KWBA-TV branded as Tucson CW is a CW affiliate broadcasting in Tucson AZ while licensed to Sierra Vista. Owned by E.W. Scripps Company the channel was launched on Jan 5, 1999 and shares duopoly with ABC affiliate KGUN. The studios of the service are maintained on East Rosewood Street in East Tucson while transmitter is installed on Santa Rita Mountains. At present the channel is Scripps-owned only CW affiliate as KNIN (now owned by Raycom) became a Fox affiliate in 2011; through Scripps still run Idaho-based KNIN through a SSA.
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Sub-Channels: 58.1 The CW
58.2 LATV
58.3 This TV
Website: www.thecwtucson.com
History
KCCA-TV owed by Thomas Gramatikas was the first station to be put on Ch 58 in Sierra Vista. The proposed subscription television service according to 1982 filing would air atop a tower in Sierra Vista with a wattage of 2.38 watts. In 1985 the pursuant was Manning Telecasting but the permit expired in the ensuing year and KCCA was pulled off air.
Fast forward to 1996 and the history of the current station starts when the construction permit was issued to KM Communications on Nov 22, 1996 for Ch 58. KAUC were the calls assigned to Sierra Vista station but were changed to KWBA in Aug 1997 reflecting their linkage with The WB. On Jan 5, 1999 the channel signed on air under PTA and was licensed by Federal Communications Commission on May 24, 1999. Shortly after acquiring the license for the service, KM sold the channel to Cascade Broadcasting Group in May 1999. Under the new ownership came new affiliation as it joined The CW on Sep 18, 2006. It is one of the few former WB affiliates which retained ‘WB’ in their calls after parting their ways with the network. The channel was the home of Arizona Diamondbacks and aired their games until 2008 when FSN Arizona beat it out by the acquiring 10-Year exclusive rights for the programming; this contributed to the dent in the audience share of KWBA.
Journal Broadcast Group on March 18, 2008 revealed their plans to acquire the station in order to create duopoly with KGUN-TV. The failing channel was taken over by Journal on July 23, 2008 who announced introduction of a new news-bulletin for the station originally produced at its sister station KGUN. E.W. Scripps Company on July 30, 2014 announced their purchase of Journal which received Federal Communications Commission approval on Dec 12, 2014; the deal consummated on April 1, 2015.
Programming
Hot Bench, Steve, TMZ on TV and Judge Judy are among the notable syndicated programs cleared by KWBA. You can watch KWBA online. Here is the website: www.thecwtucson.com
