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KRCW-TV
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| KRCW-TV | |
|---|---|
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| Salem / Portland, Oregon | |
| Branding | Portland's CW |
| Channels | Analog: 32 (UHF) Digital: 33 (UHF) |
| Translators | 5 KRCW-LP (VHF) Portland, OR (For all other translators see article) |
| Affiliations | The CW The Tube closure message (on digital 32-2 ) |
| Owner | Tribune |
| Founded | May 8, 1989 |
| Call letters meaning | KRCW: K Rose City CW |
| Former callsigns | KUTF (1989-1992) KEBN (1992-1995) KWBP (1995-2006) |
| Former affiliations | Independent (1989-1995) The WB (1995-2006) THE TUBE DT2 (2006-2007) |
| Transmitter Power | 5000 kw (analog) 750 kw (digital) |
| Height | 544 m (analog) 523.3 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 10192 |
| 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. KRCW is controlled by KGW via a local marketing agreement and airs KGW's late news broadcasts.
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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 on July 17, 1991. Then on February 11, 1992 the call sign was changed to KEBN, for "Eagle Broadcasting Network". On April 26, 1992 it was announced KEBN was moving in a non-religious programming direction as "Oregon's New Eagle 32".
On October 1, 1992 the station went off the air but returned on September 5, 1994 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 on January 11, 1995, and changed its call letters to KWBP to reflect its new affiliation on October 2, 1995. 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.
Currently, KRCW is the over-the-air TV station for the Seattle Mariners in the Portland area.
In 1993, a small low-power station by the call letters K04OG was launched in downtown Portland, airing America One programming. On December 1, 1998, the call letters were changed to KENY-LP to reflect the founder of the station, 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 to the downtown Portland area, including a call change to KWBP-LP. In 2006, to coincide with the call letter change of KWBP-TV to KRCW-TV, the repeater became KRCW-LP.
Originally broadcast on channel 4, then-KWBP-LP moved to channel 5, when Paxson Communications petitioned the FCC to move KPXG's digital signal from channel 20 to channel 4.
KRCW is rebroadcast on the following translator stations.
- K16GA Channel 16 Hood River
- K20ES Channel 20 Pendleton
- K24DX Channel 24 Monument
- K26FG Channel 26 Wasco
- K31GN Channel 31 La Grande
- K31HK Channel 31 Longview, Washington
- K50IK Channel 50 Newport
Future Translators:
- K16GI Channel 16 Tillamook
- K21GY Channel 21 Nehalem
- K35HE Channel 35 The Dalles
- K39HO Channel 39 Astoria
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
Digital channels
| Channel | Programming |
|---|---|
| 32.1 / 33.1 | Main KRCW programming |
| 32.2 / 33.2 | Silent (was The Tube) |
 KWBP logo under Acme ownership. Used until 2003. |
 KWBP logo after purchase by Tribune, used from 2003-2006 |
New KRCW Portland's CW logo. |
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.
- 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 KRCW-LP
- A Portlander's account of KEBN's test broadcasts prior to the launch of The WB network, with videos
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| See also: ABC, CBS, Fox, MyNetworkTV, NBC, PBS and Other stations in Oregon |
