Arkansas broadcaster hopes to get UPN on the air soon
By DAN HAUGEN, Courier Staff Writer
WATERLOO --- An Arkansas-based broadcasting company is in the process of purchasing local television station KWWF with plans to finally put UPN network programming on the air by early fall.
Doug Krile, spokesman for Equity Broadcasting Corp., said the sale is still pending approval from the Federal Communications Commission.
If everything goes as planned, he said, the company will be operating the station by Sept. 1, in time to air UPN's fall program schedule in its entirety.
"But we're coming up against that deadline pretty hard here," Krile said.
The sale could be official within the next couple of weeks, he added.
The station's present owner, Bill Smith of Buffalo, N.Y., did not return a phone call this week. Smith, owner of B & C Communications, has been trying to bring the network to the Cedar Valley since 1999 when the FCC approved his permit for broadcast in this area.
Numerous delays kept the station off the air. Smith originally planned to build a new tower in Cedar Rapids, but later worked with NBC affiliate KWWL to share space on their already existing tower.
The UPN channel, carried on UHF channel 22, finally came on air in early 2003, but without UPN programming. At that time the station was not carried on cable channels. Smith promised to get UPN programming on the air by spring of 2003, but once again the hope to see WWF Smackdown in the Cedar Valley failed.
Equity Broadcasting is also exploring options for improving the station's reach. Currently, KWWF's broadcast signal covers Waterloo, Cedar Falls and Black Hawk County, but does not extend to Cedar Rapids or Iowa City.
The company will look at asking FCC permission to strengthen the signal's power, or, more likely, add lower power translator towers near Cedar Rapids.
