KWSD


KWSD, virtual and UHF digital channel 36, is an independent television station licensed to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, United States. The station is owned by Jim Simpson. KWSD's studios are located on West 57th Street in Sioux Falls, and its transmitter is located in Rowena, South Dakota.

History

Previously, the station had the call sign KAUN and it was the local Pax TV affiliate, while The WB was carried on a cable-only channel known by the fictitious call sign KWJB. On October 1, 2003, channel 36 acquired the WB affiliation and became KWSD, and Pax TV was moved to low-power sister station KAUN-LP. The programming on KWSD was provided by The WB 100+ Station Group, a predecessor to The CW Plus. In September 2006, The WB and UPN merged to become The CW. KWSD became the CW affiliate for Sioux Falls, and UPN affiliate "UTV", a digital subchannel of KELO-TV, became an affiliate of MyNetworkTV.
At one point in the past decade, KWSD/KAUN had a 9 p.m. newscast that served the Sioux Falls Metro Area and the KWSD viewing area. That newscast was pulled, and reports are that there are plans in the works to bring back a 9 p.m. newscast to the Sioux Falls Metro.
KWSD's CW affiliation ended on September 10, 2012; at that time, the affiliation moved to a subchannel of KSFY-TV. KWSD switched its affiliation to the Weigel Broadcasting-owned classic television network Me-TV on that date.

Digital television

Digital channel

Analog-to-digital conversion

KWSD shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 36, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 51 to channel 36 for post-transition operations.