KWEW-TV is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated station serving Waterville, East Wenatchee, Wenatchee, Sunnyslope, Chelan, Malaga, Leavenworth, Entiat, Cashmere, Rock Island and all of the Twin Counties area of North Central Washington. It broadcasts on channel 34.
Station History[]
KWEW-TV signed on the air by TVX of Chelan-Douglas, Inc. on November 3, 1989 as the new Fox affiliate (which is branded as "Fox 34"), honoring the 103rd anniversary of the town's platting. When it signed on, it replaced independent station KCWT as the Fox affiliate in the area, although cable viewers can also receive K53CY (now KCYU-LD) from the neighboring Yakima DMA.
It held onto KWEW until its merger with Paramount Pictures in 1991, after which the group was renamed Paramount Stations Group. By this time, it was one of the strongest Fox affiliates west of the Rocky Mountains.
In 1994, it became an affiliate of the short-lived Prime Time Entertainment Network in a three-way swap between KWEW, KCWT and KMSW.
Viacom acquired ownership of KWEW and its sister stations when the company purchased Paramount Pictures in 1994. Channel 34 became charter affiliate and an owned-and-operated station of the United Paramount Network (owned by Chris-Craft Industries in a programming partnership with Viacom, and later co-owned in a joint venture with Chris-Craft when it bought a 50% share in the network in 1996) upon the network's January 16, 1995 launch.
In 2000, it became a WB affiliate, swapping affiliations with former rival independent station KNCW (channel 48). In 2003, the station changed its branding from "WB34" to "CenWash's WB8" (a reference to its cable channel placement in the market on Time Warner Cable and other cable systems in the Twin Counties area).
On January 24, 2006, the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner and CBS Corporation announced that the two companies would shut down The WB and UPN and combine the networks' respective programming to create a new "fifth" network called The CW. On February 22, 2006, News Corporation announced the launch of a new "sixth" network called MyNetworkTV, which would be operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division Twentieth Television, which was created to give UPN and WB stations that would not become CW affiliates another option besides converting to independent stations. On March 25, it was announced that KWEW would become MyNetworkTV's Wenatchee affiliate.
Station Branding[]
- Fox 34 (1989-1994)
- KWEW 34 (1994-1995)
- UPN Central Washington (1995-2000)
- WB 34 (2000-2003)
- CenWash's WB 8 (2003-2006)
- My 34 (2006-present)