KSKN
KSKN, virtual channel 22, is a CW-affiliated television station licensed to Spokane, Washington, United States and also serving Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. The station is owned by Tegna Inc., as part of a duopoly with CBS affiliate KREM. The two stations share studios on South Regal Street in Spokane; KSKN's transmitter is on Krell Hill southeast of Spokane. There is no separate website for the station.
On cable and satellite, the station can be seen in high definition on Comcast Xfinity channel 111 in the Spokane area, Charter Spectrum channel 1212 in the Coeur d'Alene area and the Palouse, and channel 22 on Dish Network and DirecTV.
History
KSKN signed on the air on October 1, 1983 as an independent competitor to KAYU-TV. The station featured a general entertainment format consisting of classic cartoons from 6 to 9 a.m., religious shows from 9 a.m. to noon, classic sitcoms from noon to 2:30 p.m., new cartoons from 2:30 to 5 p.m., recent sitcoms from 5 to 7 p.m., movies from 7 to 9 p.m., a mix of old and recent sitcoms from 9 p.m. to midnight, and movies during the overnight hours. Weekends consisted of more movies and drama shows. The station had good ratings, but overspent on programming. The original owners, Lee Shulman's Broadcast Vision Television, filed for bankruptcy in the summer of 1985. The station scaled back operations to daily from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. The station added more barter shows and dropped the stronger programming. In the fall of 1985, KSKN was sold to Sun Continental Group. The new owners, former owners of KMSB in Tucson, returned the station to stronger programming and added most of the shows the previous owners lost.However, once principal Gene Adelstein died in March 1986, financial troubles returned. In February 1987, the station trimmed two and a half hours out of its broadcast day; in March, the station filed for bankruptcy again, and in May, it began airing home shopping programs 10 hours a day. On June 27, 1987, the ailing station went off the air. These owners also filed bankruptcy in April 1987. After a 1990 attempt to return the station to air with the ill-fated Star Television Network failed, the station remained off the air until emerging in late 1994 with Home Shopping Network programming 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with the exception of several hours on Sunday morning when they ran religious and educational children's shows.
In July 1996, KSKN entered into a local marketing agreement with KREM, which was owned by The Providence Journal Company at the time. The station became an affiliate of the United Paramount Network, after KAYU-TV carried the network for its first two seasons, and carryed its prime time programs and a couple hours a day of cartoons were added in afternoons in pattern. The station was re-launched early in 1997 with an overhaul of programming. Home Shopping Network programming was relegated to overnights; daytime hours consisted of cartoons until 9 a.m. and from 3 to 5 p.m., sitcoms from 9 a.m. to noon, talk and reality shows from noon to 3 p.m., sitcoms from 5 to 8 p.m. and from 10:30 p.m. to midnight, and a newscast at 10 p.m.
In 1999, the station joined The WB as secondary affiliate after the Superstation feed of Chicago's WGN-TV dropped the network as there was enough stations nationwide to carry it. KSKN aired both networks til 2002, when it dropped its UPN affiliation and became a primary WB affiliate. It would gradually began dropping weekday cartoons from 1999 to 2006, due to changes in the broadcast industry. Belo, who bought out ProJo back in 1997, bought KSKN outright in October 2001. In January 2006, it was announced that The WB and UPN would merge in September 2006 to form The CW Television Network. It was confirmed on April 10 that KSKN would become the new affiliate for The CW. On June 13, 2013, the Gannett Company announced that it would acquire Belo. The sale was completed on December 23, making KSKN Gannett's first CW-affiliated station outside of digital subchannels under its ownership. KSKN became the first station in Spokane to air their news from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. in September 2014. On June 29, 2015, the Gannett Company split in two, with one side specializing in print media and the other side specializing in broadcast and digital media. KSKN and KREM were retained by the latter company, named Tegna.
Digital television
Digital channels
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:| Channel | Video | Aspect | PSIP Short Name | Programming |
| 22.1 | 1080i | KSKN-DT | Main KSKN programming / The CW | |
| 22.2 | 480i | KSKN-SD | Laff | |
| 22.3 | 480i | 16:9 | Quest |
On December 6, 2011, Belo announced it signed affiliation agreements with KSKN and Seattle sister station KING-TV to add Live Well Network to their digital subchannels; Live Well Network replaced Universal Sports on digital subchannel 22.2 effective January 1, 2012, as Universal Sports transitioned into a cable and satellite channel during the first quarter of 2012.