KWCH

U.S. center (local broadcast)

Background

KWCH traces its roots to July 1, 1953, when it launched as KTVH-Channel 12, the first television station in Kansas, licensed to Hutchinson and serving the Wichita area. Cowles Media (Minneapolis Star & Tribune) owned the station from 1955 until 1982, when it was sold to the Kansas Broadcasting System, a Hays, Kansas–based regional operator. In 1983 the station took its current call letters, KWCH. Michigan-based Smith Broadcasting acquired it in 1988, and Media General took over before selling to South Bend, Indiana–based Schurz Communications in 2006, which operated it under the subsidiary Sunflower Broadcasting. In February 2016, Gray Television (now Gray Media Group) purchased KWCH and its sister CW affiliate KSCW as part of a roughly $442.5 million deal for Schurz's entire broadcasting portfolio. Gray Media is now the third-largest TV station group in the United States by station count. Media Bias/Fact Check rates KWCH as 'Least Biased' with high factual reliability, and AllSides rates it 'Center,' reflecting a local-news focus rather than a strong ideological orientation. Gray's CEO Hilton Howell has contributed to GOP campaigns and praised Trump publicly, and Gray's Washington bureau chief was invited to a White House dinner after Trump's 2025 congressional address, signaling a close relationship between the parent company and the current administration at the corporate level.

Sources

1. KWCH-DT – Wikipedia
2. KTVH and KWCH – Kansapedia, Kansas Historical Society
3. KWCH – Wichita News Bias and Credibility – Media Bias/Fact Check
4. KWCH Media Bias – AllSides
5. Atlanta broadcasting giant sees deregulation under Trump administration – AJC
6. Who Owns Gray Media – Free Press
7. Gray Media – Wikipedia

Profile compiled 2026-09-16; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

← Back to track record