Iowa City, Iowa United States |
|
---|---|
Branding | This Eastern Iowa |
Channels |
Digital: 25 (UHF) Virtual: 20 (PSIP) |
Subchannels | 20.1 This TV 20.2 Charge! |
Affiliations | This TV |
Owner |
KM Communications Inc. (KM Television of Iowa, LLC) |
First air date | August 30, 1999 |
Call letters' meaning |
K Warner K Brothers (after former affiliation) |
Former channel number(s) | 20 (UHF analog, 1999–2009) |
Former affiliations |
The WB (1999–2006) MyNetworkTV (secondary, 2006–2011) Antenna TV (DT2, 2011–2015) The CW (2006–2016) |
Transmitter power | 1000 kW |
Height | 1455.7 ft |
Facility ID | 35096 |
Transmitter coordinates | 41°43′29.2″N 91°21′10.2″W / 41.724778°N 91.352833°W |
Licensing authority | FCC |
Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
Website | www.kwkb.tv |
KWKB is a television station that broadcasts on digital channel 25 and is the This TV affiliate for Eastern Iowa. KWKB is licensed to Iowa City, but its studios and transmitter are located on Baker Avenue in West Branch. KWKB serves the greater Eastern Iowa area including Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, and Dubuque (its signal also reaches the Quad Cities, but cable television systems in that area carry KGCW-DT2 instead).
KWKB signed on the air August 30, 1999. It carried the full WB and Kids' WB lineups.
From September 5, 2006 to September 16, 2011, KWKB was affiliated with both The CW as a primary network and MyNetworkTV as a secondary network. When KNVA in Austin, Texas became a sole CW affiliate in October 2009 after carrying MyNetworkTV as a secondary affiliation, KWKB became the only station in the country to have carried the full CW and MyNetworkTV lineups including The CW's Saturday morning children's block Toonzai (although CW affiliates KCWI in Des Moines, WLMT in Memphis, Tennessee and KXVO in Omaha carried WWE SmackDown from MyNetworkTV until that show moved to cable channel Syfy in October 2010).
Until September 16, 2011, KWKB aired MyNetworkTV programming from 9-11 p.m., immediately following CW programming. The satellite feeds for MyNetworkTV and The CW are actually aired at the same time, so MyNetworkTV programming was recorded and broadcast two hours after it is played by other MyNetworkTV affiliates. However, as of September 19, 2011, KWKB dropped MyNetwork TV in favor of syndicated fare. This briefly left the Cedar Rapids market one of two markets in Iowa without an affiliate for the network until October 3, when Des Moines's This TV affiliate KDMI re-affiliated with the network (as a secondary affiliation) after it had initially dropped it in 2009. However, as of October 2011, KCRG-TV digital channel 9.2 is carrying the MyNetworkTV programming service, however, that station is airing the service's programming from 12:05-2:05 a.m. KWKB was the last CW-affiliated station that carried MyNetworkTV on the same feed as The CW until 2014, when Columbia, South Carolina's existing MyNetworkTV affiliate WKTC added a primary CW affiliation while retaining MyNetworkTV as a secondary affiliation on its main channel.