| Bakersfield, California | |
|---|---|
| Branding | Bakersfield's CW |
| Channels | Digital: 25 (UHF, KGET-DT 17.2) |
| Affiliations | The CW |
| Owner | High Plains Broadcasting, Inc. (operated by Newport Television) |
| Call letters' meaning | see KGET-TV |
| Former affiliations | The WB (to 9/2006) |
| Website | Bakersfield's CW |
KGET-DT2 (formerly known by the fictional callsign "KWFB") is the The CW affiliate for the Bakersfield, California DMA. A sister station to NBC affiliate KGET-TV, the station is part of The CW Plus, a series of cable outlets for markets below the top hundred in the country.
The KWFB call sign was fictional, as the original "KWFB" was cable-only (Bakersfield cable 12) and not a licenced over-the-air broadcaster. Like many US cable-only stations with fictional WBxx or KWxx calls, KWFB was part of the The WB 100+ Station Group before the network ceased operations in September 2006, merging with UPN to form the new network The CW.
KWFB's future after The WB and UPN ceased operations initially was unknown, as it did not have an affiliation agreement with the network at the time. However, just days before The CW was scheduled to launch, Clear Channel Communications (the owner of KGET at the time) obtained the rights to The CW Plus affiliation for the Bakersfield market as a result of KGET's association with "KWFB". Clear Channel then decided to discontinue using the fictional "KWFB" call sign in favor of the now-official KGET-DT2 call sign upon launching a simulcast of the station on a new digital subchannel of KGET. Former local UPN affiliate KUVI-TV affiliated with MyNetworkTV.
On April 20, 2007, Clear Channel entered into an agreement to sell its entire television stations unit, including parent station KGET, to the private equity firm Providence Equity Partners.[1] However, Providence Equity Partners owns a 19 percent share of the Spanish-language media company Univision, the owner of MyNetworkTV affiliate KUVI-TV. In addition, with only five full-power stations, Bakersfield does not have enough to legally support a co-owned duopoly operation. As a result, the Federal Communications Commission granted conditional approval of the sale, provided that Providence Equity Partners divest either KGET or its stake in Univision as soon as the deal was finalized. That happened on March 14, 2008.
In May 2008, Newport Television agreed to sell KGET and five other stations to High Plains Broadcasting, Inc. due to the aforementioned ownership conflict.[2] The sale closed on September 15, 2008[3]; Newport continues to operate KGET, and thus KGET-DT2, under a shared services agreement.[2]
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