KASW (channel 61) is a television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, affiliated with The CW. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside ABC affiliate KNXV-TV (channel 15). Both stations share studios on North 44th Street on the city's east side, while KASW's primary transmitter is located on South Mountain.
KASW went on the air in 1995 as the Phoenix affiliate of The WB. Its first owner contracted with KTVK (channel 3) for programming and support services, and KTVK bought the station in 1999. In addition to being an affiliate of The WB and later The CW, the station also broadcast several secondary local sports teams at various times. KASW was split from KTVK in 2014 as the result of KTVK's sale. Scripps acquired it in 2019 and has added local newscasts from KNXV. KASW is the high-power ATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV) station for the Phoenix area and provides the ATSC 3.0 broadcasts of six major Phoenix commercial stations.
History
Prior history of UHF channel 61 in Phoenix
Prior to KASW's sign-on, the UHF channel 61 frequency in the Phoenix market was originally occupied by low-power station K61CA; that station carried a locally programmed music video format known as "Music Channel" and operated from March 15, 1983, until November 12, 1984, closing due to mounting debts and lack of cash to continue operating.
The construction permit for K61CA remained active for several more years; by 1988, it was owned by Channel 61 Development Corporation and was planned as a satellite-fed relay of KSTS, a Telemundo affiliate in San Jose, California.
In November 1987, the FCC allocated channel 61 for full-power use in Phoenix. KUSK-TV applied alongside four other groups; the field was narrowed to three, and Brooks Broadcasting, owned by Chandler farmer Gregory R. Brooks, was granted the permit in February 1991 by the FCC review board.
WB affiliation
Little activity occurred on the permit, with the call sign KAIK; Brooks considered running home shopping on the station, and he was approached by KPHO-TV about potentially splitting rights to a new major league baseball team with the station.
In December 1994, Brooks entered into a local marketing agreement with Media America Corporation, then owners of KTVK (channel 3). KTVK, in the concluding phase of losing its ABC affiliation, had acquired a large inventory of children's programs, including Fox Kids, and The WB affiliation that did not fit with its planned programming as an independent. Brooks, who was wanting to run a station catering to Phoenix's youth audience but had not been able to get the station going, was surprised when KTVK approached him; Delbert Lewis, the owner, owned a farm adjacent to one of Brooks's properties in Florence but had never met him.
KASW signed on September 23, 1995, as the first new full-power Phoenix television station since KUTP started up in December 1985. In addition to WB, Fox Kids and syndicated shows, as well as old movies on the nights when The WB did not air programming, it also aired a 30-minute newscast, known as NewsNight, produced by KTVK; the logo fit the station's youth appeal and was described by Dave Walker of The Arizona Republic as "reminiscent of an amoeba-shaped 1960s coffee table". Brooks, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also aired the twice-yearly LDS General Conference on channel 61. KTVK and KASW also split over-the-air coverage rights to the Phoenix Coyotes hockey team when it moved to Phoenix in 1996, with 20 of the 25 games in the package airing on channel 61.
In July 1999, MAC America (the former Media America) announced it would sell KTVK to the Belo Corporation. Later that year, Belo announced that it would purchase KASW from Gregory Brooks, forming the first television duopoly in the Phoenix market just as they were being legalized.
From The WB to The CW
On January 24, 2006, the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner and CBS Corporation (which had been created as a result of the split of Viacom at the start of the year) announced that the two companies would shut down The WB and UPN and combine the networks' respective programming to create a new "fifth" network called The CW. The local UPN affiliate was KUTP, owned by Fox Television Stations. None of Fox's UPN stations, some of which were in the same market as charter network outlets owned by CBS and Tribune Broadcasting, were selected for the new network, and in late February, Fox announced it would start MyNetworkTV to serve its ex-UPN portfolio (including KUTP) and other stations that would not join The CW. On March 8, Belo signed an affiliation agreement with for KASW to become The CW's affiliate in Phoenix.