KWGN-TV

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KWGN-TV
Denver, Colorado
Branding	CW2 Colorado (general) News 2 (newscsts)
Slogan	Colorado's Very Own Colorado Watches 2
Channels	2 (VHF) analog, 34 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	The CW
Owner	Tribune Company
Founded	July 18, 1952
Call letters meaning	World's Greatest Newspaper (named after sister station WGN-TV; refers to the owner of the Chicago Tribune)
Former callsigns	KFEL-TV (1952-55) KTVR-TV (1955-196?) KCTO-TV (196?-1966)
Former affiliations	DuMont (1952-1956) Independent (1956-1995) The WB (1995-2006)
Transmitter Power	100 kW/320 m(analog) 450 kW/303 m (digital)
Website	cw2.trb.com

KWGN-TV, channel 2, is the CW Television Network affiliate in Denver, Colorado, USA. It broadcasts its analog signal on VHF channel 2 (55.25 MHz video / 59.75 MHz audio) and its digital signal on UHF channel 34 from a transmitter located in Golden, Colorado. Its studios are located in Greenwood Village, just outside Denver. The station is owned by the Tribune Company.

Contents 1 History 2 Newscasts 3 Personalities 3.1 Current On-Air Staff 4 Logos 5 See also 6 External links

[edit] History

The station first went on the air on July 18, 1952 as KFEL-TV. It was also the first commercially licensed television in Colorado. The station was originally owned by Gene O'Fallon. It was a DuMont affiliate, but carried shows from other networks as well. KFEL became an independent station after the DuMont network's collapse. When Gotham Broadcasting bought the station in 1955, the call letters were changed to KTVR-TV. By the early 1960s, the call letters changed to KCTO-TV.

Tribune Broadcasting, then known as WGN Continental Broadcasting, acquired the station in 1966, and changed its call letters to KWGN-TV after its sister station, WGN-TV in Chicago. KWGN was Tribune's fourth TV station property after WGN-TV, WPIX in New York, and KDAL-TV (now KDLH) in Duluth, Minnesota (which Tribune has since sold).

From 1976 to 1983, KWGN-TV identified on air as Frequency 2 KWGN-TV^{[citation needed]}, which inspired the name of a Peruvian television station. From 1983 to 1995, it called itself "Denver's 2."

As an independent station, KWGN offered a general entertainment format consisting of cartoons, off-network sitcoms, old movies, and dramas. It also aired a 9pm newscast (and still does to this day). In the 1970s, KWGN became a superstation available on many cable systems in the West. It is still available on nearly every cable system in Colorado and Wyoming, as well as several cable systems in Nebraska and Kansas. It is also carried on Dish Network's superstation package, and has substantial over-the-air viewership in Colorado Springs. It was the only independent station in the market until 1983, when KDVR-TV signed on.

KWGN turned down the Fox affiliation in 1986, which instead went to KDVR. KWGN affiliated with WB in early 1995, as did most of Tribune's independent stations. Since the WB only provided a few hours of network programming a day, KWGN's existing lineup was largely unaffected.

Fox approached Tribune in 1996 for an affiliation with KWGN. It planned to sell off KDVR because of KWGN's longer history and its news department (both of which KDVR lacked). That plan did not materialize, and KWGN remained a WB affiliate.

KWGN launched a weekday morning newscast in the late 1990s, titled "WB2day" (later renamed "WB2 Morning News").

On January 24, 2006, the WB and UPN networks announced they would merge. The newly combined network is now called The CW, the letters representing the first initial of its corporate parents CBS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner. The merger took effect on-the-air on 18 September 2006, and KWGN-TV was announced as the Denver affiliate. Former UPN station KTVD, owned by the Gannett Company, joined My Network TV, when that network began two weeks earlier.

On September 11, 2006, KWGN-TV began airing an 11AM half-hour newscast[1].

[edit] Newscasts

Weekdays

• News 2 This Morning - 5:00 - 9:00AM
  • anchored by Tom Green and Natalie Tysdal, with Angie Austin on weather
• News 2 at 11:00 - 11:00 - 11:30AM
  • anchored by Natalie Tysdal and Vida Urbonas, with Angie Austin on weather
• News 2 at 9:00 - 9:00 - 10:00PM
  • anchored by Ernie Bjorkman and Asha Blake, with Dave Fraser on weather and Marc Soicher with sports

Weekends

• News2 at 9:00 - 9:00 - 10:00PM
  • anchored by Mat Garcia and Laura Main, with Jason Boyer on weather and Lisa Holbrook with sports

[edit] Personalities

[edit] Current On-Air Staff

Anchors

• Ernie Bjorkman, weekend evening anchor
• Asha Blake, weekend evening anchor
• Mat Garcia, weekend evening anchor
• Tom Green, weekday morning anchor (5 a.m.-9 a.m.)
• Natalie Tysdal, weekday morning and midday anchor
• Vida Urbonas, weekday midday anchor

Reporters

• Colin Campbell, general assignment reporter
• Laura Main, general assignment reporter
• Zubin Mehenti, general assignment reporter
• Vinita Nair, general assignment reporter
• Greg Nieto, general assignment reporter
• Chris Parente, general assignment reporter
• Sunny Roseman, general assignment reporter
• Eli Stokols, general assignment reporter
• Jann Tracey, general assignment reporter
• Dave Young , general assignment reporter

Meteorologists

• Dave Fraser, chief meteorologist/weekday evening meteorologist
• Angie Austin, weekday morning meteorologist
• Jason Boyer, weekend meteorologist

Sports Anchors/Reporters

• Marc Soicher, weeknight sports anchor
• Lisa Holbrook, weekend sports anchor

[edit] Logos

KWGN-TV logo from 1996 to 2003. According to Pixel Soup, the logo's designers, it was insipired by and based on the ESPN2 logo used at the time.

KWGN-TV logo from 2003 to 2005.

KWGN-TV logo, from 2005 to 2006.

current KWGN-TV logo, from 2006.

[edit] See also

• List of DirecTV channels
• List of Dish Network channels

[edit] External links

• Official Site
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KWGN

Broadcast television in the Denver market  (Nielsen DMA #18)
KWGN 2 (The CW) - KCNC 4 (CBS) - KRMA 6 (PBS/RMPBS) - KMGH 7 (ABC) - KUSA 9 (NBC) - KBDI 12 (PBS) - KTFD 14 / KDVT-LP 36 (TFU) - KTVD 20 / KUPN 3 (MNTV) - KDEN 25 (TMD) - KZCO 27 (AZA) - KDVR 31 / KFCT 22 (Fox) - KDEV-LP 39 (RTN) - KRMT 41 (DS) - KCEC 50 (UNI) - KWHD 53 (LeSEA) - KPXC 59 (ION)
Outlying Areas: KTNE 13 / KRNE 12 (PBS/NET) - K36DB 36 (RSN) - K45IE 45 (RSN)
Local cable television channels
Altitude - CET - FSN Rocky Mountain
See also Broadcast television in the Cheyenne market

Superstations in North American markets
United States: KTLA | KWGN | WAPA | WGN local / national | WKAQ | WPIX | WSBK | WTBS | WWOR / EMI
Mexico: XEW | XHAW | XHCNL | XHDF | XHGC | XHIMT
See Also: American networks | List of American Over-The-Air Networks | Local American TV Stations (W) | Local American TV Stations (K) | Canadian networks | Local Canadian TV Stations | Mexican networks | Local Mexican TV Stations | Superstations | North American TV | List of local television stations in North America