KCWE - History

History

The analog UHF channel 29 allotment was originally home to low-powered ValueVision affiliate K29CF. To make way for a new full-powered station, that station moved in the mid-1990s to channel 48, becoming K48FS. Today, that station (with the calls KUKC-LP) serves as the market's low-powered Univision affiliate.

What is now KCWE signed-on September 14, 1996 as WB affiliate KCWB (Kansas City's WB). It was locally-owned but managed through a local marketing agreement (LMA) by Hearst Corporation (owner of KMBC). Initially the station ran a mix of cartoons, recent off network sitcoms, talk shows, court shows, and movies. Operation of KCWB was taken over by Hearst-Argyle Television (now Hearst Television) in 1997, after the merger of Hearst Corporation's broadcasting division with Argyle Television Holdings II.

In January 1998, KSMO, previously a UPN affiliate, joined The WB after its owner, Sinclair Broadcast Group, cut an affiliation deal with the network. KCWB subsequently joined UPN, but still offered Kids' WB (now Toonzai) until June of that year because KSMO still held a contract to air Fox Kids (which was not shown on the area's Fox station, WDAF-TV); at that time, Fox Kids moved to KCWB as well. Channel 29 would change its calls to the current KCWE on August 24, 1998. Hearst bought the station outright in 2001; however, Hearst-Argyle continued to consider KCWE to be managed rather than owned by the company for several years thereafter, as the station was officially owned by an indirect subsidiary of Hearst Corporation as opposed to Hearst-Argyle (then a publicly-traded company controlled by Hearst).

For most of its tenure as a WB affiliate, KCWB's "WB29" logo was similar to the "WB32" logo used on sister station WWWB-TV in Tampa Bay, Florida. Following the switch to UPN, KCWE briefly used the branding "KC29," ultimately becoming "More TV 29" for several years to once again match its Tampa Bay sister, by then WMOR-TV. KCWE would drop the "More TV" moniker by 2005 (in favor of using its call letters and the slogan "Kansas City's UPN"), but would retain the logo style for most of the remainder of UPN's existence. KMBC would bring back the branding (as "MOREtv Kansas City") on September 14, 2010 when it began airing general entertainment programming on weeknights from 6 until 11 on its second digital subchannel that was otherwise affiliated with The Local AccuWeather Channel. KCWE dropped Fox Kids in the Fall of 1999 for more talk and reality programming; Fox Kids programming then moved to KMCI-TV. Channel 29 ceased carrying children's programming on weekdays altogether when UPN ended its daily morning national children's programming block.

On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced the two networks would end broadcasting and merge to form The CW. On March 7, The CW and Hearst announced KCWE would become Kansas City's CW affiliate. As the station already had "CW" in its call letters, station management said it would take advantage of this and leave them unchanged. The old logo was dispensed altogether in August 2006 when KCWE's new logo reflecting the CW affiliation was released. The new network began broadcasting on September 18.

In late-March 2010, Hearst applied to transfer KCWE's license from its indirect subsidiary (doing business as "KCWE-TV Company") directly to the larger Hearst Television subsidiary with the transfer being completed on May 1. As it operates in the KMBC duopoly, the station might take on responsibility to run ABC programming in the event of news emergencies (such as severe weather), sporting events, and/or the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon when KMBC cannot do so. KCWE serves as an alternate off-air CW affiliate for the small St. Joseph, Missouri market; officially though, that market's CW affiliate is KNPN-LD (owned by News-Press & Gazette Company), which carries The CW Plus service on its third digital subchannel, a channel that previously operated as cable-only "WBJO" prior to June 2, 2012. In 2010, it aired all Kansas City Wizards MLS games except those already under a national broadcast agreement.