states city hutchinson kansas branding kwch 12 general kwch 12 eyewitness news hd newscasts slogan expect more channels digital 19 uhf virtual 12 psip subchannels 12.1 cbs 12.2 always on storm team 12 translators kscw ld 33 uhf wichita owner gray television gray television licensee llc first air date july 1 1953 1953 07 01 call letters meaning kansas wichita sister station s kscw dt kbsd dt kbsh dt kbsl dt kdcu dt wibw tv former callsigns ktvh 1953 1983 kwch tv 1983 2009 former channel number s analog 12 vhf 1953 2009 digital 19 uhf 2002 2009 12 vhf 2009 former affiliations all secondary nbc 1953 1954 abc 1953 1955 dumont 1953 1955 transmitter power 1 000 kw main signal 15 kw fill in translator height 421 m facility id 66413 transmitter coordinates 37 48 0.7 n 97 31 30.2 w 37.800194 n 97.525056 w 37.800194 ; 97.525056 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.kwch.com kwch dt virtual channel 12 uhf digital channel 19 is a cbs affiliated television station serving wichita kansas united states that is licensed to hutchinson . the station is owned by gray television as part of a duopoly with cw affiliate kscw dt channel 33 ; gray also operates univision affiliate kdcu dt channel 31 under a joint sales agreement with owner entravision communications corporation . kwch and kscw share studio facilities and kdcu s master control operations are located on 37th street in northeast wichita ; kwch maintains transmitter facilities located in rural northeastern reno county south southeast of buhler . kwch dt also serves as the flagship of the kansas broadcasting system a statewide network of four full power stations that relay cbs network programming and other programs provided by kwch across central and western kansas as well as bordering counties in colorado nebraska and oklahoma . on cable the station is available on cox communications and at & t u verse channel 12 in standard definition and in high definition on digital channel 2012 and qam channel 114 5 and u verse channel 1012 . contents 1 history 2 satellites 3 digital television 3.1 digital channels 3.2 analog to digital conversion 4 programming 5 news operation 5.1 notable former on air staff 6 references 7 external links history edit the station first signed on the air on july 1 1953 as ktvh . it is the oldest surviving television station in kansas the first station to sign on in the state was kcty channel 25 in kansas city which operated a transmitter in overland park which signed on one month before channel 12 debuted in june 1953 and shut down in 1954 . channel 12 originally operated from studio facilities located in hutchinson . it has been a primary cbs affiliate since its sign on although the station originally also carried programming from the three other major networks of the time nbc abc and the dumont television network . also in 1954 ktvh opened a satellite studio on 37th street north in wichita . 1 in 1955 the station was bought by des moines based cowles communications . in 1956 the station boosted its signal to cover all of the wichita metropolitan area . it also moved its main studio facilities to the former studio of kedd where the station remains to this day . along with the power increase ktvh began broadcasting cbs programming in color becoming the first station in wichita for the first time . kedd did not have the capability to broadcast in color . in 1962 the federal communications commission fcc ruled that central and western kansas were part of the wichita market . as a result cowles bought ktvc channel 6 now kbsd dt in dodge city kays tv channel 7 now kbsh dt in hays and kloe tv channel 10 now kbsl dt in goodland and converted them into semi satellites of ktvh . the three stations which along with flagship station ktvh formed the kansas broadcasting system relayed cbs programming throughout central and western kansas . 2 in 1963 the station activated a new transmitter located north of burrton just east of hutchinson operating from the tallest broadcast tower in the state at 421 metres 1 381 ft . combined with its three satellites it boosted channel 12 s signal to cover almost two thirds of kansas . in 1983 the cowles family began selling off its vast media holdings . ktvh and its sister stations were sold to the kansas broadcasting system corporation owned by a pair of businessmen from hays ross beach and bob schmidt . the station s call letters were then changed to kwch tv on july 4 of that year the ktvh call letters are now used by an nbc affiliated station in helena montana which adopted the calls two years after channel 12 s callsign switch . 2 in 1989 the kansas broadcasting system corporation was purchased by smith broadcasting which included as an owner longtime wichita television executive sandy dipasquale who later became the ceo of newport television . smith sold the station to spartanburg south carolina based spartan communications in 1994 ; spartan merged with media general in 2000 . in 2005 kwch received the large market television station of the year award from the kansas association of broadcasters . on april 6 2006 media general announced that it would sell kwch its satellites and four other stations as a result of its purchase of four former nbc owned and operated stations wvtm tv in birmingham wcmh in columbus wncn in goldsboro north carolina and wjar tv in providence . south bend indiana based schurz communications eventually emerged as the winner and took over on september 25 at which time schurz formed a new company known as sunflower broadcasting inc. which became the licensee for its kansas broadcasting properties . 3 4 5 however kwch still uses the same logo from the media general era . in july 2007 kscw became a sister station to kwch after schurz bought the station through a failing station waiver . in the spring of 2010 schurz entered into a long term website management agreement with the tribune company s tribune interactive division . schurz s kansas properties were the first to launch new tribune run websites in late june 2010 . this lasted until 2013 when schurz began a new multi year hosting deal with internet broadcasting . 2 on september 14 2015 it was announced that gray television would acquire the schurz stations for approximately 442.5 million . gray already owns kake tv and will divest that station and its satellites to lockwood broadcast group in order to retain kwch . 6 7 the fcc approved the sale on february 12 2016 8 and the sale was completed on february 16 . 9 satellites edit kwch operates a network of three full power satellite stations covering central and western kansas branded as the kansas broadcasting system kbs . it is the only commercial statewide relay network in the 70 county wichita hutchinson plus television market that exclusively maintains full power rebroadcasters repeaters of the kansas state network operated by ksnw the fox kansas network operated by ksas tv channel 24 and the kakeland television network operated by kake consist of a mix of full power satellite and low power translator stations . a special feed of kwch dt featuring local news and weather inserts and separate advertising targeted at central kansas is carried on cox communications s salina system . kbsh was the first satellite station to shut down its analog signal on february 17 2009 ; the other satellites shut down their analog signals five months later on june 12 . during the 1970s kwch operated a translator in arkansas city on uhf channel 70 . station locations served channels analog digital first air date fourth letter meaning former callsigns former affiliations erp digital haat digital facility id transmitter coordinates kbsd dt ensign dodge city garden city 6 vhf july 24 1957 dodge city ktvc 1957 1989 kbsd tv 1989 2009 none 31 kw 219 m 66414 37 38 28.3 n 100 20 40.8 w 37.641194 n 100.344667 w 37.641194 ; 100.344667 kbsh dt hays great bend salina 7 vhf september 2 1958 hays kays tv 1958 1989 kbsh tv 1989 2009 abc secondary 38.8 kw 216 m 66415 38 53 0.9 n 99 20 15.7 w 38.883583 n 99.337694 w 38.883583 ; 99.337694 kbsl dt goodland 10 vhf april 26 1959 goodland kloe tv 1959 1989 kbsl tv 1989 2009 none 89.6 kw 299 m 66416 39 28 9.7 n 101 33 20.8 w 39.469361 n 101.555778 w 39.469361 ; 101.555778 digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital channel is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 10 12.1 1080i 16 9 kwch hd main kwch programming cbs 12.2 480i 4 3 kwch sd always on storm team 12 kwch operates a 24 hour local weather channel always on storm team 12 on its second digital subchannel . the service displays an l bar displaying doppler radar imagery and regional forecasts in the top right hand corner forecasts for cities across the state on the bottom of the screen and an additional radar image that appears constantly in the top left hand corner . when applicable school church and business closings due to weather usually for winter storm events are displayed on the bottom of the screen below the city forecasts . the subchannel is carried on cox communications digital cable channel 675 and is streamed on the station s website . analog to digital conversion edit kwch shut down its analog signal over vhf channel 12 on february 17 2009 the original target date in which full power television stations in the united states were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate which was later pushed back to june 12 2009 . the station s digital signal relocated from its pre transition uhf channel 19 to vhf channel 12 . 11 12 13 on june 24 of that year kwch and satellites kbsl and kbsh changed the suffix in their callsigns from tv to dt to reflect the transition ; kbsd tv mad the change the following day on june 25 . 2 after the transition kwch became one of four television stations that operated their digital signals on the vhf band that were granted a power increase later that month due to reception issues that the stations experienced as a result of moving their digital channel allocations from uhf to vhf . 14 as reception problems continued even after the increase the fcc granted kwch special permission to swap transmitter facilities with sister station kscw dt . on september 29 2009 kwch dt moved its digital signal back to uhf channel 19 with kscw dt moving its digital allocation to vhf channel 12 . 15 because of the continued signal issues kwch signed on a fill in translator on uhf channel 33 the former analog channel assignment of sister station kscw in the summer of 2012 broadcasting from a transmitter in bel aire ; the translator broadcasts kwch s main feed on digital subchannel 12.3 the always on storm team 12 weather channel on digital channel 12.4 and kscw on digital channel 33.3 . however due to limited bandwidth the translator transmits kwch and kscw s programming in standard definition . 2 programming edit kwch broadcasts the entire cbs schedule with the exception of program preemptions for breaking news or severe weather coverage . however it currently airs the cbs dream team lineup in two blocks one hour airs after the saturday edition of eyewitness news this morning the second hour airing before cbs news sunday morning and the third hour airing after face the nation on sundays . syndicated programs broadcast by kwch include dr. phil ellen degeneres and inside edition . until late 1999 kwch maintained local rights to all of