News" (1995-97)
*"UPN 11 Ten O'Clock News" (1997-1998)
*"Eyewitness News at Ten on UPN 11" (3/2003-2005)

External links

* [http://www.kstw.com/ KSTW CW11 Homepage]
*TVQ|KSTW
*BIA|KSTW|TV|TV

References