KLEW-TV (channel 3) is a

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's s ...

licensed to

Lewiston, Idaho Lewiston is a city and the county seat of Nez Perce County, Idaho, United States, in the state's North Central Idaho, north central region. It is the third-largest city in the Idaho Panhandle, northern Idaho region, behind Post Falls, Idaho, Pos ...

, United States, affiliated with

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

. The station serves the Lewis–Clark Valley and

Palouse The Palouse ( ) is a geographic region of the northwestern United States, encompassing parts of North Central Idaho, north central Idaho, southeastern Washington (part of eastern Washington), and by some definitions, parts of northeast Oregon. ...

regions of north-central

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

and southeastern

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

, as well as

Wallowa County, Oregon Wallowa County () is the northeasternmost county in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 7,391, making it Oregon's fifth-least populous county. Its county seat is Enterprise. According to '' Oregon Geographic N ...

. Owned by

Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair, Inc., doing business as Sinclair Broadcast Group, is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb o ...

, KLEW-TV maintains studios on 17th Street in Lewiston, and its transmitter is located near

Clarkston, Washington Clarkston is a city in Asotin County, Washington, United States. It is part of the Lewiston, ID-WA metropolitan area, and is located west of Lewiston, Idaho, across the Snake River. The population of Clarkston was 7,161 at the 2020 census. Cla ...

. Though identifying as a station in its own right, KLEW-TV is considered a

semi-satellite A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or trans ...

KIMA-TV KIMA-TV (channel 29) is a television station in Yakima, Washington, United States, affiliated with CBS and The CW Plus. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside low-power, Class A Univision affiliate KUNW-CD (channel 2). The two sta ...

(channel 29) in

Yakima Yakima ( or ) is a city in and the county seat of Yakima County, Washington, United States, and the state's 11th most populous city. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 96,968 and a metropolitan population of 256,728. The ...

, which operates another semi-satellite, KEPR-TV (channel 19) in

Tri-Cities, Washington The Tri-Cities are three closely linked cities (Kennewick, Washington, Kennewick, Pasco, Washington, Pasco, and Richland, Washington, Richland) at the confluence of the Yakima River, Yakima, Snake River, Snake, and Columbia Rivers in the U.S. s ...

. KLEW and KEPR

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...

all network and syndicated programming as provided through KIMA, but air separate commercial inserts, legal identifications and weeknight newscasts, and have their own websites.

Master control Master control is the technical hub of a broadcast operation common among most over-the-air television stations and television networks. It is distinct from a production control room (PCR) in television studios where the activities such as swit ...

and some internal operations are based at KOMO Plaza (formerly Fisher Plaza) in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

. The area that KLEW-TV serves, including Lewiston, is part of the

Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the most populous city in eastern Washington and the county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It lies along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south o ...

television market, and the station is one of two CBS affiliates in the market, along with

Tegna Inc. Tegna Inc. (stylized in all caps as TEGNA) is an American publicly traded broadcast, digital media and marketing services company headquartered in Tysons, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into two publ ...

–owned KREM (channel 2), which is licensed to Spokane and typically considered as the primary CBS affiliate for the market. Both stations are carried on

Dish Network DISH Network L.L.C., often referred to as DISH, an abbreviation for Digital Sky Highway, is an American provider of satellite television and IPTV services and wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation. The company was originally establ ...

and

DirecTV DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...

throughout the market.

History

KLEW-TV signed on the air December 7, 1955, under the ownership of Cascade Broadcasting. It has always been a CBS affiliate; however, as a satellite of KIMA-TV, it also carried some programming from

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

and

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

in its early years. The station's original studio facilities were located on Idaho Street in Lewiston.

Filmways Filmways, Inc. (also known as Filmways Pictures and Filmways Television) was a television and film production company founded by American film executive Martin Ransohoff and Edwin Kasper in 1952. It is probably best remembered as the production c ...

agreed to purchase Cascade Broadcasting for $3 million in 1968; the sale was approved the following year. Filmways sold KLEW-TV, KIMA-TV, and KEPR-TV to NWG Broadcasting for $1 million in 1972. In 1977, KLEW moved from its original studios on Idaho Street to its current location on 17th Street.

Retlaw Enterprises Retlaw Enterprises, originally Walt Disney Miniature Railroad, then Walt Disney, Inc. (WDI), and then WED Enterprises (WED), was a privately held company owned by the heirs of entertainment mogul Walt Disney. Disney formed the company to control ...

acquired the NWG stations, including KLEW-TV, for $17 million in 1986; the stations were operated as part of the Retlaw Broadcasting division. Fisher Companies (later known as

Fisher Communications Fisher Communications, Inc. was a media company in the United States. Based in Seattle, Washington, the company primarily owned a number of radio and television stations in the Western United States. It was the last company in the Seattle area ...

) agreed to purchase the Retlaw stations for $215 million on November 19, 1998, a deal that was completed in July 1999. On April 11, 2013, Fisher announced that it would sell its properties to the

; the deal was completed on August 8, 2013.

Newscasts

KLEW-TV airs local newscasts weeknights at 5, 6 and 11 p.m., local news cut-ins during the weekday edition of ''

CBS Mornings ''CBS Mornings'' is an American morning television program which is broadcast on CBS. The program debuted on September 7, 2021, and airs live every weekday from 7:00a.m. to 9:00a.m., EST. It is hosted by Gayle King, Tony Dokoupil, Nate Burleson, ...

'' from 7 to 9 a.m., that includes a short 5-minute interview segment called ''Northwest Morning'', and simulcasts sister station

's 5 and 6:30 a.m. newscasts, as KLEW does not have morning, midday or weekend newscasts.

Notable former on-air staff

* Nadine Woodward – weeknight news anchor (1985–1987). Former mayor of

Subchannels

The station's signal is

multiplexed In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource— ...

Translators

* Juliaetta * Kamiah *

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Klew-Tv 1955 establishments in Idaho CBS affiliates Charge! (TV network) affiliates Comet (TV network) affiliates Lewiston, Idaho Sinclair Broadcast Group Television channels and stations established in 1955 Television stations in Idaho