KWDK

KWDK is a Christian television station owned by Daystar, broadcasting out of Tacoma, Washington, formerly broadcasting on channel 56. On April 22, 2005, KWDK filed an application with the FCC for authorization to cease analog broadcasting and surrender its license for channel 56 prior to the end of the digital TV transition period, and thereafter operate KWDK-DT as a single channel, digital-only television station on channel 42. The FCC granted this authorization on July 20, 2005.

KWDK apparently ceased analog broadcasting on channel 56 sometime in April 2006. In August 2006 it was verified to be broadcasting in digital channel 42, making KWDK-DT the first digital-only broadcaster in the Seattle-Tacoma market. KWDK is carried on Comcast digital channel 18 in the Puget Sound area but is not included in the analog lineup.

History

On July 17, 1992 the FCC issued a construction permit for channel 56 and call letters KWDK, to Christopher J. Racine. The license of the unbuilt station was sold to Puget Sound Educational TV, Inc. on October 6, 1999. KWDK signed on the air September 6, 2000 broadcasting the Daystar Network.

KWDK was not the first station to broadcast on Channel 56 in the Tacoma market. In the 1960s and early 1970s, the Clover Park School District operated KPEC-TV, a public broadcasting station, on Channel 56. The school district ceased use of that channel when it purchased and briefly owned Tacoma's Channel 13, which still retains the calls KCPQ originally assigned to the CPSD, as a Fox affiliate under the commercial ownership of Tribune Broadcasting.

External links

• Query the FCC's TV station database for KWDK
• Query TV Fool's coverage map for KWDK
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KWDK-TV