KRCW-TV

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KRCW-TV
Salem / Portland, Oregon
Branding	Portland's CW
Channels	32 (UHF) analog, 33 (UHF) digital
Translators	KWBP-LP ch. 5 (VHF) Portland
Affiliations	The CW The Tube (on digital 32-2 or Comcast 303)
Owner	Tribune
Founded	May 8, 1989
Call letters meaning	KRCW: K Rose City CW KWBP-LP: K WB Portland (former call letters)
Former callsigns	KUTF (1989-1992) KEBN (1992-1995) KWBP (1995-2006)
Former affiliations	Independent (1989-1995) The WB (1995-2006)
Transmitter Power	5000 kW/520 m (analog) 780 kW/537 m (digital)
Website	portlandscw.com

KRCW-TV is The CW affiliate serving the Portland, Oregon television market. It is owned and operated by Tribune Broadcasting. It broadcasts its analog signal on UHF channel 32 and its digital signal on UHF channel 33. It is licensed to Salem, and its studios are located in Beaverton. Its transmitter is located in Portland.

On September 18, 2006, KRCW became the Portland affiliate of the CW, created through a merger of the UPN and WB networks. The newly combined network will be co-owned by CBS and the Warner Bros. Television unit of Time Warner. Previously, it was the Portland affiliate for the WB network.

Contents 1 History 2 KWBP-LP Station History 3 Digital Television 4 Other Logos 5 Newscasts 6 External links

[edit] History

The station launched on May 8, 1989 under the call sign KUTF, which stood for "Keep Up The Faith". The programming was almost entirely religious. The station was originally operated by Dove Broadcasting, then sold to Eagle Broadcasting in late 1991 / early 1992, at which time the call sign was changed to KEBN, for "Eagle Broadcasting Network".

The station went off the air in the early 1990s, but by 1994 it had resumed broadcasting, airing a number of infomercials, public domain movies and brokered shows in an 8 hour day (it went 24-hour by Labor Day of that year). James R. McDonald owned the station, via Channel 32, Inc.

KEBN became a WB affiliate in 1995, and changed its call letters to KWBP to reflect its new affiliation. By the fall of that year, bartered syndicated programming (including cartoons and some older sitcoms and dramas) were added to the station's schedule. It also relayed the OJ Simpson trial from future sister KTLA in Los Angeles. The station was soon able to purchase new-to-syndication programming, adding other sitcoms and talk shows to its lineup starting in 1996, and grew even further after being purchased by ACME Communications in 1997. At that point, a low-power relay, KWBP-LP (originally on channel 4; now on channel 5), was established in downtown Portland to address signal issues in that area.

On December 30, 2002, ACME sold KWBP and KPLR in St. Louis to the Tribune Company for $270 million ($70 million of which was declared as the purchase price for KWBP). KWBP's ratings increased following some key programming moves done by both ACME and Tribune; the station was also helped in part by the decline of KPDX after its flip to UPN that fall.

On January 24, 2006, the WB and UPN networks announced they would merge. The newly combined network would be called The CW, the letters representing the first initial of its corporate parents CBS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner. The merger would take effect on-the-air in September 2006, and KWBP was announced as the CW's Portland affiliate. Former UPN station KPDX, owned by the Meredith Corporation, is now affiliated with MyNetworkTV. On September 16, 2006, KWBP changed it's call letters to KRCW for the CW affiliation.

[edit] KWBP-LP Station History

First signed on the air, 1993 as K04OG. The station aired A1 America One programing for a few years. On December 1, 1998 call letters changed to KENY-LP and A1 programming continued. Call letters stood for founder of K04OG & KENY-LP Kenny J. Seymour.

In 2000 KENY-LP was bought by ACME Communications, and became a repeater station for KWBP-TV. The transmitter was moved to Sylvan Hill to provide better coverage the to Portland area, and changed its' call letters to KWBP-LP, which remain so even after the main station's change to KRCW.

Originally broadcast on channel 4, in 2002 it was moved to channel 5, when Paxson Communications petitioned the FCC to move KPXG's digital signal from channel 20 to channel 4.

[edit] Digital Television

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Digital channels

Channel	Programming
32.1 / 33.1	Main KRCW programming
32.2 / 33.2	The Tube

[edit] Other Logos

KWBP logo under Acme ownership. Used until 2003.

KWBP logo after purchase by Tribune, used from 2003-2006

New KRCW Portland's CW logo.

[edit] Newscasts

On October 3, 2005, KWBP began airing a 10:00 p.m. newscast produced by NBC affiliate KGW; it was the first newscast of any kind on the station since its inception. The name of the newscast is now Northwest NewsChannel 8 at Ten on Portland's CW.

[edit] External links

• KRCW Portland's CW Homepage
• The CW Homepage
• Tribune Homepage
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KRCW-TV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KWBP-LP
• A Portlander's account of KEBN's test broadcasts prior to the launch of The WB network, with videos