Fiktiv USA - KDKA-TV

KDKA-TV, virtual channel 2 (UHF digital channel 25), is a CBS owned-and-operated television station licensed to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The station is owned by the CBS Television Stations subsidiary of ViacomCBS, as part of a duopoly with Jeannette-licensed CW owned-and-operated station WPCW (channel 19). The two stations share studios at the Gateway Center in downtown Pittsburgh; KDKA-TV's transmitter is located in the Perry North neighborhood of Pittsburgh. On cable, the station is carried on Comcast Xfinity channel 6 (channel 3 in Bethel Park and Monroeville), and Verizon FiOS channel 2. KDKA-TV, along with sister station KYW-TV in Philadelphia, are the only CBS owned-and-operated stations east of the Mississippi River with "K" call signs.

KDKA-TV is available on cable in parts of the Johnstown–Altoona, Wheeling–Steubenville and Youngstown markets, as well as several other out-of-market cable systems in northwestern Pennsylvania, western Maryland, northeastern and east-central Ohio, and north-central West Virginia. The farthest south KDKA-TV is carried on cable is in Beverly, West Virginia.

The station went on the air on January 11, 1949, as WDTV ("W DuMont TeleVision") on channel 3; it was owned and operated by the DuMont Television Network. It was the 51st television station in the U.S., the third and last DuMont-owned station to sign on the air, behind WABD (now WNYW) in New York City and WTTG in Washington, D.C., and the first owned-and-operated station in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. To mark the occasion, a live television special aired that day from 8:30 to 11 p.m. on WDTV, which began with a one-hour local program broadcast from Syria Mosque in Pittsburgh. The remainder of the show featured live segments from DuMont, CBS, NBC, and ABC with Arthur Godfrey, Milton Berle, DuMont host Ted Steele, and many other celebrities.

The station also represented a milestone in the television industry, providing the link between the Midwestern and East Coast stations which included 13 other cities able to receive live telecasts from Boston to St. Louis for the first time. WDTV was one of the last stations to receive a construction permit before the Federal Communications Commission-imposed four-year freeze on new television station licenses.

When the release of the FCC's Sixth Report and Order ended the license freeze in 1952, DuMont was forced to give up its channel 3 allocation to alleviate interference with nearby stations broadcasting on the frequency, notably NBC-owned WNBK (now WKYC) in Cleveland, who itself moved to the frequency to avoid interference with stations in Columbus and Detroit. WDTV moved its facilities to channel 2 on November 23, 1952; WPSU-TV would later sign on with the channel 3 frequency for the Johnstown/Altoona market. Shortly after moving, it was the first station in the country to broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week, advertising that its 1:00–7:00 a.m. Swing Shift Theatre served the "200,000 workers [in their viewing area] who finish shift work at midnight." DuMont's network of stations on coaxial cable stretched from Boston to St. Louis. These stations were linked together via AT&T's coaxial cable feed with the sign-on of WDTV allowing the network to broadcast live programming to all the stations at the same time. Stations not yet connected to the coaxial cable received kinescope recordings via physical delivery.

Until the end of the freeze, WDTV's only competition came in the form of distant signals from stations in Johnstown, Altoona, Wheeling and Youngstown. However, Pittsburgh saw two UHF stations launch during 1953—ABC affiliate WENS-TV (channel 16, later to become WINP-TV), and WKJF-TV (channel 53, later to become WPGH-TV), an independent station. At the time, UHF stations could not be viewed without the aid of an expensive, set-top converter, and the picture quality was marginal at best with one. UHF stations in the area faced an additional problem because Pittsburgh is located in a somewhat rugged dissected plateau, and the reception of UHF stations is usually poor in such terrain. These factors played a role in the short-lived existences of both WKJF and WENS.

Although Pittsburgh was the sixth largest market in the country (behind New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington/Baltimore), the other VHF stations in town were slow to develop. This was because the major cities in the Upper Ohio Valley are so close together that they must share the VHF band. After the FCC lifted the license freeze in 1952, it refused to grant any new commercial VHF construction permits to Pittsburgh in order to give the smaller cities in the area a chance to get on the air. WDTV had a de facto monopoly on Pittsburgh television. Like its sister stations WABD and WTTG, it was far stronger than the DuMont network as a whole. According to network general manager Ted Bergmann, WDTV brought in $4 million a year, which was more than enough to keep the network afloat. Owning the only readily viewable station in such a large market gave DuMont considerable leverage in getting its programs cleared in large markets where it did not have an affiliate. As CBS, NBC and ABC had secondary affiliations with WDTV, this was a strong incentive to stations in large markets to clear DuMont's programs or risk losing valuable advertising in the sixth-largest market. Also, NBC affiliates from Johnstown (WJAC-TV, channel 6) and Wheeling (WTRF-TV, channel 7) were able to be received in Pittsburgh and a CBS affiliate from Steubenville, Ohio (WSTV-TV, now WTOV-TV) was also able to be received there as well. CBS, in fact, actually attempted to purchase WSTV-TV's license before it went on the air and move its channel 9 allocation to Pittsburgh due to the close proximity between Pittsburgh and Steubenville (At the time less than an hour apart by car; the completion of the Penn-Lincoln Parkway in 1964 reduced that time to about a half-hour driving time today), but the FCC turned CBS down. The Wheeling/Steubenville TV market, despite its very close proximity to Pittsburgh and overlapping signals, remains a separate market by FCC standards today.

WDTV aired all DuMont network shows live and "cherry-picked" the best shows from the other networks, airing them on kinescope on an every-other-week basis. WDTV's sign-on was also significant because it was now possible to feed live programs from the East to the Midwest and vice versa. In fact, its second broadcast was the activation of the coaxial cable linking New York City and Chicago. It would be another two years before the West Coast received live programming, but this was the beginning of the modern era of network television.

By 1954, DuMont was in serious financial trouble. Paramount Pictures, which owned a stake in DuMont, vetoed a merger with ABC, who had merged with Paramount's former theater division United Paramount Theaters a year before. A few years earlier, the FCC had ruled that Paramount controlled DuMont and there were still lingering questions about whether UPT had actually broken off from Paramount. Paramount did not want to risk the FCC's wrath.

Meanwhile, Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse Electric Corporation had been competing with local politicians to acquire the non-commercial channel 13 license from the FCC, as no other Pittsburgh-allocated VHF station would be signing on for the foreseeable future. After launching WBZ-TV in Boston in 1948 and purchasing two other television stations, Westinghouse was growing impatient with not having a station in its own home market. Before the freeze, Westinghouse was a shoo-in for the channel 6 license that would later be given to WJAC-TV in Johnstown after that station gave up the channel 13 allocation to Pittsburgh as part of the FCC's reallocation plan. Westinghouse later offered a compromise plan to the FCC, in which the Commission would grant Westinghouse the channel 13 license; Westinghouse would then "share" the facility with the educational licensee. Finding the terms unacceptable, Pittsburgh attorney Leland Hazard called Westinghouse CEO Gwilym Price to ask him if he should give up on his fight for public television. Price said that Hazard should keep fighting for it, giving Westinghouse backing for the station that would eventually become WQED.

Westinghouse then turned its attention to WDTV, offering DuMont a then-record $9.75 million for the station in late 1954. Desperate for cash, DuMont promptly accepted Westinghouse's offer. While the sale gave DuMont a short-term cash infusion, it eliminated DuMont's leverage in getting clearances in other major markets. Within two years, the DuMont network was no more. After the sale closed in January 1955, Westinghouse changed WDTV's call letters to KDKA-TV, after Westinghouse's pioneering radio station KDKA (1020 AM). As such, it became one of the few stations east of the Mississippi River with a "K" call sign. The WDTV calls now reside on a CBS affiliate located 130 miles (209 km) south of Pittsburgh in Weston, West Virginia, which is unrelated to the current KDKA-TV. That station, which signed on after KDKA-TV adopted its current callsign, adopted those calls "in honor" of KDKA-TV.

As KDKA radio had long been an affiliate of the NBC Blue Network (Westinghouse was a co-founder of RCA, NBC's then-parent company), it was expected that KDKA-TV would eventually become a primary affiliate of the NBC television network. But the network was seeking to purchase Westinghouse's Philadelphia stations, KYW radio and WPTZ (now KYW-TV). When Westinghouse balked, NBC threatened to pull its programming from WPTZ and Boston's WBZ-TV unless Westinghouse agreed to trade its Philadelphia properties for NBC's radio and television properties in Cleveland. (Related to the trade, Westinghouse received a cross-station waiver from the FCC to own the Cleveland properties due to overlapping signals with KDKA radio and channel 2.) The decision would lead to an acrimonious relationship between Westinghouse and NBC in later years. Two years after the ownership change, channel 2 became a primary affiliate of the higher-rated CBS network instead. KDKA-TV retained secondary affiliations with NBC until WIIC-TV (channel 11, now WPXI) signed on in 1957, and ABC until WTAE-TV (channel 4) signed on in 1958. Despite the ending of its commercial VHF monopoly, KDKA-TV did welcome competitor WIIC-TV on the air. KDKA-TV became the flagship station of Westinghouse's broadcasting arm, Group W. During the late 1950s, KDKA-TV was briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network, sharing the affiliation with WTAE-TV, WIIC-TV, and WQED. On November 22, 1963, newscaster Bill Burns provided almost three hours of live coverage after the shooting of President John F. Kennedy.

In 1994, Westinghouse was looking to make a group-wide affiliation deal for its stations as part of a larger plan to transform itself into a major media conglomerate after WJZ-TV lost its ABC affiliation to Scripps-owned WMAR-TV in an affiliation deal spurred by Fox's affiliation deal with New World Communications. Westinghouse negotiated with NBC and CBS for a deal. Had Westinghouse signed with NBC, KDKA-TV would affiliate itself with NBC 40 years after passing up the network, with the CBS affiliation going to WPXI, who had originally intended to affiliate itself with CBS until the NBC-Westinghouse feud started as well as channel 11's own sign-on problems in the 1950s. While NBC (the highest-rated network during much of the 1980s and 1990s) offered more money, CBS was interested in the programming opportunities Westinghouse offered, due to its own stagnation in programming at the time. CBS also offered a potential merger of their respective radio networks down the road (which ultimately happened), while NBC had abandoned radio in 1987. Ultimately, Westinghouse signed a long-term deal with CBS to convert the entire five-station Group W television unit to a group-wide CBS affiliation, making the Pittsburgh market one of the few major markets that were not affected by the affiliation switches.

In 1995, Westinghouse acquired CBS, making KDKA-TV a CBS owned-and-operated station, after four decades as being simply a CBS affiliate. In 1997, Westinghouse became CBS Corporation, which would then merge with Viacom (which, ironically, has been Paramount's parent since 1994) in 2000, making KDKA-TV a sister station with Pittsburgh UPN affiliate WNPA-TV (channel 19, now CW station WPCW). Five years later, Viacom became the new CBS Corporation and spun off a new Viacom.

In August 2007, KDKA-TV unveiled a new image campaign, entitled "Your Home," with music and lyrics performed by singer-songwriter Bill Deasy. The promo features scenes of Pittsburgh and its surrounding areas, as well as three of the station's personalites. In September 2007, the station unveiled another promo featuring the Joe Grushecky song "Coming Home." Later, a third spot, "Long Way Home," was introduced, featuring the voice of Kelsey Friday.

On February 2, 2017, CBS agreed to sell CBS Radio to Entercom, currently the fourth-largest radio broadcasting company in the United States. The sale was completed on November 17, 2017, and was conducted using a Reverse Morris Trust so that it was tax-free. While CBS shareholders retain a 72% ownership stake in the combined company, Entercom is the surviving entity, with KDKA radio and its sister stations now separated from KDKA-TV, though the three stations maintain a strong news and content sharing agreement.

On December 4, 2019, CBS Corporation and Viacom remerged into ViacomCBS.

Part of the 1995 affiliation agreement between CBS and Westinghouse included a deal to carry the entire CBS lineup in pattern, with no preemptions except for extended breaking news coverage or local news events. In the fall of 1995, channel 2 began running the entire CBS lineup in pattern, as it, and sister station KPIX-TV in San Francisco, were already affiliated with the network. However, unlike its rivals, KDKA-TV's evening newscast airs for three hours from 4 to 7 p.m., followed by the CBS Evening News at 7 p.m. The weekend editions usually air on Saturdays at 6:30 p.m. and Sundays at 6 p.m.

As of August 2020, Dr. Phil is the only syndicated show airing on KDKA-TV in any capacity outside of the graveyard slot between the post-late fringe and breakfast television, as the station is either airing CBS network programming or local news throughout the day except for the 3–4 p.m. slot for Dr. Phil, with sister station WPCW now airing a heavy syndicated schedule during daytime programming.

As CBS holds the broadcast contract with the NFL to show games involving AFC teams, KDKA-TV has been the official broadcaster of most Pittsburgh Steelers games since 1998, and serves as the team's flagship station. The team's preseason games that are not nationally televised are also shown on KDKA-TV. KDKA-TV began its relationship with the Steelers in 1962, when CBS first started the leaguewide television package. The Steelers are one of three AFC teams that predate the AFC's basis league, the American Football League, and so KDKA-TV, and not WTAE-TV or WIIC-TV (now WPXI), carried Steelers road games (home games were blacked out locally under all circumstances until 1973, when sold-out home games began to be allowed on local television)—the AFL had television contracts with ABC, and later, NBC.

Due to the NFL rules of the time, after the AFL-NFL merger (and with it, the Steelers move to the newly formed AFC), KDKA-TV did not broadcast any Steelers games from 1970 to 1972 (Steeler games were exclusive to what was then WIIC-TV in that period). Beginning in 1973, KDKA-TV was allowed to air any Steelers games in which they hosted a team from the National Football Conference, which contained most of the old-line NFL teams. KDKA-TV also broadcast two Steeler championship wins, Super Bowl X in 1976 and Super Bowl XIV in 1980. Since the Steelers have sold out every home game starting in 1972, no blackouts have been required. In the meantime, from 1970 to 1997, channel 11 aired most Steelers games (and exclusively from 1970 to 1972).

When the NFC package moved from CBS to Fox in 1994, WPGH-TV aired the Steelers games that had before aired on KDKA-TV, leaving the senior station without Steelers games for four years. Today, and in general since 1970, the only exceptions to all the above are when the Steelers play at night. Their Monday Night Football games have always aired locally on WTAE-TV, first when ABC had the rights, and since 2006, on ESPN. WTAE-TV also aired simulcasts of their games aired as part of ESPN Sunday Night Football from 1987 to 2005 (since 2006, WPXI airs Steelers games when they play on Sunday nights). The NFL requires games on cable channels to be simulcast over-the-air in the markets of the participating teams (again with the home team's broadcast subject to blackout). WTAE-TV has simulcast ESPN-aired games because ESPN is 20% owned by WTAE-TV's owners, Hearst Corporation—their ABC stations have right of first refusal for these simulcasts. Games on TNT and NFL Network have aired on various stations in the area. In 2014, with the NFL's new 'cross-flex' broadcast rules, any games that involve the Steelers playing another AFC opponent (or NFC opponent on the road) scheduled to air on KDKA-TV can now air on Fox station WPGH-TV.

KDKA-TV presently broadcasts 43 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with seven hours each weekday, 4½ hours on Saturdays and 3½ hours on Sundays); KDKA-TV also produces 13 and a half hours of local newscasts each week for CW owned-and-operated sister station WPCW, in the form of a two hour-long extension of KDKA-TV's weekday morning newscast at 7 a.m. and a nightly 35-minute newscast at 10 p.m. The station also shares newsgathering operations and co-produces certain public affairs shows with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspaper.

Under Westinghouse ownership, KDKA-TV used the Eyewitness News branding for its newscasts, pioneered by sister station KYW-TV. That, combined with being locally-owned, saw the station dominate its local news ratings for decades, though WTAE-TV became more competitive in the 1970s with its Action News format (which it still uses the branding for today), as well as signing over ex-KDKA-TV talent Paul Long & Don Cannon and a general larger investment in its news department by its owner Hearst Communications.

The 1990s saw many changes to the news department at KDKA-TV, notably Westinghouse's purchase of CBS and moving its headquarters to New York City (thus losing its locally-owned status), as well as KDKA-TV losing its flagship station status to WCBS-TV & KCBS-TV. Additionally, the Eyewitness News branding was dropped in 1997, in favor of simply "KDKA-TV News". By this point, WPXI had become more competitive with KDKA-TV & WTAE-TV due to its own investment into the news department back in the 1980s by its owner Cox Media Group, leading to a spirited three-way battle for first place in a market KDKA-TV once dominated.

In 2001, KDKA-TV began producing a 10 p.m. newscast on WNPA (now WPCW); in 2005, it added a two-hour weekday morning newscast from 7 to 9 a.m. on that station.

On June 16, 2009, KDKA-TV began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition.

On August 17, 2020, KDKA premiered a new weekday news program at 7:30 p.m., replacing Extra, which is still seen overnights after The Late Late Show with James Corden. This competes against 7 p.m. newscasts on WTAE-TV and WPXI, however neither one of those stations air their 7 p.m. newscasts on their main channel (WTAE-TV airs theirs on the Cozi TV digital subchannel 4.2 while WPXI airs theirs through sister channel PCNC due to airing the Sony game show block Wheel of Fortune/Jeopardy! during that time.), leaving KDKA-TV the only station in the Pittsburgh market to air a newscast during the Prime Time Access Hour on its main signal.

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WPCW, virtual channel 19 (VHF digital channel 11), branded on-air as Pittsburgh's CW, is a CW owned-and-operated television station serving Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States that is licensed to Jeannette. The station is owned by the CBS Television Stations subsidiary of ViacomCBS, as part of a duopoly with Pittsburgh-licensed CBS owned-and-operated station KDKA-TV (channel 2). The two stations share studios at the Gateway Center in downtown Pittsburgh; WPCW's transmitter is located in the Perry North section of Pittsburgh. On cable, the station is carried on Comcast Xfinity channel 15 (channel 22 in Bethel Park and channel 2 in Monroeville) in standard definition and channel 808 in high definition, and Verizon FiOS channels 3 (standard definition) and 503 (high definition).

By way of extended cable coverage, WPCW also served as the default CW affiliate for the Johnstown–Altoona–State College television market, until WJAC-TV's September 16, 2019 conversion of its fourth digital subchannel into a CW+ affiliate (known as Alleghenies CW6), as that area lacked a CW affiliate of its own until then. WPCW was a Johnstown station for most of its history. The CW-affiliated superstation WPIX in New York also continues to be carried on Xfinity in State College, even though WJAC-DT4 is relayed into that area over WJAC's State College based translator, W42DG-D.

WPCW signed on the air on October 15, 1953 as WARD-TV on analog UHF channel 56, with studios on Franklin Street in downtown Johnstown. It operated at a power of 91,000 watts visual, and 45,500 watts aural power, which, as it was later learned in these experimental days of UHF, was rather low for a UHF station. It was co-owned by Central Broadcasting through its Rivoli Realty subsidiary along with WARD radio (1490 AM, now WNTJ, and 92.1 FM, now WJHT). The station was the area's CBS affiliate with a secondary ABC affiliation. During the late-1950s, it was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network.

On March 22, 1971, Jonel Construction Company bought WARD-AM-FM-TV and changed their calls to WJNL-AM-FM-TV the following year, doing business as Cover Broadcasting, Inc. Having been issued a construction permit to do so in 1969, the television station then moved to the stronger UHF channel 19 and dropped ABC programming. The channel move also brought a transmitter power increase to 215,000 watts visual, and 21,500 watts aural.

Jonel also left the Franklin Street studio for a new facility located on Benshoff Hill, not too far from the transmitter atop Cover Hill in suburban Johnstown. The radio stations moved to the Benshoff Hill location in 1977, after the Franklin Street studios were destroyed in a massive flood.

Even with the move to the stronger channel 19 and its substantial power increase, WJNL-TV was still plagued by a weak signal. Most of Western Pennsylvania is a very rugged dissected plateau. At the time, UHF stations usually did not get good reception in rugged terrain. This left the station dependent on cable–then as now, all but essential for acceptable television in much of this market. In fact, Johnstown viewers got better signals from WFBG-TV (channel 10) in Altoona and KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh. After WFBG-TV was sold in 1973, that station changed its callsign to WTAJ-TV in part to acknowledge its Johnstown viewership (its call letters stand for "We're Television in Altoona and Johnstown"). As a result, WJNL-TV never thrived, and was more or less a non-factor in a market dominated by WJAC-TV (channel 6). It only stayed afloat because of the tremendous success of its FM sister, an adult contemporary powerhouse.

In 1982, Johnstown and Altoona/State College were collapsed into a single designated market area. CBS gave its affiliation in the newly enlarged market to Altoona's WTAJ-TV, as it already had a large viewership in Johnstown. In contrast, WJNL-TV could not be seen at all in much of the eastern part of the market; while Altoona was just inside channel 19's grade B contour, State College was just outside it. As a result, WJNL-TV became an independent station. Forced to buy an additional 19 hours of programming a day, its ratings plummeted even further.

Channel 19 was sold on February 1, 1983 to WFAT Incorporated, a company headed by Leon Crosby, a former owner of the original KEMO-TV (now KOFY-TV) in San Francisco, and renamed WFAT-TV. Crosby also had an ownership interest in WPGH-TV in neighboring Pittsburgh from 1973 to 1978, in addition to serving as that station's President and General Manager. Under the direction of Crosby, who had gained a favorable reputation from successfully turning around failing stations, the new WFAT-TV underwent a substantial technical overhaul intended to overcome its ongoing stigma of poor signal reception.

The station's transmitter facility was moved from Cover Hill to Pea Vine Hill, a much higher summit atop Laurel Hill Mountain in Ligonier Township, just over the Somerset County line in neighboring Westmoreland County, about 10 miles (16 km) east of the Cover Hill location. With the move came its most powerful transmitter power increase yet to 1.6 million watts visual, and 166,000 watts aural. This enabled the station to provide a grade B signal to Pittsburgh's eastern suburbs; indeed, the new transmitter was located within the Pittsburgh market. The new transmitter finally provided a clear city-grade signal to Johnstown, and also allowed the station to introduce itself to viewers in the Pittsburgh area who had not been aware that the station had been on the air for 30 years at the time. However, it still had a problem attracting Altoona viewers due to the mountainous terrain separating the two cities, resulting in marginal reception at best on the eastern side of the market.

Crosby addressed this by signing on a VHF translator (W12BR) in Altoona. The changes did little to improve the station's fortunes, largely because the major Pittsburgh independents were available on cable.

While WFAT now had a fairly decent signal in most of the market, its on-air look was still very primitive. It was one of the few stations, even in small markets, that still used art cards rather than CGI technology. Its character generator had been in service for over three decades, dating to when the station was WARD-TV. Its microphones were second-class. Crosby's formula of turning weak stations around by producing local shows with young creative talent was no longer viable for WFAT-TV, as such shows were losing ground to syndicators now offering much cheaper alternatives that could be tailor-made for specific markets. The very few locally produced programs WFAT now had left were limited to discussion-based talk shows on simple, undecorated sets with little more than chairs and carpet. David Smith and Lee Mack (the former had been program director of WJNL Radio) served as the station's booth announcers.

WFAT's fortunes suffered a crippling blow in 1986, when the owners of the construction permit for WWCP-TV (channel 8) were allowed to move the license from Pittsburgh to Johnstown. WWCP signed on in 1987 and took most of WFAT's stronger shows due to having the advantage of a stronger VHF signal. The station changed calls to WPTJ in 1988 and moved its studios to Allen Bill Drive in the Johnstown Industrial Park, but saw no change in its fortunes. Frequent transmitter problems often left the station off-the-air for extended periods of time.

Crosby filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1988, and in January 1990, the bankruptcy court ordered its conversion to a Chapter 7 liquidation. WPTJ remained on the air even after the conversion. However, on May 1, all but one employee quit after not being paid for four weeks. The lone remaining staffer, assistant general manager Ron Patcher, worked five 18-hour days to keep the station operating, but citing this action as unsustainable, he quit on May 6, and WPTJ went silent.

Meanwhile, over in Pittsburgh, Venture Technologies Group had signed on low-power station W29AH (channel 29) in 1989 with the Video Jukebox Network, later known as The Box. However, Venture saw opportunity. Pittsburgh was the largest market without a signed affiliate of The WB, and it snagged the affiliation for its low-power station. At the same time, Venture purchased the silent WPTJ at a bankruptcy auction for less than $1 million. Channel 29 became WTWB-LP and then WBPA-LP, while channel 19 was given the new call letters WTWB-TV and plans were announced for the two to form a simulcast.

On July 27, 1996, Venture reactivated the channel 19 facility, operating from a new transmitter on Laurel Mountain west of Jennerstown. However, it was hampered by its city of license. Cable systems in Pittsburgh were not required to carry WTWB-TV because it was licensed to Johnstown, a separate media market. As a result, Venture, claiming that Johnstown–Altoona could not support five TV stations, was approved in 1997 to move the city of license to Jeannette—a change that put the station in Pittsburgh and allowed it to invoke must-carry protection.

By the time WTWB-TV had been approved to move to Jeannette, however, more than the city of license was changing. Sinclair Broadcast Group secured a group deal with The WB to change several of its stations to that network, including WPTT (channel 22), which became WCWB. Just as cable systems in the Pittsburgh metro area began adding channel 19, it began the fall TV season as an independent under new WNPA call letters. The UPN affiliation moved to channel 19 in January.

Viacom's Paramount Stations Group bought the station in November 1998 for $39 million, a significant return on Venture's original investment in 1994. It became a sister station to KDKA-TV after the company merged with CBS in 2000. Viacom consolidated WNPA's operations into KDKA-AM-TV's studios at One Gateway Center by 2001. WNPA began to identify on air as "UPN Pittsburgh" in late 2003 due to the fact that various cable providers in the area carry the station on different channels.

On January 24, 2006, Time Warner and CBS Corporation announced that The WB and UPN would shut down and be replaced by a new network called The CW, which would initially feature series from both predecessor networks along with newer programs. To coincide with this change, the station changed its call sign to WPCW and rebranded itself as "Pittsburgh's CW" in August. The network launched on September 18, 2006.

WPCW's analog transmitter was 35 miles (56 km) southeast of Jeannette. This provided city-grade coverage to Johnstown and "rimshot" coverage to Pittsburgh. As a result, it was barely viewable over-the-air in many low-lying areas in the northern and western parts of the city and could not be seen at all in the city's western suburbs. When it applied to move its license to Jeannette, Venture sought and received a waiver from the FCC rule requiring a station's transmitter to be no farther than 15 miles (24 km) from the city of license. It successfully contended that there was no way it could build an analog tower within the 15-mile limit without interfering with WOIO in Cleveland. However, it built its digital transmitter in Pittsburgh's Perry North section, on some of the highest ground in the city. On June 12, 2009, coinciding with the national transition to digital television, WPCW turned off its transmitter near Jennerstown and began broadcasting its digital signal from its new transmitter in Pittsburgh.

For years, CBS has fed a direct fiber signal to both Comcast and Verizon FiOS. The relocation of WPCW's transmitter now provides Pittsburgh with city-grade coverage, in addition to greater coverage west of the city, but has left many viewers east of Westmoreland County (who were able to pick up WPCW's analog signal) without a viewable signal. WPCW is one of three former CBS affiliates that have since become CW stations owned by CBS, along with WTVX in West Palm Beach, Florida and KSTW in Seattle. However, WTVX has since been divested to Cerberus Capital Management's Four Points Media Group (the Four Points Media stations are now owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns Pittsburgh stations WPGH-TV and WPNT).

As CBS has done with most of its other CBS/CW duopolies in other markets, WPCW's web address has been folded within the KDKA website with only basic station and programming information, along with entertainment news and promotional video from The CW.

On December 4, 2019, CBS Corporation and Viacom remerged into ViacomCBS.

WPCW usually televises about six Pittsburgh Penguins games a year to allow Root Sports Pittsburgh (the team's usual broadcasting partner) to fulfill its national commitments to Fox Sports Networks' Pac-12 and ACC college football television packages. In 2010, WPCW broadcast the entire home schedule of the California University of Pennsylvania Vulcan Football season under the "Vulcan Sports Network" moniker.

WPCW and KDKA-TV serve as the area's official Pittsburgh Steelers stations and air several team-related shows. This includes Steelers Saturday Night on Saturday nights from 9 to 10 and Steelers TV on Saturday nights from 11 to 11:30 (hosted by Tunch Ilkin and Steelers Digest editor Bob Labriola) during the NFL season. Depending on CBS' weekly doubleheader schedule, the Xfinity Xtra Point may air on WPCW right after a Steelers game. That program is anchored by Bob Pompeani, Ed Bouchette, and Chris Hoke. The UPMC Nightly Sports Call airs every night from 10:35 to 11 after the KDKA-TV-produced prime time newscast. Weeknights are anchored by Bob Pompeani while weekends feature Richie Walsh. Depending on the doubleheader schedule, there is a special edition that is shown during the season after the Xfinity Xtra Point.

KDKA-TV presently produces 13½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week for WPCW (with 2½ hours each weekday and a half-hour each on Saturdays and Sundays).

As WJNL-TV in Johnstown, it did produce a local newscast from 1971 to 1974 on weekdays and a few public affairs programs to try to compete against WJAC. However, its facilities were below the standards expected for a network affiliate. In August 2001 as WNPA, the station began to carry a prime time newscast every night at 10 p.m. produced by KDKA (currently known as The KDKA-TV 10 O'Clock News on The CW since September 2006). The 35-minute newscast competes with a long-established nightly newscast at 10 p.m. on Fox affiliate WPGH-TV, and a WPXI-produced newscast for its MeTV subchannel.

In 2005, the station debuted a two-hour extension of KDKA's weekday morning newscast airing from 7 to 9 a.m. On June 16, 2009, KDKA began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition, starting with its weekday noon broadcast, with the introduction of a new set and weather center. KDKA was the last major Pittsburgh television station to begin airing newscasts in HD and the WPCW shows were included in the upgrade.