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''WB33 / Dallas-Fort Worth's WB''
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33 ( UHF )
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32 (UHF)
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WB <br>(to become CW in Sept 2006)
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1967
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Dallas / Fort Worth, Texas
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'''D'''allas '''a'''nd '''F'''ort Worth <br>(or during Fox affiliation, '''D'''allas '''A'''rea '''F'''ox)
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Tribune Company
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Independent (1967-1986), Fox (1986-1994)
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KMEC-TV (1967-1968)<br>KBFI-TV (1972-1973)<br>KXTX-TV, KDTV (1973)<br>KNBN-TV (1981-1984)<br>KRLD-TV (1984-1986)
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5000 KW /520 M (analog)<br>780 kW/537 m (digital)
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wwwwb33com
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is currently the
WB affiliate for the
Dallas -
Fort Worth Designated Market Area . The station is owned by the
Tribune Company with its transmitter located on highway 67 in
Cedar Hill .
On
January 24 ,
2006 , the WB and
UPN networks announced they would merge. The newly combined network would be called , the letters representing the first initial of its corporate parents CBS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of
Time Warner . The merger will take effect on-the-air in September 2006, and KDAF was announced as the CW's Dallas-Fort Worth affiliate.
Channel 33 in Dallas has had several incarnations over four decades of operation. It first signed on-the-air as in
October 1967 , the second UHF station in the market after KFWT-TV (channel 21, now
KTXA ). The station aired a mix of syndicated programming and locally produced shows. KMEC signed off less than a year later. That short-lived attempt was followed by another in
1972 , with channel 33 returning to the air using the call letters '''KBFI''' and a religious programming format. But, like its predecessor, KBFI signed off after only one ten months on the air.
The 1973, CBN then moved its programming to
Channel 39 and Doubleday took over broadcasting channel 33 under the calls for another several months before turning the frequency off again in
December . Channel 33 would remain dark for the next six and-a-half years.
In
May 1980 , channel 33 returned to the Dallas airwaves for a fourth time. The new station was called , owned by a local firm, Hill Broadcasting. The station's call letters were derived from its on-air branding, "'''N'''ational '''B'''usiness '''N'''etwork", and as such it aired business news during the day. The evening hours were filled by subscription television from VUE, a program service owned by
Gene Autry 's Golden West Broadcasters. Again, this format turned out to be short-lived, and channel 33 revamped itself again. Within a year and-a-half, the business programming was gone, the subscription television service moved to rival UHF station KTWS (channel 27, now
KDFI-TV ), and KNBN-TV picked up programming from the
Spanish International Network , the forerunner to today's
Univision .
In late 1983, Hill Broadcasting sold KNBN to (channel 11). Metromedia's programming investments featured the first 7:00 PM newscast ever attempted in the Dallas-Fort Worth market, as well as other first-run syndicated shows and news magazines. Also for four seasons starting in 1984, channel 33 was the broadcast home for Dallas Sidekicks indoor soccer club.
In
1986 Metromedia sold its group of independent stations, including KRLD-TV, to the
News Corporation and the
20th Century Fox film studio. On
March 6 of that year, channel 33's call letters were changed to the current , and it would become one of the seeds that formed the Fox television network. Though KDAF remained unprofitable into the early
1990s , by
1994 the station was turning modest profits.
In
December 1993 Fox made a group deal with
New World Communications to move its network affiliation in several markets, including Dallas-Fort Worth, to stations New World either owned outright or were currently purchasing. In Dallas, then-
CBS affiliate
KDFW-TV (channel 4, which ironically had also once used the KRLD-TV calls) was being sold by Argyle Television to New World, and was included in the New World-Fox deal. Fox programming, with the early exception of ''
Fox Kids '', moved from KDAF to KDFW on
July 1 ,
1995 . About the same time, Fox finalized a sale of channel 33 to Renaissance Broadcasting, and KDAF took over the market's WB affiliation from KXTX-TV. Renaissance sold all of its stations, including KDAF, to
Tribune Broadcasting in
1997 .
- The KNBN calls once used on this station now reside on the NBC affiliate in Rapid City, South Dakota .
- Fox would not be without an O&O in the Metroplex for long, as they bought New World's stations in early 1997.
