KVCW (channel 33) is a television station in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, affiliated with The CW and MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside NBC affiliate KSNV (channel 3). Both stations share studios on Foremaster Lane in Las Vegas (making them the only major television stations whose operations are based inside the city limits), while KVCW's transmitter is located on Black Mountain, near Henderson (southwest of I-515/US 93/US 95).
History
Early years
On April 22, 1987, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued an original construction permit to 4-A Communications to build a new full-power television station, on UHF channel 33, to serve the Las Vegas market. 4-A Communications, owned by Lawrence and Teri DePaulis, became Channel 33, Inc. (which remained the station's licensee until 2015) in August 1987. The station, known as KFBT, went on the air on July 30, 1989, under a program test authority and was given a license one month later. The station's original transmitter was located in the McCullough Range southwest of Henderson. On July 20, 1990, a family ownership group headed by Daniel "Danny" Koker purchased Channel 33, Inc. Under the Kokers, KFBT was an independent station with a firmly local flavor and soon garnered much acclaim with features such as the scary B-movie showcase Saturday Fright at the Movies, hosted by Count Cool Rider, which aired at 10 p.m. Count Cool Rider was actually Danny Koker II, son of the station president and also one of the station's owners, who has since gone on to become a respected builder of custom motorcycles, as well as a regular expert on the History Channel series Pawn Stars and host of its spinoff, Counting Cars.
As a WB affiliate and return to independence
The station primarily broadcast older movies, sitcoms, and dramas during this era, as well as some Christian religious programs (as the senior Koker was a gospel musician) and professional wrestling (most notably World Class Championship Wrestling and the National Wrestling Alliance). KFBT became a charter affiliate of The WB at the network's launch on January 11, 1995, and remained an affiliate while owned by the Koker family. On December 18, 1997, the Koker family sold Channel 33, Inc. to Montecito Broadcasting Corporation with the sale being finalized on February 3, 1998. The same day that Montecito closed on its purchase of KFBT, it immediately entered into an agreement to be acquired by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which Montecito entered into a local marketing agreement (LMA) to operate KFBT, until the transaction was completed. On March 1, 1998, Sinclair moved the WB affiliation to KUPN (channel 21, which later changed calls to KVWB, now KSNV) and KFBT was to affiliate with UPN but did not sign a contract and instead became an independent station leaving no local provider of the network over the air caused public outcry for Las Vegas viewers. Eventually the next year, KCNG-LP signed on and picked up the UPN affiliation, immediately asserting network exclusivity in the market and causing providers to drop KCOP and WWOR on their request. The station was rebranded as "Gold 33" and began showing mainly newer syndicated programming. Sinclair completed its purchase of Montecito and Channel 33, Inc. in February 2000, resulting in the creation of the market's first duopoly between KFBT and KVWB.
As a CW affiliate
On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner announced that The WB and UPN would be shut down that September and have some of their higher-rated programs migrated onto a new jointly owned network called The CW. On February 22, News Corporation announced that it would start up another new network called MyNetworkTV. This new service, which would be a sister network to Fox, would be operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division, Twentieth Television. MyNetworkTV was created in order to give stations affiliated with UPN and The WB that were not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates another option besides becoming independent stations, as well as to compete against The CW.