KCWQ-LD

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Television station in Palm Springs, California

title: "KCWQ-LD" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["2006-establishments-in-california", "the-cw-affiliates", "low-power-television-stations-in-california", "news-press-&-gazette-company", "television-channels-and-stations-established-in-2006", "television-stations-in-the-coachella-valley"] description: "Television station in Palm Springs, California" topic_path: "arts/film" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KCWQ-LD" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Television station in Palm Springs, California ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox television station"]

Field	Value
callsign	KCWQ-LD
logo	KCWQ 2024.svg
logo_size	220px
branding	Palm Springs CW 5 (cable channel)
digital	20 (UHF)
virtual	2
translators	KESQ-TV 42.7 (UHF) Palm Springs
affiliations
location	Palm Springs, California
country	United States
callsign_meaning	disambiguation of former KCWB callsign after transition to The CW
sister_stations	KESQ-TV, KPSP-CD, KDFX-CD, KUNA-LD, KYAV-LD, KUNA-FM
former_callsigns	"KCWB" (1998–2006)
former_channel_numbers
owner	News-Press & Gazette Company
licensee	Gulf-California Broadcast Company
former_affiliations	The WB (via The WB 100+, 1998–2006)
erp	0.325 kW
haat	196.9 m
facility_id	167761
class	LD
coordinates
licensing_authority	FCC
::

KCWQ-LD (channel 2, cable channel 5) is a low-power television station licensed to Palm Springs, California, United States, serving the Coachella Valley as an affiliate of The CW Plus. It is owned by the News-Press & Gazette Company alongside ABC affiliate KESQ-TV (channel 42) and four other low-power stations: Class A CBS affiliate KPSP-CD (channel 38), Class A Fox affiliate KDFX-CD (channel 33), Telemundo affiliate KUNA-LD (channel 15), and independent station KYAV-LD (channel 12). The six stations share studios on Dunham Way in Thousand Palms; KCWQ-LD's transmitter is located on Edom Hill northeast of Cathedral City and I-10.

Along with other major Coachella Valley television stations, KCWQ identifies itself on-air using its cable designation (Palm Springs CW 5) rather than its over-the-air channel position. The unusual practice stems in part from the area's exceptionally high cable penetration rate of 80.5% which is one of the highest in the United States.

In addition to its own digital signal, KCWQ is simulcast in widescreen standard definition on KESQ's seventh digital subchannel from the same Edom Hill transmitter facility.

History

Originally, the station was a WB affiliate as part of the cable-only WB 100+ operation from September 17, 1998, to September 18, 2006. As such, it used the "KCWB" call sign in a fictional manner, as cable channels are not licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Carriage issues

Between The CW's launch on September 18, 2006, and April 21, 2007, KCWQ (and the network) was not available to Time Warner Cable systems in the Coachella Valley due to a carriage dispute. As the station was launched over-the-air, the News-Press & Gazette Company explained that they had requested the station be assigned KCWB's cable designation (channel 5) and came to several agreements to that effect with the local Time Warner Cable office. They were then all successively vetoed by the cable company's head office in Stamford, Connecticut.

The CW was half owned by the cable system's then-parent company, Time Warner. (Time Warner Cable was later spun off from Time Warner in 2009). Without an agreement in place, News-Press & Gazette was suggesting cable subscribers wishing to watch The CW use an over-the-air antenna and tune to VHF channel 2. The company also pointed out that the channel is available on Dish Network. Instead of KCWQ and The CW, Time Warner Cable substituted Classic Arts Showcase on channel 5. In the early days of the dispute, Time Warner also ran a ticker that explained the problem:

:The CW Network is not available at this time. Despite continued talks, we have not been able to reach an agreement for carriage of this network. We will continue to negotiate and remain hopeful that an agreement will be reached soon.

In April 2007, News-Press & Gazette and Time Warner Cable reached an agreement that would finally add KCWQ to the cable lineup on channel 5 effective at 12:01 a.m. on April 21.

Subchannels

The station's signal is multiplexed: ::data[format=table title="Subchannels of KCWQ-LD{{Cite web|url=http://www.rabbitears.info/market.php?request=station_search&callsign=KCWQ#station|title = RabbitEars TV Query for KCWQ|website=[[RabbitEars]]|accessdate=February 16, 2025}}"]

Channel	Res.	Aspect	Short name
720p	16:9	KCWQ-LD	The CW Plus
KDFX-LD	Fox (KDFX-CD)
::

References

"RabbitEars TV Query for KCWQ".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::