KWKT-TV

The station first signed on the air on March 13, 1988, and has been affiliated with Fox since the station's launch. Beginning with the launch of the block in 1990, KWKT aired Fox Kids programming one hour earlier than many affiliates on weekday afternoons from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. until the weekday block was discontinued by the network in December 2001,[2] in addition to carrying its successor Saturday morning children's blocks known as Fox Box and later 4KidsTV until the latter block ended nationally in December 2008, when 4Kids Entertainment and Fox parted ways due to a contract dispute.

The station was purchased by Lafayette, Louisiana-based Communications Corporation of America in 1990. KWKT-TV's signal was unable to reach across central Texas because of interference issues experienced by UHF stations operating in rugged terrain; as a result, Comcorp purchased KYLE-TV (channel 28) in Bryan, at that time a WB affiliate, in 1996 and, after it was granted a satellite waiver by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC),[3] converted it to a satellite station in order to provide Fox programming to the entire market.[4][5]

In July 2002, KWKT became a secondary affiliate of The WB;[6] with this, that network's primetime schedule aired on KWKT/KYLE on a six-hour delay from 1:00 to 3:00 a.m., with Fox network programming running in pattern from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. At this time, the station also added The WB's children's program block Kids' WB in the time slot formerly occupied by Fox Kids—which KWKT/KYLE replaced with syndicated programs following the discontinuance of the Fox Kids weekday block, lasting until Kids' WB's weekday block was replaced in January 2006 by the Daytime WB rerun block; the station also carried the block's Saturday morning lineup airing a day behind on Sunday mornings.

On February 22, 2006, News Corporation announced the launch of a new programming service called MyNetworkTV, which would be operated by the Fox network's sister companies Fox Television Stations and Twentieth Television. MyNetworkTV was created to compete against another upstart network that would launch at the same time that September, The CW (an amalgamated network that originally consisted primarily of The WB and UPN's higher-rated programs) as well as to give UPN and WB stations that were not named as CW charter affiliates another option besides converting to independent stations.[7][8] When MyNetworkTV launched on September 5, 2006, the station carried the programming service as a secondary affiliation from 10:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. each weeknight. As the block became part of The CW's programming schedule with that network's launch on September 18, Kids' WB programming moved to a CW-affiliated digital subchannel of CBS affiliate KWTX-TV (channel 10).

On April 24, 2013, Communications Corporation of America announced the sale of its stations to Irving-based Nexstar Broadcasting Group for $270 million, in a deal that also included rights to the local marketing agreements involving stations owned by Comcorp partner company White Knight Broadcasting.[9] However, due to a later proposal by the FCC to restrict sharing agreements between two or more television stations within the same market, approval of the sale was delayed for 20 months—at which time Nexstar sold some of KWKT/KYLE's sister stations under Comcorp ownership to licensees run by female and ethnic minority owners (all but one of which would end up operated by Nexstar through outsourcing agreements)—before finally being completed on January 1, 2015.[10] The sale was completed on January 1, 2015.[11]

On May 7, 2015, Nexstar announced that it would convert KYLE into a separate station that would serve as the market's MyNetworkTV affiliate. After becoming the market's sole Fox affiliate on July 1, KWKT replaced the time period previously occupied by MyNetworkTV programming with syndicated programs; it also began simulcasting KYLE on its second digital subchannel to provide its programming to the entire Waco–Temple–Bryan market. KWKT is simulcast on KYLE's second subchannel for the same reason.[12]

KWKT-TV carries the entire Fox programming schedule. Prior to the conversion of KYLE into a standalone station, KWKT aired MyNetworkTV programming on a three-hour delay from 10:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m.; the MyNetworkTV schedule began airing in pattern from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. after KYLE became a primary MyNetworkTV affiliate on July 1, 2015. Syndicated programs broadcast by KWKT-TV (as of July 2015) include Jerry Springer, Maury, Divorce Court, The People's Court, Modern Family, The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother.

Through Fox's primary rights to the National Football Conference (NFC), the station carries select Sunday afternoon National Football League games involving the Dallas Cowboys, as well as any flex-scheduled games involving the Houston Texans (which play in the American Football Conference) at times when either team plays a home game against an NFC opponent that airs in a Sunday afternoon timeslot.

As of September 2017, KWKT-TV presently broadcasts 19½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 3½ hours each weekday and one hour each on Saturdays and Sundays).

• Official website
• KWKT in the FCC's TV station database
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KWKT-TV