Affiliations defunct Last air date May 25, 2008 | First air date March 23, 2001 Call letters' meaning The CW YaKima | |
Channels Analog: KCWK: 9 (VHF)
KCWK-LP: 27 (UHF) Owner Pappas Telecasting Companies
(KCWK License, LLC) | ||
KCWK was a television station which broadcast on analog channel 9 in Walla Walla, Washington and low-powered analog channel 27 (KCWK-LP) in Yakima, Washington. It was affiliated with The CW, and was owned by Pappas Telecasting. The station went off the air on May 25, 2008.
Contents
History
The station signed on for the first time on March 23, 2001 as KBKI. In 2003, it changed its callsign to KAZW-TV and affiliated with the Spanish-language Azteca America network. It targeted the large Hispanic community in central Washington.
On April 24, 2006, it was announced that KAZW would launch a CW affiliate on digital subchannel 9.2, with programming being provided by The CW Plus. However, the station (which did not have a digital signal) subsequently changed its plans and chose to completely replace Azteca America with The CW, citing better marketing potential. Mike Angelos, vice president of corporate communications for Pappas Telecasting, stated that while the Hispanic population composes 40 percent of the Yakima Valley, the numbers weren't high enough to reach the level needed for Azteca America. The call letters were changed in August to KCWK to reflect the new affiliation.
On May 10, 2008, some Pappas stations, including KCWK, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. On May 25, 2008, the KCWK signal left the air permanently; four days later, it was observed that the station's offices had been emptied, indicating that KCWK had ceased operations.
On July 18, 2008, KCWK reported to the FCC that digital television equipment needed in time for the upcoming 2009 digital transition had not yet been obtained as this could not be done without prior approval of the bankruptcy court. The station had applied to extend the digital construction permit as is necessary to retain the broadcast license, but expected its currently-silent analogue signal will not return due both to equipment failure and financial hardship.
KCWK was one of two Pappas stations required to both end analogue broadcasting and install new equipment to begin digital transmission (a flash-cut) on the 2009 DTV deadline. As full-service stations established after digital companion channels were assigned to existing full service broadcasters, KCWK and Pappas-owned WWAZ-TV had no existing digital transmitter facilities. Both are now silent. All other full-service Pappas television stations had been simulcasting in both analogue and digital formats long before the company entered chapter 11 bankruptcy and therefore had sufficient equipment on hand to continue to broadcast their signals digitally in 2009.
On January 16, 2009, it was announced that several Pappas stations, including the license for KCWK, would be sold to New World TV Group, after the sale received United States bankruptcy court approval. In the interim, Fisher Communications announced that their CBS affiliates KIMA-TV/KEPR-TV would each launch CW subchannels on March 31, 2009 to fill KCWK's void. Central Washington Charter Communications viewers received KTLA Los Angeles as a temporary replacement between KCWK going silent and KIMA/KEPR-DT2 signing on; Dish Network viewers also received KTLA.
The KCWK license was canceled by the FCC on June 2, 2009. The KCWK-LP license was later deleted as well. As a result, the new CW Plus digital subchannels of KIMA and KEPR became long-term.
Despite having ceased broadcasting on May 25, 2008, KCWK's website remained operational for two years afterward.
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 the 2009 end of the digital TV conversion period for full-service stations, KCWK would have been required to turn off its analog signal and turn on its digital signal (called a "flash-cut"). As KCWK did not acquire its digital transmitter and antenna, it was unable to complete the mandatory digital transition and never resumed broadcasting.
Low-powered satellite KCWK-LP had voluntarily filed for a digital "-LD" license on channel 36. That application has since been deleted from the FCC database.