KBCW (TV)

KBCW (TV)

KBCW, digital channel 45 (virtual channel 44), is a West Coast flagship station of the The CW Television Network based in San Francisco, California. KBCW is owned by the CBS Corporation, and is part of a duopoly with CBS station KPIX-TV. The station's signal is transmitted from Sutro Tower.

From January 1995 until September 2006, KBCW was an owned-and-operated station of United Paramount Network (UPN). Before 1995, the station was an independent station. Channel 44 used the call letters KBHK-TV from its inception in 1968 until 2006. It airs on cable channel 12 on most cable systems in the Bay Area.

The station is also considered an alternate CBS affiliate, and as such KBCW can air CBS programs if KPIX should preempt it in a news-related emergency (which only happens occasionally). KBCW also airs reruns of Face the Nation, CBS Sunday Morning, and local programming such as Evening Magazine, now called Eye on the Bay, and the Last Honest Sports Show, produced by KPIX. The Cookie Jar TV children's block is carried on KBCW if pre-empted by CBS Sports coverage (Cookie Jar TV would itself pre-empt the Vortexx block).