KLCW-TV


KLCW-TV is a television station licensed to Wolfforth, Texas, United States, serving the Lubbock area as an affiliate of The CW Plus. It is owned by Gray Media alongside NBC affiliate KCBD and four low-power stations—MyNetworkTV affiliate KMYL-LD, Snyder-licensed Heroes & Icons affiliate KABI-LD, Class A Telemundo affiliate KXTQ-CD and MeTV affiliate KLBB-LD. Gray also provides certain services to Fox affiliate KJTV-TV and low-power Class A news formatted independent station KJTV-CD under a shared services agreement with SagamoreHill Broadcasting. The stations share studios at 98th Street and University Avenue in south Lubbock, where KLCW-TV's transmitter is also located.

History

Prior to 2006, what was then called KWBZ operated solely as a local cable TV station and was owned and operated by KCBD-TV, the local NBC affiliate. At that time, channel 22 was occupied by KUPT, an affiliate of UPN. On January 1, 2006, after the station was acquired by Ramar Communications, KUPT moved to channel 14 in Lubbock, and the WB affiliation moved to channel 22.
KWBZ-TV became a full power broadcast affiliate of The WB on January 1, 2006. Twenty-four days later, Warner Bros. Television, which owned The WB, and CBS Corporation, owner of UPN, announced a merger of those two networks to take effect on September 18, 2006; the new network operating under the name of "The CW". KWBZ signed on to become a CW affiliate, resulting in new call letters and a rebranding. The station's feed is still affiliated with The CW Plus with local inserts and advertising placed by KJTV-TV and Ramar.
On October 19, 2020, Ramar announced that it would sell KLCW to Gray Television for $10 million. Concurrently, SagamoreHill Broadcasting would acquire sister station KJTV for $5 million. Gray would provide services to KJTV through a shared services agreement. The sale was completed on December 31.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is multiplexed:
ChannelRes.AspectShort nameProgramming
22.1720p16:9KLCW TVThe CW Plus
22.2480i16:9My LBBMyNetworkTV
22.3480i16:9CrimeTrue Crime Network
22.4480i16:9QUESTQuest
22.5480i16:9QVCQVC
22.6480i16:9HSNHSN
34.34720p16:9KCBDFox

Analog-to-digital conversion

Because it was granted an original construction permit after the FCC finalized the DTV allotment plan on April 21, 1997, the station did not receive a companion channel for a digital television station. Instead, on or before February 17, 2009, the original date of the digital TV conversion for full-power stations, KLCW-TV would be required to turn off its analog signal and turn on its digital signal. As of September 2008, the station's digital signal began broadcasting on its pre-transition UHF channel 43, using virtual channel 22.