KCWH-LD
(channel 18) is a
low-power television station
in
Lincoln, Nebraska
, United States, affiliated with
The CW Plus
. It is owned by
Gray Television
alongside
CBS
affiliates
KOLN/KGIN
(channels 10 and 11) in Lincoln and
Grand Island
and
NBC
affiliate
KSNB-TV
(channel 4) in
York
. KCWH-LD is broadcast from a tower at the KOLN studios on North 40th Street in Lincoln.
For most of its history, KCWH-LD, under the call sign K18CD, served as a
translator
for KSNB-TV, whose signal was weak in Lincoln until its transmitter was moved to the KOLN tower near
Beaver Crossing
in 2022. It signed on in 1999, when KSNB-TV broadcast
Fox
programming; in 2009, the parent station left the air, only intermittently broadcasting until shortly before Gray acquired it in 2013. K18CD-D, now a digital station, continued to provide a rebroadcast of KSNB-TV, which broadcast
MyNetworkTV
programming before becoming the regional NBC affiliate in 2014. In 2018, after the station lost its tower in a collapse, Gray converted the station into a standalone CW+ affiliate, simulcast on
KNHL
(channel 5) in
Hastings
and the second subchannel of Fox affiliate
KIIT-CD
(channel 11) in
North Platte
.
Translator of KSNB-TV
edit
The original
construction permit
for a translator station on channel 18 in Lincoln was granted on January 4, 1988,
[2]
and issued the
call sign
K18CD.
[3]
It was one of two translators that had been issued for the rebroadcast of KSNB-TV, at the time one of the
ABC
affiliates in the
Nebraska Television Network
(NTV); the other was K22CX (channel 22).
[4]
K22CX began broadcasting in 1994.
[5]
This service fulfilled a longstanding ambition of the network to expand to Lincoln and
Lancaster County
, which had nearly twice as many TV households as the
Tri-Cities
area.
[6]
However, the Lincoln translator attracted little interest locally, and NTV was not added on cable there.
[7]
After
Pappas Telecasting
took over the operations of NTV in 1996, it switched KSNB-TV from ABC to Fox in September, simulcasting with NTV-managed
KTVG-TV
in
Grand Island
.
[8]
[9]
KSNB-TV was never owned directly by Pappas; because its signal overlapped with Pappas-owned
KPTM
in
Omaha
, Pappas assigned the right to buy the station to Colins Broadcasting Company.
[10]
[11]
The sales of NTV to Pappas and KSNB to Colins were approved by the FCC on February 17, 1999, and completed on May 24.
[12]
[13]
In August 1999, Colins applied for a license to cover for the station, indicating it had started broadcasting.
[14]
By 2001, KSNB-TV was broadcast from channel 18 and from channel 22.
[15]
Silence and sale to Gray
edit
On June 12, 2009, Pappas converted KCWL-TV, an affiliate of
The CW
it managed in Lincoln, to Fox Nebraska as
KFXL-TV
,
[16]
which in turn was simulcast as a subchannel from the NTV stations.
[17]
This fulfilled an ambition of Pappas that dated to the late 1990s.
[18]
With Fox network coverage shifted to KFXL and the NTV transmitters, the operating agreements Pappas held to run KSNB-TV and KTVG-TV ended. The time brokerage agreement between Pappas Telecasting and Colins Broadcasting Corporation, expired on November 30, 2009; that station, along with the two translators in Lincoln owned by Colins, shut down on December 1. (KSNB-TV's
Beatrice
translator, K17CI, had already left the air on June 12, 2009.)
[19]
On December 19, 2011, the station converted to digital operations as K18CD-D.
[3]
By then, the Colins stations were broadcasting intermittently with programming from the
Three Angels Broadcasting Network
.
[20]
Gray Television
filed to buy KSNB-TV and its Lincoln translators from Colins Broadcasting in 2012. The Lincoln?Hastings?Kearney market has only five full-power stations (KOLN/KGIN and KHGI/KWNB are both counted as single stations for ratings and regulatory purposes), not enough to legally permit a duopoly. Colins and Gray sought a failing station waiver to allow the acquisition to move forward.
[21]
[a]
After the FCC granted the assignment of the license to Gray, the sale was officially completed on February 25, 2013.
[23]
KSNB-TV then became "10/11 Central Nebraska", a
MyNetworkTV
affiliate, in 2013.
[24]
[25]
KSNB-TV's programming changed again when Gray acquired the assets and NBC affiliation of
KHAS-TV
in
Hastings
in 2014; this programming moved to KSNB-TV.
[26]
[27]
CW affiliate
edit
On October 20, 2017, the 500-foot (150?m) tower in Lincoln leased by K18CD-D and KFXL-TV collapsed, rendering the translator out of commission.
[28]
On May 18, 2018, the call letters were changed to KCWH-LD.
[3]
It returned to the air on September 26, 2018,
[29]
transmitting from the KOLN studios;
[30]
on October 1, Gray announced that KCWH-LD had become the market's CW affiliate and would be simulcast on subchannels of KNHL in Hastings and KIIT-CD in North Platte.
[31]
[32]
There had not been a CW affiliate broadcast in the market since KCWL-TV became KFXL-TV in 2009.
[16]