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| City | Iowa City, Iowa |
| Channels | |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
| Founded | October 1, 1996 (1996-10-1) |
First air date | August 30, 1999 (25 years ago) (1999-08-30) |
Former channel number(s) | Analog: 20 (UHF, 1999–2009) |
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Call sign meaning | The WB initials between two K's |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 35096 |
| ERP | 1,000kW |
| HAAT | 418.9 m (1,374 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 41°43′29.2″N91°21′10.2″W / 41.724778°N 91.352833°W /41.724778; -91.352833 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
KWKB (channel 20) is areligious television station licensed toIowa City, Iowa, United States, serving the Eastern Iowa andQuad Citiestelevision markets as anowned-and-operated station ofTri-State Christian Television (TCT). The station's transmitter is located on Baker Avenue inWest Branch.
KWKB signed on the air August 30, 1999, as an affiliate ofThe WB. It carried the full WB andKids' WB lineups.
From September 5, 2006, to September 16, 2011, KWKB was affiliated with bothThe CW as a primary network andMyNetworkTV as a secondary network. WhenKNVA inAustin, 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 blockToonzai (although CW affiliatesKCWI inDes Moines,WLMT inMemphis andKXVO inOmaha carriedWWE SmackDown! from MyNetworkTV until that show moved to cable channelSyfy in October 2010).
Until September 16, 2011, KWKB aired MyNetworkTV programming from 9 to 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 aired on other MyNetworkTV affiliates. However, as of September 19, 2011, KWKB dropped MyNetworkTV in favor of syndicated fare. This briefly left theCedar Rapids market one of two markets in Iowa without an affiliate for the network until October 3, when Des Moines'This TV affiliateKDMI 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 on a delayed basis from 12 to 2 a.m. KWKB was the last CW-affiliated station that carried MyNetworkTV on the same feed as The CW until 2014, whenColumbia, South Carolina's existing MyNetworkTV affiliateWKTC, and later in 2016, whenChicago's MyNetworkTV (O&O) affiliateWPWR-TV added a primary CW affiliation while retaining MyNetworkTV as a secondary affiliation on their main channel.
KWKB lost The CW when their charter 10-year affiliation agreement expired in September 2016, whenKWWL acquired the affiliation on theirsecond subchannel.[2] Concurrently, KWKB switched to This TV, taking that affiliation from KWWL's second subchannel.[3] KWKB carried a mix of This TV programming along with its own syndicated programming.
In February 2011, KWKB began carrying theAntenna TV network on digital subchannel 20.2 until January 2015 when Antenna TV moved to KCRG-TV's digital subchannel 9.3. KWKB has been airingThe Works on 20.2 since August 2015. Following the demise of The Works, the subchannel was replaced byLight TV.
In June 2018, Chicago-based KM Communications announced that it would sell KWKB toHC2 Holdings for $1,850,000;[4] the sale was completed on January 29, 2019.[5] In February 2019, KWKB dropped This TV and became anAzteca Américaowned-and-operated station; however, this status did not last long, as the station would become an affiliate of the female-oriented network Escape (nowIon Mystery) in May.
On March 18, 2021, it was announced that KWKB andsister stationKPNZ inOgden, Utah, would be sold toMarion, Illinois–based Tri-State Christian Television for $4 million.[6] The sale was completed on August 2.[7]
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20.1 | 720p | 16:9 | KWKB HD | TCT |
| 20.2 | 480i | IONMyst | Ion Mystery | |
| 20.3 | SBN | SonLife | ||
| 20.4 | StartTV | Start TV | ||
| 20.5 | CHSN | CHSN | ||
| 20.6 | ONTV4U | OnTV4U | ||
| 20.7 | GDT | Good Day TV | ||
| 20.9 | 4:3 | Get TV | get |
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofIowa | ||
|---|---|---|
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| MyNetworkTV | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Iowa PBS |
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| Other | ||
| Defunct |
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