KWSD

KWSD is a Me-TV affiliated television station for Sioux Falls, South Dakota, owned by J.F. Broadcasting, LLC. It broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 36.

History

Previously, the station had the call letters KAUN and it was the local Pax TV affiliate, while The WB was carried on a cable-only channel known by the fictitious call letters KWJB. On October 1, 2003, channel 36 acquired the WB affiliation and became KWSD, and Pax TV (now ION Television) was moved to low-power sister station KAUN-LP. The programming on KWSD was provided by The WB 100+ Station Group, a predecessor to The CW Plus. In September 2006, The WB and UPN merged to be The CW. KWSD became The CW affiliate for Sioux Falls, and UPN affiliate "UTV", a digital subchannel of KELO-TV, became an affiliate of MyNetworkTV.

At one point in the past decade, KWSD/KAUN had a 9 p.m. newscast that served the Sioux Falls Metro Area and the KWSD viewing area. That newscast was pulled, and reports are that there are plans in the works to bring back a 9 p.m. newscast to the Sioux Falls Metro.

KWSD's CW affiliation ended on September 10, 2012; at that time, the affiliation moved to a subchannel of KSFY-TV.^[1] KWSD switched its affiliation to the Weigel Broadcasting-owned classic television network Me-TV on that date.^[2]

Stations formerly carrying the KWSD calls

KWSD was originally an AM daytime only radio station licensed to Mt. Shasta City, California. KWSD was located at 620khz with an assigned power of 1,000 watts, operating from local sunrise to local sunset. KWSD was owned and operated by Shasta-Cascade Broadcasting. David Rees, a notable chief engineer of advanced skills at KMED-AM in Medford, Oregon, established the station in 1947. The call letters represented the communities served by KWSD; Weed, (Mount) Shasta, and Dunsmuir. The station also served McCloud and the Shasta Valley.

Until the expansion of FM programming, KWSD was the only station received in its market. A companion FM station, KEDY, went on the air in 1976, featuring a contemporary hits format. The original station programmed various genres of music, pre-recorded national programming, and numerous local programming. Air personalities of note included Rees and his sons, Dave Jr. and Jon, Dave Niles, Stephen Rizzo, Mike Killian, Paul Whitney, Perry Sims, John Hart, Fred Gerding Jr., Bill Craig, Mark Woollen, T. Martin Harris, Eryc Branham, Dave Jr.'s son Dennis Rees, Brian Hembling and Robin Von.

In 1995, KWSD-AM and KEDY-FM were sold to Siskiyou Radio Partners, Inc., who changed the call letters of both stations to KMJC. In 2001, KMJC-AM/FM, KWHO-FM in Mt. Shasta, and KSYC-AM/FM in Yreka, California were sold to Medford-based Four Rivers Broadcasting. Two years later, KMYC-AM/FM (and KSYC-AM/FM) were sold to Jefferson Public Radio. KMJC-AM continues to operate at 620 kHz with 1,000 daytime watts but also operates at night with 29 watts. This station is associated with NPR and PBS. KMJC-FM at 107.9 mHz programs K-LOVE Christian music programming.

Digital channels

References

Mt. Shasta News Archives; Dunsmuir News Archives

External links

• Program Information for KWSD at TitanTV.com
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KWSD
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KWSD-TV