KWBH-LD (channel 27) is a

low-power television station Low-power broadcasting is broadcasting by a Radio broadcasting#Station, broadcast station at a low transmitter power output to a smaller service area than "full power" stations within the same region. It is often distinguished from "micropower ...

Rapid City, South Dakota Rapid City is the county seat of Pennington County, South Dakota, United States. It is located on the eastern slope of the Black Hills in western South Dakota and was named after Rapid Creek (South Dakota), Rapid Creek, where the settlement deve ...

, United States. It is a

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...

of dual

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 ...

MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV (stylized as mynetworkTV; unofficially abbreviated MNT or MNTV) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its Fox Television Stations ...

affiliate

KNBN KNBN (channel 21) is a television station in Rapid City, South Dakota, United States, affiliated with NBC and MyNetworkTV. Owned by Forum Communications Company, the station maintains studios on South Plaza Drive in Rapid City, and its transmi ...

(channel 21) which is owned by

Forum Communications Company Forum Communications Company is an American multimedia and technology company headquartered in Fargo, North Dakota. With multiple online and print news brands throughout Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, Forum Communications of ...

. KWBH-LD's transmitter is located on Cowboy Hill west of downtown; its parent station maintains studios on South Plaza Drive in Rapid City.

History

The station signed on for the first time on April 2, 1998, as an

affiliate on

analog Analog or analogue may refer to: Computing and electronics * Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable ** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals *** Analog electronics, circuits which use analog ...

channel 27 with the

call letters In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a Identifier, unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be fo ...

KNBN-LP. In 2000, Rapid Broadcasting began airing NBC programming on full-power

(channel 21). In October 2003, channel 27—renamed KWBH-LP—became a WB affiliate and carried programming from

The CW Plus The CW Plus is a secondary national broadcast television broadcast syndication, syndication service feed of The CW, whose controlling stake of 75% is owned by Nexstar Media Group, with Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery holding their ow ...

' predecessor,

The WB 100+ Station Group The WB 100+ Station Group (originally called The WeB from its developmental stages until March 1999) was a national programming service of The WB—owned by the Warner Bros. Entertainment division of Time Warner, the Tribune Company, and group f ...

. In September 2006,

UPN The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that operated from 1995 to 2006. It was originally a joint venture between Chris-Craft Industries (later sold to News Corporation)'s subsidiary, United Television, ...

and The WB merged to become

The CW The CW Network, LLC (commonly referred to as The CW or simply CW) is an American commercial broadcast television network which is controlled by Nexstar Media Group through a 75% ownership interest. The network's name is derived from the firs ...

. KWBH-LP joined the new network upon its launch. In 2017, KWBH-LP switched to

after losing The CW to a subchannel of

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 ...

affiliate

KCLO-TV KCLO-TV (channel 15) is a television station in Rapid City, South Dakota, United States, affiliated with CBS. Its second digital subchannel serves as an owned-and-operated station of The CW (via The CW Plus). Owned by Nexstar Media Group, KCLO- ...

(channel 15). KWBH-LP went silent in March 2021, ahead of the

FCC The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains ju ...

-mandated shutdown of analog LPTV stations on July 13. Its programming was carried in

high definition High definition or HD may refer to: Visual technologies *Blu-ray Disc, the universal optical High Definition disc format *HD Photo, former name for the JPEG XR image file format *HDV, format for recording high-definition video onto magnetic tap ...

on KNBN's second

digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...

. KWBH-LP filed a digital license to cover application on December 16, 2021, indicating that it would rebroadcast KNBN. The station was licensed for digital operation effective February 4, 2022, changing its call sign to KWBH-LD. On August 14, 2024, it was announced KWBH-LD (and KNBN) would be sold to

Fargo, North Dakota Fargo is the List of cities in North Dakota, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Cass County, North Dakota, Cass County. The population was 125,990 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, which was e ...

–based

, which owns former sister station

KSFL-TV KSFL-TV (channel 36) is a television station in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, United States. It is owned by Forum Communications Company alongside low-power station KCWS-LD (channel 27). KSFL-TV's studios are located on West 57th Street in Sioux F ...

Sioux Falls Sioux Falls ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of South Dakota and the 117th-most populous city in the United States. It is the county seat of Minnehaha County and also extends into northern Lincoln County. The population was 192 ...

. The sale was completed on October 2.

Subchannels

References

External links

NewsCenter1
1997 establishments in South Dakota Forum Communications Company WBH MyNetworkTV affiliates NBC affiliates Television channels and stations established in 1997 WBH-LD {{SouthDakota-tv-station-stub