KCWX
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| KCWX | |
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| Fredericksburg/San Antonio, Texas | |
| Branding | CW 2 |
| Channels | Analog: 2 (VHF) |
| Affiliations | The CW |
| Owner | Corridor Television, LLP (operated by Belo Corporation) |
| First air date | August 3, 2000 |
| Call letters’ meaning | The CW TeXas |
| Sister station(s) | KENS-TV |
| Former callsigns | KBEJ (2000-2006) |
| Former affiliations | UPN (2000-2006) |
| Transmitter Power | 100 kW |
| Height | 413 m |
| Facility ID | 24316 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.mysanantonio.com |
KCWX is the CW affiliate for San Antonio, Texas, broadcasting on channel 2. The station is licensed to the nearby city of Fredricksburg, with the transmitter located in Albert. Owned by Corridor Television, the station is managed by Belo Corporation, which operates the station out of the studios of sister station KENS-TV.
Although Fredericksburg is within in the Austin DMA, the station's signal covers most of the San Antonio area and Bexar County, and not all of Austin, such as eastern Travis County.
The station airs on San Antonio Time Warner Cable systems on cable channel 4; the area's actual broadcast Channel 4, WOAI, is on cable channel 3. An official website for the station is not currently live, however the URL kcwx.tv has been registered to Corridor Television since April 2006.
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[edit] History
KCWX went on the air in 2000 as KBEJ, the UPN affiliate for both San Antonio and Austin. The station was jointly operated by KVUE, Austin's ABC affiliate, and KENS--both owned by Belo.
[edit] Before KBEJ went on the air...
In San Antonio, KMOL-TV (then owned by former UPN part-owner Chris-Craft Industries, now WOAI-TV owned by Clear Channel) had the secondary UPN affiliation late at night after KRRT (now KMYS) dropped UPN for The WB.
In Austin, UPN was available on a network of low-powered TV stations called HPN (Hill Country [in place of "United"] Paramount Network) from 1995 to 1998, a joint partnership with LIN TV stations KXAN and KNVA by simulcast channels which would air separate network programming from the main channel numbers. That affiliation afterwards was picked up by low powered station K13VC, a.k.a. KVC 13, a sister station to KTBC before dropping it two years later to make way for a digital signal on channel 13.
[edit] Special programming
KBEJ originally had a separate cable feed for Austin viewers, which presented repeats of KVUE's syndicated programming, instead of repeats of KENS' newscasts. This ended once Austin-area cable systems dropped K13VC. The KBEJ signal has always originated from Belo's headquarters in Dallas, but some of its programming is provided from KENS and content decisions are controlled from the KENS studios. KVUE provides the microwave link for the transmitter located in Stonewall and to the Austin cable system. Syndicated fare in general is usually lower-value and older syndicated programming, in order to avoid Syndex blackouts in either market. The KENS and KVUE master controls are located in their respective cities and are completely independent from the Dallas campus and KBEJ.
[edit] Austin and the Voyager Controversy
When KBEJ initially signed on, Time Warner Cable was not willing to place KBEJ on its Austin cable system, This caused significant protest from fans of Star Trek: Voyager, who were unable to watch the series' final season.
This led to many fans downloading illegal copies of the episodes from the Internet or trading taped copies with friends in other television markets. Although UPN frowned officially upon this practice, unofficially the network and its parent company, Paramount Pictures, turned a "blind eye" in this instance due to the circumstances of the situation. In 2002, Time Warner cable agreed to carry KBEJ and viewers in the market were once again able to view UPN programming.
[edit] Becoming an affiliate of The CW
On January 24, 2006, the WB and UPN networks announced they would merge to form The CW, starting in September 2006. On March 28, KBEJ was announced as the CW affiliate for San Antonio ([1],[2]). Originally speculated to serve Austin also, on April 18, it was announced that LIN TV's KNVA will also be joining The CW ([3]). On April 7, 2006, KBEJ's call letters changed to KCWX to reflect its new affiliation. [4]
Soon after The CW launched, Time Warner's Austin-area systems began blacking out CW programming on KCWX, to protect KNVA, on October 2, 2006. However, most of KCWX's syndicated lineup was still available in Austin up until April 3, 2007, when Time Warner officially dropped KCWX from its Austin cable channel lineup.
[edit] Digital television
Because it was granted an original construction permit after the FCC finalized the DTV allotment plan on April 21, 1997 [5], the station did not receive a companion channel for a digital television station. Instead, on or before February 17, 2009, which is the end of the digital TV conversion period for full-service stations, KCWX will be required to turn off its analog signal and turn on its digital signal (called a "flash-cut").
KCWX has elected to choose channel 5 as its final DTV channel selection [6]; however, it must wait for sister station KENS-TV to turn off its analog signal before KCWX can proceed with its DTV transition.
[edit] External links
- History of establishing the Channel 2 license in San Antonio/Austin
- Station webpage (shared with San Antonio Express-News).
- Query the FCC's TV station database for KCWX
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KCWX-TV
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