WKOW

WKOW is the ABC-affiliated television station for Madison, Wisconsin. The station broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 26 (PSIP virtual channel 27) from a transmitter in the city's Middleton Junction section; the station is also available on Charter Cable systems in the Madison market (SD channel 7 and HD channel 607). Owned and operated by Quincy Newspapers, WKOW has studios on Tokay Boulevard on Madison's west side.

History

WKOW-TV (the suffix was dropped from the call sign in 2009) was launched on June 30, 1953 as a CBS affiliate. It was owned by the Monona Broadcasting Company, led by a group of local area businessmen along with WKOW radio (AM 1070, now WTSO). The WKOW call sign was an acknowledgment to Wisconsin's dairy industry, and featured a smiling bovine (or cow) alongside the emphasized "K-O-W" of the call sign.

WKOW-AM-TV shared studios on Tokay Boulevard on Madison's west side beginning in 1953. WKOW-TV remained with CBS until 1956, when CBS moved to the new WISC-TV went on the air. (ABC had been with WMTV; WKOW-AM remained with CBS Radio.) From January to August 1958, WKOW was part of the short-lived, Wisconsin-oriented Badger Television Network, alongside Milwaukee's WISN-TV and Green Bay's WFRV-TV. In 1960, Monona Broadcasting sold the station to Midcontinent Broadcasting. Midcontinent Broadcasting sold both WKOW and WAOW in Wausau to Horizon Communications in September 1970.