states city kansas city missouri branding kcwe kansas city s cw general kmbc 9 news kmbc produced newscasts slogan kansas city s 1 tv station the team you trust news channels digital 31 uhf virtual 29 psip affiliations .1 the cw .2 movies owner hearst television hearst stations inc. first air date september 14 1996 ; 20 years ago 1996 09 14 call letters meaning derived from former kcwb call letters or kansas city s world of entertainment sister station s kmbc tv former callsigns kcwb 1996 1998 former channel number s analog 29 uhf 1996 2008 former affiliations primary the wb 1996 1998 upn 1998 2006 secondary fox 1998 1999 dt2 this tv 2009 2015 transmitter power 1 000 kw height 332 m facility id 64444 transmitter coordinates 39 5 2.8 n 94 30 56.9 w 39.084111 n 94.515806 w 39.084111 ; 94.515806 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.kcwe.com kcwe virtual channel 29 uhf digital channel 31 is the cw affiliated television station serving kansas city missouri and kansas city kansas . the station is owned by the hearst television subsidiary of the hearst corporation as part of a duopoly with the abc affiliate kmbc tv channel 9 . the two stations share studio facilities located on winchester avenue along i 435 in the swope park ridge winchester section of kansas city missouri ; kcwe maintains transmitter facilities located at the intersection of east 23rd street and topping avenue in the city s blue valley section . on cable kcwe is available on comcast channel 2 time warner cable channel 7 surewest channel 16 and at & t u verse channel 29 . kcwe serves as an alternate cw affiliate for the st. joseph television market ; officially though that market s cw affiliate is kbjo ld channel 21 which carries the network s programming through the cw plus service it previously operated as cable only wbjo prior to being added as a third digital subchannel of knpn ld channel 26 when that station launched in june 2012 and then became a standalone station in march 2013 . 1 contents 1 history 1.1 prior history of channel 29 in kansas city 1.2 kcwe station history 1.2.1 early years with the wb and then upn 1.2.2 cw affiliation 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 4 newscasts 5 references 6 external links history edit prior history of channel 29 in kansas city edit prior to the launch of kcwe the uhf channel 29 allocation in the kansas city market was originally occupied by low power station k29cf which served as an affiliate of valuevision . to make way for a new full powered station on channel 29 that station moved to uhf channel 48 in 1996 becoming k48fs . today that station now kukc ld serves as the market s univision affiliate . 2 kcwe station history edit early years with the wb and then upn edit kcwe first signed on the air on september 14 1996 as kcwb standing for kansas city s wb . it originally served as the market s wb affiliate ; prior to its sign on kansas city residents were only able to receive wb programs through cable and satellite from the national superstation feed of the network s chicago affiliate wgn tv . it was founded by a locally owned company who but was managed by the hearst corporation owner of kmbc tv through a local marketing agreement . initially the station ran a mix of cartoons recent off network sitcoms talk shows court shows and movies outside wb programming hours . kcwb s operations were taken over by hearst argyle television now hearst television in 1997 after argyle television holdings ii merged with the hearst corporation s broadcasting division . for most of its tenure as a wb affiliate kcwb s wb29 logo was similar to the wb32 logo used by tampa florida sister station wwwb tv . in january 1998 ksmo tv dropped its upn affiliation to join the wb after its owner at the time sinclair broadcast group signed a deal with the network to affiliate with the company s five upn affiliated stations . 3 kcwb subsequently took the upn affiliation but continued to carry the wb s children s program block kids wb until that june as ksmo was under contract to air fox kids which was not carried by the area s fox station wdaf tv channel 4 ; at that time kcwb also obtained the local rights to carry fox kids . channel 29 changed its call letters to kcwe on august 24 1998 . hearst purchased the station outright in 2001 creating kansas city s first television duopoly ; however hearst argyle continued to consider kcwe to be managed rather than owned by the company for several years afterward as the station was nominally owned by an indirect subsidiary of the hearst corporation instead of its hearst argyle broadcasting division which at the time was a publicly traded company controlled by hearst . logo used from september 2002 until 2006 as a upn affiliate . following the switch to upn kcwe briefly branded as kc29 ultimately becoming more tv 29 for several years to once again match its tampa sister by then wmor tv . kcwe dropped 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 programs on weekday evenings over its second digital subchannel that was otherwise affiliated with the local accuweather channel 4 . kcwe dropped fox kids in the fall of 1999 in favor of adding more talk and reality programs ; fox kids programming then moved to independent station kmci tv channel 38 . channel 29 ceased carrying children s programs on weekdays altogether when upn discontinued its sunday through friday morning disney s one too block in august 2003 . cw affiliation edit on january 24 2006 cbs corporation and time warner announced that the wb and upn would shut down broadcasting operations that september and combine their higher rated programs on a new fifth network called the cw . 5 6 on march 7 the cw and hearst announced that kcwe would become kansas city s cw affiliate . 7 as it already had cw in its call letters station management said it would take advantage of this for branding purposes and leave the callsign unchanged . 8 in august of that year kcwe adopted a new logo styled after the network s logo design reflecting its new cw affiliation . kcwe affiliated with the cw when the network debuted on september 18 2006 . in late march 2010 hearst filed an application with the federal communications commission to transfer kcwe s license from its indirect subsidiary doing business as kcwe tv company directly to the larger hearst television subsidiary the transfer was completed on may 1 . digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital channel is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 9 29.1 1080i 16 9 kcwe dt main kcwe programming the cw 29.2 480i 4 3 movies movies on march 3 2009 kcwe began airing this tv on a new second digital subchannel . 10 on january 2 2015 they changed from this tv to movies . analog to digital conversion edit kcwe shut down its analog signal over uhf channel 29 on december 15 2008 two months before the originally scheduled february 17 2009 date for full power stations to transition from analog to digital broadcasts . 11 12 the station s digital signal remained on its pre transition uhf channel 31 . 13 through the use of psip digital television receivers display the station s virtual channel as its former uhf analog channel 29 . the uhf channel 29 allotment was subsequently taken over by the digital signal of sister station kmbc tv . programming edit syndicated programs broadcast on kcwe include extra two and a half men entertainment tonight maury and the steve wilkos show among others . as it is a sister station to kmbc the station may take on responsibility of running abc programming in the event that kmbc can not due to extended breaking news or severe weather coverage or broadcasts of sporting events . in 2010 kmbc aired all of the kansas city wizards major league soccer games that were not broadcast nationally over the air or on cable . 14 newscasts edit for many years kcwb kcwe did not air any local newscasts despite being operated by kmbc . station management cited a fear of cannibalizing kmbc s audience as a reason for not expanding its news offerings to channel 29 . this changed on march 3 2008 when kmbc added a two hour extension of its weekday morning newscast titled kmbc 9 firstnews on kcwe airing from 7 00 to 9 00 a.m. in addition to airing against good morning america on kmbc the program competes with a portion of a six hour in house morning newscast on wdaf tv ; when it debuted it also competed against an hour long newscast on ksmo that was produced by its cbs affiliated sister station kctv channel 5 . on september 14 2010 kmbc debuted a half hour primetime newscast titled kmbc 9 news at 9 on kcwe . originally debuting as a weeknight only program it also airs against a half hour nightly local newscast seen on ksmo which debuted in september 2005 and is also produced by kctv and a one hour nightly in house 9 00 p.m. newscast that wdaf has aired since it affiliated with fox in september 1994 . 4 management stated the reason behind the addition of the program was due to the cw s growing ratings although the network has typically placed fifth or sixth depending on the ratings strength of the spanish language univision network nationally since its launch . the 9 00 p.m. newscast on kcwe runs a commercial free block featuring the day s top headlines and an updated weather forecast segment during the first nine minutes of the broadcast a play on its sister station s on air branding . as is the case on kmbc all local newscasts seen on kcwe are broadcast in high definition . references edit fox 26 knpn coverage area call sign history wb woos and wins sinclair broadcasting & cable july 21 1997 . a b http www.tvbarn.com tv barn kcwe adds 9 p m news kctvs super early starts 913 gilmore girls meet smackdown ; cw network to combine wb upn in cbs warner venture beginning in september cnnmoney.com january 24 2006 . upn and wb to combine forming new tv network the new york times january 24 2006 . 1 dead link http www.kansascity.com mld kansascity business 14042769.htm rabbitears tv query for kcwe 2 archived march 3 2009 at the wayback machine . kcwe to switch to dtv dec. 15 . kmbc.com . november 14 2008 . retrieved november 15 2008 . kcwe to make early switch to dtv tvnewscheck december 3 2008 . dtv tentative channel designations for the first and second rounds pdf . retrieved 2012 03 24 . wizards on kcwe this season external links edit official website query the fcc s tv station database for kcwe biafn s media web database information on kcwe tv v t e television stations in kansas city reception may vary by location and some stations may only be viewable with cable television local stations wdaf tv 4.1 fox 4.2 antenna tv 4.3 this tv kctv 5.1 cbs kmbc tv 9.1 abc 9.2 metv kajf ld 16.1 silent 16.2 gettv 16.3 sbn 16.4 lc 16.5 qvc kcpt 19.1 pbs 19.2 pbs