KBCW

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KBCW "CW Bay Area" is the The CW television station based in San Francisco, California as of September 18, 2006. KBCW is owned by the CBS Corporation, and is part of a duopoly with KPIX (channel 5). The station's signal is transmitted from Sutro Tower. From January of 1995 until September 15, 2006 KBCW (known as KBHK until July 1, 2006) was affiliated with UPN, which was also owned by CBS since 2001. Before 1995, the station was an independent station known on-air as KBHK: TV 44, Cable 12.

The station currently airs an 8:30am weekend morning newscast titled Eyewitness News on CW Bay Area, produced by KPIX-TV's news staff.

[edit] History

KBCW has been on the air since January 2, 1968, making it the second commercial UHF station in the San Francisco Bay area after KICU, channel 36 San Jose (originally KGSC-TV). Originally transmitting under the call sign KBHK-TV (Kaiser Broadcasting/Henry Kaiser), it was originally owned by Kaiser Broadcasting, which owned other UHF stations in Los Angeles, Detroit, Philadelphia, Boston, and Cleveland. Kaiser later merged with Chicago's Field Communications in 1973. In 1977, Kaiser sold its interest in the stations to Field, making Field the sole owner of KBHK. The stations studio for a long time was located at 650 California Street.

KBHK had a typical independent program schedule consisting of a morning and afternoon children's block, off network sitcoms, feature films and public affairs programming. At one point KBHK was known as the Bay Area's Movie Station since the station aired a movie in prime time six nights a week. KBHK also aired hit first run programming including the popular "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" and "The Arsenio Hall Show". Several local programs produced at KBHK were syndicated nationally including "Leonard Nimoy's Star Trek Memories" (Paramount) and "The Twilight Zone Special" (Viacom). Bay Area kids were introduced to Japanese anime such as Speed Racer, Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion.

Field later put its stations up for sale in 1982, and KBHK was sold to United Television in 1983. The station continued with its format and in 1995 United Television partnered with Paramount to create the UPN (United Paramount Network) and KBHK became the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose affiliate.

Over the years at various times, KBHK was the television home of the Oakland A's, Golden State Warriors, California Golden Seals (NHL) and San Francisco 49ers preseason football. 49ers preseason football is also seen on KPIX channel 5

Several key scenes from the Robert Redford movie "The Candidate" were filmed in KBHK's studio at 420 Taylor Street. Many of KBHK's technicians appeared in the movie as themselves.

The old sitcoms and cartoons were gradually replaced with more recent sitcoms, talk shows, game shows, court shows, and reality shows.

When News Corporation purchased the Chris-Craft station group in 2001, it traded KBHK-TV to Viacom in exchange for KTXH in Houston and WDCA in Washington, D.C., creating a duopoly in San Francisco with KPIX. Since News Corp. also owned the Fox television network, the station trade-off also protected Cox Enterprises-owned KTVU as the Bay Area's Fox affiliate -- given the long-term commitment to the affiliation. By the time Viacom was also by then the owner of Detroit's WKBD, KBHK was effectively reunited with WKBD. Not only that, under new ownership, KBHK did relocate from its original long-time studios on California Street in the Nob Hill area to share facilities with KPIX on Battery Street.

On January 24th, 2006, it was announced that UPN and WB would be combining to form a new fifth television network, The CW, in September and that KBHK will become one of the first affiliates of The CW, now former WB station KBWB has gone back an independent station on September,18 2006, with KRON acquiring the My Network TV affiliation. 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. CBS kids programming is also aired on KBCW when KPIX airs programms from CBS Sports and News.

With the network change, Kids WB had also moved to KBCW from KBWB.

To reflect the new affiliation, KBHK officially changed its call sign to KBCW on July 1 of 2006.

Instead of airing a 10pm newscast like other CW affiliates, KBCW actually airs The Simpsons & South Park during the 10pm hour.

[edit] Trivia

• Once KBCW became the new affiliate of The CW, the station had held the distinction of being the Bay Area's only "Big Six" network station on the UHF dial.
• KBCW will be the first station in the Bay Area to be owned and operated by two different networks under CBS Corporation: UPN and the new The CW. In the case of UPN, then-KBHK has always been O&O by UPN when Chris-Craft and United Television owned a stake in the network.
• KBCW began serving the Monterey Bay market with UPN programming since 2003 after KCBA and KION dropped it in their respective area due to the inconvenience of jointly carrying UPN programs while they're both primary full-time affiliates for Fox and CBS.

[edit] Previous logos

Classic Kaiser "44" logo, used from the 1960s, through the late-1970s	KBHK 44 Logo under the Field Communications ownership from 1978 to the late 80s.	Early-1990s KBHK logo, before the advent of UPN	1995-2000 - for the launch of UPN
2000-2002 - when the station wanted to emphasize its new DTV signal	2002-2004 - after the UPN logo change	2004-2005 - Rebrand with CBS 5 Bay Area for the CBS Mandate	2005-2006 - Same as to the left, minus the "44"
2006-present - Current logo, introduced on August 1st.

[edit] External links

• KBCW website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KBCW