KCWW-TV

KCWW-TV, virtual channel 68 (UHF digital channel 14), is a CW-affiliated television station licensed to, United States, serving Northwest Washington and the Northern Olympic Peninsula. The station is owned by -based as part of a duopoly with CBS affiliate KVOS-TV (channel 12). The two stations share studios on Ellis Street in Bellingham; their shared transmitter is situated atop on  in the, at an altitude of 2,621 feet (799 m) above the adjacent terrain. KCWW-TV unusually has two websites: one is integrated with that of KVOS-TV, the other is part of yourcwtv.com

KCWW-TV identifies itself on-air using its cable designation (channel 13, previously occupied by former service "KWBB") rather than its over-the-air channel position, only mentioning their actual channel number on-air during maintenance sign-off disclosures and FCC-mandated legal station IDs.

Like with many other Bellingham TV stations, KCWW-TV has a large audience in, Canada. This includes, a city that is ten times more populous than all of KCWW-TV's entire American viewing area combined.

History
KCWW-TV originally signed-on for the first time on December 1, 1982 as KVOX-TV, a semi-satellite of KVOS-TV licensed to with it's transmitter at.

In 1992, Ackerley Communications sold KVOX-TV to Bulman Television Inc., a woman-owned business headed by former Bellingham city councilor Rebekah Bulman. KVOS-TV continued to operate KVOX-TV under a local marketing agreement until 2003, when the station's operations were taken over by the Knowledge Network Corporation, the Canadian Crown corporation of the Government of British Columbia that runs the, under a lease agreement. KVOX-TV relocated it's transmitter to the antenna farm (thus now giving it city-grade reception in  and ) and became the Vancouver/Victoria area's secondary over-the-air Knowledge Network outlet (as CKNO-TV had poor over-the-air reception in Victoria).

In 2005, the Knowledge Network's lease for KVOX-TV ended after CKNO-TV built a repeater in Victoria. KVOS-TV took back control of KVOX-TV and briefly programmed it as a "burner" pass-through for automated programming from the network. When UATV left the air on May 1, 2006, KVOX-TV switched to an all-infomercial lineup.

On September 18, 2006, KVOX-TV changed it's callsign to KCWW-TV and became one of the charter affiliates of the new network, which was created by the merger of  (which had been available in the Bellingham/Blaine/San Juan market by way of cable-only KWBB, which was part of, and in the Vancouver/Victoria area via 's  on cable) and  (which had been available in the area on KGNQ-TV, which is now dual / affiliate KMYB-TV). KCWW-TV replaced KWBB and WGN-TV on cable lineups on the both sides of the area.

In 2009, Rebekah Bulman's estate sold the station to, a partner company of KVOS' then-owner.

Acquisition by Weigel Broadcasting
On January 14, 2017, -based completed it's purchase of KVOS from Nexstar (a divestiture that was required as part of Nexstar's planned merger with  to comply with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ownership caps). On March 20, Weigel announced that it would purchase KCWW from Mission Broadcasting to form a duopoly with KVOS, for $1.6 million, pending FCC approval. On July 7, 2017, the FCC approved the sale of KCWW to Weigel. The sale was consummated on September 2.

On September 1, 2018, after a security guard denied him entry into KVOS/KCWW's studio/offices, 19-year-old Joshua Fischbacher crashed a pickup truck into a street-level window of the station's Ellis Street studios - which was stolen around 11:30 a.m. from a subcontractor. All of the duopoly's approximately 120 employees were evacuated and the building was placed on lockdown as troopers searched for the suspect. KCWW switched to the CW Plus Pacific feed until KVOS/KCWW master control operators were able to resume broadcasting from the studio. Police officers captured the man just after 4:30 p.m. that afternoon, as he was watching news coverage of the incident in one of the facility's offices. Officers found weapons in the truck, but there were no reports of gunshots being fired. No staffers inside the building were injured. No motive for the attack was declared besides a desire to share pro-animal rights content with the station (a USB drive with videos was confiscated by another security guard). Fischbacher was taken to a hospital for a mental evaluation, and was later declared insane and sentenced to 12 months in rehab.

Programming
While largely a "pass-through" for automated programming, KCWW occasionally takes on the responsibility of airing CBS network programming whenever KVOS runs extended breaking news coverage or special programming.

KCWW-DT2
On May 15, 2021, KCWW-DT2 became a charter affiliate of Weigel's new MeTV Plus service, and was rebranded as TV 12.2 (using a modified version of the "12 mountain" logomark that parent station KVOS used from 1979 to 1988). This TV moved to KCWW-DT4, displacing KVOS NewsView 24/7 which moved to the newly-activated KCWW-DT5.